Like a Good Neighbor? City Asks Service Providers to Police Clients. 

by Contributing Author

by Lukas Illa

In May, the Mayor’s Office announced a new “Citywide Good Neighbor Policy” that aims to punish homeless and public health nonprofit providers for inadequately responding to neighborhood complaints about streets conditions around their sites.

This new policy applies to all “shelters, transitional housing programs, access points, drop-in centers, permanent supportive housing sites, and (Department of Public Health) client-serving programs.” For providers contracted to run these sites,

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Homelessness is Down in California and Across the Country, Says New Federal Report

by Contributing Author

by Marisa Kendall/ CalMatters

The Trump administration downplayed the decline in homelessness, contending far more people are on the streets today than a decade ago.

The number of people with nowhere to call home decreased both in California and nationwide last year, according to a long-awaited federal report.

The data, showing the first decrease in homelessness in years, provided fuel for activists challenging the Trump administration’s narrative that current homelessness policies are failing and need to be overhauled.

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America, the New Banana Republic

by Contributing Author

by Paul Boden/Western Regional Advocacy Project

Let’s be real about what’s happening. The U.S. Government is endeavoring to solidify its long time quest of a fascist dictatorship rule. It’s moving incredibly fast because the structures needed to pull this off have been getting implemented piecemeal and with purpose since the Reagan Revolution in 1980. So now they are ready to rock and roll.

Dictatorships always rely on a militarized police force to rain hell on a scapegoated minority that are “blamed” as the cause of whatever the authorities decide is going to put fear into their base and use that fear to stoke division and prejudice amongst people.

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Blast from the Past: The Gender-Neutral Bathroom Law That Could Only Happen In San Francisco

by Contributing Author

by Jordan Wasilewski

If you told me when I was a little and in the closet that I would eventually get a first-of-its-kind law passed that would help transgender and disabled people, I would have laughed in your face. However, that is what happened.

In 2015, I was placed into a permanent supportive housing SRO. I spent three months in a unit without a bathroom.

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Price of Prejudice: What is Lost When We Reject Trans Identity

by Contributing Author

by Monteque Pope-LeBeau

“What are you?”

These are words that another person felt they could say to me. I don’t know why they thought that was OK. Maybe it was the same reasoning that drove doctors to “treat” the “illness” of my gender, ravaging my body when I was an adolescent so many years ago. I still carry the injuries.

Countless others have had similar experiences that they didn’t deserve.

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“I Could See Pieces of the Puzzle But Not the Big Picture”

by Contributing Author

by Adriane Dietrich

Trott-war: I’m very excited to hear what you have to say. Before we get started, a simple but very important question: How are you?

Lea: I’m doing well! A lot has changed since back then. Above all, a lot of things have settled; four years ago, it was all new and different. I still didn’t know where all this was going to take me.

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A History of Homelessness: This Was Never Inevitable, and We Still Have a Chance to End It

by Contributing Author

Modern homelessness has unfolded in two chapters in the United States. The first chapter was of course the Great Depression, a period of displacement and poverty that was corrected for by a mass investment in housing and the passage of  the Housing Act of 1949that guaranteed decent housing for impoverished people. The second chapter opened in 1983, when Ronald Reagan eliminated 76% of the federal housing budget and abandoned the commitment made by that same Housing Act. 

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An Emergency Voucher Keeps This Mother Housed. Without It, She Might Face Homelessness Again. Q and A with Jessica Boykins

by Contributing Author

interview by Christian Jiminez

Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) are federal rental assistance vouchers authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help individuals and families who are homeless, at-risk of homelessness, or fleeing domestic violence. Administered by the department of Housing and urban Development (HUD)through local housing authorities, these vouchers provide long-term, tenant-based rental subsidies for private market housing. The program was intended to run through 2030.

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No Displacement Without Real Replacement

by Contributing Author

by Jordan Wasilewski

When I served on the SRO Task Force as a tenant representative for two years, I was charged with the duty of meeting SRO tenants where they are at and making their lives better. However, I have come to realize over the last few years that the City needs to move on from housing formerly homeless people in ramshackle SROs, and many would agree with me. However, in mid-April,

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California Blocks Trump Administration from Withholding Homelessness Funds

by Contributing Author

by Marisa Kendall/CalMatters

California scored a legal victory on April 20 that, for now, undermines the Trump administration’s efforts to drastically cut funding for homeless housing. 

Changes that would have diverted huge chunks of federal funds away from permanent housing and funneled them instead into temporary shelters and sober living programs will remain suspended after the Trump administration dropped its appeal of an earlier court loss.

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