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a homeless peoples solution to homelessness comes to Yelamu with a request for humility, prayer, love, liberation.... and patience Street Newsroom with houseless residents of Yelamu and Huchiun Lands Before the ink was even dry on the settler colonial paper lie  That which is  tied  to multiple acts of genocide  from Turtle Island to Palestine Eviction, foreclosure, treaties, Murder  and  Sweeping humans until we die….  They came for us - enforcing, removing, with multiple tools to criminalize..tiny  “I’m from Code enforcement,” a lady standing at the entrance to a tiny triangle of land at Cesar Chavez and Mission streets, wearing an official looking lanyard claiming DPH (Department of Public Health) and handing me a card said. “I’ll be passing onto my manager what I witnessed here and if you want to send an email to her directly you can.” she concluded “Instead of enforcing, sweeping, cleaning, criminalizing and removing, how bout actively redirecting those funds and all of that work into housing these San Francisco residents,”.i asked her, to which she replied, well this isnt my call.    Before the ink was even dry on the settler colonial paper that says us poor/houseless/indigenous peoples at POOR Magazine “owned” a tiny slip of Mama Earth at the crossroads of Cesar Chavez, Mission and Capp street, in the so-called Mission district of Occupied Yelamu, we were bombarded with calls, messages and emails about houseless residents of the land, most of which included all the usual tropes about our houseless bodies, nothing we weren’t used to of course.  “Just letting you know there are discarded needles and broken glass on the property you own,” literally one week had passed after the papers were signed and POOR Magazine started getting an endless stream of CONcerned calls from housed neighbors, wanting us to “take care of the homeless problem on this lot’ In the same week we got a call from a trusted ally and homelessness advocate we have worked with on the streets for years in Yelamu, who also had received  calls “about us”.  Then we got a call from one of the more progressive board supervisors in SF, who had also gotten calls from more irate and CONcerned “neighbors”  And then on our first herstoric day stepping on the land, where we came to begin building relationships with houseless residents already there, offering what we call a “love-clean”  which is poverty scholarship informed care, support and advocacy  to find out what the lot residents and other poverty skolaz in the neighborhood needed, it was another in person endless stream of so-called CONcern. Code enforcement “visiting” , Kkkops circling, and more neighbors questioning. But this is always the strangeness of HOMEfulness- because we are the “homeless people” that society casually disrespects, we are also the people that society never believes could have the answers to our own problems. We are never listened to or honored for what we call our Poverty Scholarship. And in fact we are usually met with fear, disgust or straight up hate. Even if we supposedly “own” the land.  “I have a room the City got me, but I don’t feel safe there and I’m all alone, I have no family,” Paul, a current houseless resident of HOMEfulness4, explained in our street writing workshop we held on the land on day 1 to write the HERstories and HISstories that will “build” HOMEfulness Yelamu, that after having all of his clothes, medicine and tent stolen in a sweep by the City, they gave him a referral to a room that he doesnt feel safe in and also feels so lonely he would rather sleep outside near his friends.There are so many ways krapitalism causes homelessness, not the least of which is the violence of loneliness.  One of the many things Poverty Scholarship teaches us, is isolation kills and is one of the many things we have to address if we build homes for houseless people. It is why the politrickster “solutions” of just putting people alone in a room never works and why HOMEfulness is such a powerful healing model. HERstory If you are scratching your head wondering how us poor & houseless peoples -led movement, who don’t have two nickels to put together, own anything, much-less over-priced, gentriFUKed and commodified Bay Area mama earth, first of all, we don’t.  We teach people with different forms of race and class privilege the concepts of ComeUnity Reparations, Poverty Scholarship and Radical redistribution at PeopleSkool, theories of change and concepts  rooted in radical interdependence, i.e. ending the violent acts of looking away, scarcity, hate and separateness, all values we are taught, modeled and shown in this stolen land, krapitalist system. The Decolonization and DegentrniFUKation seminars, led and created by all of us poor, houseless, disabled, indgienous peoples at POOR Magazine’s PeopleSkool, focus on teaching, healing, decolonizing and changing the ways people are conditioned into behaving in this society so they can be numbed into uncaring, exploiting and extracting Mama Earth and her earth’s people, all for their own profit or gain, which leads to the multiple crapitalist diseases of hoarding money, land and resources while people are starving and freezing on the street with nothing. Our seminars held since 2009, have led to the creation of the POOR Magazine solidarity family of conscious folks with race and class privilege who put in practice these teachings in many ways in their own lives, in street based mutual aid and support of the many reparations funds of poor and houseless people and the Bank of ComeUnity Reprations- which is currently supporting over 15 houseless residents in the HOMEfulness Hotel Fund , hundreds of houseless mamas in the Po Mamaz Reparations Fund, Po Mamaz PAnale Fund (Free diapers for Mamaz in poverty) the weekly Slidng scale cafe, which currently provides fresh organic produce, bakery  food, diapers and groceries to over 500 families and elders and the HOMEfulness project which currently houses 25 houseless youth, adults and elders in rent-free forever housing. As well, the seminars  help wealth-hoarders unlearn the violence of hoarding and practice radical sharing with HOMEfulness, Bank of ComeUnity Reparations and other poor,  houseless and indigenous peoples led land liberation movements like Wood Street Commons, Sogorea Te Land trust Self-Help Hunger program and Aetna street Solidarity to name a few     After a trail of tears of loss which included being gentriFUked out of SF’s Mission with a $700 over nite rent increase of Mamahouse- a collective home we poor and houseless mamas created to provide love, community and resources with each other. And thru radical redistributed dollars of the Soildarity Family and permission and prayer protocol from 1st Nations leaders and land protectors and endless work , labor and time from all of us houseless povertyskolaz we were able to launch HOMEfulness #1 in deep east Occupied Huchiun. Which is the ONLy reason this chronically houseless poor single mama and my Sun are housed and homeful.  