The Coalition on Homelessness was formed in 1987 to foster the active participation of homeless and low-income San Francisco residents and front-line staff in the struggle for economic and social justice. Through an integrated approach that combines outreach, peer support, leadership development, public education, advocacy, and community organizing, the COH works to defend homeless and low-income people from attacks on their rights and their persons, while advocating for permanent solutions to homelessness that take into account not only poverty's devastating effects, but also its root causes.
How We Do It
Coalition Projects
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Extensive peer outreach is at the heart of everything we do: We do not bring our agendas to poor and homeless people; they bring their agendas to us, and our efforts on their behalf (on both personal and political fronts) are shaped by their input and active involvement.
The Coalition encompasses the following four workgroups:
Civil Rights
Civil Rights works to defend the civil and human rights of homeless people by linking ongoing street outreach with organizing, advocacy, and legal strategies. The project addresses inequities through participatory legal and policy initiatives, while at the same time promoting a pro-active agenda whose goal is to eliminate civil rights abuses against homeless people.
Weekly organizing meetings take place
Wednesdays at 2 PM @ 468 Turk Street
email: civilrights@cohsf.org
staff organizer: Molly Glasgow
Families and Immigrants (FAIM)
Families and Immigrants (FAIM) seeks to unify homeless people of all races while forcing policymakers to focus on the two segments of the homeless population that they tend to forget: families with children and undocumented immigrants. This powerful alliance is currently working on a campaign titled Housing First for Homeless families that seeks to ensure housing for ALL homeless families, regardless of immigration status or credit history.
Weekly organizing meetings take place
Tuesdays at 12:45 p.m. @ 468 Turk Street
email: faim@cohsf.org
staff organizer: Miguel Carrera
Right to a Roof (R2aR)
Right to a Roof (R2aR) organizes homeless people currently within the shelter system to work toward creating permanently affordable housing in San Francisco, while ensuring that people's human rights are respected as long as they reside within the shelter system. This group utilizes both traditional and alternative means to protect individual and group rights within the shelter system.
Weekly organizing meetings take place
Wednesdays at 12:30 PM @ 468 Turk Street
email: director@cohsf.org
staff organizer: Jennifer Friedenbach
STREET SHEET
STREET SHEET is a monthly tabloid written largely by homeless and formerly homeless people that provides its readers with a perspective on homelessness that mainstream media simply cannot match. It provides a unique opportunity to its vendors as well: a dignified alternative to panhandling. The STREET SHEET (cover price $1) is given free to poor and homeless San Franciscans, who retain 100% of the proceeds from their sales. In 2004, the paper celebrated its 15th anniversary, making it the oldest continuously published street newspaper in the world.
STREET SHEET Vendor orientations take place
Fridays 2 p.m. @ 468 Turk Street
Organizing meetings take place
First and Third Thursday of each month, 5:30 p.m. @ 468 Turk Street
email: streetsheet@cohsf.org
editor: Bob Offer-Westort