With all the controversial and conflicting items on this year’s local ballot, it’s nice to know that there is one that almost everyone can agree on. Proposition B, the local Affordable Housing Bond, is a positive move towards a permanent solution for San Francisco’s housing crisis. The vast majority of the Board of Supervisors, an overwhelming number of faith, labor and community organizations and even “duh Mayor” support it — all for good reason.

In the City, rents and home prices have doubled since 1995, adversely affecting working families and seniors. Only eight percent of San Franciscans can afford to buy a home and over 100,000 residents pay more than half their monthly income on rent, leaving very little money available for other goods and services that are necessary for life and our economy. 140,000 people qualify for housing assistance in San Francisco and don’t receive it because of a lack of funding — partly due to cuts from the federal government in recent years. It is obvious that something has to be done.

(more…)

Gavin Newsom’s Care Not Cash initiative has polarized San Francisco’s debate on homelessness like no proposal before. While some view Proposition N as a constructive approach to redirect GA money, others call the measure a scheme to make poverty even more miserable.

Beyond mere opinions on controversial legislation, Proposition N (Care Not Cash) also seems to divide voters’ general attitude towards homelessness: some advocate rights of the underprivileged, while others speak of “compassion fatigue” and the merits of tough love. Sole consensus is that San Francisco has a homeless crisis, and that something needs to be done.

As for the November ballot and an informed vote on Prop. N, both fractions need truthful answers to the following question: Exactly how would the measure help to alleviate the homeless problem?

(more…)

What you are about to read is true — it happened to me on Labor Day weekend.

It was another result of the strange and hostile public behavior that I have seen since the introduction of the Care Not Cash plan and other anti-homeless city policies. This is my story.

On the evening of September 2, 2002 I was returning to where I spend my nights from a trip to my storage locker for clean clothes, and the McMillan Center where I had taken a shower. At about 8:10 pm I was walking east on Turk Street, coming from the bus stop at Van Ness.

I was hungry, so when I got to the corner of Polk and Turk Streets I decided to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken to get something to eat. I crossed Polk Street, and turned left to head north up Polk to get to the K.F.C. at the corner of Polk and Eddy Streets.

There were some people hanging out in front of a bar called the Wooden Horse. As I passed one girl who looked familiar I said, “How ya doin’?” She smiled and said, “I’m good. How are you?”

(more…)

The City of Fresno has a “campaign” to make poor and homeless people go away. This campaign includes increased harassment of the poor and homeless downtown, a TV advertising campaign asking people not to give money to the poor, the relocation of services for homeless people to a location south of downtown, and an ordinance that will make panhandling illegal.

The campaign went into high gear last month when the Mayor and Chief of Police promoted and the City Council introduced an ordinance prohibiting the poor and homeless from asking for money. The ordinance is not intended to stop middle class groups from asking the public for money, standing in the middle of street medians, or yelling at passing cars. It will just affect the poor.

(more…)

A casually dressed tourist leans against a building downtown on Pacific Ave. idly sipping his iced mocha cappuccino, as he soaks in the pageantry of the street traffic. Next month, this act will most likely be a criminal act. On September 10th, the “Progressive” Santa Cruz City Council will reconvene to “finetune” the new anti-homeless ordinances, hustled through in a record 4 meetings in 15 days.

Although the dramatic changes to the sitting ordinance, the soliciting ordinance, display of merchandise, storage of property, and the conduct on public property ordinance were pushed through, few of the problems merchants had complained about will be addressed. Instead of address perceived problems of vandalism, shoplifting, shootings, stabbings, drug sales, sexual harassment, and lack of bathrooms, the new laws target, sitting, spare changing, and resting an “unattended” backpack on the sidewalk with additional restrictions on street performers and political activists.

