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  • 1st Annual Seminar on Trans-National Strategies in Erasing Black Ableism

    10/22, 10/24, & 10/26 Krip-Hop Nation’s first LA Event entitled, Trans-National Strategies in Erasing Black Ableism- A Krip-Hop Meet-Up will happen October 22nd, 24th, and 26th 2024 . Sponsored by UCLA Hip-Hop Study Group, UCLA Disability Studies, Faith Without Borders (USA) and Beloved Community Coalition (South Africa), LAAC, Soul & Strategy Center & Poor Magazine. 10/22 12:45pm-2:45pm- Los Angeles City College- Holmes Hall 6 (855 N Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90029) 10/24 12:45pm-2:45pm- Los Angeles City College- Student Union- 3rd Flr. Multipurpose Room (855 N Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90029) 10/26 10am-1pm Strategy & Soul Center (3546 w Martin Luther King Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90008) We will discuss Trans-National Strategies in Erasing Black Ableism, Krip-Hop Nation locally and internationally- from US to Africa, a Global Perspective on Ableism Rights Resistance Reimagination, the upcoming Krip-Hop Institute, Homefulness, and Linguistics from Poverty Scholarship to Krip-Hop Terminology with Tiny gray-garcia aka povertySkola ( co-founder, POOR magazine and co-editor/visionary of Homefulness and Poverty Scholarship-Poor people led theory, art, words and tears across mama earth) joined by other poverty skolaz/Poor Press authors at POOR Magazine. Because Krip-Hop Nation is an international movement, we will look at the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent rights especially Article 30: Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport that includes the arts. Event Schedule Tuesday Oct. 22nd 12:45pm-2:45pm at LACC Leroy and Kelvin Sauls talk about Krip-Hop, Krip-Hop work in Africa, Disability Justice, Black Ableism and Leroy's Ph.D. studies and the upcoming Krip-Hop Institute. We will close with giving thanks and providing information about how to get involved. Thursday Oct. 24th 12:45pm-2:45pm at LACC We will be talking about Linguistics from Poverty Scholarship to Krip-Hop Terminology with Tiny gray-garcia aka povertySkola ( co-founder, POOR magazine and co-editor /visionary of Homefulness and Poverty Scholarship-Poor people led theory, art, words and tears across mama earth ) joined by other poverty skolaz/Poor Press authors at POOR Magazine. Leroy is a long-term member of Poor Magazine and a co-founder of Homefulness. We will also present the answer to homelessness that we call Homefulness through poetry, songs, skits and video. We will close with next steps needed to make Homefulness and Krip-Hop Institute a reality. Saturday Oct. 26th 10am-1pm at Strategy & Soul Center Leroy Moore, Kelvin Sauls, and poets talk about Black Ableism its effects in the Black community locally and internationally. They will talk about their work in LA and in South Africa. There will be performances from a poet in South Africa and musician from Zimbabwe via Zoom. Leroy will discuss his graduate studies at UCLA and the upcoming Krip-Hop Institute. Leroy F. Moore Blackkrip@gmail.com 1-424-467-6407

  • Prop 36 is an anti-poor people lie

    Prop 36. A true double edged sword. It’s a proposition aimed at re-working aspects of a previous law, Prop 47, passed almost 10 years ago, originally aimed at tackling the still major issue of prison overcrowding. Defenders of Prop 47, which include Governor of California Gavin Newsom argue that rolling back those sentencing aspects of the law will bring us back to the overcrowding in prisons, while also highlighting the fact that the California GOP doesn’t actually care about the recovery of the people who will get sent to prison for these minor offenses. On the flip side, the California GOP and a coalition of law enforcement and business owners would have you believe that by bringing back greater punishments for the minor offenses in Prop 47, it would lower the high retail crimes, and it would take people committing these crimes as well as petty drug crimes off the streets and into prisons and jails.   The reality is that this is a bill aimed at putting more people in prison as some insane deterrent to drug crime, retail crime, and homelessness. This will not stop those crimes from happening. They don’t plan on helping these people, they just want to shove them in cages to be forgotten. I urge everyone to vote NO on 36.

  • London Breed CONtinued

    America, I didn’t think we’d be back this fast. When I first wrote my original award-winning article about how Mayor London Breed was a fraud who broke many of the promises she was elected on, I talked about how over a period of time, she slowly revealed who she really was and how her comments especially over the last year or two started to show that the Mayor was on this sort of right wing pivot, and today we are going to go into more detail on that. Mayor Breed has recently been going full steam ahead on the removal of tents and other encampments in the City after the Supreme Court decision on Grants Pass vs Johnson as well as the executive order signed by Gov. Newsom following that case. We saw the real start of her true opinions on this during the APEC conference in 2023, when the whole of SOMA and Downtown San Francisco was meticulously swept, with people losing the only home they had left and in most cases losing almost all of their belongings. She’s even been on these sweeps herself, speaking on one such occasion Breed says “ When I went out with encampment teams two weeks ago, our city workers had already been there over 15 times this year, offering people shelter and cleaning the area.” She would have you believe that these actions, and the ones she's undertaken recently are good things, and that she’s cleaning up the city but the truth is she’s just shuffling people around.  A representative from the Coalition on Homelessness, River Beck, said it best. “Right now, we’re seeing a political response to an election year.” London Breed is just shuffling people around, neighborhood to neighborhood, and most recently she’s even threatened those people, trying to force them to accept resources from the City and County of San Francisco, saying “ We will bring a new reality to our streets, built on both compassion and the clear directive that San Francisco is not a place where anything goes.” But let us be honest. London Breed is demonizing the mentally ill in our homeless communities calling them “Service Resistant” just so she can score brownie points with the moderates in her party. All of this is to gain as many votes as she can for an election, not for the betterment of the City. She does not and has never cared about the homeless, she wants to eradicate homelessness by getting rid of the people, not tackling the issue, and I hope that people don’t fall for her nonsense.

