Cash Ruled Everything Around Us This Election Season

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.

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Coalition to SF Mayor-Elect: Act on Homelessness Solutions in First 100 Days

San Francisco elected Daniel Lurie mayor. On January 3, 2025, he will assume office and inherit a homelessness crisis that has long bedeviled previous administrations. 

The City’s approach to homelessness was a key issue of Lurie’s campaign—as well as those of his opponents. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson, incumbent Mayor London Breed called for a “get tough” approach—or get even tougher,

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Beware of Poverty’s Trapdoor

by Jack Bragen

There is a trapdoor at the bottom of society’s mechanisms, that throws out people onto the street who can’t perform well enough to mind the details or keep pace with the rat race. A person can fall through it due to a massive amount of bad luck. 

For people with disabilities, the system of benefits as it currently exists makes it very hard to work and earn enough money to survive without losing your benefits.

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Supervisor Introduces Legislation to Extend Rapid Rehousing Support to Homeless Families

In response to the alarming rise in family homelessness, Supervisor Hilary Ronen, with support from the Coalition on Homelessness, introduced new legislation at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting on October 22 to extend critical housing subsidies for families in need. The proposed ordinance amends the City’s Administrative Code to provide up to five years of rapid rehousing assistance for eligible families, addressing the increasing number of families at risk of returning to homelessness due to short-term housing subsidies.

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PSH Proposal Shames One Drug Culture While Ignoring Another

by Jordan Davis

At the September 24 Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Matt Dorsey pulled yet another policy out of his rear end that sounds reasonable on the surface, but in reality further stigmatizes permanent supportive housing (PSH) residents. 

Hot off the heels of his proposed legislation to stifle PSH development unless a certain percentage is dedicated to drug recovery housing, Dorsey announced that he was requesting that legislation be drafted that would require that PSH disclose so-called “drug-tolerant”

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