Locked Up and Locked Out: How Society Segregates People with Mental Health Disabilities

by Jack Bragen

Most psychiatrists might agree that if you have a “psychiatric impairment” you could be locked out of the use of your own perceptual and mental faculties. Some would argue that those faculties are absent, while others could say we have potential of mind that is blocked by an impairment. 

Psychiatrists tend to medicate; they believe that’s what works. I can’t argue with that. When I was started on medication,

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Criminalization Won’t Make Homelessness Go Away

by Jack Bragen

Some fundamental changes in how we do things in the U.S. are going to be necessary, irrespective of how much the rich people and the militant ultraconservatives might oppose this. The general public must have a reasonable ability to acceptably live, or else the entire fabric of society will disintegrate.The poor people need to have an acceptable means of existing. The disabled and/or unemployable people must not be put to death,

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Meth, Death and Abuse: Inside the Private Security Forces Patrolling the Homeless

By Lauren Hepler/CalMatters

Wendy Powitzky thought she’d finally found a way off the street in Orange County.

The former hairdresser had spent years sleeping in her car and parks around Anaheim, near the suburban salons where she used to work. One day a social worker told Powitzky about an old piano shop recently converted into a shelter.

She just had to clear security to reach her new twin bed.

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What is a Home?

by IntiGonzalez.com

The reality of the war in Gaza was such a shock to me, especially since my country is an equal contributor to the violence unfolding there. It made me go out and protest, learn and get involved like never before. It was hard, even scary, to make that initial step to help carry such immense pain, but doing so allowed me to learn more than I ever thought I would about myself. 

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Sweeping Us to Nowhere

A RooflessRadio WeSearch project by Tiny with Leajay Harper, Momii Palapaz, Frankie Carter, Alex DeLeon, Jay Paulino

RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr Asuncion with his bus ticket to Nowhere

“Do you know where the bus station is,” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr. Ascunsion, laughed nervously, throwing back his wavy black /silver hair as he uncrumpled a small piece of paper he held in his hand ”And do you know where this town is?” 

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Is the City of San Francisco About to Wage a ‘War” on the Homeless?

by Malik Washington, Destination Freedom Media Group

A couple weeks ago, Mayor London Breed (San Francisco CA) appeared in a debate alongside a number of other potential mayoral candidates vying for public support.  Mayor Breed made comments related to the removal of homeless people from city streets.  I perceived her carefully chosen words as a clear warning aimed at the homeless population of San Francisco.

The month of August 2024 will usher in the beginning of a San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) operation which seeks to remove homeless people from areas deemed as public property and relocate them elsewhere. 

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Call to Action: Support RV Dwellers on the West Side

As of August 1, a critical situation has unfolded for low-income families and individuals living in RVs in District 7 on San Francisco’s west side. The imminent threat of displacement looms large, and without immediate intervention, these residents may face homelessness. These are not abstract statistics: they are our neighbors, people thrust into this precarious situation through no fault of their own.

For over three years, the Coalition on Homelessness and committed allies have been working tirelessly to support these communities.

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Driven Out: Former Bernal RV Residents Still Searching for Safe Parking

by Madeleine Matz

In late March, Armando Martinez and other RV residents who had been living outside of Bernal Heights Park were forced to move when a long-dormant parking ban went into effect. The group splintered, with Martinez, Darwin Pena and a Yucatecan couple together relocating first to the Mission, then to the Bayview and finally to the Excelsior District. 

The moves have taken a toll. 

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Keeping Score: My Review of the Coordinated Entry Test 

by CJ Ross

“Where am I taking you? Where are you gonna stay tonight?” It was 2016. I Googled “shelters in San Francisco” on my friend’s phone from the passenger seat with about two hours left until we reached the city. 

I never thought I’d return to the city where I was born and raised. As I searched, I expected to find lists of places to sleep in a pinch,

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Op-ed: Let’s House PSH Tenants

by Jordan Davis

About a year ago, District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the majority of permanent supportive housing tenants in San Francisco—including myself—introduced and passed a resolution calling on the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) to fill vacant PSH units. Given that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Grants Pass case makes it easier to sweep unhoused individuals, and that Mayor London Breed is now trying to bus homeless people out of town,

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