Since 1987 the COH has centered the voices of poor and homeless San Franciscans in the struggle for social and economic rights | We produce the
@StreetSheetSF
WE MUST LISTEN TO THOSE INSIDE.
Thanh Tran, currently incarcerated at San Quentin Prison:
“I write this after 3 days of being curled into a fetal position, fighting off COVID19. For a week now shrieks of man down followed by alarms have become my alarm clock. /1
We are suing the city on constitutional grounds for their persistent horrific practice of stealing unhoused people’s property and criminalizing them for having no home.
Our hope for this lawsuit is a transformation of the city's street response.
INCREDIBLE. every single person calling into the police commission meeting right now is calling to defund & disband SFPD.
decades doing this work + we have NEVER seen this before. this is happening cause of the work of Black abolitionists. grateful.
#DefundSFPD
Don’t know who needs to hear this (just kidding, we do, it’s all the people in our mentions), but YOUR DISCOMFORT FROM SEEING HOMELESSNESS IS NOT THE SAME AS THE TRAUMA OF BEING HOMELESS.
YES!!!!! ❤️✊🏽 Homeless families in LA are taking over homes owned by state agency Caltrans that has been evicting homeless encampments from their property for years. LETS GETTTTT ITTTT
and thank you to the mamas at
@moms4housing
for leading the way ❤️
Black people represent less than 5% of SF residents but 37% of the homeless population.
San Francisco liberals: You can’t say BLM and be anti homeless.
BREAKING NEWS: We're suing
@LondonBreed
,
@SFPD
& the City of SF for their efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of brutal policing practices that violate the constitutional rights of unhoused San Franciscans.
🧵below 1/
We are scared for the thousands of unhoused black people tonight who don't have ANYWHERE to be safe from a militarized police force.
PLEASE check in & look out for unhoused folks while you protest, look out for them when you're at home. Send reports to us if you see anything.
isn't it horrifying knowing that the state can literally identify + commandeer hotel rooms in a few days when there has been homeless people suffering on our streets for decades
UPDATE 3/16 Gov
@GavinNewsom
on
#COVID19
& homelessness:
*Leased 393 units at 2 hotels in Oakland + will turn over to local gov to house homeless ppl
*901 hotels identified + beginning negotiations w/ owners of hotels
*1st unhoused man passed away in Santa Clara region today
"BART says many of the fare evaders are homeless, leaving [paid riders] concerned about their personal safety."
STOP CONFLATING HOMELESS PEOPLE & PUBLIC SAFETY
STOP CONFLATING HOMELESS PEOPLE & PUBLIC SAFETY
STOP CONFLATING HOMELESS PEOPLE & PUBLIC SAFETY
.
@SFPD
really just trapped & arrested 20 kids who were trying to go home INCLUDING 14 year old.
For violating curfew.
Defund SFPD now. We don’t need them, we need US
The issue is not the rocks.
The issue is that the City
1) Does not provide sufficient housing, healthcare or even shelter for homeless folks AND THEN AT THE SAME TIME
2) Makes it impossible for them to exist in public space through 26+ laws, hostile architecture, police etc
Homeless people are the experts of homelessness.
Homeless people are the experts of homelessness.
Homeless people are the experts of homelessness.
Homeless people are the experts of homelessness.
Mayor London Breed has set a curfew on our city. 8pm to 5am.
This will result in increased surveillance, targeting & criminalization of unhoused San Franciscans — who are disproportionately black — who have no choice but to sleep on the streets.
#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CHOICE.
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CHOICE.
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CHOICE.
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CHOICE.
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CHOICE.
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CHOICE.
Homeless shelters hold massive amounts of people in confined spaces. We need to get unsheltered AND sheltered people into hotel rooms and vacant homes/apartments/condos NOW.
We will say it again and again: This is life or death.
URGENT - SUPPORT AN UNHOUSED ELDER:
Greg lives in his van & has been paying rent for the past 5+ yrs to park his car. The lot is being sold & he will be evicted by 5/17 with nowhere to go.
