Homeless

San Francisco Herding Homeless Out Of Sight For Superbowl Parties

February 1, 2016 Evelyn Nieves, www.alternet.org Resist! Homeless, San Francisco

By Evelyn Nieves for AlterNet - The first official signs of Super Bowl 50—six-foot-tall, 1,600-pound, solar-powered number 50s, each with its own Super Bowl-themed design—started popping up at photogenic landmarks around San Francisco two weeks ago. The first unofficial signs—rows of tents and tarps lining a major thoroughfare under the I-80 freeway to the Bay Bridge—started popping up two months ago. That’s when Oscar McKinney, a 49-year-old hearse driver, pitched a tent on the sidewalk across from a Best Buy parking lot.

Great Potential Of Poor Americans

January 26, 2016 Paul Buchheit, www.nationofchange.org Organize! Classism, Homeless, Poverty, Unemployment

By Paul Buchheit for Nation of Change - The homeless are feared by the upper classes, and they’re often arrested for nonexistent or non-violent infractions, in good part because they are simply considered “offensive” to people of means. They usually have personal problems that society has failed to address. A study of nearly 50,000 cases revealed that most deal with alcohol or drug abuse, and mental health issues. Legislating against impoverished people is expensive: shelters, emergency rooms, jail cells.

Black Homes Matter: San Francisco’s Vanishing Black Population

January 21, 2016 Carl Finamore, www.beyondchron.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Homeless, San Francisco

By Carl Finamore for BeyondChron - This story is prompted by a picket sign I saw at a recent anti-police brutality protest sponsored by two San Francisco families, one Latino and one Black, whose sons were shot dead in separate incidents following a barrage of police bullets. Among the crowd of 150 activists standing in the pouring rain in front of the police-barricaded Bayview police station, were four young people holding a sign that simply read, "The Last 3 Percent." I thought their message was both powerful and poignant.

Berkeley City Hall Occupation Update

November 22, 2015 Mike Zint, www.occupysf.net Resist! Affordable Housing, Homeless, Homelessness, Human Rights

By Mike Zint for Occupy SF. Berkeley, CA - November 20, Day 5: It has been a busy day. The occupation is growing. We have had a lot of food support. Tents are still needed. Blankets are still needed. We have had channel 2, channel 7, the Dailycal, and KGO come by. We thank them for paying attention. And finally, many old friends are showing up. People I have not seen protesting for awhile. My hope is on 12/1, all our old Occupy friends reunite here to hang out, and stand in solidarity with the occupiers. 1 day, 1 Bay Area convergence here at city hall. Spread the word on our “peasant uprising.”

Portland Declares Official Housing Emergency

October 11, 2015 ShelR. King, www.blogtown.portlandmercury.com Create! Affordable Housing, Gentrification, Homeless, Tenant Rights

By Shelby R. King for the Portland Mercury. Portland, OR - Portland City Council today passed an ordinance declaring an official housing emergency in the city. The commissioners unanimously voted to enact an ordinance that will temporarily remove barriers to increasing affordable housing and address Portland's homelessness problem. The emergency declaration also authorizes a proposed request to Governor Kate Brown to officially declare a state of emergency. "The tools we have now are not adequate," says Mayor Charlie Hales. "We need to be more nimble, more flexible, and swifter in our response." The declaration allows the city to temporarily use existing buildings (Hales has looked into using an old Army Reserve building) as shelters. The ordinance also allows the city to fund a pilot program to establish day storage facilities

Homeless New Yorkers Protest Police Stigmatization

August 19, 2015 Emma Whitford, www.occupythebronx.org Resist! Homeless, New York City (NYC), police brutality, Protest

By Emma Whitford in Occupy The Bronx - Dozens of homeless New Yorkers and advocates rallied on the steps of city hall this afternoon to single out and condemn the NY Post’s recurring portrayal of the homeless as dehumanized, quality-of-life case studies, as well as the Sergeants Benevolent Association’s recent public solicitation of photographs ofhomeless people engaging in “quality-of-life offenses of every type.” “We’re here today because we’re disgusted by the treatment of homeless people in our city,” said Alyssa Aguilera, the Political Director for Vocal New York. “We’re tired of the criminalization and stigmatization of homeless people who are struggling, and need housing, and who need social services. Instead they are being targeted by the police.” According to the SBA, civilian documentation of the homeless is a valid response to those who exercise their right to surveil the NYPD.

