A residential rent assistance program that will spare many immigrant families from potential homelessness has been approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and awaits Mayor Willie Brown’s signature.

In a San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Health and Human Services Committee meeting held on July 3, three Supervisors unanimously approved the Residential Rent Assistance Pilot Program. The legislation was then sent to the full Board, where it was finally approved on July 15 by a vote of 10-1. Supervisor Tony Hall, notorious for accepting campaign money from the European American Forum, was the only “no” vote.

This program will give $349,000 in rental assistance to San Francisco Housing Authority and Section 8 tenants whose federal rent subsidy in has been eliminated because they or members of their family are undocumented immigrants. Although this is a relatively small amount of money to help many families, the pilot program will document the number of people affected so that the program can be renewed if necessary.

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Sitting in front of Harvey’s on Castro Street, resting my aching feet after a long day of lugging around my heavy backpack, I experienced a disturbing epiphany. I realized that the so-called gay “community,” which I had considered myself a part of since the age of sixteen, did not recognize me as one of them, did not want me among them, because I am homeless.

This realization occurred when I was witness to a conversation between a gay man and Officer Jane, a dyke police officer notorious among homeless youth in the Castro for constantly telling us to “move along.”

The exact progression of the conversation escapes me, but the content remains fresh in my mind. The man asked Officer Jane how work was going, she replied that it was going well, and the man replied with, “Yeah, it’s nice — hardly any homeless at all.” Officer Jane agreed, “Yeah, hardly any.” And then the man turned around and looked at me and said, “Except for that one right there.”

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Just when you thought the denizens of City Hall couldn’t get any more ridiculous — now they’re outlawing bodily functions! Tony Hall’s (he’s a Supervisor) ordinance banning public urination and defecation passed without consideration as to exactly where homeless people are supposed to relieve themselves.

The number of public bathrooms remains the same — not enough. The high-tech “space toilets” remain largely un-useable, many of them constantly breaking down, and several of which have been ingeniously modified by homeless people into mini apartments.

Many merchants remain unreceptive to homeless people who want to use their restrooms. Some stores and restaurants require a purchase before allowing someone to use their bathroom, and some will even turn a person away because they are dirty, or a suspected drug user. There’s still the public library, which doesn’t allow “bathing” and “grooming,” but at least the toilets are available to those who need them.

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It was an uncomfortably hot Saturday morning in June as I walked up 7th St in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, towards the offices of People Organized To Win Employment Rights (POWER). About to enter the building, I pulled up short when I heard my name being called.

“Heats ‘goin kick our asses today, Ed.” It was my homeless friend Joey, who had set up a sort of flea market of goods for sale at the entrance to the adjacent alley.

“Oh man, you got that right, Joey! How you doin’ today?

“Not too bad — but I do hear there’s a chance our GA benefits will be cut. You know anything about that?

“In fact I’m just now meeting with other POWER members to talk about that, so I don’t have much time but just briefly, yeah, there’s a member of the San Francisco board of Supervisors who is trying to push through a proposal that’ll hurt folks on GA. I’ll get back with you later with more news, Joey. Hey, maybe you can even help out, huh?”

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There is an invisible population of homeless people living in San Francisco — families living in Single Room Occupancy hotels. Over 450 families are estimated to be currently living in SRO hotel rooms, mostly in the Tenderloin, Mission, South of Market and Chinatown.

The conditions in which these families live are, to say the least, appalling. Imagine a family of five living in a cramped and stuffy 8’x10’ room, with a mildewed bathroom down the hall that’s shared by 30 strangers, and you have to clean up drug paraphernalia before you can give the kids a bath. Now picture lead-tainted paint chipping onto a 10-year-old stained and musty carpet that is the only place for the children to play. Most SRO hotels do not have refrigerators, cooking facilities, or proper storage areas for food forcing many families to spend extra money on eating out because the soup kitchens are closed by the time the parents get home from work. Now imagine that the rent for these accommodations is between $250 and $500 a week. Well that’s the reality for far too many families in this city. NO ONE should have to live like this — especially children.

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Colombia es un país que ha estado en guerra civil por cincuenta y cuatro años y actualmente está atravezando la peor crisis económica de toda su historia. “La Guerra en Contra de las Drogas” y después de los acontecimientos del once de Septiembre la “Guerra en Contra del Terrorismo” han afectado al país profundamente.

El gobierno estadounidense ha invertido un total de dos billones de dolares, hasta el presente año, con el supuesto objetivo de erradicar los cultivos de coca y amapola.