We are urgently looking for a parking spot for Greg. DM us if you have any leads. /1
can we just take a sec to appreciate the news story that
@StreetSheetSF
broke about the mass shelter that literally got the City to say they'd house those homeless people in hotels instead of Moscone Center?????
we live in a dystopian world where this has to happen:
Defending PUBLIC restrooms to keep them open for unhoused people to use during a pandemic.
@StreetWatchLA
are heroes but should never have to fight this hard for a basic human need
There was a public health crisis before COVID.
@MitchOFarrell
+ city passed a motion to keep EP Lake bathrooms open 24/7. They remain locked at night.
The unhoused community needs these bathrooms. In the name of public health+safety, we’re not letting the city lock them.
How do you stay healthy when you don't have a home?
How do you practice social distancing in a shelter?
How do you wash your hands when there's no access to running water or soap?
How do you rest when the cops arrest you and take your tent?
Homeless lives matter, too.
RENTERS: Feeling scared about making rent? Being evicted after shelter in place ends? Landlord harassing you?
Sign up as a member of
@TenantsUnionSF
. It’s time to build renter power.
Rest in Power. We are at a loss for words. The work that you did to fight relentlessly for San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities will not be forgotten.
Mayor London Breed is exploiting the concerns of a vulnerable community in order to promote a “law and order” agenda meant to benefit political and financial interests. This unjustified, and in some cases, illegal maneuver is cause for alarm. 1/
I'm declaring a State of Emergency in the Tenderloin, which will eliminate bureaucratic barriers and allow us to more quickly respond to the conditions relating to the health and safety of the people in the neighborhood.
This is what happens when our government has neglected homeless people for decades.
In a pandemic, as it rains all day, all they can say is “sleep one to a tent.”
Remember that police arrest people for feeding those who don’t have homes, for bringing water to those crossing borders to escape violence, for sleeping in their own cars.
“I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people.” — Eduard Galeano
There is a human rights crisis happening in Parchman Prison in Mississippi. 5 people have been killed in a week. The living conditions are inhumane. Everyone should be paying attention. We stand in solidarity with incarcerated people and their families.
CAR BLOCKADE!! We’re in front of the Emergency Operations Center before Breed’s press conference demanding she
#HouseUsNow
and commandeer the thousands of hotel rooms for homeless people!
It is unconscionable to let any unhoused person die on our streets.
Never forget that Ronnie’s death was not natural. There is nothing natural about homelessness, about letting people suffer on our streets for years, sometimes until their last breath.
It's happening in Ohio!!!!
Free everyone from our jails and prisons. In the midst of coronavirus, incarceration — more than ever — is a death sentence.
"Progressive" San Francisco, we gotta do this too.
We are suing the city because they have been
running rampant with throwing away people’s property instead of storing it (as is required), and citing and arresting people who are involuntarily homeless - meaning the city has no firm offer of shelter.
@LondonBreed
Today, homeless youth protested the Sit/Lie law in the Haight, which criminalizes unhoused people who have no one where to go.
✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾solidarity with these young unhoused leaders!
.
@LondonBreed
says that homeless people can't get hotel rooms because they need supervision.
Keith says: "If you give me the chance to get into a hotel room, I’ll prove you wrong. We don’t need help. The only help we need is getting into a hotel. We don’t need supervision."
While the City refuses to get homeless people into hotel rooms, the community takes matters into their own hands and creates the first socially distanced safe encampment site in the BAYVIEW!
Here's Gwen breaking down why it's needed:
DEAR EVERYONE INVOLVED
we want the same energy y’all are putting into moving rocks and back and forth on a sidewalk to be in solidarity with homeless folks. organize with us. Build power. Take care of people on the street while they’re waiting for housing.
As the
#coronavirus
spreads in San Francisco, we are calling on the City to put an immediate moratorium on homeless sweeps and on the towing of vehicles that house people.
@notsweeps
Do not exclude unhoused Black folks from the movement, from organizing, from the discourse, public narrative, media, from your care, attention, tenderness & energy.
BLACK HOMELESS LIVES MATTER.
The meeting ended at 3am.
The Police Commission unanimously voted not to approve the budget.
Thank you for all your beautiful & visionary public comments.
