“What helped me was finally a room where I could be safe, regular meals and a warm bed”: An account on getting sober

by Agapezz

For me, it used to be that consuming was more important than eating: I needed it to fall asleep and wake up, to function. To keep from going crazy, I hold on to the high, even if it means ignoring any morality I really wanted to hold on to. Consumption lulls my traumas to sleep and covers them so they don’t wake up. I would like to deal with my negative experiences,

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Push To Save East Bay’s Street Spirit Underway

The campaign to resurrect Street Spirit went into full swing with a benefit attracting over 100 people to the Tamarack restaurant in Oakland on July 15.

The event raised over $8,200, Street Spirit editor-in-chief Alastair Boone announced on Instagram. She told a panel audience that her goal is to raise $250,000, which would pay for printing, paying staff and covering other expenses for one year after the relaunch. 

The Berkeley-based newspaper covering homelessness in the East Bay announced in May that its publisher,

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How Street Papers and Street Soccer Go Together at the 2023 Homeless World Cup in Sacramento

Three guys playing soccer

by Tony Inglis

With the 2023 Homeless World Cup set to take place in Sacramento, California from July 8 to 15, the International Network of Street Papers is celebrating the crossover between street soccer and street papers. Street papers in seven countries—Argentina, Australia, Greece, Japan, Portugal, South Korea and Switzerland—either have street soccer projects connected to them, or work under the same parent organisation. In some cases, a street paper was borne out of a street soccer team,

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Editor’s Note: Goodbye, Quiver. Hello, TJ!

by Quiver Watts and TJ Johnston

So much is changing here at Street Sheet that we are running a rare Editor’s Note to keep you all informed about what is new with the paper! 

Starting with this issue, we are so pleased to introduce TJ Johnston as the new editor-in-chief of Street Sheet. TJ is a seasoned, San Francisco-based journalist whose written work has been featured in this newspaper—as well as 48 Hills,

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Surviving Trafficking

Inside of California’s homelessness crisis, another crisis gets little attention: sex trafficking. In some cases, experiences of sex trafficking push people into homelessness. In other cases, being homeless makes them more vulnerable to sex trafficking. It can be a matter of life and death. 

Tonya is a woman in her 50s who lives in a tent in Sacramento. She shared her story of sex trafficking in her teens to bring awareness to an issue that is too often ignored because its victims are often already part of overlooked communities.

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Tariq’s Narrative on Living and Surviving Homelessness

I’m not sure where to begin and end on this short tale about my homelessness. It’s just when you think it’s over the saga continues. So let’s start with when I first left home with no place to go. I was only 13 years old and I told my mama that I was a man, and she replied “get your ass out there and be a man. When yo’ mannish ass get yo’ own place you can do what you want to do.

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L’Itinéraire vendor reveals reality of sex work to challenge stigmas

29 July 2016 by INSP News Service

L’Itinéraire vendor Jo Redwitch candidly reflects on her former career as a “sex dancer” in Montreal. Her essay is in reaction to Canada’s controversial new prostitution bill, which has been widely denounced by sex workers. Jo believes the bill “isn’t suited to the reality of sex work” and hopes more sex workers can “find the courage to speak out and share their point of view” to challenge common stigmas.

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Vendor Profile: Billy Davis

Billy Davis has deep roots in San Francisco and the Bay Area. His family lived in the Bayview district on Third Street where his mother’s father was a shipyard worker until they moved over to Palo Alto in 1956, which is where Billy would grow up. Billy has fond memories of Potrero Hill, where he and his family would often spend weekends. He describes San Francisco as a kind of home base and decided to move here permanently from Palo Alto as an adult.

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