Nowhere to Sleep

Houseless/formerly houseless residents of Oakland and San Francisco hold a cross-bay action to resist the closure of hundreds of emergency shelter beds, transitional housing and safe parking lots while sweeps increase 

Cross Bay Actions

When & Where

Tuesday, May 26th 

Oakland City Hall: 10:30am 

San Francisco City Hall: 12 noon  

“The non-profit and the City (of Oakland) promised they would help me get re-housed, now im getting re-swept,” Juan T, a former resident of one of Oakland’s recently closed Safe Parking Lots shouted over the CalTrans workers unrelenting beep, beep , beep while they crushed his makeshift tent and belongings in East Oakland, an area he used to sleep before he was “housed” by the City . 

From San Francisco to Oakland,  houseless residents are losing thousands of rooms, beds and temporary shelters while new laws and new mandates from both sides of the Bay are leading to more violent criminalization of our bodies and lives.

“In Mayor Daniel Lurie’s San Francisco, a tent can’t be erected without teams of police and Public Works employees arriving within hours to tear it down and throw the person into jail. In Lurie’s San Francisco, he’ll close five adult shelters while banning RVs from city streets. In Lurie’s San Francisco, he’ll jump out of his SUV to forcibly remove a homeless woman from his street corner with his own two hands,” said a spokesperson from Coalition on Homelessness.

"High rents should be swept away not unhoused people." Said Junebug Kealoha, formerly houseless community health worker, elders council member of HOMEfulness Elders council  and POOR magazine povertyskola "Transitional Adults and Youth need housing subsidies and safe spaces to succeed"

As this press release is being written hundreds of houseless residents of Oakland and San Francisco are facing eviction from so-called solutions to homelessness run by non-profits who have received thousands of dollars to “house the homeless” . One after the other these “solutions”  close  leaving folks to go back to the street and face the same violent sweeps they originally were experiencing.  

“Wealth hoarder mayors like Daniel Lurie want to erase, remove and incarcerate  houseless residents who are just trying to sleep in our communities and neighborhoods, even though their budget cuts, funding priorities and tech friendly policies lead to massive  evictions and  our homelessness,” said Tiny gray-Garcia, formerly houseless mother, povertyskola and co-founder of POOR magazine and HOMEfulness  

The cities of Oakland and San Francisco have closed emergency shelter beds without any accountability to the communities they claim to serve, meanwhile big non-profit agencies who receive millions of dollars in grant funding for housing services like Bay Area Community Services (BACS) are closing their offices which means the meager  access to support or advocacy  is now being phased out as well, leaving us with no way to get help..

“Hundreds of RV households have been forced to sleep on the street, while the city forcibly removes their only financial asset. Due to the renewed war on the poor, our jail population has increased by 50% over the past five years, and 40% of those incarcerated are unhoused.”. As  Lurie guts our social safety nets, we must invest in proven and dignified solutions, including formerly homeless-led responses, like Homefulness and Wood Street Commons.” Coalition on Homelessness 

“In the time of my ancestors, there was no concept of homelessness,” said Corrina Gould, Tribal Chair of the Ohlone/Lisjan peoples and member of the HOMEfulness elders council .  

HOMEfulness is an answer to the immediate emergency of homelessness,. But it is also healing medicine—not only for houseless elders, families, and disabled people, but for all of us, housed and unhoused, who are in need of hope, repair, and home.

“You close shelters, cut resources, then arrest people for sleeping outside like they had somewhere else to go. That’s not justice — that’s cruelty with paperwork.” Said Stephanie Grant, formerly houseless poverty skola with POOR magazine and elephant council member of HOMEfulness SF 

“Why are we closing shelters? Ramping up sweeps, towing people's RVS/homes, not opening up public land for sanctuary community/ giving people a place to live but expecting things to get better.” Said John Janosko , co-founder Wood Street Commons 

Juan was just one of several hundred people forced off of San Francisco and Oakland’s streets in April and May . He was offered a spot in a safe parking lot, with a promise for more housing referrals and after he accepted the offer he realized the promises were empty. “I received no referrals of places to go, only notices of when they would be closing the lot.”  As soon as Juan left the lot, his RV got towed for getting too many tickets for sleeping on the street. “It’s an impossible situation, I have nowhere to sleep” he concluded

Follow:  📣 @poormagazine @coalitiononhomelessness @woodstreetcommons @westernregionaladvocacyproject