Además de los esfuerzos para erradicar los cultivos ilícitos, que hasta ahora han sido esfuerzos fallídos ya que los cultivos de coca y amapola se han multiplicado notablemente, un alto porcentaje del presupuesto de la ayuda extranjera ha sido destinado a ayuda militar; revelando asi el objetivo mas importante de la intervención estadounidense en Colomnia, silenciar los movimientos sociales y detener la insurgencia. Según Amnistía Internacional, Colombia en 1999 pasó a ser el país, después de Israel y Egipto, que más ayuda militar ha recibido en el mundo. Asu vez, Colombia es uno de los países que mas viola los Derechos Humanos y estas violaciones continúan debido a que los niveles de impunidad alcanzan el 98%. En Colombia, dos mil a tres mil asesinatos políticos ocurren al año, el deterioro del medio ambiente se hace mas evidente cada día y el índice de pobreza es del 30% y hasta del 50% en algúnas zonas. Actualmente hay dos millones de desplazados y desplazadas (65% son mujeres) que han sido forzados a dejar sus tierras y sus hogares debido a la violencia interna.

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I can’t rest
My disabled brothers and sisters
Are shot, dragged and beaten to death…

My poem, Can’t Rest, is more than words on paper, and unfortunately its reality. In the last four years, Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO) and I had many sleepless nights because of the continuous brutality and senseless crimes against our disabled bothers and sisters of color. What really keeps us up at night is the lack of awareness, media attention and no local community forums to educate and heal on this issue. Last July DAMO organized and implemented the first ever Senseless Crimes Open Forum dealing with people with disabilities of color in the community. However since last July DAMO and I still can’t rest.

It’s been a year since our open forum and the physical attacks and police brutality continues to happen to disabled people of color all over California. The following is a brief picture of this year’s senseless crimes and police brutality against people of color with disabilities:

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David Murray had only been on the streets for three weeks when STREET SHEET met him panhandling in mid July at the corner of Geary and Powell Streets. In that brief period thoughts about going back to prison have entered his mind. Not because he wants to go back, but because he doesn’t feel that he belongs on the streets in a wheelchair.

Murray is just one of an unknown number of homeless people living in wheelchairs on San Francisco’s streets. There are supportive housing buildings in the city for homeless people, but only five percent of the units in such buildings is suitable for people with disabilities. And there is no low-income housing in the city available exclusively for people in wheelchairs.

Murray believed that he was going live in a Tenderloin half-way house when he got out, but six months before he was to be released the corrections staff said he wasn’t fit to be in the halfway house. Besides, the half-way house wasn’t set up to accommodate someone in a wheelchair.

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So, what is the difference between George Bush saying he did nothing wrong, and the CEO of WorldCom (or ENRON or any of the others) saying he did nothing wrong? I honestly don’t see a difference. One thing I do know is that this country’s got a problem, and that problem is money in politics.

Is it any wonder that people don’t want to vote? Is it any wonder that FERC screwed California when they needed price caps on electricity? We don’t see that screwing on a day-to-day basis because it’s tied up in long range debt. On the federal level, money is so intertwined in politics that it is really hard to tell who’s calling the shots, corporate interests or politicians. Bush and Cheney say they did nothing wrong. Even the stock market didn’t believe that.

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Today (Tuesday, July 23rd) is the day the Santa Cruz City Council plans to pass the most draconian set of ordinances against homeless and poor people they have ever considered since 1978 when they passed the Sleeping Ban.

I was chatting with a young man on Pacific Ave. yesterday. I told him the ordinances would force all street musicians, street performers, political tables, beggers, and those who want to sit down on the sidewalk into tiny, free speech “ghettos.”

All such activities would banned fourteen feet from a building, fourteen feet from a crosswalk, fourteen feet from a bench, fourteen feet from a telephone, fourteen feet from a monument, fourteen feet from the wrought iron fence railing of an outdoor eatery, and FIFTY feet from an ATM. Leaning against a building would now become a crime.

He asked me who on the council was supporting these ordinances. When I told him Vicemayor Emily Reilly and Councilmember Ed Porter, he looked incredulous. “Ed Porter was my teacher,” he told me. “He seemed like a nice guy.” I guess he never really knew him. As I blew bubbles, not joyfully but mournfully, I announced to a well dressed man that bubble-blowing would become illegal the next day. He scoffed at me and told me I was “crazy.” I wish it was me who was crazy.

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