Final Budget Does Irreversible Harm to SF Residents, City Policy Priorities

by Contributing Author

Despite important wins, People’s Budget Coalition stands in strong opposition to finalized budget that sacrifices key services and values in order to criminalize poverty

Early on Thursday, June 26, at 2 a.m., the Board of Supervisors Budget and Appropriation committee voted to approve a budget that balances an $800 million deficit on the backs of San Francisco’s poorest and most vulnerable residents while expanding funding for jail expansion, high-end police equipment purchases and Mayor’s Office staffing. 

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MTA Passes Permit Program, Step One of Lurie’s RV Ban

by Contributing Author

by Charlie Fisch and Azucena Hernandez

On Tuesday, June 17, the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Board of Directors met to approve on a 6–1 vote a refuge permit program that would exempt oversize vehicles from a proposed two-hour parking limit for up to 12 months. Approval of the program is only the first step in Mayor Daniel Lurie’s two-phased RV ban. Members of the End Poverty Tows Coalition and their allies told the panel that this plan will lead to displacement and increased street homelessness while residents struggle to find shelter. 

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“Hundreds Will Lose Their Homes!”: Testimonies Against the Mayor’s “Poverty Tows”

by Contributing Author

story and photos by Sarah Menefee

Below are some quotes from testimony given by families who live in their vehicles, and by their advocates, before the SFMTA [San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority], at a hearing on Mayor Lurie’s proposal to institute a 2-hour parking limit on oversized vehicles in San Francisco. Ninety percent of the homeless families in the city live in vehicles such as RVs, and would be in grave danger of having them ticketed and towed,

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The Beat Goes On: The Struggle of LA’s Vehicular Residents and the Venice Justice Committee

by Contributing Author

by Cathleen Williams with Peggy Kennedy

Venice, Los Angeles: A neighborhood for poor people, for renters who used to thrive in cheap apartments on the rundown back streets, a neighborhood famous for its countercultural vibe and freedom, where the wide beach and boardwalk teemed with performers, drag queens, artists, and outcasts. In the 1950s, Venice was a center of the Beat Generation in southern California—a local counterpart to San Francisco’s North Beach.

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Homelessness is Top of Mind for Many Californians. Why Does the Proposed Budget Eliminate Funding for It?

by Contributing Author

by Marisa Kendall, CalMatters

California’s main source of homelessness funding would drop from $1 billion last year to $0 this year in the proposed state budget.

State leaders have been talking a lot lately about cleaning up California’s homeless encampments and moving people indoors. But the tentative budget they’ve drawn up for the upcoming year has many asking: With what money?

Both Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature have proposed gutting the state’s main source of homelessness funding in the 2025-26 budget,

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When a Doctor’s Exam is Part of a Cosmic Test

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

Recently, I went to see a doctor in my new neighborhood, one where most of the population is high-income. When I got to the waiting room, I happened to spot a couple of people who are likely on Medicare as I am. It was comforting to realize that I would not stand out as the only economic misfit. 

Everyone seems to be ahead of me in life and can handle a faster pace than I can.

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Love and Hate: My 51 Years Living in the “Fillmoe”

by Contributing Author

by Queennandi

Originally published in Poor Magazine

I was born in the Western Addition aka Fillmoe in the early 70’s, and my spirit has been residing here ever since. In the earlier years it was a beautifully diverse community with Asian, African, Filipino, Latina and Pacific Islander families, with a few sprinkles of European immigrants. The community got along well amongst those who called Fillmore home.

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Mayor Lurie’s RV Plan Proposes Displacement and Criminalization Amidst Burgeoning Housing Crisis

by Contributing Author

Mayor Daniel Lurie announced legislation to ban RVs and enforce a citywide two-hour parking restriction for large vehicles, leading to fines, towing, displacement and eviction of those vulnerable San Franciscans experiencing poverty and homelessness. The plan falls significantly short in ensuring those living in RVs have the dignity of a home.  

Mayor Lurie’s plan, part of the “Breaking the Cycle” initiative, leads with enforcement, imposing a two-hour parking limit on large vehicles citywide.

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SF City Budget Raids Prop. C Homeless Family Funds. What’s Next?

by Contributing Author

by Lupe Velez

Mayor Daniel Lurie unveiled a proposal for San Francisco’s city budget for the next two fiscal years in a May 30 video statement. 

While funding for the San Francisco Police, Sheriff and Fire departments and the District Attorney’s office is preserved—or even increased—nonprofits with City contracts face $200 million in cuts in the next two years. These include several groups that deliver services like homelessness prevention,

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A Day in the Life of a Psychiatric Patient

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

The treatment system has always been a “frenemy” to me as a mental health treatment recipient. I need these services, partly because of how the socioeconomic part of our infrastructure functions. I could not live without having money from Social Security, and having my medical care and psychiatric treatment paid for. In a “utopian” society, this might not be the case, but unfortunately we don’t live in Utopia. 

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