Draft legislation reforming the City’s housing subsidy program for families, a program which had placed strain on the ability for homeless families to find housing, was released by Supervisor Chris Daly’s office on April 18 for review by SRO Families United, a collaborative effort of community housing advocacy organizations. If passed, this legislation will call for an increase in the subsidy from $500 to $1,000 per month per family, and an end to the arbitrary two-year time limit placed on these subsidies, in favor of need-based time limits that vary from family to family.

Upon inspection, the organization will send the draft back to Daly’s office. If passed, this bill will be a long-time victory for SRO Families United, which has fought for an improvement and expansion of the subsidy program.

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On March 20, I was visiting homeless friends at their camp on publicly-owned land along the west edge of southbound I-280, near 20th St. with my dog, Kilo. It was a warm sunny day and I fell asleep. I don’t know how long I’d been asleep. I awoke when I heard someone shout, “Get your dog! Get your dog!” I jumped up and ran out to the path to see my dog Kilo blocking the path from two California Highway Patrol officers.

One officer had a Taser out and pointed at Kilo, the second officer had his pistol out and pointed at Kilo, who was about 15 to 20 feet in front of the two officers.

“Please don’t shoot: My dog won’t bite.” I begged the officers three different times. Both officers became louder and more aggressive as they yelled at me: “Get your fucking dog or I’ll shoot it!”

Both officers took at least two steps towards Kilo, while I tried to get to Kilo. With courage in his heart, Kilo stood his ground.

This seemed to make the officers angry and the officer to my right yelled at me. “I said to get your fucking dog!” and he pointed his pistol at me. When Kilo saw the officer pointing his gun at me, he started to advance towards the officer with the gun. At that point both officers fired simultaneously. The Taser malfunctioned or something, because the darts never reached Kilo. The officer who had drawn his hand gun fired once, just as I was reaching for Kilo. I felt the blast on the back of my hands, I was so close. The bullet hit Kilo behind his head. Horrified, I saw my little buddy Kilo first sit, and then fall dead.

After they shot Kilo, they shouted at me, “Get on the ground,” which I did so they wouldn’t shoot me. They arrested me for suspicion of trespassing (on publicly owned land), handcuffed me, stuffed me into the back of their squad car, and hauled me off to the CHP station on 8^th Street. Animal Control came for Kilo’s body.

They cut a lock and chain on 20^th St. gate to gain entry to the area. They never announced their presence. They never asked any questions. They snuck up on the area Kilo and I were in—for what purpose, I don’t know. At the time of the shooting, there happened to be several other people at some other nearby camps, but none of them were confronted by officers. They came, shot Kilo, arrested me and left. That was it. As far as I know, they haven’t been back since.

What was so desperately urgent on that roadside that they couldn’t step back, use a radio, and wait for an Animal Control officer? If they feared for their safety, then why did they keep stepping toward him, escalating instead of de-escalating the situation? Why did they have to shoot my little buddy Kilo?

A picture of Humpty Dumpty teetering at the edge of the Stock Market on the cover of the New Yorker, a voice waking me with news that our economy is hitting lows unseen since the Great Depression, the Daily Show spoofing men jumping from buildings on Wall Street as they did on Black Friday nearly eighty years ago—all of these things mark for the public that the United States is running into hard times. However, for the poor and the homeless in our country, these hard times have long been apparent. It does not require analyzing stock values to clearly see that many Americans have been, and continue to be, excluded from the U.S. economy.

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