A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Yessica Hernandez
photos by Leon Kunstenaar
On February 11, homeless families and their allies rallied and marched to San Francisco City Hall, demanding more affordable housing and critical changes to the family shelter system. The rally, which started from Hamilton Family Shelter, called for immediate action to restore the waitlist for housing, ensuring that families living in hotels or doubled-up situations can access shelter and support.
by Jordan Davis
Dear Mayor Lurie,
Congratulations on winning the mayor’s race. I certainly did not vote for you or anyone else for mayor, because I believe San Francisco’s strong mayor system needs to be scuttled. However, as you are now in office, there are some things you should know.
I know that you want to focus on shelters as a homelessness response.
by Lukas Illa
In a deeply emotional and well attended hearing, the San Francisco Planning Commission began review of the newly proposed luxury housing complex at 2588 Mission St., on the corner of 22nd Street.
What is currently a grassy, empty lot was once the site of rent-controlled housing for over 60 people and 26 businesses, until a devastating fire in 2015 destroyed the property,
by Cathleen Williams, Homeward Street Journal
Protests have ignited across the nation in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency, with protests against Trump’s deportation policies taking place in Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina. In Los Angeles, protesters shut down U.S. Highway 101 on February 2 to bring awareness to the threats to migrant and immigrant populations.
Hundreds of Californians of diverse ages and ethnicities rallied at the state capitol in Sacramento on February 5 to bring attention to this and other developments.
by Jack Bragen
The messages are hammered in when you’re incarcerated, and you’re expected to believe them. You are told you’re no good. You’re bad news. You don’t deserve anything. Not love, not comfort, not money, nothing. You are undeserving. You are a bad person, and you should be punished.
Other people believe this of you under these circumstances. Try as you might, you can’t control someone else’s beliefs.
By Bilal Mafundi Ali
For many people, especially Black people, the month of February signifies the annual celebration of Black History Month/African-American Heritage Month. February is designated as a time to recognize African American achievements and contributions to America. One notable consequence is the hero worship of a handful of prominent figures. What’s more, this celebration of Black achievement particularly tends to be sanitized, and this selective representation is often at the expense of erasing a rich legacy of individuals,
by Tiny
The flames of intense heat dehydrate
The water from floods drown our outside spaces
The Cold seeps into our torn clothes
Way down deep to our tired bones
The tornado winds
The sun beats in
The smoke will choke
But none so hard as the
By Marisa Kendall/CalMatters
Jennielynn Holmes stood in the middle of a make-shift evacuation center when the scope of the crisis hit her.
Surrounded by thousands of people that had just fled the Tubbs Fire that burned through Santa Rosa in 2017, Holmes realized many of these people would soon be added to the area’s already extensive caseload of unhoused clients.
“This is the group of people (that) is one crisis away from entering homelessness,” thought Holmes,
story and photo by Hollie Garrett
A Pit Stop toilet in downtown San Francisco. Photo by Hollie Garrett.
Disclosure: Hollie Garrett works as a manager for San Francisco’s Pit Stop program.
San Francisco’s Pit Stop program is a public restroom program that also provides used needle receptacles and dog waste bags. The program has become a critical component in addressing public sanitation and a safer environment for both the city’s homeless and local residents.
by Neil K. R. Sehgal and Ashwini Sehgal
Legislators who are descendants of slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder ancestry, new research has found.
The legacy of slavery in America remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.
Some argue that slavery still contributes to modern economic inequalities. Others believe that its effects have largely faded.
