Recent Chronicle stories on homelessness, mostly columns by C.W. Nevius, have been riddled with misinformation, assumptions and plain lies. We chose to debunk a few of them, but there are many more.

LIE #1: “A whopping 236 citations for infractions—including camping in the park—have been handed out as well. If history repeats itself, however, those likely will be directed to traffic court and dismissed.” (SF Chronicle 8/22/07)

Tickets are only sometimes dismissed. The Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights represents about 10% of homeless people who receive tickets, and they win about 85% of their cases, most frequently because the ticket was written improperly. The citations are not bundled together and dismissed as a group: they are heard individually. As for those individuals who do not have representation, if they are able to go to court, they can try to argue their own case, but we all know how that goes. Have you ever won a case in traffic court? Most go to warrant if the fine goes unpaid or the citee fails to appear. This can eventually lead to jail time.

LIE #2: “City shelters are clean, safe, but underused when it’s dry” (SF Chronicle, 10/18/2007)

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To the editors:

C.W. Nevius’ report in the October 9^th edition, of an un-named City official who stated of, “nine out of 10 [homeless people] say they are not interested in a shelter or housing when approached,” is an example of irresponsible reportage. Not providing the identity of the quoted official removes the ability of the public to evaluate the truth of the statement.

As a San Francisco resident, a psychiatric social worker attached to the Department of Public Health Homeless Outreach effort, I can state authoritatively that few individuals refuse housing and service offers. When they do, it is invariably because they are severely mentally ill. In 15 years of service, I have found only four people who after outreach, engagement, and persuasion refused services and housing.

Clients and would-be clients come to our offices every day, seeking housing, shelter beds, medical care, and intensive case management, services that we can not provide as we operate beyond capacity. We have exhausted our supply of shelter beds and our stabilization hotel units are full. The acute shortage of affordable housing is making itself known. If nine out of 10 homeless people don’t want services or housing, then who are we engaging with?

Sincerely yours,

(and willing to provide his name)

Jason M. Albertson

Editor—

Congratulations. The Chronicle has reached a new low in local journalism with today’s “above the fold” opinion piece that masquerades as actual news. (10/09/07 Enough is Enough, SF says of Homeless) The supporting data of the hyperbolic claim is laughable. The article quotes an individual representing a firm that has done no statistical analysis on the subject of homelessness. Nevius also cites an informal poll performed by your own publication that the Chronicle website admits is not statistically valid. This is not responsible reporting. This shoddy level of journalism is an insult to the readers and is indicative of not only the SF Chronicle’s rapidly declining standards, but of C.W. Nevius’ lack of journalistic credibility. An additional critique of Nevius’ personal integrity is warranted, but pointless. His continuous and contemptuous hate-mongering against vulnerable people has made it abundantly clear that he has no conscience to call upon. Enough is enough. If the Chronicle has any professional standards it will stop promoting this scapegoating. If C.W. Nevius has any semblance of self-respect, he’ll resign. Or at the very least—go back to Sports.

Diana Valentine

San Francisco

You can listen on-line to the Coalition’s Jennifer Friedenbach debate Human Services Agency Executive Director Trent Rhorer and Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius on October 10’s Forum, courtesy KQED.

Hi, Chuck.

Don’t you find it just a little ironic that we’re talking about “sit – lie” type ordinances in city after city across the country yet no one seems to be talking about any possible connection to or responsibilities of our Federal government?

Nor have any of your columns mentioned the very recent 54 million dollars our Governor cut from mental health treatment specifically for homeless people. I heard recently that the Sheriff has more mental health clients then the Department of Public Health does; I haven’t yet been able to confirm it but the staff person who said it would know, and unfortunately it is no longer surprising considering the trends we seen in the last 10 years.

If the past 25 years has thought me anything, it is that local communities will continue to try different Matrix-type programs only to see the frustration of all segments of our society build until we finally look at cause and effect.

What existed prior to the winter of 1982 when we opened our current shelter system, and what do we need to do to recreate those systems?

We had State-funded residential lodges and group homes and we had 52 billion dollars that we don’t have today in Federal funding for affordable housing. We also had our parks open 24/7, and one could walk down a sidewalk without having to bear witness to so much despair and misery.

