San Francisco workers have confiscated unhoused peoples’ property, including wheelchairs, tents and other essentials more often in recent years. Advocates said that “aggressive” crackdowns and policies that involve police citing and arresting people experiencing homelessness may be the cause.
Category: Homelessness
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Homelessness
SF Fails to Produce Evidence It Follows Encampment Clearing Policy
San Francisco cannot prove it follows an aspect of its encampment clearing policy intended to help people retain essential belongings. Despite 588 clearings from January to mid-November, the city lacks evidence of a single signed declaration that staff advised unhoused people to separate essentials from property it was confiscating.
Posted inCommunity, Elections, Homelessness, Housing, Neighborhoods, Politics
Politics Didn’t Matter to Him When He Was Homeless. Now He Organizes His Neighbors.
Solomon Bukenya, a formerly unhoused San Franciscan, has never lost hope for long — surviving a genocide in Rwanda, the loss of his leg, addiction and homelessness. Though he had no interest in civic engagement for years, today he’s on a mission to make sure his community’s voices are heard. Even after a tumultuous election, he remains undeterred.
Posted inElections, Homelessness
Encampment Sweeps’ Uptick May Hurt Homeless People’s Access to Services, Voting
An escalation in encampment clearings could be leaving unhoused San Franciscans with fewer of their vital documents, making them less able to access services and, this month, vote, service providers and homeless advocates say.
In light of reports of these worsening problems, the city’s Homeless Oversight Commission has urged local government agencies to prevent the loss of essential items.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Elections, Homelessness, Housing
‘Affordable’ Housing Can Be Too Expensive For Seniors. Proposition G Could Help Fix That.
Many older adults living on fixed incomes in San Francisco teeter on the brink of homelessness. After rent, they have little money for other essentials.
Proposition G could keep some of those people off the streets by reducing rents in hundreds of already-subsidized units, putting them within reach for extremely low-income seniors and other groups.
Posted inCalifornia, Elections, Government & Politics, Homelessness
How Unhoused San Franciscans Can Vote in This Election
If you’re unhoused, you might wonder if you are eligible to cast a ballot this November. The answer is yes — even without a fixed address. We’ve tried to answer the big questions you might have about voting while experiencing homelessness in this how-to guide, to make sure your voice is heard this Election Day.
Posted inCity Hall, Elections, Health, Homelessness, San Francisco November 2024 Voter Guide
Proposition B — Bonds to Enhance Health Care Facilities and Public Spaces
See our November 2024 SF Voter Guide for a nonpartisan analysis of measures on the San Francisco ballot, for the election occurring Nov. 5, 2024. The following measure is on that ballot. Proposition B would let San Francisco borrow up to $390 million to carry out infrastructure and other projects, like upgrading health care facilities, creating homeless shelter, […]
Posted inCity Hall, Community, Homelessness, Politics
Homeless Outreach Declines With Street Team’s Shifting Priorities, Staffing Woes
Street outreach by San Francisco’s premier team for helping people living on the streets has fallen for years and could continue dropping.
Years-long staffing woes and shifting work priorities have driven the decline, leaving the team less time for their core mission: building trust with unhoused people and helping them access social services and housing. Homelessness advocates approved of the team’s new efforts to bring people indoors, but worried that officials’ political motives might be influencing these changes.
Posted inHealth, Homelessness
After the Crisis: Unique Program Helps Older Adults Grappling With Both Addiction and Mental Illness
More than 1 million California adults — and 19.4 million Americans — live with both a serious mental illness and substance use disorder. In fact, roughly half of all people with severe mental illness are thought to also have a co-occurring substance use disorder. Traditionally, treatment programs target one of these populations or the other. Progress Foundation is one of the few across the country serving people who have both — so-called dual diagnosis patients.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Homelessness, Housing
Recent Policy Reforms May Help California Domestic Violence Survivors Stay Housed
Domestic violence survivors in the Golden State are getting some help in the form of recent regulatory reforms. That includes one policy that prohibits some landlords from rejecting housing applicants based on their credit histories, which often suffer in abusive situations.
But more big fixes are needed, a UCSF report notes, like additional domestic violence shelters and better coordination of shelter and social service intake systems. Many women find today’s homeless shelter settings unsafe, so they opt to sleep on the streets after they leave an abusive partner.