HOMEfulness#4 Now we begin the love journey to build the same vision in occupied Yelamu and Tovaangar. One year  (Dec 17th) after an epic state-wide action we called Sanctuaries NOT sweeps on Dec 17th of 2024, to challenge the settler lie of public and private property hoarding and scarcity and violent act of sweeping jumans like we are trash, which got  terrifyingly worse and fatal to houseless communities after Grants Pass v Johnson, and in collaboration with fellow poor/houseless people-led movements Wood Street Commons, Aetna Street Solidarity, Homeless in Fresno, Western Regional Advocacy Project, Self-Help Hunger Program and many of the powerful homeless unions across the bay, we began the prayer, love and liberation work of unselling and liberating this small part of Mama Earth in the occupied village of Yelamu (SF) with our street newsroom, street-writing workshops, sliding scale cafe, direct advocacy  and HOMEfulness Hotel Fund not to sweep or terrorize the residents who are already houselessly staying there but to figure out safe housing and shelter for them until HOMEfulness is bult!  29 years later  The prayerful and sorrowful part about of HOMEfulness Yelamu is that ever since me and my disabled mama were on the streets, sleeping in doorways, shelter beds, bus shelters, golden gate park benches and the back seats of hoopties whenever we were lucky enough to have one (cuz they were usually towed for expired registration and/or too many parking tickets for sleeping in our own vehicle) we dreamed the vision of HOMEfulness. Then in 1998, two years after the launch of POOR Magazine and while me and my mama were still struggling with homelessness ourselves we proposed the vision to HUD,, taught ourselves how to write the insane 94 page grant application and submitted it.  3 months later we found out “we got the grant” but because we didnt know what we were doing and they offered no technical assistance to fill out the insanely hard budget of the grant, we only received a grant for $12.00 per month. Yes, i did say 12.00 per month, which wouldnt buy a loaf of bread much-less enable us to “purchase” or lease anything to have houseless families like ours live in in San Francisco. We were so heartbroken. But we kept trying.  In 2004 , while then mayor Gavin Newsom was stealing money from houseless people in his Care NOT Cash program, so he could get points on the backs of poor peoples suffering, we approached the City council of San Francisco with a proposal for Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness. It was rejected because we didnt have enough experience with housing! Then in 2005 we submitted HOMEfulness to the “homeless czar” or whatever rediculous name Gavin Newsome was giving it. Rejected again because we didnt have enough support?   In 2007 when POOR Magazine the organization and its members were houseless again after losing all of our funding, we proposed it to non-profit housing Devil-opers and big non-profits working on “housing for the homeless” . Again, rejected because I dont think they trusted our knowledge In 2008, knowing that HOMEfulness would never happen unless we, the poor and houseless folks ourselves, built it,  I began the journey with my fellow houseless/poor mamas and povertyskolaz to create the curriculum of the Revolutionary Change Session at PeopleSkool  Once we received the first act of redistribution for 100,000, and  we began desperately searching all of occupied Yelamu for a site. But for what seemed to me like sooooo much money, aka the $100,000, we couldnt find any place to build, stop , stay or dream. After prayer with ancestors and multiple elders council and Elephant meetings (where we poor/indigneous peoples decide together about our actions and movement), we expanded the search for a small part of mama earth to the neighborhoods my mama and i had been houseless in in Oakland and where many of our other members were from.POOR Magazine was always an all Bay Area organization, even though our original headquarters were in SF.  On a rainy day in March we found the site of HOMEfulness1 - a place, not accidentally, where me and my mama parked when we were houseless. It was an almost empty lot, abandoned long ago and with hardly any space to build the vision of 14 units of rent-free forever housing for houseless families , elders and children, but it was the best we could find.   “Here come the crackheads and the homeless people,” the landlord next door greeted us with the usual warmth one reserves for your worst enemy. But hey, nothing new for us. People were always calling poLice, calling us out our name and blaming us for all of the “crimes of poverty”  “I gave up, after I lost my housing, i looked and got on waitlists and showed up to endless meetings,  but none of it panned out, I guess i just gave up” Sal, another houseless resident finished by looking down.  “I have cancer in my spinal column,” Juan C, one of the residents,who has created a street bicycle repair business, tried to get into housing and very little luck even though he is struggling with a serious health fatal health condition like Cancer.  There are many reasons we are on the street. These reasons take care and love and time to solve and hold. This is the medicine of Poverty Scholarship, PeopleSkool and HOMEfulness and can’t and won’t be solved by sweeping us criminalizing and enforcing us, but rather how about caring and housing us.  Instead of calling for sweeps, enforcement and removal - please concerned housed neighbors, comeUnity and friends - call the City and ask them to fast track the HOMEfulness building project thru the zoning and permit process - and/or help us raise the resources to build the HOMEfulness Project which includes the HOMEfulness healing center, sliding scale cafe/free market and housing for over 30 houseless SF residents, and urge the city to open vacant motel rooms for houseless relatives like we are doing right now with our meager resources and redirect all that money spent on sweeping humans into housing humans right now. We will be having a press conference about what we are doing and a prayer ceremony with Ramaytush Ohlone Relatives, Danza Azteca, Ifa prayer warriors and for the whole comeunity on Jan 24th at 1pm at HOMEfulness4. To get involved in this caring movement and learn more about the next session of PeopleSkool which is on Jan 31st/Feb 1st - go to www.poormagazine.org/education

TODAY- RAIN OR SHINE- 1pm December 21st on the Sacred Solstice- at HOMEfulness#1 - 8032 BlackArthur Bl (MacArthur) Deep East Huchiun (OAKLAND) PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ONLY FUNraiser!!! The 14th annual Mercado De Cambio/Po Sto- pops off today ! its POOR Magazine's only fundraiser and helps to keep Poor peoples Radio/RoofLEss Radio/Journalism classes for houseless povertyskolaz, Poor Press and our liberation school - Deecolonize Academy - please come thru and support - Yummy free food and Hot Chocolate, Pan Dulce, Indigenous Prayer Bringers from Maya to Africa - ; Danza Azteca Ifa Prayer, Po Poets/poetry, Original art and crafts for sale, music and more !!!!