  • Pushed out to Nowhere

    By Jay Paulino/ Youth Poverty Skola reporter /POOR Magazine There is a RV Community down the whole street near the back of the Stonestown mall. The Government plans on getting rid of at least 110 or more Rv’s when that’s peoples homes. While there are housless folks with tents and their belongings get thrown out with their homes, which would be tents.The amount of disrespect the city has for their people is so crazy to me. So this Rv community is “getting pushed out “SF State University.  “It really is distressing news," said Margot Sevilla, 27, who works in construction as a painter. Sevilla lives with her grandma, two cousins and uncle in a single Rv. “They’re going to remove us and we don’t have anywhere to go,” also said Margot Sevilla. As I am researching on houseless people with sweeps, It’s still happening as we speak. It’s one of the top 10 issues in California today and definitely has to be more recognised. The Government is sleeping on our Community. The fact that San Francisco is ramping up efforts to remove houseless folks in general is beyond me. There is all kinds of Violence in the city, “Where is the Police now that’s protecting and serving and not harming our people.” The Police now are sadly too busy kicking us poor folks off the street. I”m saying for myself--I, Jay Paulino--say this is wrong as hell as a young writer scholar.          Resuming 10-1-2024: As we talked about houseless sweeping with RVs, There’s folks out there still getting swept, the two actions I was at were in San Francisco City Hall and a Harmless parking lot in East Oakland, California. I asked every Officer “Why do they keep kickin us poor folks out?” They replied with “ask Ivan.” Since when did the public community workers have a higher power with police. The attitude when they know it's illegal to kick us out in broad hell daylight. What do the Police have to say about that one? The first action was “Police hurting the Poverty poor folks” by kicking out families out of their own homes that are considered tents, RV’s and their own built homes when the Government knows from right and wrong. I just didn’t understand how difficult it is for police to protect and serve our community. There’s crime every single day where’s the Police then. With out of respect this is frustrating to watch when there is real harm out there, when the System is failing to serve and they get paid like that is beyond me.

  • Is the Covid 19 Pandemic Over?

    After the article in the San Francisco Bay View (September 2024) by Nehanda Imara pandemic profiteering  exploiting our poverty and pain  b/c if we don't work we don't get an hourly wage i ain't selling nothing cause all i have is fear and a mask can’t cover  that up  or a glove come near the world health organization hasn’t said it's over nor any authority on disease but still we going to the restaurants and movie theater and sitting in the middle row dr. noha says:  “what has been said is  that the public health emergency  is over” so go get back to work keep producing b/c we’re not paying for anything  no mo as capitalism continues yelling  aint nothing free so pull your bare feet by your bootstraps  and let the wealthy and rich be… juju angeles  9/23/2024

