A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
The 2024 election is likely to be recorded in history as the year of the billionaires. Their money has influenced this year’s ballot from presidential contests to state and local races.
But even people with ten-figure net worth didn’t get everything they wanted.
Daniel Lurie prevailed in San Francisco’s mayoral race. Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, and spent over $8 million in his largely self-financed campaign.
by Hollie Garrett
I watched the correctional officers from the sliver of the cell door window as they strapped on their rubber gloves and set up their metal detectors in preparation of the mass search. I had known this would be coming for days, but that did not simmer the anxiety and stress I felt in my chest and stomach as I watched them prepare to shatter any sense of privacy I may have developed during my stay in this prison.
by Stop the Sweeps
We know one main thing: shelter is not being offered to most people being swept from street encampments in the US. There are hardly ever enough shelter spaces available.
According to a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in the case Martin v. Boise — a decision currently at risk of being struck down in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson — cities cannot legally sweep people if they are not able to offer every individual shelter.
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,
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.
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?”
This summer, wastewater data shows us that COVID-19 cases are surging, and COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations are increasing as well. Vaccination rates are abysmal. Approximately 17 million people nationally live with long COVID, and your risk of developing long term disabling symptoms increases with each COVID infection. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have given up recommending any real mitigation strategies,
Arresting and ticketing people for sleeping outdoors, even when no shelter is available, is not unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 28.
In doing so, the court’s conservative majority overturned previous decisions maintaining that Martin v. Boise, a case that removed such criminal penalties for acts of homelessness in the absence of shelter and protected unhoused people’s constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
So does that mean the arguments made by the Coalition on Homelessness and seven unhoused plaintiffs in their lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco are gone,
story and photos by Jeremiah Hayden
The United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson on June 28. The case out of Oregon will broadly impact how local governments write homelessness policy across the nation.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson on June 28, reversing the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals injunction barring the southern Oregon city of Grants Pass from enforcing ordinances banning sleeping in public spaces.
by Lukas Illa
In the waning hours of its 2024 term, the U.S. Supreme Court published its decision on Grants Pass v. Johnson, which criminalized the existence of homeless people. In the days that followed, homeless advocates in the Bay Area pointed to the fact that in his majority opinion, Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch cited the amicus brief filed by San Francisco officials eight times.
The City’s amicus brief,