A little report from Camp Compassion in Novato. In the past, we held down Lee Gerner Park for five years through a combination of public advocacy, and through litigation to block the closure – culminating in a settlement agreement where we got a self-managed camp for two years. However after the camp was burned down in an arson, we have moved to a different location. Now, we are using the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to obtain some protections for our members who were displaced in the new location.  After relocating our members immediately initiated the ADA interactive process. That process resulted in several concrete administrative accommodations by the City: The encampment was placed under a memorandum issued by the Chief of Police staying enforcement of anti-camping ordinances.  Camp members were permitted access near the roadway; and The City committed to providing at least 30 days’ advance notice before any eviction or displacement. These outcomes were not achieved through litigation, but through an administrative decision by the City’s ADA coordinator. Under the ADA, cities are required to engage in a fact-specific inquiry when a disability accommodation is requested and to provide a written response explaining whether the request is granted or denied, and why. Since moving to our new location in April 2025 our campers have not been displaced. That’s going on eight months as of this article.   Recently, I spoke with a disability rights attorney and asked whether she had seen similar administrative ADA determinations in homelessness cases, so that we could compare decisions and assess whether we were receiving fair treatment. I was surprised when she told me she had never seen an administrative accommodation decision at all - every accommodation she had secured came through litigation or through settlement.  In Marin County, where there have been dozens of lawsuits challenging homeless sweeps and seeking injunctive relief, cities have gradually learned to respond to ADA requests. But in our experience, no city responded meaningfully to ADA requests until after it had been sued (usually by self-represented litigants). Litigation has effectively educated cities about how the ADA applies to unhoused people and that the law requires an actual response. In jurisdictions that have not faced lawsuits, ADA requests are often ignored - despite the fact that doing so is unlawful. Under 28 C.F.R. § 35.130(b)(7)(i), a public entity must make reasonable modifications to policies, practices, or procedures when necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of disability, unless it can demonstrate that doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity. Further, 28 C.F.R. § 35.164 places the burden on the public entity to prove that a requested accommodation would result in a fundamental alteration or undue financial or administrative burden. That determination must be made by the head of the agency or their designee, after considering all available resources, and must be accompanied by a written explanation. Even then, the entity must take alternative steps to ensure that individuals with disabilities receive services to the maximum extent possible. These provisions make clear that the ADA requires a fact-specific inquiry. That inquiry must include engagement with the disabled individual requesting accommodation and, where appropriate, consultation with medical professionals. The ADA is fundamentally a process-based statute, and compliance requires genuine fact-finding. In homelessness litigation, ADA-based injunctions have consistently focused on this failure of process. In Boyd v. City of San Rafael  (3:23-cv-04085-EMC), the court issued a restraining order preventing enforcement of anti-camping ordinances against individuals who had requested disability accommodations. More recently, in Berkeley Homeless Union v. City of Berkeley  (3:25-cv-01414-EMC), the same judge issued a similar order barring the City from clearing an encampment until it completed the interactive process. Through this report from Camp Compassion, we aim to share with the broader community examples of administrative ADA decisions issued in Marin County. These are not judicial rulings and are not publicly available, which makes it important to document what cities are voluntarily doing absent a court order. This is not to suggest that these accommodations are ideal or fully compliant with the law. Rather, they provide insight into what cities themselves appear to believe unhoused people may be entitled to as disability accommodations—though cities may well be underestimating what the ADA actually requires. At Camp Compassion, the Town formally granted a 30-day advance notice requirement before any enforcement or displacement. That decision was issued in April, and as a result, our members have remained in place at their current location for nearly eight months. In Fairfax, the Town issued an ADA response only after being sued in Schwarz v. Town of Fairfax . Although no long-term accommodation was granted beyond a brief temporary restraining order, the City made notable concessions, including providing a moving truck and professional movers to assist residents. Importantly, advocates were permitted to remain within the abatement zone to provide support, document the process, and help residents pack—reducing stress and harm. San Rafael presents a different model. Following the Boyd  decision, it is one of the few cities where unhoused people can legally camp in designated locations, using 10-by-20-foot sites. In that case, a primary accommodation involved expanding allowable square footage. The City also informally provided portable toilets, some of which were made wheelchair accessible. In Vallejo, prior to the landmark injunction in Alfred v. Vallejo —the first injunction obtained by a self-represented litigant halting an encampment sweep after Grants Pass —the City granted a 30-day extension before abatement. That extension proved critical, providing the time needed to file the lawsuit and seek relief. Even limited notice periods can have significant legal and practical impact. Conclusion The Bay Area has a long tradition of using the law as a tool of resistance—from Fred Hampton’s self-representation in court, and using law books in the streets to challenge police conduct. Following that tradition of self-education in the law, and holding officials to strict interpretations of the law we follow a long tradition of resistance in the Bay Area. By educating ourselves about the law and applying it strategically, we strengthen our capacity to challenge oppression. One of the most important uses of the ADA in challenging encampment sweeps is the insistence on in-person interactive process meetings with city officials. Sitting across from decision-makers and pressing them on concrete alternatives matters. In Alfred v. Vallejo , during an in-person interactive process meeting, I questioned the City Attorney about every conceivable alternative location. Each proposal was rejected. I documented every refusal and presented that record to the court. The judge cited it as evidence of deliberate indifference and granted a preliminary injunction. Even when cities deny every request, the process creates a record—one that exposes the gap between rhetoric and reality, and that can be used to hold governments accountable for policies that inflict harm while masquerading as compassion.

