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,

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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,

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My 60 days at the Navigation Center

by Shyhyene Brown

I have been at the Navigation Center four times within the last year. Since being a client of the Navigation Center, I have experienced the good and bad from staff. Here is the truth from someone who has been in here for almost 60 days.

When you come in, you are greeted with a smile from the front desk. As you walk in, you are greeted nicely. That’s on Day One. After that day,

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The case for beds in the Bayview

by TJ Johnston

It’s Friday afternoon at the drop-in center known as Mother Brown’s on the corner of Jennings Street and Van Dyke Avenue. Despite the iron-gated door fronting the entrance, people drop in freely to check their mail, take a shower, do laundry, or chill out in the reception area. For a nominal fee, Mother Brown’s rents out lockers.

Gwendolyn Westbrook, the director of the United Council of Human Services — the official name of Mother Brown’s — as well as staff describe the place as a community center.

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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,

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Another flawed program for homeless families

by Quiver Watts

Earlier this year, San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) implemented a program known as ‘coordinated entry’ for homeless family shelter, which prioritizes families trying to get stable shelter based on where they are staying at time of requesting shelter. A coordinated entry program, per federal law, should be low-barrier, fair access, inclusive, housing first, and full coverage, but advocates and providers for the homeless, such as Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA),

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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.

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Evicted Off the Streets: Box City

by Quiver Watts

In the pouring rain, City officials started clearing a homeless encampment at 7am on January 10. Named Box City for its wooden boxes that sheltered a community made up of 30 to 40 homeless people, including a tight-knit group of Tagalog speaking Filipinos, the encampment had been around since September of last year and was located along the freeway on 7th street and Irwin.

Some boxes that were cleared by the Department of Public Works had been identified as abandoned by the residents of the encampment;

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