Matrix was very popular for the first couple of years; it only lost a lot of its popularity when people (especially in the neighborhoods) realized all the cops can do is lock people up for a little while and move them around. The criminal justice system is not going to end homelessness, as it isn’t a lack of laws and jail cells that created homelessness. Like it or not,it is going to take housing and healthcare. Think New Deal: It worked the last time and it can work again. Lord knows demonizing people (like the Okies before) doesn’t help get us where we need to go.

A word of warning: It is much easier to fan the flames of hate then it is to put out the fire. A homeless man was lit on fire while he slept in East Harlem last Friday and that has happened here in the past. Please remember the people your writing about are human beings.

Thanks.

It sucks to be hated. Nobody likes it: Not queers, not women, not yuppies, not people of color, not homeless people. The recent hate-mongering columns (in article drag) by C.W. Nevius in the San Francisco Chronicle have angered, frightened, or insulted a lot of homeless people, friends, and allies. To make matters worse, the Chronicle has utterly failed to put a check on calls for violence in its reader comments to articles and blog entries. Some the Coalition’s friends and allies have written letters to or about Nevius and the Chronicle, which they’ve asked us to post here. Expect to see more over the next few days.

The Newsom Administration memo leaked by Supervisor Daly indicates that the Administration is planning to illegally arrest people who are too poor to afford a place to live. In a memo dated September 28, 2007, Julian Potter wrote “If the arrest is related to a misdemeanor, warrant, intoxication or a 2nd citation for the same time period, the individual will be taken into custody for processing.” (Original here).

It is against local and state law to arrest an individual for an infraction. Almost all the offenses listed in the above memo are infractions.

According to Elisa Della-Piana of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, “No Mayor can arbitrarily decide to bring an individual into custody for an infraction. There are obvious legal problems with this proposal.” Already, over $6,000,000 in public funds has been spent to issue 34,000 so-called “quality of life” citations under the Newsom administration.

According to Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, “It is outrageous that while violent crime is on the rise, the Newsom administration is prioritizing the use of the police and the criminal justice system to further persecute homeless people. This is Matrix Reloaded—an identical program that has been tried and failed. Instead of repackaging failed policies that criminalize poor people, the Mayor needs to work on permanent solutions such as affordable housing, treatment, and living wage jobs.”

While the Newsom Administration is claiming services will be offered, no new services have been forthcoming for this program, and existing services have either long wait lists or high turn-away rates. The City’s recent homeless count, released March 28, showed a 2% increase in homelessness. The Coalition on Homelessness tracked an average of 49 turnaways from shelters a day in February, 2007. There is a wait list of over 54,000 households for public housing and subsidized housing at the San Francisco Housing Authority, and lengthy wait lists for residential substance abuse treatment.

La Proposición M, es una ordenanza municipal presentada por el Supervisor Gavin Newsom para las elecciones de Noviembre que haría ilegal la mayoría de las formas de pedir dinero en las calles de San Francisco. Según los que la apoyan, es una forma de eliminar la mendicidad “agresiva” y conectar a la gente sin vivienda con los servicios públicos. Sin embargo esta medida está estructurada de tal manera que obligará a la ciudad a gastar miles de dólares en la persecución legal, impedirá a la gente pobre ejercer su derecho a la libertad de expresión y requiere el uso de servicios inexistentes.

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Homelessness has been one of the top concerns of San Franciscans since the administration of former mayor Art Agnos. Mayor Newsom won his first term running almost exclusively on his promise to “fix the problem.”

Unfortunately, in the absence of any candidates with strong name recognition and reasonably deep pockets to tap, the debate has been shut down before it even started. The punditry has chosen to deride the candidates as irrelevant sideshows or footnotes to Newsom’s overwhelming advantage in the polls.

While the mainstream media chooses to focus on the horse race aspect (or rather the lack thereof) of the upcoming mayoral election, the Street Sheet went old school: Instead of talking of the lopsided advantage for the incumbent, we wanted to know what was in the minds of all the candidates.

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On August 27, Bill Sorro, one of San Francisco’s most influential, beloved, and passionate activists, passed away. Though the loss of such a unique and devoted man has sent ripples of sorrow throughout the community, the story of his life continues to inspire everyone he has known and everyone who has come to know him, even if only through his memory.

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