While the US government signs an executive order to literally disappear houseless comeUnities from cities across the Nation and California towns implement more violent sweeps and sweeps orders against houseless residents  - A powerful new movie is created by houseless/formerly houseless artists, cultural workers, poets and survivors that tells the stories of the people being disappeared. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Contact Tiny or Muteado 510-435-7500 (Movie is in English and Spanish with English and Spanish Subtitles throughout) What: Premiere of the Movie in the SF Bay Area: 7pm Wednesday, January 7th 2220 Arts Archive 2220 Beverly Bl LA (Occupied Tovaangar) 6pm Saturday, February 21st Black Repertory Theatre Berkeley, Ca (Occupied Huchiun) SEE THE TRAILER OF THE MOVIE HERE “That’s my Wheelchair...” Reggie, a disabled, Black elder screams at a bulldozer coming for her comeUnity and her wheelchair. Crushing Wheelchairs, with an original screenplay written by houseless poet and povertyskola tiny gray-garcia, adapted from her award winning  play of the same name focuses on the violence of homelessness, city and state sponsored sweeps, and poLice terror. The movie includes an all houseless/formerly houseless cast whose motto is: “We aren’t acting, we are living.” It was shot primarily in houseless communities (encampments) and on the streets in Oakland and San Francisco.  The story of Crushing Wheelchairs is written in a prayer, a dream, and a scream felt and barely survived by me, tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola, my houseless, disabled mama, and all of my fellow poverty/disability skolaz & ancestors portrayed/lived in this movie/story. This is the art of our lives, our almost survival, and our death at the hands of laws that say our bodies and lives are criminal and that we are trash. The lead characters in this powerful movie feature tiny and her mother, who struggled with homelessness throughout her childhood and later were arrested for sleeping on the streets of Oakland; Aunti Frances Moore, a formerly houseless Black Panther in Oakland; Stephanie Grant, who was pregnant and homeless when she witnessed the murder of Luis Gongora Pat by poLice in 2016, for being houseless and indigenous in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco Mission neighborhood. The ancestors of homelessness we also focus on include Steven Taylor, murdered by poLice in Walmart while houseless for having a mental health crisis; Papa Bear, a houseless veteran of three tours in Vietnam, who died on the streets of San Francisco after receiving 280 citations for being houseless on the street, iris Canada , a 100 year Black Elder evicted to homelessness from her longtime home in the Fillmore due to gentrification, Shannon Marie Bigley, Cornelius Taylor and James Edward Oakley, all run over by bulldozers in sweeps of their tents in California and Atlanta, Anjileen “Green Eyes” Swan, who died after being violently swept in Los Angeles and Luis Temaj, burned alive while asleep in his sleeping bag  and so many more.   We are living in a moment when the US President signed an executive order yesterday to disappear houseless peoples bodies and comeUnities off the streets by force, and in addition is cutting all of our housing and treatment resources all of which further enhanced already dangerous sweeps that were amped up last year’s Supreme Court ruling that stated living while houseless in the US is a crime (City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson, 2024) and that houseless people have no protection under the Constitution. And that this crime is punishable by arrest and incarceration. But how can you incarcerate someone for being poor, for being disabled, for not having enough money or credit to pay rent to attain shelter? How can we be punished for living outside without access to shelter, for being poor? In the state of California, the Governor has claimed that our bodies are equivalent to trash and is proposing yet another anti-houseless people bill. In the city and county of San Francisco, the mayor has deemed our presence a blight; and passed a ban of all houseless peoples living in their vans and in Los Angeles where, on average, six unhoused people die everyday, our outside comeUnities (encampments) are being destroyed, evicted, and disappeared. and in Huchiun (Oakland) Ken Houston is proposing a new level of hate and violence that will kill more of us houseless residents. Our Lives are now deemed unworthy of human rights, so I suppose in the eyes of the State we are not human, we are in fact trash. The panels in this last series of Trailer screenings will focus on these acts of violence and our active resistance to them. “Because we are not trash. This movie at this time is urgent medicine for humanity itself, who through this art can realize that we as houseless people are just like housed people. We are workers, and artists, and poets and innovators, and survivors. We have solutions and backstories and HERstories and visions – this movie lifts up those urgent stories, those urgent solutions – this movie is Medicine for Mama Earth and all of us, “ concluded tiny gray-garcia. The movie was co-directed by Adrian Diamond, formerly houseless povertyskolaz, tiny gray-garcia, and Muteado Silencio  and produced by Green Diamond Projects and POOR Magazine. It includes renown poets Tongo Eisen - Martin, Ayodele Wordslangar Nzinga, Luis Rodriguez, Devorah Major and Po Poets; Dee Allen, Frances Moore, Leroy Moore, Muteado Silencio and tiny gray-garcia, as well as indigenous leaders and prayer-bringers Corrina Gould, Tony Gonzales, OG Rev, Harry Williams, and Brother Mink as well as formerly houseless leaders from Wood Street Commons and Homefulness.