  • CORRUPTION AND COVERUP WINS

    4 men were deemed guilty on RICCO Charges BY Momii Palapaz, poverty scholar In retaliation for 4 incarcerated men participating in a hunger strike against solitary confinement,  the Federal government won a verdict of guilty.  Charged with gang conspiracy and racketeering,  James Perez, David Cervantes, George Franco and Guillermo Solorio were participants in hunger strikes to end solitary confinement and united with the Short Corridor collective that produced an “Agreement to End Hostilities” amongst residents of the Pelican Bay State Prison and prisons throughout California.  Thousands got involved by not eating, building unity and protesting the inhuman conditions of the prison system .  Sponsors Silicon Valley De-Bug and POOR Magazine rallied at the Oakland Federal Courthouse prior to the trial, emphasizing the inumanity of solitary confinement. I’ll Never Leave Him Alone “I’ll never leave him alone.  My parents weren’t able to drive up there” to Pelican Bay State Prison.  Said Mary, sister to one of the 4 men who stood trial.   Mary’s brother made her “understand that he was never getting out.  Maybe he didn’t want to be a rat.  If you don’t know anything you can’t talk.”   Long, dark and white, wavy and graying strands of hair down her back, at 70 years old, Mary has spent a lifetime standing by her brother.   “The older guys don’t have any family left to visit anymore”.  Yes, there were few relatives sitting in court during the 80 plus days of the trial. Thursday, September 26, 2024 in Oakland Federal Court, Mary and I are at the Oakland Federal Courthouse waiting for the verdict.  There is no one else waiting.  After two and a half months of trial, it is day 10 with the jurors still deliberating. Her brother and 3 other men were charged with gang conspiracy and racketeering.   I left and received a text from Mary later in the day.  “Yes, when you left, like a half hour after, I saw the attorneys going to the courtroom.  I asked him (lawyer) did anything happen, they said yes they think they made up the verdict already.  So I asked him  if i could go in and they said yes.  It was so sad to see them sad.”  She looked to her brother who gave a slight movement of his face, a weak smile.  All the men gave her recognition.  She tried not to cry, so her brother wouldn’t worry.  “ It’s all prejudice and the government side was happy.”  Mary saw many federal government colleagues/attorneys there to hear the verdict, laughing and smiling.  “I cried all the way home”.  Boy, I wished I stayed a little longer to be with her for the bad news. Solidarity in hunger and an end to fighting   Mary expressed her surprise saying, “I didn’t know all this stuff about (Nuestra Familia) NF. I learned a lot.  I didn't know about my brother having to be in a gang to stay alive.  All this was new to me.  Now  I hear about the government lying so much.  I didn’t think there were crooks like that. I feel bad for my brother”. In 2011,  between July 1 and September 26th, James Perez, David Cervantes, George Franco and Guillermo Solorio were part of a hunger strike protesting solitary confinement. Organized by The Short Corridor Collective, the residents sent messages that spread Statewide and throughout prisons and jails on turtle island.  These men lived in the (Special Housing Unit) SHU, and could only receive non-touch visits,  separated by a window, with a telephone.  They were denied the right to free movement beyond a cage, denied the right to quality nutrition and the right to touch earth.. In 2012, The Short Order Collective at Pelican Bay constructed “An Agreement to End Hostilities” in the continued ongoing struggle for unity amongst the imprisoned.  Both the hunger strike and the “amendment” simultaneously targeted the federal government and the US industrial prison complex.  Much to no one's surprise, the Feds and CDRc (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)  immediately tried to suppress and cover up the uprising. Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, co-writer of  “An Agreement To End Hostilities” and co-leader of the hunger strike.  Member of the Short Corridor Collective at Pelican Bay State Prison. Toward the end of the trial an inmate and witness for the prosecution admitted he was also a confidential informant for the CDCr.  This witness was known to have set up individuals outside the prison walls, involving the CHP and local police.  In addition, several government witnesses were all housed together in county jail during the trial.  Another witness identified a CDCr officer telling him to hide the cell phone during call searches.  Even though Federal prosecutors failed to provide proof with confiscated cell phones and cash from supposed drug transactions, this lack of evidence didn’t deter the jury’s decision of guilt. UFW- Symbol of unity and pride   Mary’s parents worked in the fields, with Mary and her older brother.   The family had four children.  Mary is the eldest. They went “town to town;  Barstow, Mendoda, San Jose”.   “When I was small, 5, 6 or 7, we lived in Barstow in a round trailer house by the railroad tracks.  Mom would yell out “don’t go near the tracks.  We suffered a lot, maybe that’s why I like the fields.”  We used to “make clothes for school”.  At 9 years old, I “picked tomatoes, garlic, onions in Salinas, apricots, strawberries and walnuts in San Jose.”  I thought about my mom’s family who also lived in San Jose.  Mary and I are both the same age.  We both grew up appreciating those days when San Jose was mostly orchards, green houses and fields. “I worked out in the fields with my brother.”  In San Jose,  her parents bought a house and “at 15 or 16, got a job at the Head Start program.  I met a woman  who worked with the United Farm Workers (UFW). She would take food to farmworkers in Fresno during the strike.  She would do a lot of talking  with the workers.  I remember all the workers, and boxes of food.”  I too remember the 1970’s, when the UFW campaigned heavily to boycott grapes.  Organizing and marching in cities across the State of California, and reaching out to grocery stores, thousands became aware of the farmworkers struggle for humane conditions, pay, and right to strike.  Supporters passed out leaflets urging shoppers to not buy grapes.  My father was a union man, so we boycotted as well.   All the men deemed guilty, are descendants of migrants and have memories as youngsters in Fresno, San Jose, Salinas, Sacramento, Central and Southern California.  As children, along with their parents, they worked or sat by in the fields of vegetables and fruits. They planted and harvested millions of tons of produce for independent small farmers and billionaire agri businesses.  Migrant farmworkers made dimes compared to the profits of big corporate farms. The United Farm Workers and the symbol of the Eagle was respected and honored.  The flag of the UFW was tattooed proudly on many of Mexican heritage.  This was the symbol of unity, an emblem of the Mexican and Indigenous who crossed false borders for a better life.  It was also prominent on the bodies of Mexicans housed in prisons throughout California. As her parents aged, it became more and more difficult to make the nine hour drive to the Pelican Bay State Prison.  For 35 years, their son has lived near the false border of California and Oregon, 10 minutes from Crescent City.  They told Mary, the oldest daughter, to continue keeping in touch with her brother.  “No matter how long I live, I’ll be there for him.  My son says, ‘what about you and your health, take it easy’ but I say, no, ‘he’s my little brother and ‘if it were you, I would not leave you alone either.’  he said, ‘But mom, we want you to be okay too’.”  Mary’s large sparkly eyes conveyed hope behind glasses framed with lilac.  Sentencing TBA. POOR MAGAZINE presents ceremony for 4 men on trial.  Silicon DeBug and supporters before the trial June 26, 2024. We Are All Connected

  • UnSelling Mama Earth and Building A Homeless Peoples Solution to Homelessness in Tovaangar(LA)

