Mayor Breed Holds Back $3 Million From CART

by Kenneth Madrigal

In the 2021 San Francisco budget process, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously supported the implementation of the Compassionate Alternative Response Team (CART), but Mayor London Breed refused to execute this ordinance, which would activate the peer-led CART teams, because she launched her own version of street outreach called Street Wellness Teams. Yet,  $3 million in funding was secured to begin the implementation of CART,  which currently sits untouched in unallocated reserve for a year.

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Housing is Safety

by TJ Johnston

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,

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I Need My Own

by Aaone Enosa
A cop with an evil grin points a gun as bodies and tents go flying, and a figure in the foreground stares at their phone looking distressed.

I arrived in San Francisco from Anchorage, Alaska on Feb. 20, 2008. I stayed with the father of my children and my two sons. We stayed in my mother-in-law’s apartment in the Alemany projects. It was there I conceived my second son. I drank and did drugs during this time, while working for my brothers-in-law and my kids’ father through In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). I went to jail due to domestic violence incidents between me and my partner at the time,

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Falling Through The Cracks: Homelessness in NYC 

by Johanna Elattar
A cop with an evil grin points a gun as bodies and tents go flying, and a figure in the foreground stares at their phone looking distressed.

(Part 1) 

 By: Johanna Elattar @2022 

I’m an NYC girl. I was raised in New York City, and I have many great memories of growing up there. When I was in college, Sundays were always spent with friends, having brunch at some trendy spot that we had to get in line for at least two hours (if not more). After brunch, we’d go to The Angelika Film Center.

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Mousey’s Story: Homelessness and Mental Illness

by Johanna Elattar

It’s a frigid day in New York as I step outside to check the mail. A snow storm has covered  everything in glistening white, and I’m only dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans. It only takes a minute to check the mail, but I’m already freezing. I open the mailbox and there’s no mail. I’ve forgotten that it’s Martin Luther King Day. I stand on the porch for a second to look at the snow,

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COME AS YOU ARE: Mental Health Care (and drug treatment) Prop C style

by Helen Redmond

Make a left from Harrison onto Merlin Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood and you enter another world. Past two low-slung, industrial buildings and under a noisy freeway is a scene that has come to define San Francisco: Tents line the sidewalks, and a collection of household items tumble out onto the street. There are cardboard boxes, coolers, overflowing garbage bags, containers of food, grills, chairs, and a pile of bicycles. A huge clock is attached to a chain-link fence and on top of it sits a red toy truck.

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CART- A Compassionate Alternative Response to Homelessness

by Tyler Kyser

As the pandemic continues and the shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels made available to unhoused community members begin to shut down, the most marginalized are suddenly being forced back onto the streets. As this occurs, one can only imagine the influx of calls to 911 dispatchers requesting the presence of police for nonviolent unhoused folks. 

That is why it is so critical for San Francisco to implement the Compassionate Alternative Response Team, or CART,

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When Mental Illness is Environmental

by Quiver Watts

By David Spero

Reprinted from The Inn by the Healing Path

Everyone knows about environmental illnesses, caused by pollution or unhealthy working conditions. But mental health problems can be environmental too, unavoidable reactions to difficult life situations. Changing the environment can change a person’s thoughts and emotions, as it has for my friend Jessie.

I’ve known Jessie since her 30s, when we played in a band together,

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Mayor and Board Reach Deal on Mental Health SF

by Quiver Watts

by Jennifer Friedenbach

In a compromise, two competing measures on mental health will not go to the ballot; instead, Mental Health SF will go through the legislative process.  The very contentious process ended in awkward hugs as the city family shared the stage on the steps of city hall in a press conference announcing the deal on November 12, 2019. 

     Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney proposed going to the ballot with Mental Health SF,

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