POOR Magazine family and extended family outside of Roxie Theatre where our Movie Medicine Crushing Wheelchairs was premiered (on the sacred red "bathmat") Dear family and community: This has been a year of deep grief, fear, and pain. The antidote is solidarity and radical interdependence – the medicine of POOR Magazine and poverty scholarship.  POOR Magazine has changed the way that many of us move through the world, including me. I have been part of POOR Magazine's Solidarity Family since 2021. Because of POOR, I know I have a role in radically redistributing resources and caring for my family. The teachings of POOR Magazine’s PeoplesKool and DeeColonize Academy reconnect me with the values and practices of my poverty scholar ancestors. I have been called to elder care and caregiving as a practice rooted in my poverty scholarship. We cannot leave our disabled, chronically ill elders and community members behind. We cannot ignore our responsibility to those who gave us life. POOR Magazine helps me listen for ancestral wisdom that has been hidden through colonization, the "American Dream" and assimilation. I am learning to do love and care work, with my elders and my mom, through all the pain and trauma and avoidance. This work is not easy on the body or mind, but it is the revolutionary love work that the world needs. The loss of Uncle Broken Cloud , Homefulness resident and recent ancestor, reminded me of this. As a teacher at DeeColonize Academy for four years, I am constantly awed and humbled by the way this school raises young revolutionaries. By witnessing their joy and love for community, I am experiencing this healing medicine and learning from the voices of poverty scholars. DeeColonize Academy students learn art, storytelling, poor people's media, civics, danza azteca, Kemet, math, animal stewardship, science for mama earth and so much more! The work is not easy -- the trauma of poverty is very real for our families and youth in struggle. But because of DeeColonize Academy, our next generation of youth poverty scholars know that Palestine should be free, that no one is illegal on stolen land, and that houseless people have real, liberated land solutions like Homefulness. None of this work can happen without the support of our powerful, revolutionary radical redistributors and donors. Your dollars helped provide fresh produce at Sliding Scale Cafe , which fed the BlackArthur community when SNAP payments fell through. Your dollars keep DeeColonize Academy alive. Your dollars led to the powerful premiere of the Crushing Wheelchairs  film. Thank you for helping sustain the movement! Every day, more people are evicted and more tent communities are destroyed . We need the medicine of Homefulness to continue building housing for houseless families, elders and youth -- from fulfilling the dream of 14 units  at Homefulness 2, to building the decades-old dream of Homefulness Yelamu, to making Homefulness Tovaangar a reality. We need to keep liberating and protecting land across Turtle Island. As Tiny says often, “ We are in an emergency . Poor people are facing constant attacks on their homes, their stability and their safety”. We need each other: poor and privileged alike need to be interdependent as we build our liberated future. I ask that you be part of the solution by sending your love and resources to POOR Magazine.  Lots of love, Maya & the POOR Magazine Family 2025 has been unbelievably challenging for POOR Magazine. And yet, the work always continues in powerful ways, guided by the ancestors to support the vision of a poor people-led movement. Here are some 2025 highlights: We moved our 25th resident into HOMEFULNESS #1 DEECOLONIZE ACADEMY is in our 12th year with 10 enrolled students 14h year of SLIDING SCALE CAF É,/Mercadito de cambio   a radical redistribution (mutual aid) of healthy food groceries, diapers & media, support for deep East Oakland every Thursday Continued in-person People Skool for East Oakland poverty skolaz with Theatre of the Poor and Po Peoples Radio workshop series UnTourBook Across Occupied Turtle Island: Klanmarks, Manuments, and Plakkks  was released on Poor Press ( www.poorpress.net ) in February 2025.  Listen to PNNKEXU 96.1FM every Tuesday, Wednesday   & Thursday for multi- generational radio programming: We r All Connected, The Peoples Botánica, Dr. Sweets Critique, & In the Spirit of Nat Turner.  We had two annual People Skool Decolonization/DegentriFUKation Seminars on Zoom. Next People Skool Seminar is January 31st & February 1st, 2026 ( www.poormagazine.org/education )  Liberation Easement Mama Earth is NOT for Sale! This summer, POOR Magazine in collaboration with First Nations Peoples of this land created a HERstoric document, called a liberation easement, to decommodify a small part of Mama Earth in Huchiun (Oakland). This was done alongside Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and with the legal support and solidarity work of the Sustainable Economies Law Center. Crushing Wheelchairs  movie The original narrative film, Crushing Wheelchairs , premiered this year across the Bay Area in tent communities and movie theaters. With an all houseless cast, the movie premiered in SF, Vallejo and will be in Oakland on 12/6. Stay connected to attend future screenings! Updates on the Building of Homefulness #2 This year, POOR Magazine successfully set up two container home units with solar power. We need your support in purchasing 12 more container homes to create 14 units to house unhoused elders, youth and families in the next year. Please share any resources you have! Mamafesting the Dream of Homefulness Yelamu Elephant and Elders Councils have met and are working to MamaFest Homefulness Yelamu, a 28+ year dream. With the support of Solidarity Family, we have raised resources and continued the search for possible sites. A powerful performance on May 10th, Po Mamaz Build Homes with Poems , highlighted the stories and dreams of poor mamaz and families. We are still working to raise the resources needed to acquire and UnSell Mama Earth – BIG news to come! Please stay tuned… Ancestors and Relatives Working towards Homefulness Tovaangar Houseless relatives with Aetna Street Solidarity, POOR Magazine Tovaangar and Reclaiming Our Homes have formed their own Elephant Council and have made two important decisions along with so much art, theatre and liberation. They are now in the planning and visioning stage to mamafest this dream. Your radical redistribution can make this happen!

Por/By It Wasnt Me En los estados “des”unidos tienen una teoría de que ellos pueden hacer lo que quieran y cuando quieran pero no hablan de su corrupción y como son tan influyentes en la drogadicción. Legalizan las pastillas que recetan diariamente a las personas pobres solo para obtener ganancias. Es la razón de tanta gente como yo están en las calles-  esa es la estrategia para separarnos de el sistema. Pero qué pasa cuando todos nosotros, los que no tenemos casa dejamos de producir dinero para este gobierno? Adonde fue todo el dinero que los “ilegales” contribuyeron todos estos años y nunca reclame los tax? Dónde está el dinero, en las bolsas de quien quedó? El presidente quien nos discrimina también se ha beneficiado de los indocumentados.  Ahora, trabajadores latinos están haciendo adictos mientras los güeros promueven las drogas legales. Pero cuando se acabe la madre, que van hacer para sus beneficios? In the “dis”united states they have a theory that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. But they don’t talk about their corruption and how they are so influential in drug addiction. They legalize the pills they prescribe daily to poor people just to get the profits. It’s the reason so many people like me are on the streets- it’s the system’s strategy of separating us. But what happens when all of us without a house stop producing money for this government? Where is all the money that “illegals” have contributed all these years and have never claimed taxes? Where is the money; in whose bags is it kept? The president who discriminates against us also has benefited from the undocumented. Now, latino workers are getting addicted as the güeros promote legal drugs. But when their mother dies, what are they going to do for their benefits?

