“We should just gas all of the poor people sleeping in the parks!” The words slashed through the Board of Supervisors’ hearing and through the thick and stuffy rhetoric of politicians and advocates alike.

“Well, at least we’re being honest now,” I thought.

On July 31, Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced changes to the park codes, 3.12 and 3.13 specifically, that would change the definition of camping and outlaw sleeping in the park for an additional four hours. Right now, sleeping is not allowed in the park from 10 p.m.—6 a.m. Newsom’s amendment expands the no-sleeping hours from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

It’s no secret that San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live here in Amerikkka. It’s even less of a secret that it’s illegal to be poor here.

The affordable housing in San Francisco is not just a myth—it’s an outright lie. Ask any of the thousands of folks on the wait list. Ask any of the number of people on the streets, in shelters, or in SRO hotels. Ask folks like me couch-surfing, squatting, and doubled-up. Affordable housing is scarcely found in the City by the Bay.

But I guess it depends who you ask.

“This isn’t a homeless issue. This is about keeping the parks clean.” The debate inspired this remark multiple times. But let’s gas the folks that can’t afford the ridiculous price of rent and cost of living in San Francisco. Let’s make criminals out of the poor and make it even harder for them to get into stable housing.

Harder? That’s right. Harder.

Believe it or not, giving folks citations doesn’t solve homelessness. It doesn’t get people off the streets and into stable housing. And it doesn’t keep Golden Gate Park Disneyland clean.

Citations do, however, make it almost impossible for folks that have no stable shelter to find it. Most folks forced to seek shelter in parks don’t have the funds to pay their citations. When a citation is not payed, it goes to warrant. Once a citation goes to warrant, a person’s disability benefits are subject to termination and they are often kicked off of housing waiting lists that they have been on for years. In this way, citations function to keep people on the streets and forced to sleep in the parks.

So if these citations actually keep people from getting out of the parks, why is the Newsom administration trying to make us believe that the opposite is true? Why is Newsom trying to sell us the same old song and dance (albeit with a shinier new hairdo) and failed policies that five previous administrations have proven ineffective?

Ask Newsom and he’s likely to tell you that there are plenty of services out there that folks can access to help them get off of the streets. He’ll probably tell you that people are turning away these services left and right. He’ll probably tell you San Francisco can solve homelessness with a little “tough love.”

Let’s entertain this idea. What about all of these services? Again, I guess it depends on whom you ask.

Ask the folks getting turned away from shelters every night. Ask the folks voluntarily seeking housing and medical services, but who are unable to meet the strict criteria or who have been on waiting lists for years. Ask people who are seeking substance abuse and therapeutic treatment but are being turned away by the thousands.

It’s simple: There are not enough services to solve the poverty crisis in San Francisco. There is not enough money to create enough subsidies for the droves of folks and families that can’t afford to pay $1,200 for a studio apartment.

That’s right. San Francisco cannot solve homelessness on the local level and California cannot stop it on the state level. Without a redirection of Federal funds, there isn’t enough money to create enough affordable housing units for the tens of thousands of folks in San Francisco who need them.

We don’t have enough money in San Francisco for affordable housing. It’s that simple.

On the Federal level, that money has been earmarked for the well-to-do looking to buy second houses. That’s right. There is money for housing, it’s just not for the poor. I’m currently homeless so Mr. and Mrs. Jones can get a second house in the North Bay.

What there is money for, though, is police, prisons, and poverty courts, apparently. It seems that the new affordable housing system is the prison system.

So, in that vein, Newsom and some of the Supes (wanting to look like they’re doing something to solve the “homeless problem”) are more than happy to suggest legislation that criminalizes poor folks and filters them into the criminal justice system.

Newsom’s park legislation was sent to committee for further review, but legislation that turns poor people into criminals is constantly being produced by the Mayor and his administration.

Rather than doing their jobs and putting pressure on the State and Federal government to give San Francisco the resources it needs to really address homelessness, the Mayor of San Francisco seem content in punishing poor folks and keeping up the illusion that homelessness is a local issue concerning deviant people.

I guess if we are just criminals that enjoy having no place to live and raise families, it does make some kind of twisted sense to criminalize us. I guess it makes sense to give us citations and fines for trying to find a place to sleep. I guess with that logic, it would make sense for me to find a gas mask.

Lola

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 12:09 am and is filed under Civil Rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.