    For Immediate Release : Contact: Carla /Aetna Street Solidarity 818-481-0753 Tiny/poormagazine  (510)-435-7500  What : Homefulness Tovaangar - Poetry, Prayer, Poverty Scholarship and Intention for Radical Interdependence & ComeUnity Reparations   When: 7pm Sunday, Sept 29th  Where: Church in Ocean Park - 235 Hill Street Santa Monica  "They told me i had to move, but when I moved across the street, they said I couldn't be there either,"  Said Momma G, a houseless, disabled elder resident and RoofLess Radio Reporter of West LA, "They said I have to be gone by 6am,"  she concluded. Like so many houseless residents of LA, Momma G is disabled, neuro-divergent and an immune compromised elder. She needs healing and housing. She needs to be listened to and loved, not swept like she is trash. Since the Grants Pass Vs Johnson Supreme Court ruling was made and the subsequent order by Governor Newsom, the mayors of towns across so-called California like Karen Bass, Sheng Tao,  London Breed and Karen Bass have been waging a war against our houseless bodies. Sweeping, disappearing and arresting us to nowhere. A Houseless/Indigenous/Disabled Comeunity from Oakland has created a viable and practicable solution to homelessness they call Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness, and it currently houses  21 houseless elders and families in rent -free forever, healing housing    Which they will be presenting and teaching on with houseless mamas, elders, youth and families from Reclaiming Our Homes and Aetna Street Solidarity at Church in Ocean Park in Santa Monica.  "Both of these powerful LA based movements of houseless comeUnities are working to build real solutions to our problems as houseless people because we know that the City and State only present more sweeps, carceral systems and never affordable housing, " said tiny Gray-Garcia, formerly houseless co-founder, author and visionary of Homefulness who was houseless, criminalized and arrested in LA as a child with her disabled mother     "  Homefulness  needs everyone to be involved, housed and Unhoused, privileged and poor, indigenous and settler, working together to implement radical sharing and a concept we call ComeUnity Reparations so we can together work to UnSell Mama Earth," concluded tiny   Momma G,a houseless reporter for POOR Magazine, contributed to the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report  which spoke to houseless victims of violent sweeps all across California from LA to  Oakland to San Francisco focused on the increasingy violent sweeps being ordered by Governor Newsom and Mayors from Los Angeles to Oakland to San Francisco to disappear our houseless bodies and lives from the public streets following the Grants Pass Vs Johnson Court Case .(WeSearch report Sweeping us to Nowhere )  "Notwithstanding the Grants Pass Ruling of denial of protection under the 8th amendment, there is the 14th Amendment, which implies a "citizen's"  right to life and the material resources that guarantee life, such as food, water, shelter, and essentially all of the things that are stolen from people in these violent sweeps, as such, sweeps are not just unethical but patently unconstitutional.," said Jeremy Miller, revolutionary legal advocate with Poor Peoples Law Clinic at Homefulness/POOR Magazine in his article   POOR Magazine will also be offering a free Theatre of the POOR/Poverty Scholarship workshop with Reclaiming Our Homes and Aetna Street Solidarity for houseless poverty skolaz at El Sereno Community Garden on Saturday, Sept 28th- for more information on this please email poormag@gmail.com   Land Liberation For Houseless Peoples Self-Determination in Tovaangar  Sweeps deny Our Right to Live  1st RoofLessRadio WeSearch Release

