In an outlandish and brazenly dishonest article by Chuck Nevius, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Coalition on Homelessness citation defense program is blamed for the overdose of James Hill, a man who passed away recently in the San Francisco Library’s Main Branch.

Nevius claims that if Mr. Hill had been convicted of possession of an open container, he would have been given treatment. In fact, there is no treatment attached to traffic court, nor any treatment being offered by the District Attorney. The most the District Attorney has provided is a list of services that includes phone numbers for treatment programs that are full, with waiting lists.

This is the latest in a long line of lies printed in Nevius’s column.

On October 11, 2007, Nevius ran a story stating that a study Gary Blasi of UCLA found that criminalizing homeless people decreased homelessness, when in fact the study found the exact opposite. Before press time, Nevius was informed of what the study really said, but he ignored that information and lied anyway. Then, on March 2, 2008, Nevius argued that panhandling was out of control because the Coalition on Homelessness defended panhandlers in court. Once again, before he ran the article, we informed him that we had only defended a handful of panhandlers (less than 2% of the number he suggests) over the course of the year. He ran the story with his false claim, anyway.

The Coalition is all of us. We need to hold this newspaper accountable.

Please write a letter to the editor with the following points:

• San Franciscans are deeply concerned with human dignity. The lack of safe and affordable housing will not be solved by making people without homes into criminals.
• Contrary to the article by Chuck Nevius, treatment was never offered through the court system to Mr. Hill. There is a severe lack of substance abuse treatment in San Francisco. There are hundreds waiting for treatment every day. The City is proposing cutting that treatment and community based mental health treatment again this year by 15%.
• It is irresponsible for a major daily paper to continue printing outlandish lies about poor people and the organizations and volunteers who defend their rights.
• Due process is a basic civil right in the United States that the Chronicle is challenging.
• If no lawyer had ever stepped forward to represent James Hill, he would be just as dead today, from just as fatal an overdose, following an endless cycle of jail, release, re-offense, and no treatment, because there were no realistic treatment options that James Hill could turn to. Lawyers are not resisting or interfering with access to treatment.
• San Francisco does not provide enough resources for homeless people—in particular, there is a lack of clean, safe, permanent housing. The roots of this problem lie in the abandonment by the Federal government of low-cost housing a little over two decades ago—a reduction of housing stock that has never been restored.

  Please send letter to the editor of Chronicle at letters@sfchronicle.com and CC it to 1) COH director Jennifer Friedenbach, 2) Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein and 3) Deputy Managing Editor Steve Proctor.

  We want to have a cadre of agency and individual statements in response to the Nevius attacks on homeless people.

  Please Act Now!

Photos from last week’s rally for modifications to a rental subsidy for homeless families, courtesy of Osama Dawod. Stay tuned here to find out what happens with the subsidies, and how you can get involved in ending family homelessness in San Francisco.

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Barbara Taylor covered yesterday’s homeless families’ rally for an increase in homeless family rental subsidies. Learn more in the stories in the “Families” category of our archives!

It all happened so fast that I couldn’t really react. I didn’t move an inch. I was spread-eagle on my bed and looking down the barrel of a gun—12 guns, actually. I was in a situation where I was so shocked that my mind was frozen. I felt shock waves after that for a long time. In some ways I still do. If another police officer came up to me, I’d let them know that I see them as someone who violates human rights and breaks the law, not someone who supports them.

In October of 2005, 12 armed San Francisco police officers broke through the door of my small SRO (single-room occupancy) apartment and held me at gunpoint on my own bed. In this so-called “mistaken identity,” the police could “mistake” my six-foot three-inch slender frame for that of a stout man just clearing five and a half feet. They could find my trimmed goatee a mirror image of a bushy grey beard. They could see my long, black trench coat as a short, brown sports coat.

On Sunday, January 27, San Francisco Police killed 55-year-old Leonard Michael Cole for panhandling. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “…the death of the panhandler was as predictable as the sunrise.”

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Last June, Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed devastating public health cuts, prompting hundreds to rally at City Hall. Now, the Mayor has announced $18 million in “mid-year cuts” to the Health Department—including some programs that the Board of Supervisors saved last July.

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Imagine this: You are a woman and have been beaten and traumatized by the people who are closest to you, the people at your own home. You work up the courage to flee and seek out a shelter in the city so that you can rest, clear your head, and take your first step to beginning a new life. On the second day in this shelter, you ask for a towel so that you can take a much needed shower. The response from the shelter staff? “This is not the F-ing Hilton!”

This is not a fictional story: this is a testimonial from Ms. Rogers, one of countless people who are either homeless, have experienced homelessness in th epast, or advocate for better policies regarding homelessness, who stood up before the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, February 20, to fight for legislation that will set up long-overdue Standards of Care within the city’s shelters.

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Are people on the streets immigrating, or have they been our neighbors from the get-go?

In communities throughout the country, you will hear a common complaint by critics of homeless services: “Our city is a magnet for homeless people because of services. If we build it, they will come.” Often, the idea that a city is a homeless Mecca is perpetuated by newspapers writing as fact that their city attracts individuals experiencing homelessness from other regions in the country. You will hear this common thread, sometimes whispered, sometimes shouted, among neighborhood and cultural groups, police bureaus, business communities, and politicians.

Liberal communities up and down the West Coast have been dubbed by many as a place of last resort for people experiencing homelessness. Los Angeles has been called the homeless capital of the United States; San Francisco, a bum’s paradise; Seattle and Portland, a place to go to access great services available for poor folk. “There’s two really damaging mythologies: One is that people choose to be homeless, and the other is if we provide services, all the homeless people from around the country will flock to our city,” says Marshall Runkel with the Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development.

The gap between the rich and the poor is at an all time high—and growing. Could it be that a homelessness and housing crisis is taking place because of the lack of affordable housing coupled with loss of jobs, inadequate healthcare, and the lack of supportive services in every region of the country?

Street Roots wanted to know what was happening on the ground in six cities on the West Coast to find just where individuals experiencing homeless are coming from. Numbers are based on one-night street and shelter counts. Many organizations and advocates believe the numbers to be low because of the restrictive nature of the Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines for who is considered homeless. For example, individuals and families that are living in hotels or are doubled-up sleeping on couches are not included in local counts of people experiencing homelessness.

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The Coalition on Homelessness and the SRO Families United Collaborative present this letter to the community to inform all homeless families what has been happening with the Housing First for Families Campaign. (Families living in SRO [single-room occupancy] hotels, families living in shelters and doubled-up are all included in San Francisco’s definition of homelessness.) We want to thank you for your support and participation in this campaign. What we have won so far has been possible because of the support from the families and everyone who has been involved.

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