For Immediate release:   contact: tiny or muteado  510-435-7500, POOR Magazine/HOMEfulness Leajay Harper (510) 484-9774 Wood Street Commons  Moratorium on Sweeps in Oakland, While Ken Houston proposes more violent criminalization.  While Council member Ken Houston proposes the life-endangering anti-houseless policy of EAP Houseless/Formerly houseless youth and families present a moratorium on all sweeps in Oakland  What: Prayer ceremony for victims of sweeps and Press Conference by houseless, formerly houseless sweeps survivors, housed allies, students and advocates to propose a Moratorium on all Sweeps in Oakland When: 1:30pm, Dec 2nd Where: Oakland City Hall  (2) WHEREAS, the City Of Oakland  is experiencing unprecedented homelessness due to an increase in general fund spending on out of control policing and violent sweeps of our houseless bodies, approx. 40 cents of every dollar. Excerpt of Sweeps Moratorium   “I got out with the clothes on my back,” said Monique M, POOR Magazine RoofLess radio reporter  and sweeps survivor. Monique was describing the violent sweep she survived where she lost all of her medicine and clothes and the RV she was sleeping in. Monique, like the majority of Oakland houseless residents is a disabled Black elder who had nowhere else to go after surviving that violent sweep.  Under Council member Ken Houston’s proposed Encampment Abatement Policy (EAP),  Oakland police can arrest houseless people just for being houseless. The city’s existing policy says Oakland “will not cite or arrest any individual solely for camping, or otherwise for the status of being homeless,” but the proposal slashes that provision and as we see with Monique and so many other Oakland residents, without his punitive measure, Oakland is already perpetraing violence on houseless people everyday with these endless sweeps.  The daily violence of sweeping houseless humans like they are trash,  that longtime Oakland residents have already been facing since the Grants Pass Vs Johnson ruling by the Supreme Court in 2024  has resulted in several deaths of houseless people, who lose their shelter and their support systems and end up back on the street, losing another houseless sweeps victim just last week. Studies have shown that sweeps lead to higher rates of death, and sweeping this community without offering residents any of the accommodations provided in its grant proposal, it effectively set out to eliminate 80% of all Black residents from the project. This is according to the city's own data. This deeply violent policy by Houston will result in more deaths of houseless, Black, Disabled elders in Oakland.  The only modicum of humanity that has existed up to now is that the City had to offer houseless residents some alternative shelter to stay in (which oftentimes they didn't even do), but under Houston’s plan , Oakland can shut down encampments regardless of whether the city has other shelters to offer residents.  In addition, the policy follows the lead of San Francisco and so many other cities' anti-houseless policies spurred on by the current federal administration  and promises to cite and tow the last vestige of home many people have on the street, their cars and RVs   “These violent sweeps of elder, Black, Disabled lifelong Oakland residents by the City of Oakland are shameful. Literally thousands of dollars are spent removing, displacing, and poLicing us. To nowhere. We houseless peoples have solutions, why is this still happening?” said tiny gray-garcia, formerly houseless, co-founder of POOR Magazine and Homefulness.   Houseless/formerly houseless /low-income youth and family residents of HOMEfulness and students at  Deecolonize Academy , a liberation school on the land in Deep East Oakland along with advocates, and allies will gather for a press conference to release this life-saving moratorium on december 2nd  preceding the hearing on the same day called by Ken Houston at Oakland City  about his murderous EAP. We see this moratorium as an emergency and and hope to pass the moratorium before more people die from being Swept like we are trash. Please follow: @poormagazine  @woodstreetcommons @oakland.revealed

Por/By Alvaro Kepokamaztli Tellez Palabras de un Mexicano Estoy viviendo lo que nuestros compatriotas y otras etnias han pasado por este sistema de opresión o desplazamiento continuo desde (1846-1848) Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo y ponernos en lugares como campos de concentración! Viendo lo que está pasando en lugares como Chicago, California, etc. Redadas siempre las hemos tenido pero no a esta magnitud en estos tiempos y ahora la Guardia Nacional, Ice y los cazarrecompensas no están discriminando a nadie, están secuestrando familias enteras solo por el color de su piel, no importa si somos indocumentados, ciudadanos, Mexicanos, centro y sudamericanos, asiáticos o Afroamericanos, están deteniendo a cualquiera y después investigan en qué situación legal estas! Es una pesadilla!!! La gente que tiene el derecho de votar que haga la mejor decisión para hacer un cambio en esta administración, que en lo personal todas estas administraciones no nos han tratado equitativamente como seres humanos. Words from a Mexican I am living what our fellow citizens and other ethnicities have gone through this system of oppression and continuous displacement since (1846-1848) Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and putting us in places like concentration camps! I am seeing what is happening in places like Chicago, California, etc. We have always had raids but not to this magnitude in these times and now the National Guard, Ice and the bounty hunters are not discriminating against anyone, they are kidnapping entire families just because of the color of their skin, no matter if we are undocumented, citizens, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, Asians or African Americans- they are detaining anyone and then investigating what legal situation you are in! It's a nightmare!!! People who have the right to vote make the best decision to make a change in this administration, who personally all these administrations have not treated us equitably as human beings.