  • Sweeping us to Nowhere- While Silencing our Solutions

    RoofLEss Radio WeSearch report 2024 Do you know where the bus station is?,” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr. Asuncion asked, who had just been swept from a little corner he was standing on by California Highway Patrol officers. He had a bus ticket he had received in his hand but had no idea where he was going, no money or resources or family in the town he was going to and not sure exactly why he even had the bus ticket.  (His words are an excerpt from the 1st WeSearch   report Sweeping us to Nowhere  available on poormagazine.org ) Sr Asuncion is just one of the 31 houseless povertyskola reporters from both sides of the occupied Ohlone /Lisjan Bay- Yelamu and Huchiun aka so-called San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland who contributed to this first group of findings from the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report on these acts of violence and abuse being made by Governor Newsom and Mayors from San Francisco to Los Angeles to disappear our houseless bodies and lives from the public streets of so-called California. The vision of WeSearch is that we houseless and poor povertyskolaz who have been targeted for removal, arrest and harassment have our own experiences and don’t need more about us without us Akademiks and poltricksters to count, study, survey and report on us. We Have our own voices and our own solutions- and to ensure they are listened to and taken seriously we are releasing them in these series of reports. The FINDINGS  From Grants Pass Vs Johnson to Governor Newsom and London Breed, Karen Bass, Sheng Tao and Eric Adams, all of these towns across occupied Turtle Island (United States) are waging a war against our houseless bodies. Sweeping, disappearing and arresting us to nowhere.  Homelessness kills us. We are dying everyday from the sweeps and violent arrests and ongoing removal. Since the Grants Pass and Newsom’s order, more of us are dying and getting sick. We have nowhere to go.  We have solutions that aren’t being listened to, solutions like Homefulness (East Oakland), Wood Street Commons (West Oakland), Aetna Street Solidarity (LA), Camp Resolution (Sacramento) and Nicklesville in Seattle.Instead, poltricksters are spending thousands of dollars on PoLice and Sheriffs to sweep, arrest, harass and remove us. WHO are the WeSearchers and Reporters:  The ComeUnities of RoofLessRadio WeSearchers are us- houseless and formerly houseless youth, elders, mamas and uncles from all across the Bay from POOR MAgazine and fellow houseless povertyskola reporters residing in the Tenderloin, Mission, and South of Market districts of San Francisco as well as East Oakland and West Oakland; Five street reporters  from day 1 (Yelamu) SF Nine street reporters from day 2 (Yelamu)  SF Five street reporters from day 3 (Yelamu)  SF 12 street reporters from Day 4 (Huichin)  Oakland Twelve Street Reporters from (Tovaangar) West LA, North LA, Van Nuys, East LA and Skid Row on Day 5& 6 Findings and Demographics of WeSearchers 100% of RoofLess Radio reporters knew more than one fellow houseless povertyskola who had died, that was recently swept, removed and was trying to stay alive outside.  100% of RoofLess Radio reporters stated clearly that they have “NOwhere Else to Go” and are just being violently pushed from one corner to another to who knows where. 100% of RoofLess Radio reporters reported multiple police, sheriff and CHP agencies were part of the sweeps, clearings and removal orders they have experienced since Grant Pass. 78% of RoofLess reporters lost housing because of eviction from homes and apartments they resided in the very town, location, and street they are now residing without a roof. 67% of RoofLess reporters from Huchiun, and Yelamu are of African Descent. 78% of RoofLess Radio reporters from Tovaangar are of African Descent 22% of RoofLess Reporters are of indigenous, Southern Turtle Island descent/immigrant/migrants(“undocumented” as described by the settler colonial notion of false border documentation). 98.5% of RoofLEss Huchiun reporters are Life-time Oakland Residents. 78% of RoofLess YElamu reporters are life-time San Francisco Residents. 82% of RoofLESS Tovaangar reporters are lifetime residents of Greater LA and the Valley 38% of RoofLess reporters are women. 78% of RoofLess reporters are over 62. 95% of Roofless reporters are physically disabled, medically fragile and/or living with mental illness. 52% of RoofLess reporters are currently working. 79% of RoofLess reporters have experienced, harassment, arrest and incarceration for the sole act of being unhoused. 100% of RoofLEss Reporters lost their belongings in poLice and “Cleaning”  raids and sweeps on both sides of the bay. 100% of RoofLess Reporters have never gotten their belongings back after being swept. 52% of RoofLess reporters struggle with substance use and have no access to treatment. 92% of RoofLess reporters have their own solutions to homelessness which include access to vacant land, abandoned buildings,  liberated Ohlone land (OakLAND), Tovaangar (LA) Land, Yelamu Land (SF) to build, sleep, rest, build ComeUnity. This report is available on www.poormagazine.org . RoofLess Radio *WeSearch are projects of POOR Magazine- POOR Magazine is a poor, houseless, indigenous peoples -led movement dedicated to providing, and visioning media, education, art and solutions by and for communities in poverty locally and globally.  Homefulness is a homeless peoples solution to homelessness being MamaFested by poor and houseless people with permission and guidance by 1st Nations elders with two current sites in Huchiun and more planned for Tovaangar, Yelamu, and the PNW of Occupied Turtle Island (Oakland, SF, LA, Seattle/Bellingham, Olympia) *WeSearch, Krapitalism,MamaFest and PoLice are words created by tiny aka @povertyskola. Poverty Scholarship is a poor people led theory and practice created by Mama Dee, tiny and POOR Magazine family of poverty, disabled, indigenous skolaz

