A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
By Lawrence Hollins
Today I’m turning the page, and I thank God for setting me free from that cage, and not sending me to my grave, because I had a crave, I was in a daze, and I walked around in a maze for days
My father God said it was just a phase, and that’s why you’re able to turn the page
From that ghetto vacation, that would have led to incarceration,
by Clarence E. Block, shared by daughter Cheryl Block Shanks
Walking up the narrow trail
That seems to lead
To the top of the world…
It seems that I’ve
Been walking for hours
So I stop to gather my breath.
Looking back behind me
At the world I’ve left behind —
For a minute —
And now I’m walking again
Up, up …
Wow
I thought I’d never get to the top.
It’s so peaceful …
Nothing and no one is here, … READ MORE
by Leslie Dreyer
The Stolen Belonging project, in collaboration with the Coalition on Homelessness, interviewed unhoused residents across the City to document the theft, abuse and trauma City workers inflict on unhoused people during encampment sweeps, how unhoused San Franciscans think they should be compensated, and how they imagine we should collectively hold the City accountable for these inhumane acts. In Street Sheet’s third installment of the Stolen Belonging project, we’re focusing on the latter question.
by the Stolen Belonging Team
My name is Guy Jeffries. I’ve lived in San Francisco for 15 years. About a month ago I had DPW [the Public Works department] stop by and give me a warning to pack up and leave. They said I had a whole day to do this, so I went to the store to retrieve the trash bags I needed to pack up my things. I came back.
by the Stolen Belonging Team
Paul Boden: I’m currently with the Western Regional Advocacy Project. Before that, I came up off the streets through Hospitality House, where a bunch of us together created what is the Coalition on Homelessness, in the mid-eighties.
I was homeless for six years, as a kid, from the time I was 16 till 23, when I hooked up with Hospitality House and have been engaged in fighting against homelessness and helping out my brothers and sisters that happened to be homeless since I was 23 years old,
by the Stolen Belonging Team
My name is Veronica Ocampo. I’ve been here for over 15 years. The other night I had gotten into it with this guy and he came back to my tent later that night when I was by myself, and he was trying to start problems. I was a little shaken up so I left. When I came back the police and DPW [the Public Works department] had taken everything.
by Nick Marzano
Mission Gold (2015–2023) is a photojournalism series and independent magazine exploring street entrepreneurship, creativity, and courage on the streets of San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.
When I first moved from Australia to the Mission in 2014 , I arrived at the epicenter of a 21st century Gold Rush created by the tech boom. I was a prospector myself, an immigrant drawn to the glittering work opportunities of the Bay.
The Compassionate Alternative Response Team (CART) was envisioned by a broad coalition of homeless people, activists, service providers and community members as a safe and dignified way to respond to complaints from the public about street-based folks. The idea was to replace the current—often traumatic—police response with a compassionate response rooted in meeting the needs of those on the street.
After years of advocacy, CART was finally funded and set to be implemented,
by Johanna Elattar
It’s March: Women’s History Month. We honor women, their accomplishments, and the ongoing struggle for equality and justice. As we remember all the amazing women, I can’t help but think of the forgotten ones. The old woman sitting on a street corner, begging for change from passers by. The young woman doing sex work just to have a little to eat or a place to sleep. The single mother with her child,
by Detroit Richards
San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey represents District 6—an area that includes portions of the Civic Center neighborhood, which is home to so many unhoused individuals. Dorsey introduced legislation that would exclude undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for selling fentanyl from the city’s sanctuary city policy.
If his ordinance passes, any undocumented person convicted of fentanyl distribution within seven years of their previous conviction will be deported,