The Federal Government's Attempt to Starve us and the Emergency Need for our Own Self-determined Solutions SNAP or no SNAP  These weren't life sustaining  plans  Only bits and pieces of a weallthhoarding trap  To make us feel like we had a life raft  An option to dying of hunger even tho we all pay their pinche tax Whats happening republiCRAPS - you don’t even need to hide behind the lies of neo-liberal crum snatch Lets go back  The new deal - brought in when we were starving on the streets cuz the wealthhoarders were starting to feel  a little scared cuz there are more of us poor than any of you billionaires  who kill and trash and endlessly steal -  And yet here we are again- not so many years later in the time of an orange tinted cartoon criminal man  And we po folks face racist, classist theft of our last crum yet again  Where do we go? They stole our tents, they created the lie of rent, they create false borders and guns to keep us on the run and now our WIC cheese our EBT crum and our homes - this evil sys is moving as fast as it can for the last trace of food stuck to the inside of my bones  They want us in terror , stripping our tiny shred of safety in their scarcity poverty   But snap or no SNAP - we have solutions, based in facts, that are real not based on more scarcity crack  Stay strong - walk closer together - grow any space into micro-farms, reach out to comeunity already lifting up solutions like charms  Poverty and krapitalism had Me and mama on the street - where we would still be - poltricks didnt save us ) we saved ourself with radical sharing and revolutionary ComeUnity….  “Mama we don’t have anymore money on the EBT card..” this sentence often spoke somewhere between the 20th and 30th of the month, depending if we spent too much on the luxury items like fresh veggies, fruit or meat, was always filled with dread cause there really was no answer or option  Everyday under the orange tinted criminal- wanna b king- there is another violent act being waged against poor people, houseless people, indigenous peoples, Black and Brown peoples and arguably just people, who don’t have access to billions of blood-stained dollars .  Now the violent republCRAPs have waged war on our most basic of crums - the tiny bit we receive from the poltricksters for food assistance aka EBT, food Stamps, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) The funny, not funny thing about this SNAP theft is the wealth-hoarders have begrudgingly “granted” those meager food crumbs off their feudal tables since the New Deal and its subsequent scarcity model was passed into law in the 1930’s. Created allegedly to support the amerikkklan people in poverty but on the real, created because there were more angry poor people than there were wealthoarding hoarders- just like there is today.  The New Deal and its “support” programs were also raced and classed and set up in a scarcity model. Originally only designated for “white, widows of war veterans,” falling in line with the hetero patriarchal, racist, classist hate of anyone else not in these categories, enhancing the criminalization, and pathologizing of peoples of color, indigenous peoples, unmarried women, single parents, disabled peoples, etc.  The scarcity model comes from the place of how little can we give people to keep them silent and alive, rather than how much do people need to thrive? This means we poor folks are constantly making unhealthy choices with our grocery shopping, like not buying too much , if any, organic fruit or vegetables, never considering grass-fed meat, much-less meat or chicken at all, hormone free milk or cheese and rarely if ever, dreaming of healthy cereals or less fat-filled foods. But these haters are also taking our food crumbs and our emergency food crumbs, aka Women, Infant and Childrens food program ( WIC). Cause with the orange criminal and his Good Ole Boys (GOP) it actually seems like they want us to die. But SNAP OR NO SNAP….   Bottom line is the scarcity model crumbs have never been enough to feed , clothe, house and truly support poor people. It was a deep struggle for my mama to survive on those crumbs and raise me right when she relied on the state for support and it was equally hard for me and my sun.  This scarcity also led and still leads to so many of us poor families being forced into underground economic strategies, which then often leads to our increased criminalization and incarceration. But hey the wealthhoarders make money on their private prisons and sick detention centers so that has always been a win win for them. THe pandemic called Poverty  Long before the so-called pandemic and the dire lack of food , medicine or support when it first hit all of our low-no income communities, POOR Magazine - a poor /houseless people led movement of art, media, education and solutions by us for us and everyone else, had instituted free healthy food giveaways, organic produce, that privileged, housed people donated to us, free diaper programs, hot meals and more that we poor folks constantly were distributing to our fellow impoverished bay area comeumity  In 2011 when conscious, housed wealth-hoarders who had attended  Peopleskool and formed the solidarity family at POOR Magazine, raised the money to purchase a small part of Mama Earth in occupied Huchiun so us poor and houseless peoples could build our own solution to homelessness we call HOMEFulness. It was ON!  We officially launched the sliding scale cafe/mercadito de cambio (little market of change ) the Po Mamas Panale (diaper) program and more - all aimed at redistributing everything we received from housed relatives and other revolutionary orgs, away to fellow poor folks.  In 2020 when COVID hit, we just gave more. We increased from just diapers to medicine, from just hot food to organic fruit, and veggies, from some groceries to entire bags of groceries, clothes, shoes, bugie, organic baked goods and more. And have kept this consistent every week thru today where we radically share all of  this with over 500 babies, youth, adults and elders every week at Homefulness Sliding Scale Cafe .  Yes, I’m Scared So yes as a formerly houseless, no-income, single parent EBT recipient myself, I’m scared for this coming Saturday, when they take these crucial crumbs away from me and my family and comeUnity, but SNAP or no SNAP, I have come to realize that politricks is nothing but a trick and is always pulling some Sheeeit.     And in this time of so much hate, lies and wealth-hoarding evil from Turtle Island to Palestine, we have to walk even closer together. We have to all practice these visions of radical redistribution and Comeunity reparations.  We are all connected and our shared humanity is all we have as humans. No politrickster or wealth-hoarder will “Save us”  And people who have , as my mama would put it, “Never missed a meal” need to participate in this moment with love not scarcity, radically sharing with those of us facing missed meals, empty refrigerators and scarcity fear, now more than ever. And they are already doing it.  Look at all the restaurants standing up with offers of free food and love - WahPepahs Kitchen, Monster Pho and Understory in Oakland to Tony Albas Pizza in San Jose to name a few. Look at the already here grassroots movements already doing this radical redistribution like The Self-Help Hunger Program, Wood Street Commons, Love and Justice in the Streets, the SLiding Scale Cafe/Market of Change/ Homies Empowerment, Deep Medicine Circle and so many more We can’t rely on a government that is already targeting us as the “The enemy inside” and hunting down 1st grade children, mamas and papas and elders to arrest and anyone that doesnt look like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.  Self-determination is liberation. Liberation is the medicine of love we need now. Not more reliance on government structures that sweep, incarcerate, murder, kidnap, profile and destroy every poor person they can.