  • A Houseless ComeUnity Disappeared to Nowhere- MLK & West Grand- Houseless People demand Hearing NOT clearing

    For Immediate Release: Contact: Muteado or Tiny/poormagazine  (510)-435-7500  A ComeUnity Disappeared - MLK & West Grand  Land Liberation Not more Incarceration and LIEgislatons   The city of Oakland and the State of California just violently  destroyed a houseless comeUnity of over 100 people in Oakland  while making false promises for housing and refusing to release hundreds of vacant and hoarded land so we could create our own solutions  What : Land Liberation NOT More Incarceration and Sweeps A Houseless ComeUnity Disappeared to Nowhere- MLK & West Grand Press Conference, Speak Out and Prayer Ceremony   When:  1:30pm Tuesday, Sept 23rd  Where: 23rd St and Northgate  "They came here and tore all of our tents down, threw all of our belongings and even a wheelchair into the trash bin and promised us services and housing but actually gave us no housing." Said Marty, a houseless resident of Martin Luther King Jr Way.   The City of Oakland who received a 7.2 Million Dollars for this recent eradication of human beings and our homes, in tandem with the State of California just completed a devastating "sweep" of an interdependent houseless comeUnity at MLK and West Grand. This violent sweep led to the scattering of scores of people to nowhere which results in the increased danger for the majority of disabled, elder houseless women and men who resided there.  In the grant application for the 7.2 Million dollars the city promised they would be relocating houseless residents of MLK and West Grand to temporary shelter at the Jack London Square Inn and then into permanent supportive housing. This was a blatant lie as the Jack London Square Inn is not even open yet.    Marty, one of the WeSearch reporters  that contributed to the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report  which spoke to houseless victims of violent sweeps all across the Bay from Oakland to San Francsico was released in August and focused on the increasingy violent sweeps being ordered by Governor Newsom and Mayors from Oakland to San Francisco to Los Angeles to disappear our houseless bodies and lives from the public streets of so-called California following the Grants Pass Vs Johnson Court Case .(WeSearch   report Sweeping us to Nowhere )    “7.2 Million Dollars!!!!! - do you know how many Homefulness Projects we houseless peoples could build with that much money!!!” said tiny gray-garcia houseless co-founder of POOR Magazine/Homefulness Houseless/poor/disabled Comeunities have viable and practible solutions that they have offerred to the Cities of Oakland and San Francisco, projects like Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness that currently houses 20 houseless residents in rent -free forever, healing housing and the proposal for surplus land redistribution to Wood Street Commons, another site of a violent sweep that led to the death of many of the residents,   Since the Grants Pass Vs Johnson ruling was made and the subsequent order by Governor Newsom, the mayors of towns across so-called California like Sheng Tao,  London Breed and Karen Bass,  have been waging a war against our houseless bodies. Sweeping, disappearing and arresting us to nowhere.  "Notwithstanding the Grants Pass Ruling of denial of protection under the 8th amendment, there is the 14th Amendment, which implies a "citizen's"  right to life and the material resources that guarantee life, such as food, water, shelter, and essentially all of the things that are stolen from people in these violent sweeps, as such, sweeps are not just unethical but patently unconstitutional.," said Jeremy Miller, revolutionary legal advocate with Poor Peoples Law Clinic at Homefulness/POOR Magazine   in his article     “We are out here giving resources and support to our houseless community like we always do, said John Janasko, co-leader and organizer with Wood Street Commons,”  Alternatively, a   community of houseless/formerly houseless advocates, care-givers  and housed allies were out everyday of the violent sweep providing urgently needed resource  for the West Grand /MLK comeUnity to help them with housing, food, medicine, health care resources as well as legal advocacy to ensure their Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rights are not being violated and they are legally protected in the face of this state sponsored violence.   This Press Conference  and Speakout is a collaboration between POOR Magazine and Wood Street Commons and is co-sponsored by Anti-PoLice Terror Project and Where Do We Go.  The Resource Fair included advocates from Coffee Not Cops, Love and Justice in the Streets, POOR MAgazine, Wood Street Commons, Where Do We Go, APTP, Peoples Park Berkeley and many more   Sweeps deny Our Right to Live  Day 2 & 3 of the violent Sweeps  1st RoofLessRadio WeSearch Release

