Morality is a term that’s been co-opted by those in the US whose politics tend to do the greatest harm to the most people. Those of us who are queer, who struggle with addictive substances, who are broke and on the dole—those of us who are not the successful or the pure by this society’s standards—are denied access to moral judgment. We are burdens on society. We are corrupters of youth. We are the fallen. On June 5, religious leaders representing Jews, Friends, Catholics, Buddhists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Muslims, Pentecostals, and Lutherans sent the political leaders of San Francisco a very different message: “One’s moral compass always points toward compassion. These religious leaders are far from alone.

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Mayor Newsom released a budget today that will terminate critical health and human services, while pumping up salaries for police by 25% and adding many new high paid patronage positions into his own administration.

Some highlights of the devastating impact of the budget include:

1. Closure of Ella Hill Hutch Shelter, which serves up to 100 people every night in the Western Addition.
2. Closure of Caduceus Outreach Services, a mental health treatment and wrap-around support program for severely disabled homeless adults with co-existing addictive disorders.
3. Almost total elimination of SRO Families United program (66% cut) for families with dependent children living in hotels.
4. Cut of 22% to residential substance abuse and mental health treatment programs budgets.
1. Removal of support from Conard supportive housing program for severe psychiatric disabilities.
2. Closure of Cortland Acute Diversion Unit for individuals in psychiatric crisis.
3. Loss of 12 out of 24 community-based medically-supported detox beds.
4. Many more residential cuts yet to be determined.
5. Cut of 30% to all outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment.
6. Almost total elimination of STOP treatment program.
7. 1,600 people will lose psychiatric treatment through Private Provider Network.
8. Closure of Tenderloin Health, homeless multi-service center in the Tenderloin serving over 300 people a day, 16,000 unduplicated people a year. This program provides health services, HIV case management, HIV prevention, mental health services, harm reduction work, improving quality of life by getting people out of rain, hygiene kits, bathrooms, snacks, crisis intervention, and 30,000 shelter reservations a year.

What Can We Do?

Protest Newsom’s proposed budget!

Where:

The Bellaire Tower building—home of Mayor Gavin Newsom (1101 Green Street, at Leavenworth Street)

Bus 45 (Leavenworth/Union stop), Bus 27 (Leavenworth/Jackson stop), Bus 12 (Pacific/Leavenworth stop).

When:

Wednesday, June 11, 6:00 p.m.

Join more than 50 religious leaders from diverse faith traditions to influence San Francisco’s budget priorities for poor and homeless people.

Sponsored by Religious Witness with Homeless People.

Thursday, June 5, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
San Francisco City Hall, South Light Court

For more information contact Sister Bernie Galvin at 415.929.0781.

The SF Print Collective and the Coalition on Homelessness invite you to join us for a mural celebration to raise awareness about justice for homeless people.

Saturday, May 10, 2008, 12-4 p.m.

Clarion Alley, San Francisco (between 17^th and 18^th Streets and Mission and Valencia)

Poster and T-shirt printing

Food and music

For more information, call 510‧332‧7839.

Tonight, Coalition Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach will be recognized alongside Barbara Garcia of the Department of Public Health, and the Women’s Community Clinic in the 2008 TenderChamp Awards, as part of a benefit for Central City Hospitality House.

The Funniest Celebrity in the Bay Area Contest will begin at 7 p.m. tonight at the Great American Music Hall at 859 O’Farrell Street. Among the contestants are Renel Brooks-Moon of 98.1 KISS FM, Rachel Gordon and Phil Matier of the Chronicle, Michael Krasney of KQED FM, MC Hammer, Liam Mayclem of CBS 5, and Ronn Owens of KGO AM 810. Supervisor Tom Ammiano and former Mayor Willie Brown are special guests. Proceeds will go to support the amazing work that Hospitality House does.

General admission is $150. Non-profit admission is $100.

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!

The public hearing for groundbreaking new legislation that will bring us further toward ending abuse and ensuring sanitary conditions in City-funded shelters has been rescheduled from Wednesday, January 30. The probable new date is Wednesday, February 20, but watch this space for updates.

We will hold a rally on the steps of City Hall at 12:00 noon, and then the rally will be inside in Room 250.

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POSTPONED

The hearing has been postponed, and will now probably take place on Wednesday, February 20. Our rally will be at noon on the steps of City Hall, and then we’ll move in to Room 250 at 1:00 p.m.

Come give a shout out on Wednesday, January 30, at CIty Hall in support of groundbreaking legislation that would create minimum standards and protection for fundamental rights in the San Francisco shelter system. We’ll rally on the front steps of City Hall at noon; at 1:00 there will be a hearing in room 250.

Please join us to commemorate homeless people—our friends, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, and even some who none of us got the opportunity to know—this Thursday, December 20, at 5:30 p.m. at Civic Center Plaza. Bring a candle, if you can. If you know of any one who has passed away, please make sure that their name is included in the service by contacting San Francisco Network Ministries at 415.928.6209.

The City offers one drop-in service to make up for the housing the economy can’t provide and the beds the shelter system won’t make available: Buster’s Place.

Though Buster’s Place is not a shelter, every night over a hundred people rest under the center’s roof. Many of these people are among the most vulnerable in San Francisco. Without Buster’s Place, the city’s streets could be horrifically damaging.

Unfortunately, a Buster’s-Place-less San Francisco has become a very real prospect. In his 2007-2008 fiscal year budget, the Mayor eradicated funding for Buster’s Place. The Board of Supervisors’ Finance Committee failed to re-include the center in the add-back process.

But there’s still a chance to save Buster’s Place for the 300 homeless people who pass through its doors every day, and the 100 who stay there every night: The budget is not a done deal until passed by the Board next week. The possibility of reintroducing funding for Buster’s Place will be presented before the full Board. With enough popular support, it just might pass. Please contact your supervisor today. (Don’t know your district? Check this map.) It may sound hyperbolic, but you really may be saving lives.