A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Lukas Illa
On December 10, for the first time in its history, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors overturned a decision passed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) Board of Directors that would have banned oversized vehicles citywide.
The move prevented the ban from taking effect. It would have targeted streets in the Lake Merced area after vehicle-dwelling San Franciscans were swept from the area earlier this year.
by Julian Highsmith
San Francisco took a monumental step forward in addressing its homelessness crisis this week as the Board of Supervisors approved new legislation on a 10-0 vote to extend the duration of rapid rehousing subsidies from two to five years. This landmark decision promises greater stability for families at risk of returning to homelessness by providing longer-term financial support, ensuring they have the time and resources necessary to transition into permanent housing.
a statement from the Coalition on Homelessness
San Francisco — Despite a marked improvement in housing placements, underlying socioeconomic disparities combined with a lack of significant federal and state investment in affordable housing have driven homeless rates up 7% in San Francisco. In particular, the Point in Time Count showed a 94% increase in family homelessness, and a 90% increase in vehicularly housed. Increased shelter and housing availability has led to a 13% decrease in street homelessness.
When Mayor London Breed submitted her budget to the Board of Supervisors on June 1, it had many problematic elements, but one in particular stood out for the Coalition on Homelessness: The mayor’s plan would raid $60 million from youth and family housing to pay for short-term housing, subsidies, shelter and other temporary funds for adults.
While visiting a tiny home site, Mayor Breed announced her plan that she wanted to fund shelter beds for unhoused San Franciscans.
by Jennifer Friedenbach
Mayor London Breed announced plans last month to fund shelter for unhoused San Franciscans. What the mayor did not mention was where that funding would come from. The Coalition on Homelessness supports the plans to replace and continue the announced 594 beds, not just for two years but permanently, and at the same time vehemently opposes that same plan to pay for some of these adult beds by gutting housing for homeless youth and families in Proposition C.
by Ian James, Yessica Hernandez and Migeul Carrera
The Oasis Inn family shelter once again sits empty, after the building’s owners decided to allow its lease with the City of San Francisco to expire at the end of January. The Oasis Inn provided shelter to dozens of unhoused pregnant people and families, including families fleeing domestic violence.
The City’s lease was originally scheduled to expire at the end of December.
Less than two weeks before the planned closure of a shelter for unhoused families, housing and homelessness advocates converged on the steps of San Francisco City Hall to protest the Oasis Inn’s December 15 closing date. The demonstrators—many of whom live at the Oasis and are facing imminent displacement—demanded that the City move to buy the building in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood, while also calling on the Oasis’s owners to sell the property to the City or a prospective nonprofit contractor at the December 6 action.
My name is Samel Leparan Ntiwuas. I live just down the street from the house where I grew up.
I grew up in Oakland and San Francisco. My folks succeeded in their own ways, at one point owning a home, which was once considered the very foundation of financial stability. Then, when life chose to give me a bitter test, I joined the surging number of unsheltered immigrant people who spill out around freeways,
Don’t Wait Until We Break!
On Wednesday May 4, homeless and formerly homeless moms, children, and individuals converged on San Francisco’s City Hall to deliver one message, loud and clear: “Our mothers need housing.” The action was designed and carried out by unhoused members, mostly moms. In planning the action, they talked about how being homeless is literally breaking their mental health and came up with the slogan “Don’t Wait Until We Break”
Age-old sayings tell us to save “mothers and children first” in any crisis or catastrophe.
Four walls. A roof. Doors that can be locked with a key. These are things that provide you with security, safety and stability when you’re housed. It’s easy to take these feelings for granted. I sure did until I lost my housing, and I had to struggle to keep my security, safety and stability in my newly unhoused state.
Now, imagine if you’re trying to avoid some asshole who’s harassing or bullying you,
