On May 11th, homeless people and their allies won a significant victory: the Board of Supervisors passed, on a 9 to 1 vote, the Surplus Properties legislation, which sets aside 15 city owned surplus properties to be developed into housing for homeless and very low-income people. This legislation requires that this housing remain permanently affordable to very low-income people. Furthermore, it requires that the city create a new list of surplus properties suitable for this purpose every year.

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This year’s city budget is particularly brutal. Again, San Francisco’s budget is balanced on those who can afford the least. Residents with the least money and the most needs will have critical primary health, behavioral health and social services programs cut by $69 million.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) budget wants to cut $32.4 million from public and mental health. The Department of Human Services (DHS) budget wants to cut $7.5 million from welfare benefits and housing services. Both departments claim that these aren’t really cuts, or that they won’t affect people or the direct services they receive. But this is simply not true.

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Let’s Do the Math: Across the United States and territories, communities are being urged by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) to develop 10-year plans to end homelessness (some specifically to end “chronic” homelessness). According to ICH, over 100 communities to date have either completed or initiated a local planning process. Sounds pretty impressive. Meanwhile, as homeless task forces take shape, plans get written, and press conferences held, the Bush administration has proposed cutting $1.6 billion from the Section 8 program, the largest source of federal housing assistance for low-income renters. Put differently, such a cut amounts to roughly $1.55 billion more than the proposed “new” money of the $50 million Samaritan initiative, the cornerstone of the president’s “chronic” homelessness agenda. Homeless families, already low on the priority list of current federal homeless policy, seem to be the group ready to take the greatest hit.

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The budget should be a statement of our national values, but for the fourth time in four years, Republicans in Congress and President Bush are seeking to pass a budget that is nothing less than an assault on our national values. From health care, to job creation, to education, Republican policies simply do not respond to the challenges facing American families.

Housing is a prime example of distorted Republican priorities. While Republicans are happy to continue tax cuts for wealthy corporate interests, they are making cuts that threaten safe and secure homes for thousands of children and families across the country.

Last month, in the middle of the fiscal year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development changed the rules and retroactively cut back funds for housing initiatives. Heartlessly, the Administration is taking housing money away from needy families who were promised it. This is unheard of in our history and reveals a new level of aggressiveness on the part of the Administration.

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We are called to heal wounds, unite what has fallen apart, and bring home those who have lost their way.

Francis of Assisi

Last year at this time, I remember making an announcement at the shelter about the upcoming implementation of the CHANGES system. As a smaller shelter, our staff has the luxury of being able to get most people’s attention all at one time. We were slated to start using the system in late June, and I had begun to get more information about how the new computer intake would look for us at St. Boniface Shelter. As our former method of intake was rather low-tech (pen and paper) and not very invasive (name and last four digits of social security number), I was leery of how our guests would respond to a new, more formal method of intake–complete with finger-scanning devices and an online database.

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Like most people, we do not understand why our nation, state, and especially city have chosen such a backward turn socially. With the implementation of Prop N on May 3, 2004, we demonstrated why we are the most technologically advanced nation in the world, yet still living in the Bronze Age socially. Back then, human beings didn’t have any social conscience, it was everyone for themselves. Today in the City of St. Francis, we pride ourselves on our compassionate liberalism.

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El pasado 5 de mayo se llevó a cabo una acción conjunta de varias organizaciones comunitarias para exigir el derecho de todos los inmigrantes a obtener una licencia para conducir en el estado de California.

Acciones como esta se llevaron a cabo por todo el estado y en ellas se manifestó el descontento por la falta de atención a este problema que cada vez cuesta más dinero a nuestra comunidad, ya que muchas personas tienen que arriesgarse a conducir sin la documentación requerida y se ven expuestos a toda clase de abusos por parte de las autoridades que terminan por decomisar los vehículos, creando una perdida económica a esta personas que se ven obligadas a conducir en esta situación.

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El día primero de Mayo se llevó a cabo la celebración del día del niño, organizado por el Grupo de Formación de Mujeres de Hogares Sin Barreras. El día del niño es una fecha que se celebra en los países latinoamericanos para festejar a los niños que son el futuro del mundo.

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Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.

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It’s all about people. Most people want a good life, not only for themselves and their loved ones, but also for others. Given half a chance, most people would like to help other people. In fact, they would even make an effort to do so–if they knew how. The missing link tends to be information. And it’s only through direct action and organization that the information needed to cause positive change can reach the people involved.

Sound simplistic or overoptimistic? Simply put, it’s not.

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