Repurposing London’s “Anti-Homeless” Spikes Into Cozy Bedrooms

July 27, 2015 Maria Sanchez Diez, www.qz.com Resist! Creative, Homeless, London

By Maria Sanchez Diez in Quartz - London has taken to placing small, sharp spikes to discourage homeless people from sleeping in public areas. But a group of activists has found a creative way to subvert the tactic: transforming them into cozy bedrooms, complete with tiny libraries. The collective, called Space, Not Spikes, wants to make a point: the hostile metal studs and other devices purposely designed to drive people away are not okay. “We’re told where we can walk, where we can sit, where we are welcome but only if we spend money,” says the group’s manifiesto. The group chose the spiked nook in Curtain Road, in the eastern neighborhood of Shoreditch, and glued on a mattress and the small bookshelf, with some available books for the public. Leah Borromeo, one of the activists involved in the protest, explained to Quartz that the germ of the idea came when the group overheard a couple of women coming out of a store, laying their shopping bags over the spikes on the ledge so they could sit there.

Sao Paulo: A Sea Of People Fighting For Water

March 8, 2015 Midia Ninja and Marianna Olinger, www.ninja.oximity.com Resist! Brazil, Commodification, Homeless, Poverty, Water

These sacred luxury consumer temples (where the water tanks are always full), lowered their doors before the the march that brought together 15 thousand men, women and children - a significant part dressing in MTST (Workers Homeless Movement)’s t-shirts - in addition to other left wing organizations protesting on Thursday (26/02) against the water crisis in São Paulo. It was the first major public protest on the issue and involved people like the seamstress Maria Francisca da Conceição, 69, who walked, wearing her flip-flops, the 6300 meters that separate Largo da Batata, in Pinheiros neighborhood, and the Bandeirantes Palace in Morumbi, where is the official residence of the governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) is located.Maria Francisca has been a resident of an MTST occupation in Numa Pompilius, in the extreme east of the city of São Paulo, since early 2014, when she joined the homeless movement.

Officials Want To Move Homeless From Downtown Camp

March 8, 2015 Staff, www.azpm.org Resist! Homeless, Human Rights

The Tucson City Council voted this week to relocate homeless people who have been living in a downtown park for a year and a half. The camp, called “Safe Park” by its occupants, includes the sidewalk along Veinte de Agosto Park at Church Avenue and Congress Street. A self-described camp leader said the group’s presence protests the criminalization of homelessness in Tucson. Jon McLane, Safe Park resident who refers to himself as its director, said that insufficient community-provided resources, yet being cited for public urination or breaking curfew in a park is how the homeless are criminalized. The City Council’s decision allows them to select one or multiple unused city properties to replace Veinte de Agosto Park, said Steve Kozachik, a city councilman who represents part of downtown.

Indianapolis Passes Law To Protect Homeless

March 8, 2015 Renee Lewis, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Homeless, Human Rights

The campaign comes amid a rise in the nationwide homeless population, and in laws targeting them, since the 2008 recession. Advocates say these laws are aimed at removing those deemed undesirable from public spaces, and that they subject homeless people to police harassment or arrest for carrying out activities that everyone must do — but only some have to do in public areas. The number of laws used to target the homeless increased sharply in the 1980s. One recent study in California found that these municipal laws rose along with the homeless population — there was a spike in the 1980s when federal funding for affordable housing was slashed and again after the 2008 recession. Criminalization, advocates say, can make it more difficult to reduce homelessness.