  • Sweeps Deny our right to Live

    T he Case made for our protection from these deadly sweeps under the 14th Amendment By Jeremy Miller/Poor Peoples Law Clinic at POOR Magazine/Homefulness The Supremacist Court’s recent decision to uphold the hateful will of those governing Grants Pass , Oregon in their systematic assault on homeless people has sent shockwaves through the nation as its impact is already being felt by people with inadequate or non-existent safe housing options currently residing in these United Capitalist Prison States of America.  Specifically what it has done is overturn a 2019 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling ( Martin v. Boise ) proscribing (en)forced removal (including people and belongings) without there being an adequate shelter alternative available.  This earlier decision grounded itself in an interpretation of the eighth amendment of the Constitution and its proscription of cruel and unusual punishment.  One of the key reasons why Grant’s Pass has been so impactful is that Martin v. Boise  had become such a popular shield against the regular assaults on dignity and humanity conducted by various law-enforcement agencies and their private sector collaborators against unhoused folks in the western part of the settler colony.  To be clear this was a shot across the bow from the rarefied heights of the judiciary all but declaring war on homeless people.  Also, relying on plain meaning of language (which is precisely what the Supremacist Court was supposed to do,) only someone who has never experienced homelessness or had intimate emotional relations (such as familial) with someone who has could possibly challenge the characterization of current anti-homeless ordinances/laws as being cruel.  We will set aside the unusual aspect for the moment because it seems that regularity of oppression is a weak argument for justifying let alone enshrining atrocity in law. Fortunately, despite all the hand-wringing and jeremiads, not to mention the triumphalist poor-bashing laps being taken by such “liberal” oppressors as California Governor Gavin Newsom or San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the legality of homeless sweeps, property confiscations, camping bans, and unnecessary incarceration for “quality of life” crimes is not dependent on an affirmative definition as either cruel or unusual.  There is an older and deeper constitutional provision which, if applied, would make all of these anti-homeless laws, ordinances, and tactics extremely difficult to legally defend. The Original Right to Life More than thirteen years before the Bill of Rights was composed (encompassing the first ten ratified amendments to the Constitution) the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson.  Its preamble includes some of the most notorious of lofty (and largely unrealized) political sentiment in the entire history of the nation’s political philosophy and letters.  Most “Americans” know the words by heart even if due to a dearth of civics education they cannot place where they are recorded.   We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Now of course we could allow ourselves to be derailed here by a digression into which men were actually envisioned by the slave-holding Jefferson, what the implications were for women’s enfranchisement etc. but, while politically suggestive especially from a liberationist frame, this elides a key point.  All modern legal  interpretations ascribe a race/sex/gender universality to the language.  The emphasis on the legal is critical here.  Despite the fact that most people think of this language as merely late eighteenth century ideological pontification, a large chunk of it has been introduced into positive law.  The vehicle for this is the first section of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, rendered shorthand as the “Incorporation Doctrine.”  In relevant part it states: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [Emphasis author’s own.] While the right to “the pursuit of Happiness” is displaced by the more vulgar right to property, significantly the right to life is maintained and theoretically possessed by “any person.”  The incorporation doctrine effectively was an answer to the question of “states’ rights” or its constitutional corollary in the tenth amendment to the Constitution.  The tenth amendment was a concessionary measure (or to some a balancing measure) for those desiring a state level counterpoint to emerging federal power.  It states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This effectively was the ultimate argument in Grants Pass v. Johnson.  Justice Neil Gorsuch concludes the majority decision saying: The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy. It is precisely this type of abdication of responsibility that the incorporation doctrine was meant to preclude.  Specifically, by articulating a right to life in the Constitution it denies the right to the states to create any law, ordinance, or engage in any act(s) that deprive people of life save within the narrow parameters of something like death penalty jurisprudence.  In fact, spending a moment on the current Supremacist Court’s greatest hits, when dealing with abortion the only reason why the anti-abortion “right to life” could not be more successfully countered by the original right to life (with emphasis on the life of the mother) is because of the strange hermeneutics of competing claims as to when a fetus is endowed with this special attribute of life. This legal interpretation of the right to life is also codified in international law.  In 1966 the United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  This entered into force (making it obligatory for states parties) a decade later in 1976.  Significantly for our purposes it was ratified by Congress in 1992 with certain “reservations, understandings, and declarations.”  The RUDs are effectively amendments or provisos stipulating that a country will ratify the treaty making it positive national law so long as this, that, or the other interpretation or clause remain non-binding in particular domains or do not threaten jealously protected national interests or prerogatives.  As a relevant example, Article 6, section 2 of the ICCPR sets out what to some may be construed as stringent requirements circumscribing the use of the death penalty as punishment for crimes.  The United Capitalist Prison States of America did not want any supranational body to be able to dictate under what conditions it could sentence people to execution and thus entered a reservation to the limitation concerning the circumstances in which capital punishment is imposed. This same article of the ICCPR (Article 6) is relevant for our argument here.  Specifically Article 6, section 1 reads: Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. This right was further clarified in 2019 by the UN Human Rights Committee, the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by states parties. In General Comment 36, Section 3, Paragraph 26 it asserts in relevant part: The measures called for to address adequate conditions for protecting the right to life include, where necessary, measures designed to ensure access without delay by individuals to essential goods and services such as food, water, shelter , health care, electricity and sanitation, and other measures designed to promote and facilitate adequate general conditions, such as the bolstering of effective emergency health services, emergency response operations (including firefighters, ambulance services and police forces) and social housing programmes . [Emphasis author’s own.] Since none of the RUDs have any language that contradicts this definition of the responsibilities states parties have vis-à-vis the ICCPR, the nation is enjoined in upholding them.  This should carry additional weight since unlike most other international instruments, the ICCPR has actually been ratified by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush hence theoretically depriving the country of an ability to hide behind national jurisdiction arguments to dodge international obligations.   Contradiction Between Local Ordinances and Federal Law It is no secret that there have always been battles between federal and state or local authorities surrounding policy.  From the Civil War up through to current battles surrounding energy regulation (Sen. Joe Manchin vs. President Joe Biden,) or how evil one can legally be to immigrants (Gov. Greg Abbott vs. President Joe Biden,) major life altering issues have been adjudicated in formal settings like the Supremacist Court or informal settings like the street.  And while it would be a pipe-dream to expect this strife to completely disappear, from a legal standpoint there is a pecking order that can at least doctrinally be relied on to determine which view prevails.  This is known as the Supremacy Clause.  Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution states: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. Thus the Supremacy Clause on its face clearly establishes that in conflict of disposition the Constitution, and all treaties made carry the day.  They cannot be overturned by petty despots such as London Breed, Eric Adams, Gavin Newsom, or the City Council of Grants Pass Oregon. Why Do We Bother with the Man’s Law? The question regarding how we treat the poorest among us is ultimately an ethical question and no written compact ought to be necessary to compel our compassion and camaraderie.  But unfortunately the logics of capitalism have been so deeply ingrained in many people as to make this thought process not necessarily a foregone conclusion.  Thus we see rampant cruelty in local policies around the nation enforced to maintain order, which for some appears to be a more precious value than humanity.  Due to this we can not necessarily rely on ethical or moral appeals to prevent attacks on homeless people.  This is specifically why Martin v. Boise  was so significant for homeless folks.  It not only named their oppression, but provided the law as an imperfect shield against its enforcement.  People have not changed so much in the intervening years.  The moral fight will continue ad nauseum.  But, especially in light of grotesque escalations of anti-homeless abuse by municipal and state actors, since the Grant’s Pass decision broke the Martin shield a new one must be hoisted.  Gratefully it already exists.  On the fourfold legal foundation of the Declaration of Independence, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, the ICCPR, and the Supremacy Clause all people, including homeless people, have a right to life that is clearly being abrogated by current policies.  The sweeps are not only unethical, but illegal.  So to hell with Martin!  It was good while it lasted.  We don’t have time to mourn it.  The law is still squarely on the side of humble people fighting to live.  We just have to remind the oppressors of this every damn time!