Stay tuned for what’s next ❤️
We are saddened to announce one of our family members passed last night.
Brian Edwards was loved by many, and centered his life struggling in solidarity with folks on the streets.
HUGE!!!! “The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear Martin v Boise, letting stand a ruling that protects homeless people’s right to sleep on the sidewalk or in public parks if no other shelter is available.”
Frustrated about homelessness? Support our lawsuit
We have been trying to get the city to stop abusing people. They refused. We compiled a mountain of evidence that they were breaking the law. The city had nothing to refute evidence.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he placed 4200 homeless ppl into hotels today.
There are 150,000 homeless Californians.
There are 1 million vacant units & hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms he can commandeer.
Don't clap your hands for this - This ain't it.
So sorry to let everyone know that our beloved Andy Howard has passed away. He was a powerful voice calling for the city to stop destroying their property. Rest in Power!
We begged the city from day 1 to get homeless people into hotel units before a shelter outbreak happened.
& now it's happened. & now 70 beloved people are sick. & now we are heartbroken + infuriated to see all of our predictions come true.
GET EVERYONE INTO HOTEL ROOMS NOW
Wow. Mayor Breed just said they have identified 70 ppl in the city's largest shelter (68 residents, 2 staff), MSC South, who have tested positive for COVID 19. This is one of the largest shelters in SF.
"We have an outbreak," Breed said.
Two years after winning Prop C
@OurHomeSF
in the November 2018 election
Two years after big corporations took us to court following that election
We finally won.
Prop C won.
Thank you San Francisco.
Solidarity with the San Quentin prisoners who are on hunger strike protesting the INHUMANE conditions that have allowed 1,135 people be infected with COVID.
Incarceration should not be a death sentence.
We demand that
@GavinNewsom
#FreeThemAll
now.
I'm begging you to see how we suffer. I’m begging you to open up your hearts to compassion and not politics. I’m begging you to hear us and please
@GavinNewsom
, save our lives. We are dying in here. /6
BREAKING:
WE JUST WON OUR SECOND ROUND IN COURT AGAINST CORPORATIONS TRYING TO STOP $300M FOR HOUSING, MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, SHELTER, AND HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION!!!!!
WE. ARE. WINNING.
Media should be talking about how we're one of the richest cities in the world, with more billionaires per capita than anywhere else, and that we still have 1,061 people waiting for a shelter bed that will last 90 days.
THAT is the story.
today on my way to therapy i went to
@Vervecoffee
. a homeless person nearby asked me for a coffee, so i got them one. on my way out, the manager pulled me aside and told me not to do that again; that it causes homeless people to come back which makes it not a “safe space”
🙄🙄🙄
Gov.
@GavinNewsom
just shared that the most recent California
#COVID19
fatality was a homeless man in Santa Clara County. It’s the first coronavirus case we’ve heard about among the unhoused population, but likely will not be the last.
Remember during this extended heat wave that +6,000 unhoused San Franciscans are seeking refuge in vehicles and tents, while others sleep rough. All during a global pandemic.
Air Quality in SF is currently ORANGE — Unhealthy/Sensitive Groups: Active youth, adults, and people with respiratory disease should reduce prolonged outdoor exertion. If you do go outside, make sure to wear a face covering & keep physical distance. Visit .
Shelter in place is now til May 1.
SF City government is taking social distancing seriously for some of its residents. But not its unhoused ones.
There is still NO way for homeless people to be safe at this time. It’s frightening. Please. Our people are not ready to die.
UPDATE this morning on boulders -
Folks put them back out on the street last night and DPW is already there to put em back
If only the city invested this many resources when someone needed housing...
Clinton Park Bouldergate update (9/29, 8:45am):
-Boulders returned to the street last night
-DPW is here taping them off and calling for a crane truck to replace them again
@rolandlisf
No. San Francisco is a real-life experiment in what happens when government chooses profits over people, refuses to invest in its elders, youth, & families and says oh also? Let’s make sure we don’t see any poor people in public.
San Francisco is a real-life experiment in what happens when a society stops enforcing bourgeois norms of behavior. My latest
@WSJopinion
on what I saw during my trip to the Bay Area. Full essay available this weekend
@CityJournal
.
