COSTA RENTING NOT SO HIGH UNDER PROP. 10

by TJ Johnston

An alliance of tenant organizations is demanding a “full repeal of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, nothing less.”

That could happen if enough Californians approve Proposition 10, the Affordable Housing Act. It would empower the city of San Francisco to pass its own rent-stabilization ordinances. It could also give residents a fighting chance to stay in their homes.

The San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition issued its findings in a report, “The Cost of Costa-Hawkins,” published in July.

… READ MORE

Share this:

Housing First: It Just Makes Sense

by Zack Lenox

Cities across the United States have tested the housing first model and found that it works very well, presenting a compelling case that housing first should be expanded where it is already used on a small scale and implemented where it is not public policy.

Despite the immediate costs and political resistance with building housing for chronically homeless people, the shift to putting homeless people in permanent, personalized shelter is justified on a range of grounds.

… READ MORE

Share this:

Safer Inside: A Community Demonstration

by Jack Rice

It would be easy to miss, with Prop C in full swing, with political candidates talking about their “solutions to the biggest challenges facing the city today”, with successive mayors intensifying the criminalizing sweeps of our friends and family on the streets… But San Francisco is making radical steps – leading the country, in fact – with the first ever demonstration model of a safe injection site in the United States.

“Safer Inside: A Community Demonstration” took place in the last week of August,

… READ MORE

Share this:

Ending Homelessness for San Franciscans A Bold Direction is Needed

by Jennifer Friedenbach

San Francisco is at a precipice – deep into a housing crisis that exists within great wealth and economic fuel.  Residents more than ever are motivated to see homelessness addressed as property values and rents skyrocket.  Housing-insecure renters see themselves in the faces of those on the streets and respond at times with compassion and other times fear-based hostility.  Homeowners have spent small fortunes to acquire property.  Yet homelessness is more visible than ever with the proliferation of tents throughout the city,

… READ MORE

Share this:

A Note About The Navigation Centers From a Former Client

by Shyhyene Brown

As we see there is a total of four Navigation Centers here in San Francisco. There is one in the Mission, another on Market, the third at the Dogpatch, and the last one on Army Street.

So I asked a few people about their opinions about the new Navigation Centers and this is what they say. (Mind you, some of these individuals asked to keep their names anonymous during this interview,

… READ MORE

Share this:

San Francisco’s “High Disgust Sensitivity” To Homelessness

by TJ Johnston

Raise your hands if you’re in favor of housing homeless people and programs that make it possible.

Now, raise your hands if you support laws imposing bans on sleeping outside or panhandling.

Chances are, in this scenario, you’d see the same set of hands raised favoring both approaches to homelessness. According to a pair of political scientists, that’s not unusual.

Scott Clifford of the University of Houston and Spencer Piston of Boston University studied this phenomenon of dueling impulses by commissioning a public opinion poll.

… READ MORE

Share this:

Living in SF’s family shelter: Homeless mom speaks out

by Meadow Sylvester

In 2010, my husband and I succeeded in graduating a drug program and closing our Child Protective Services (CPS) case. Before our case was allowed to close, the courts mandated and assisted our family in acquiring a housing subsidy, which we put to use in the Bayview. At that time, the cost of our two bedroom apartment was $1,800 per month. For four years, we resided there and barely ever saw the property management. But in 2014,

… READ MORE

Share this:

No Housing for Immigrants in the Sanctuary City

by Gianni Jones

In the Bay Area, accessing housing is a challenge many Americans face. While rents are rapidly rising, wages have stagnated; someone who works one, two, or even three minimum wage jobs in the Bay Area just can’t afford to live here anymore. Now imagine being an undocumented immigrant attempting to access limited, expensive housing and provide for your family. Often times, it can be a debilitating and stressful experience. The current implications of immigration policies in America displace and traumatize immigrants and refugees as well as foster hysteria and xenophobia amongst non-immigrants.

… READ MORE

Share this:

How to Be a Housing Ally (Or, Why I’m Not a YIMBY)

by Erin Reeves

There’s a new battle around housing gaining attention in the media: the YIMBYs vs. the so-called NIMBYs. The YIMBYs, or the “Yes in My Backyard” folks, declare themselves to be “pro-housing” — that is, pro-development of any and every type of housing. And the NIMBYs are, apparently, everyone else — including affordable housing activists, tenant rights advocates, and everyday people struggling with gentrification and displacement in their neighborhoods.

The term “NIMBY,” or “Not in My Backyard,” is commonly heard these days,

… READ MORE

Share this:

Social Service Providers, Advocacy Groups Recommend Improvements to Homeless Services

by Gianni Jones

Homelessness continues to be a pervasive social contemporary problem within the San Francisco Bay Area. Advocacy organizations and service providers of homeless people seek to implement policies that minimize barriers that homeless families, youth, and adults are facing. In fact, focus groups consisting of members of the homeless population and/or front line service providers in 12 different homeless service providers and advocacy organization took place.. The survey outcomes revealed interesting findings of barriers within the homeless system.

… READ MORE

Share this: