We have been working hard, moving fast and winning victories.

In 2011 we…

Led a powerful campaign that resulted in the city matching $1.5 million from a private donor to house homeless families, and got the SFHA to expedite moving families into empty units. Families are getting housing as we speak!

After several shooting by police of people in psychiatric crisis, we passed legislation at the Police Commission that establishes a Crisis Intervention Team. A pool of officers will recieve advanced training, change dispatch protocol and hopefully end the use of increased force during a psychiatric health crisis.

Halted the use of tasers by SFPD which are know to increase fatalities and injuries.

Staved off major budget cuts to health and human services, including stopping the closure of shelters and emergency resource centers for homeless people

Built a cadre of fierce, well-informed champions of housing justice and human rights activist, who themselves are or have been negatively impacted by economic disparities, racism, affordable housing shortages and poverty.

Sound good?

Give what you can – your donation goes a long long long way here. We put your money to work – working for social and economic justice!

Oh – and give this month and you can deduct it on your taxes!

Oh Oh- and no money to give? Give your old stuff to Community Thrift in our names or hold your own garage sale.

Big Thanks To All The Donors Who Have Made All This Possible.

Looking forward to 2012 being even better!

On two different occasions, the Mayor’s homeless Czar Dariush Kayhan doesn’t bother to show up for meeting with homeless families. He then decides he will not meet with them at all. His reason for forcing families to come from all over the city on foot pushing strollers filled with crying sleep deprived homeless children? He does not have the answers to our questions – he needs lower paid city employees to answer them. Really.

The picture below is of the group that gathered the second time.

I guess poor people of color don’t matter enough for him to get the answers.

Maybe we should have pretended we were the Chamber of Commerce.

As a result of our powerful homeless family led campaign, the city finally responded to the housing crisis poor families in SF are facing. This progress report was sent from the city today. Not included in this report, is the private funding from Marc and Lynne Benioff of $1.3 million which will go partly to Hamilton Family Center for housing subsidies for families. They have already started enrolling families and the first family will move in on January 21st.

As requested here’s an update from the Homeless Assistance Fund. We have
currently committed to $483K to Hamilton for subsidies and $136K to Compass
Connecting Point for two housing specialists to work with families on the
CCP wait list for shelter diversion.

The funding from the Salesforce went directly to the providers and I do
not have a break down on how the funds were allocated.

SFHA
31 families attended group intakes with SFHA on 12/13 and 12/16
6 families from the Group 3 shelter list were already in process
1 family was offered a unit on 12/12 and is move in yesterday
1 family is being offered a unit today and may move in on Friday
5 families will receive unit offers by the end of this week, and may begin
moving in as early as next week

Hamilton First Avenues
28 families have been enrolled in the Hamilton subsidy program
3 have received move-in offers; one moves in this week, the other 2 have
leases that begin 1/1/12

Treasure Island
5 families have been identified for TI – they will have a group orientation
with John Stewart tomorrow at 11am after which they will received their
keys. IF ALL GOES AS PLANNED, Hamilton anticipates they will all want to
move in ASAP – but we may not want to say definitively it will be by
Christmas although it looks pretty good now. Hamilton will work to
facilitate this process and try to ensure families have at least a minimum
amount of furniture at time of move in, and work with them to get more next
week.

courtesy of
Joyce Crum
Program Director, Housing and Homeless Division
Human Services Agency

One of the primary goals of the families organizing at the Coalition on Homelessness has been the release of currently vacant Housing Authority units to homeless families. The problem is that after weeks of unclear numbers, it’s become clear that the Housing Authority doesn’t really know how many empty units it’s got, and is perhaps not entirely clear on what it means for a unit to be empty. The Housing Authority may not be able to figure this one out, but we’re pretty sure we can. On December 20, volunteers from the Coalition on Homelessness are going to head out in teams to San Francisco’s four largest public housing developments and conduct a tally of empty units. We could use your help! Come to the Coalition on Homelessness at 468 Turk Street (between Hyde and Larkin) at 9:30 a.m. to help us count.

T.J. Johnston’s story on criminalization of homelessness in San Francisco, originally run by the SF Public Press, has been picked up by the Huffington Post. Congrats, T.J., and thanks!

Join us this morning at 10 a.m. in Room 250 of City Hall for a Board of Supervisors City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee hearing on the dramatic increase in family homelessness in San Francisco, & the experiences of families experiencing homelessness. The Mayor is still refusing to meet with homeless families, and the Director of the Human Sevices Agency has declared the 2,200 homeless children in San Francisco Public Schools not to be a crisis. Please join us in informing the Board of Supervisors know that family homelessness is a crisis that can be solved!

More video from last week’s rally, courtesy Bill Carpenter. Thanks Bill! In this video, Miriam Marín, translated by Elisa Gasca of SRO Families United, and Lisa Dyas from Compass Family Services.

Mayor Lee has still not agreed to meet with us!

Please join us and San Francisco Network Ministries on December 21, 5:30 p.m., in Civic Center Plaza for an interfaith memorial for our family members, friends, and community members who have passed away while homeless in 2011.

This is not a protest, but a memorial service. All are welcome.

If you have loved ones or acquaintances who have passed away while homeless in 2011, please send their names to Reverend Glenda Hope, so that we may read their names among those we memorialize.

OccupySF protesters organized protests in four San Francisco neighborhoods–Bayview, Mission, Tenderloin, and Castro– Saturday, December 3 to discuss the unfair housing practices of the Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA).

In the Tenderloin, about three dozen people, including several local fair housing practice advocates like SF Tenants Union, the Coalition on Homelessness, SRO Central City Collaborative and others gathered at Civic Center to do a walking tour of privately owned SROs that have subjected tenants to subpar living conditions and evictions without notice.

Several of our parent organizers participated in the action and were able to talk about family homelessness to participants and media. Go Housing Justice!

Margarita, parent volunteer for Housing Justice

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