(more…)

Hay una invisible población de desamparados viviendo en San Francisco- las familias que viven en un cuarto de hotel. Se estima que más de 450 familias se encuentran en este momento viviendo en un cuarto de hotel, concentradas en el Tenderloin, la Misión, Sur de la Market, y Chinatown. Las condiciones en que estas familias viven son desastrosas. Imagina a una familia de 5 miembros amontonados en un cuarto de 8 por 10 con un baño enmojecido al corredor el cual se comparte con 30 extraños, y que cada vez que quieres bañar a un niño tendrás que limpiar drogas y los materiales que se usan para administrar las drogas. Ahora visualisa plomo en forma de pintura descarapelada sobre la carpeta que es el único lugar de acceso para que los niños jueguen. La mayoría de los hoteles a los que nos referimos, no cuentan con un refrigerador, cocina o un lugar apropiado para conservar los alimentos, forzando a las familias a gastar más dinero para alimentos preparados afuera ya que los lugares que proporcionan comida han cerrado cuando los padres llegan del trabajo. Ahora imagina que la renta de estos lugares es entre $250 a $500 a la semana. Esa es la realidad de muchas familias en esta ciudad. NADIE debería vivir de esta manera, especialmente niños.

(more…)

Del 6 al 9 de Sept, en un ambiente de fraternidad, solidaridad, compartimiento y regocijo, se celebró El Segundo Congreso de los trabajadores jornaleros de La Costa Oeste de Los Estados Unidos (Conocidos como La RED), que lo conforman 21 organizaciones de diferentes cuidades como San Francisco, Oakland, Mountain View, Los Angeles (Malibu, Hollywood, Pomona), Oregon (Portland, Cornelios), Seattle, Arizona, Denver, etc. Un estimado de sesenta trabajadores, líderes de estos Centros de Trabajo, se dieron cita en el YMCA Point Bonita Outdoor Centro de Conferencias del Condado de Marin, para intercambiar experiencias de tipo laboral y migratorio.

(more…)

I Remember my Mama
In the Bean field, The Potato field
Sending us to school to learn our ABC’s
Keeping the Camp Fires Burning
We did not know Much about city livin’
In fact I didn’t know much of anythin’
Except a Mother’s Love
If we did without
It was with Style and Grace
No Complaints
Doing without was no disgrace
As I sit here reminissin’— Life goin’on by
I have Strength and Courage
Instilled in me!
For times of sorrow
And times of joy
Although I shed tears, I Radiate Joy
When I am Low I remember my Mama

(Excerpt from the poem My Mama My Ancestor by A. Faye Hicks / Po’Poets Project)

About two years ago on a somewhat hazy morning in the Tenderloin, the sun was
ambivalent about trying to make an appearance on the 200 block of Hyde Street. I was reclining against the fence. I was sick and could barely move and the light that shone on me was from Lula B. Seymore, better known as Mama. “What’s wrong, Sugar?” she asked me with that sweet voice that was always maternal and then added, “It’s not like you to be laying down out here.”

(more…)

The U.S. Conference of Mayors reports homelessness in America’s cities has steadily increased for most of the last two decades. Few American cities have developed appropriate or adequate housing to suit the diverse needs of America’s growing homeless population. For example, since 1979 the amount of federal dollars dedicated annually to housing America’s homeless families has plummeted by about $14 billion. This extreme lack of resources has led most communities to force their entire homeless population into wellestablished programs with the mostly unspoken message to conform… or to suffer on the streets.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — the federal agency that has yet to meaningfully address America’s housing crisis — has now mandated that all municipalities must devote their dwindling housing resources on a computerized tracking system for all homeless people. While HUD’s “Homeless Management Information System” might have a neutral ring to it, it is rife with potentially sinister applications, permitting system administrators to track homeless people as they access services, or even function in a “gatekeeper” role to prevent people with disabilities or other “problems” from accessing vital services.

(more…)

Aveteran musician and DJ, Captain Kazoo has released a new and controversial CD single. Through the new CD, GIMME MONEY, Captain Kazoo express his experiences of meeting and seeing homeless people while performing on the streets of San Francisco.

Captain Kazoo, aka Howard “Kaz” Capp, is a 70-year-old performance artist, street musician and mobile DJ with over 50 years of experience in the music business. Some of his career highlightsinclude working as a technical director for the San Francisco Mime Troupe and as manager for Linda LaFlamme, formerly of It’s a Beautiful Day.

The Captain’s message is direct: PROP N WOULD FORCE MORE HOMELESS ONTO THE STREETS AND WOULD INCREASE PANHANDLING… GIMME MONEY WOULD THEN BECOME SAN FRANCISCO’S NEW THEME SONG!

(more…)