Some people blithely reminisce of their first job. My memories aren’t so wistful. Still, those memories resurface when I signed on as a petitioner for $6.75 Is Not Enough, the latest drive to increase minimum wage in San Francisco. Assuming this ordinance passes in the November election, the minimum will start at $8.50 per hour for all local businesses. For those who scrape by on the current level, it’s money gratefully welcome. (more…)

Human beings like to label things and this society often brands a person based on what that individual does as a source of income. That makes sense, of course, being that this is a capitalistic economy, but should it? (more…)

You have probably seen them: the signs on MUNI buses and Yellow Cabs showing tourists and foxy locals, enjoying the City or hip urban lifestyles, including giving money to panhandlers. Such well-meaning alms, the signs harshly conclude, facilitate drug deaths, sexual diseases, and the demise of neighborhood businesses — things well-meaning people generally frown upon. (more…)

Christopher’s laughter and shrill yelps of joy echoed down the long hallway in my mother’s house. As he gleefully ran away from the porcelain confines of the bathtub, leaving wet footprints and a trail of suds on floor behind him, I sighed. What should have been a simple act of giving my three year-old nephew a bath had turned into a most complicated project. I picked up the tiny plastic boats and purple submarine that had been launched unceremoniously out of the tub, popped the cap back on the sweet-smelling baby shampoo that promised “no more tears,” grabbed a fluffy towel from the towel rack and went to find my young charge.

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Soy una madre de familia que emigró de México a los EEUU hace más de 15 años. Tuve que emigrar a este país y dejar el mío por las condiciones tan precarias en que vivía.

Para ayudar a mi mam· en el sustento de la casa, tuve que trabajar desde los 7 años de 5 a.m. a 6 p.m. todos los días. Mi familia era muy pobre y no teníamos el apoyo de un padre. No recuerdo a mi padre, el murió de c·ncer cuando apenas tenia 3 años. Soy la tercera de una familia de 5 hermanos y la segunda que emigro a este país.

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Durante el mes de julio, las organizaciones que luchan por los derechos de la gente sin vivienda en San Francisco movilizaron a sus bases para derrotar a las propuestas que recortan la asistencia pública a los desamparados de la ciudad.

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HEY, HEY WHAT DO YOU SAY?

SELF-HELP CENTER IS ALIVE TODAY!

Last issue, we ended in a cliffhanger more dramatic than anything you’ll find on television. Would Central City Hospitality House Self Help Center, and dozens of other vital resources to the homeless community shut their doors for good? Would the politics of scarcity once again make the day-to-day struggle our folks face even more difficult?

No, we won one.

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In February 2002, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) released a paper entitled Poverty Versus Pathology: What’s Chronic About Homelessness? That paper assessed the initiative to “end chronic homelessness” and the policies surrounding it.

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Judge Ronald Quidachay declared Proposition N was illegal last May 8th. He concluded that only the Board of Supervisors could lawfully set welfare payment levels, so the voter initiative was invalid. However, this viewpoint brings up other issues concerning the voters’ right to implement policy and have the final say. City Attorney Dennis Herrera is appealing the decision; in the beginning of July his office requested a fast-track schedule. According to an editorial in the Chronicle, “a victory would be a no-win prospect… would re-instate Care Not Cash, and a loss at the appellate level would enshrine poor policy into legal precedent… the Supervisors, who are after all Herrera’s clients, should direct him to scrap the appeal.” (more…)

Why this irrational hatred toward those less fortunate? Most poor people I know do not spend their days rich-bashing. They’re too busy focusing on day-to-day survival issues. I don’t see poor people waging full-scale riots, so where is this coming from? At what point did the right thing to do become the wrong thing to do? When did we decide, as a nation, that running away from our problems was better than confronting them?

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