Sweeping in the rain
From SoMa to Wood Street Commons, the unhoused suffer as the brutal sweeps continue
By tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola
Rain flows down
Can’t u see I’m already drowned
Rain flows down
There’s so much room to hold
That empty sound
Hard, Cold rain
Into a body already drained
I look up
Will I survive this—
I know I’m tough
Is there time to save my warmest blanket
My driest shoes
Guess what—I got the Unhoused blues
The eviction crews already came
With the rain
With the poLice to detain
With the blood-stains
And the wet chains
The water-soaked brooms
All the places I dream of that aren’t my rooms
Hard to believe—hard to see
But they’re sweeping, sweeping, in the rain
Sweeping—sweeping in the rain
Mama earth is crying again
Just like this mama when I lost my last home and felt like dying again
Mama earth is crying again
I can’t ever dry my eyes again
This hefty bag can’t hold all the unscreamed screams
Inside again
They said I have to go—
It’s a sweep don’t you know
But didn’t I tell you I can’t move
I’m so tired tho
Let the trucks come
Take my pain and wash it away with this endless rain
Mama— not sure how much longer I want to live to see another day
The water is me—the rain fills me
The depression stills me—this water—this cold—this wet blanket
it will kill me
The hole inside my heart
It is me
—Rain (Sweeping in the Rain- from the Trauma Survivor Song album by tiny)-
“I can’t feel my toes, my shoes have been wet since last week,” said Johnny X, a RoofLessradio reporter hiding behind a pole with his shopping cart in the South of Market area of San Francisco. “DPW and police came on multiple days all last week to tell us to move in the middle of the worse rains. It was weird, “I was like, really, isn’t there something more important you gotta do?”
Johnny continued to tell me that he was in one of the Shelter in Place motels, in San Francisco original SIP placements for the pandemic, but then Mayor London Breed phased that out and transitioned him into a navigation center, which he couldn’t tolerate with his autism and palsy. He was terrified there, he tried to get back into a motel, but was told that program was “over” and has now retreated to a life on the streets of San Francisco struggling with endless sweeps.

Residents of Wool Street Commons are fighting back against an eviction effort. Here, Wood Street Commons and Homefulness together at the POORmagazine street writing workshop. Photo by Israel Munoz POORmagazine
Thanks to the warrior work of Coalition on Homelessness and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a lawsuit was filed against the Breed Administration to stop the violent sweeps that wreak havoc on houseless, disabled, elders, and all people’s lives, but as reported by Johnny and many roofLess radio reporters, they have continued.