For Immediate release: contact tiny 510-435-7500, Mute  Mama Earth is NOT for Sale!  Houseless/Poor, Black, Brown, Disabled ComeUnity in collaboration with 1st Nations Peoples of this land create a HERstoric document to decommodify a small part of Mama Earth in Huchiun (Oakland) and Record it  What: Legally UnSelling Mama Earth Ceremony Part 2   When: 1:30pm Thursday, Oct 23rd  Where: Recorders Office 1106 Madison St  I overstand and agree that We are stewards of the land- we, the landless, houseless, indigenous, poor peoples who launched Homefulness & our children & childrens children and generations beyond-  who thanks to Homefulness are now Homeful-  DO NOT OWN MAMA EARTH. None of us who live here own the land, and never will .  Excerpt from the Liberation Easement and Peoples Agreement of Homefulness On October 23rd  with legal support from Sustainable Economies Law Center, POOR Magazine/Homefulness and Sogorea Te Land Trust will hold an all nations prayer ceremony to celebrate the creation of a new legal document within the settler colonial government of the US that solidifies the decommodification and holds the land of Homefulness in permanent protection from real estate speculation, eviction and gentrification. “Me and my disabled mama were evicted 22 times, most of these evictions were for non-payment of rent. As a no-income, disabled, woman of color my mama had no money for rent. We ended up on the street for the rest of my youth.  279 people (on record ) became houseless after the end of the eviction moratorium in Oakland and thousands more across the country. People talk about “the homeless problem” all the time, but they never talk about the krapitalist problem of buying and selling mama earth. If Mama Earth was taken off the commodities market tomorrow, we could end homelessness.This is the articulation of that dream,” said tiny gray-garcia, co-founder of POOR Magazine and Homefulness.   Houseless/landless Black/Brown, indigenous, disabled peoples who have faced chronic homelessness, poverty, evctions, displacement,racism, criminalization border terrorism, gentrification and violent sweeps have built a solution to homelessness they call Homefulness. Before they began the creation of this solution, they asked for permission, protocol, spiritual guidance  from 1st Nations peoples of this stolen land. In the case of Oakland that is the Ohlone/Lisjan Nation.  “200 years ago, before colonization there wasn’t even a concept of homelessness,” said Talking chief/spokesperson of the confederated villages of Lisjan/Ohlone and co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust and Family Elders Council member of Homefulness. As poor and houseless people on stolen land they clearly understand the settler lie of ownership of Mama Earth and the ongoing speculative markets’ impact on their lives, families and communities, as first Nations/indigenous peoples from all four corners have lived, taught  and practiced since the beginning of their creation stories.  “This is the most creative, unusual, and moving legal document I have seen,” said Sustainable Economies Law Center attorney Janelle Orsi. “The words of the Homefulness residents brought members of our legal team to tears.”  POOR Magazine, which holds title to the Homefulness land, will be granting a “Liberation Easement” to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust. This is a form of conservation easement under California law. The easement preserves the land as a hub of poor people-led organizing, a site of Indigenous cultural revitalization, and permanent collective stewardship of the land, protecting it from returning to the speculative market.  “For years, the leaders at POOR Magazine have been asking us how to legally ‘unsell’ land, to ensure that it is never again treated as a commodity for sale. Our legal system makes it hard to liberate land from the speculative market. The Liberation Easement is our effort to use the legal system’s tools to permanently ‘unsell’ the land,” said Janelle Orsi. Veryl Pow, staff attorney at the Law Center adds, “The liberation easement extends the abolitionist practice of ‘non-reformist reforms’ from the carceral context to the liberation of land. We can strategically and selectively use so-called ‘property law’ mechanisms to construct a world where Pachamama is unowned in practice, and people can live together and begin to heal from the unending violence of colonialism and capitalism.” Testimonies from houseless, now Homeful residents of Homefulness  To watch the ceremony Live, follow @poormagazine on IG

Por/By Teo Vamos a comunicar todos los residentes en general. Humedos, secos, no papeles. Con papeles, Capitalistas. Pobres. Democatras. No democratas. Nos estamos enfrentando al mustro de ice que lo alimenta el racismo por que se estan brincando lo balioso que  toda persona en USA tiene sus derechos, pero el mustro del ICE lo apoya. El capitalista #47 tiene los polisias express de ICE por muchas grandes ciudades de nuestro pais. El policia interno de los estados unidos esta contra todas nuestra comunidades. Arresta a todo tipo de personas. No respetan los derechos que todo ciudadano de las comunidades que es libertad de expresion de su libertad. Su objetivo es causar teror. Todos los dias algunos noticieros comunican las injusticias de ICE.   We're going to communicate with all residents in general. Wet, dry, undocumented. With documents, Capitalists. Poor. Democrats. Not Democrats. We are facing the ICE monster that is fueled by racism because they are ignoring the important thing that every person in the US has their rights, but the ICE monster supports them. Capitalist #47 has ICE express police in many large cities across our country. The United States' internal police are against all our communities. They arrest all kinds of people. They don't respect the rights of every citizen in these communities, which is freedom of expression and freedom of expression. Their goal is to cause terror. Every day, some news programs report on the injustices of ICE.

"ALWAYS FILM THE POLICE"   AFTP                                                                                                "No", yelled Poverty scholar Gera in this episode of Kop watch Aztlan when being told to, "back up", by the Po-lice in the middle of them violating rights, questioning passengers for identification during a basic traffic stop. Chicano gang task force is holding authorities accountable by not only recording them live on the spot but also by making them show transparency asking them for name and badge numbers. Kop watch Aztlan is calling these officers out for violating rights while holding his ground as we all should when documenting Tyranny by this corrupt Government. "RESISTANCE THEN DISTANCE"