This is the sickest I've been in my life. This is the most alone I've ever been in my life. I've asked multiple nurses to please give me medicine but to no avail so far. "I only do oxygen test." "I only see people who are tested Positive already." "Put in a sick call form." /4
A reminder that there are good folks on the ground doing the hard work of taking care of others in the midst of this crisis. Thank you
@BerkFreeClinic
❤️
(Also: take note! Anyone can do this!!)
Noticed this today: hand sanitizer attached to a pillar holding up a freeway in Oakland near Wood Street, where some unhoused people live. I briefly thought the city of Oakland provided it. Nope! There was a phone number on it. When I called it I got the Berkeley Free Clinic.
#BREAKING
: DPW is currently removing the boulders from Clinton Park.
They should remove all the anti-homeless design and hostile architecture from the rest of the city while they're at it — most of which are *City-sanctioned.*
Motion passed unanimously! We should all be very proud of what was accomplished today. This is the beginning of a long, collaborative journey that will save lives and bring us all closer together as San Franciscans.
Daniel is an unhoused resident who was sleeping on the block now lined with boulders.
Here’s his message:
“You silently allowed it to happen. You could have let us know your concerns. I don’t bite but hurt I do.”
Over 30 people hospitalized in my building alone this past week. After fighting excruciating headaches and vomiting, all that i am given to heal myself is a box lunch - which is now served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. /2
We have not been allowed to use the pay phone for over 2 weeks now. We are given showers once every 5 days, showering with 40 to 50 other people at a time - 18 shower heads, one foot apart, in a building with no ventilation, creating a sauna like effect. /3
Projected on SF City Hall tonight.
Nearly a month after the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Emergency Hotel Ordinance to house 7,000 homeless San Franciscans, Mayor
@LondonBreed
has refused to enact the law.
Obey the law and save lives.
#HousingistheCure
Today, the adult shelter waitlist 1,092 people long.
The oldest person on the waitlist is 89 years old and is
#922
on the list.
112 people on the list are seniors.
We are leaving our elders out in the cold, without even a shelter bed.
Less than a week after
@LondonBreed
said she'd start 'reforming the police' and have them NOT directly respond to people experiencing homelessness. We see the police are CENTRAL to the efforts in the Tenderloin.
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW: This is our city’s current approach to homelessness. Currently 3 police officers 👮♀️👮♀️👮♀️sitting in their car ensuring “encampment resolution” - at its peak they had ~15 officers here at Turk & Hyde prioritizing tent removal and NOT the most vulnerable!!!
#BART
cops out here getting someone for eating a sandwich on the platform.
It reminds us of the time SFPD issued a $234 citation to an unhoused senior for eating pizza at a bus stop.
To be black and unhoused is to be under constant police surveillance and constant threat of being killed by the police.
Black lives matter. Homeless lives matter.
The boulders have been moved back out on the street for the *third* time.
This fight isn’t over when the boulders are removed. The fight is over when housing is a human right.
When you’ve got 40 doctors and clergy coming to your house, you gotta know you’ve done something morally corrupt.
@LondonBreed
: Enact the law passed unanimously by supervisors. House homeless San Franciscans in hotel rooms now.
COVID Negatives are still being forced to cell with people who are COVID positive. Men in Badger section are forced to be on 23 hr lockdown in a 4 by 9 cell with no electricity to even boil a cup coffee not mention a soup. Men in the medical tents are experiencing the same. /5
Tip
#2
: Never take what the City says about homelessness or homelessness policy at face value. They have good reason to lie, to obscure, to fudge the facts.
Investigate. Interview unhoused people. Spend time with unhoused communities. You'll learn a lot.
Defund police.
We don't want any more police reforms. Implicit bias trainings, body cams, changing "use of force" definitions — these have not changed violent, racist, white supremacist conditions.
Defund police.
The fare evasion problem is a problem of the fare — NOT the type of gates used to keep people out.
Public transit can — and should be — free.
Free Muni, Free BART, and an end to fines for people who can’t afford public transportation but need it to survive!