  • What is supposed to happen when people get arrested for being homeless

    By Leajay Harper /POOR Magazine  “What is supposed to happen when people get arrested for being homeless? Do you come out housed? Do you get out healed?” a woman (who did not state her name) asked the Berkeley mayor and other council members at last nights city council meeting. The meeting was for Berkeley city to now support the executive order placed by the governor last month. The executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them, and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same. Since the order was In Place, we’ve seen violent sweeps happening in San Francisco, where Mayor London Breed promises to make people camping outside uncomfortable. One of the strategies that many cities are using to respond to the order is to incarcerate people that refuse to cooperate with police. Vigilante crimes against homeless people have increased as more housed residents across Bay Area cities are reporting about the blight and public defecation. Because of the executive order put on by the governor, people in the community think they can take matters into their own hands in addressing the homeless because they feel law enforcement is behind them. The misappropriation of all the billions of dollars that CA says we have spent on housing and providing services to the unhoused have still failed to provide any reports showing how many people have actually been placed. “You’re not supposed to be texting during a council meeting,” demands Sheryl, another angry resident frustrated because the body language was a direct reflection of how much compassion the stakeholders hold for our unhoused relatives. The mayor was very adamant about people not disturbing the meeting, that if people speak out of turn they will be asked to leave, but my question is: How do they expect people to act when their freedom is a question on the table? In the last month we have seen cities moving very fast to implement policies that criminalize people living outside, while people have been trying to get housing and are being given the run-around from agencies that the county has put in control of this process. Another strategy that we see being used is to offer people bus tickets home… In Alameda County alone, a report on the unhoused states that 68% have lived here their whole lives. And so again we ask,  “Where do we go?” There have been people placed into Tuff Shed communities with the promise from the city that people are temporarily put in tiny sheds for a max of 90 days. But the average time that it takes for a person to receive the housing through the coordinated entry system is a minimum of a year to actually get housed, and that is if you have a high enough score to get matched with a placement. There are less than 300 county beds in shelters and over 7000 people currently unhoused.  I was unhoused on Wood Street and when the city relocated me to a city sanctioned RV lot, I was lost and disconnected from the community I felt safe in for 10 years. In December, I was blessed to be welcomed as the 16th resident in permanent healing housing model, rent-free for life, at POOR Magazine’s Homefulness, which operates fully on the radical redistribution of wealth hoarders’ money. I would like to add that I didn't have to go through any bullshit ass city-ran agency to move into this community. It was the genuine love of the community that understands how much a person can strive once given the opportunity to heal from trauma, a lot of mine came from being swept time and time again.  I think the most fucked up part for me is that there are plenty of self-ran communities that have been around for years and that provide people with everything that they need to remained housed forever. It doesn't make sense that more communities (like Homefulness) aren’t being supported or even modeled after because these communities put the people first instead of feeding the lie of capitalism and colonization. Here’s how you can get involved with us: On October 4th 2024 Wood St Commons (west oakland unhoused community) and other supporting organizations and community allies will be riding our bikes from Oakland to Sacramento. We are hoping to meet with all of the Assembly and Senate Members that currently sit on the Housing committees and the Governor's office. For more information, see this Google form . You can also donate to the GoFundMe .

  • RoofLess Radio Street Writing Workshop with Wood Street Commons

    RoofLessRadio Reporters HerStories and HisStories, transcribed. Genie Sullivan My first memory as a child was sleeping on the floor at the place my dad was working. We weren’t supposed to be there so I just remember this feeling of needing to hide. This process continued every few years that my family was evicted and we spent nights in our vehicle, on couches, or with family.  As a child, I thought my family was a failure and I blamed my parents. However, as a 27 year old going through the same experiences, I realized that a lot of people go through the same thing because of the system’s causes.. —------------ Daewon Aone 3 years ago, I found a gardener’s plot with a tiny house on it. And I’ve been there all on the grace of the Infinite. I use meth from a fail attempt at connecting writing ? as an slective for my PTSD Oakland traumatic J and I make continuous efforts to learn/teach all the Supreme wishes 4 me to HAVE YOU SEEN COPS Erday BRUH on motor bikes and always in a dam helicopter I came to a conclusion or epiphany: “A dude my age shouldn’t be still living with any ? so I made some happen —----------------- Amy After working really hard, being beaten/shamed to be what they wanted, I was told that I still   wasn’t enough.  So, at 14 I decided to follow my own path. Over the years, my struggle has been cultivated by/intertwined with depression, anxiety, neuro-divergence, domestic violence, addiction, art, travel, freedom, thriving through survivalism. —--------------- Dani Dani-mother to Deshae, Danau and Danyel, poverty skola, formerly houseless & now currently homeful at Homefulness. My auntie kicked me out because of a lie her daughter told her. I stopped smoking meth when I first moved to Oakland, but quickly got back into it. I got lost in the dope world, but I learned how to survive. I was abused mentally, physically and emotionally by my partners. I thought that was the way to be.  Because of all of this I now suffer from depression But I am now currently in the process of healing at 33 year old. —------------------ Kharizma At 9 my mom got evicted from our apartment in West Grand so we lived homeless at Peoples Park for 3 months. —----------------- LeaJay My lst time being homeless I was 17.  It was 2 months before my high school graduation- I stayed out all weekend & my mom was mad when I got home. She told me to stay wherever I had been at or leave, but I couldn’t stay anymore so I took my duffle bag to Peoples Park in Berkeley to try to fend for myself. —---------- Rozz Veloz Electrician by force not by choice. Pops owned the company.  We build grocery stores and shit like that.  ?  the guy most f? Do not want to see on their jobsite. Because it means you’ve ? and you about to get the ?  worked for Tesla, I ? LAX and ? $3,000 wk but all I really want to be is the best daddy I can be.  I am story short hold my house in Laguna Beach?, moved up here, to be near my son, custody battle. I income is s75,000.  Dogs were stolen, jeep was towed. Everything inside stolen, truck, tools stolen, couldn't ?, everything gone.  Liberated.

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