Homeless For The Holidays: Can’t Find Work

January 11, 2015 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Homeless, Homelessness

Byron Hawkins speaks of his most difficult challenge on the street is not living on it but “dealing with fools.” Assaults and fights between the homeless are common as are disputes over choice spots. “I’ve seen more stuff happen here on the streets than the average man.” He speaks of his worst experience in prison and why he knows he’ll never go back. His mother died while he was there and the experience broke his spirit. “They strapped me to a chair in a jacket with my arms pulled around me.” He couldn’t accept that the prison warden would not allow him go to bury his mom, and how hard it was he would never see her again. The prison psychologist sedated him with a shot to calm and put him to sleep. It took seven guards to hold him down. “They kept me there for three days until I broke.” “They didn’t let me out even to go to the bathroom-you s— and p— in this chair until you calm down.” He tells of it as the worst experience of his life.

90 Year Old Defies Police, Keeps Feeding Homeless

November 10, 2014 Alyssa Figueroa, www.alternet.org Resist! Homeless, Law

Arnold Abbott, 90, has been feeding homeless people in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for more than two decades. He has said that this is his life’s mission. He even started a culinary program that trains homeless people in hopes of getting them jobs at local kitchens. But on Oct. 21, the city of Fort Lauderdale made his generosity a crime when they passed an ordinance that placed strict restrictions on sharing food. Last weekend, Abbott was cited for breaking the new ordinance. He faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. "One of the police officers said, 'Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," Abbott told the Associated Press. But that’s not stopping Abbott. On Wednesday evening, he returned to the public beach where he cooks up food and was met with cheering crowd of nearly 100 homeless people and volunteers.

90-Year-Old And Ministers Arrested For Feeding The Hungry

November 5, 2014 Mike Clary, www.sun-sentinel.com Resist! Food and Agriculture, Homeless, Law, Police the Police, Religion

Uniformed police shut down an effort to provide lunch to scores of homeless in Stranahan Park on Sunday, enforcing a law passed recently that puts new limits on outdoor feeding sites. At least three people were cited for violating the new ordinance, including two members of the clergy and a 90-year-old advocate who has handed out food to the homeless for more than 20 years. Arnold Abbott, who heads the group Love Thy Neighbor, said he had served only three or four of about 300 meals he had prepared when police ordered him to stop. Abbott, the Rev. Mark Sims, of St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs, and the Rev. Dwayne Black, pastor of The Sanctuary Church in Fort Lauderdale, were each cited for willfully violating a city ordinance. Police issued them notices to appear in court, where they could be asked to explain their actions.

21 US Cities Restrict Sharing Food With Homeless People

October 23, 2014 Deepashri Varadharajan, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, Homeless, Law

In the United States, 21 cities have restricted sharing food with homeless people through legislation or community pressure since January 2013, and about 10 other cities are in the process of doing so, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) said in a report released Monday. “One of the most narrow-minded ideas when it comes to homelessness and food-sharing is that sharing food with people in need enables them to remain homeless,” the report said. The report was released a day before Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was set to vote “on the city’s third ordinance this year that will target the life-sustaining activities of people experiencing homelessness,” the NCH said in a news release.

Housing The Homeless In Baltimore’s Vacants

October 21, 2014 Fern Shen, www.baltimorebrew.com Create! Baltimore, Homeless, Housing, Public Housing

Housing the homeless of Baltimore in the city’s vacant rowhouses is being floated again by local affordable housing activists whose idea forms the core of an article in the current Atlantic. Their idea is “to create a community land trust – a non-profit that will hold the title to the land in order to make it permanently affordable.” according totoday’s piece by Alana Semuels. “Structures on the land can be bought and sold, but the trust owns the land forever,” she writes about the proposal by Housing Is A Human Right Roundtable, a coalition of labor activists and homeless people affiliated with the United Workers. “A community land trust essentially takes the ‘market’ part out of the housing market, allowing people to buy homes but restricting their resale value in order to make them affordable for the next buyer.”

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