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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.

By Jay Paulino The downfall of the city will occur if sweeps keep happening the way they are. There is harm, violent people, and danger out in the world everywhere, and police are ignoring the real Harm. Cops are supposed to be the ones protecting and serving, right? That’s not what it looks like now.  There are many police in the system that have to be defunded because they are still killing and hurting us today. I see someone with a nosebleed and his head gushing blood; police just stay and ignore it. They call for unnecessary backup instead of an ambulance to address the real problem. This isn’t the only issue with police. It’s also the police brutality against Black/African American people, driven by racism. As I’m walking with Tiny and Poor Magazine downtown in the City of San Francisco doing roofless Radio, the more I see houseless folks hurt. I see police ignore and keep wiping homeless people off the street. Police sweep houseless folks every single day when there is no crime. Our Brothers and sisters are hurt every single day because they have to worry about where they rest their heads at night. Even if they do rest their heads, they have to worry about police taking their homes away at any time of day and throwing their belongings and life in the trash. In the Tenderloin, I have seen a lot and it showed me that there's more people out there looking for Poor Magazine to make this change a movement. Our Mayor London Breed has been following in the footsteps of the last mayor, and the more sweeps that occur, the more lives are lost to the violence of sweeps.

By Dee Allen Its name is displayed on petitions circulated online, in people’s fondest memories. Eight months passed and mourning persists over the loss of a great square of soil popular with locals housed and un-housed. Change came to sidestreets off Telegraph Avenue–Dwight Way, Haste Way, Bowditch Street—January 3, 2024. University of California Regents decided people should lose a piece of Berkeley. A piece of my Anarchist past I used to visit for events. Daily food servings from Food Not Bombs, always free and herbivorous. Mardi Gras celebrations—colourful costumes, beads, masques, gigantic green frog float on wheels—HOPPALEUIAH! Festive anniversary of blessed land’s liberation from the Regents’ greedy grip, hard-won on the streets, clashes with police at the university’s foot, Summer 1969. Native American drum circle, live bands on the painted wooden stage, dancing on open grass, poetry, gardening tutorials. From past revolt, these short blessings. Good times that were mine— Local legend says Julia Vinograd—late jester hat poet from the late, lamented Cafe Babar—was a regular visitor on the land. Often she blew soap bubble trails into an open void joyously— What stands in its place? Rusty Corten steel enclosure. Two levels of stacked shipping containers. Real-time Tetris structure 17 feet high. Flood lights, Apex security guards, metal NO TRESPASSING sign. The land sits idle, clear behind imposing new wall of separation, alien to Berkeley’s no-nukes, anti-war, eco-sustainable, peace-loving bohemian character. Wall of separation in the Middle East—splitting Israel from what’s left of historic Palestine—may not share those traits. Al-jidar goes against the 1967 “Green Line” surrounding Israel and international law. Built at the height of Al-Aqsa Intifada . Approximately 34,000 miles. 435 miles long, 26 feet high—Israel’s expression of hate. No guards, flood lights or prohibition signs. What the other wall of separation shares are these: Assimilation of the blessed land into the system’s framework, humanity and land forced apart. Both discourage people’s right to return. On an unseasonably warm afternoon in late February, my friend and fellow writer Debby Segal and I took a brisk walk through Berkeley, from U.C. Berkeley’s Art Museum and campus of different, transplanted trees, straight on through Telegraph Avenue. As always, Telegraph bustled with college students and older locals that hit up its convenient shops and restaurants. A race of willing consumers. On our way past Mars Vintage Clothing and Rasputin’s Music, in the direction of Amoeba Music, my eyes bulged in utter shock at the gross steel monstrosity where the blessed land used to be. It’s reported that the walled-off land awaits construction offor 1100 beds. Debby and I walked far away from the ugly thing that played a prison wall part so well and secured a glorious future for someone—unlike me. I long for the day that wall of separation sees dismantlement and removal. Container by container. Regents of U.C. Berkeley Have chalked up a victory Keeping all the People’s Out of their own Park . _________________________ W: Hiroshima Anniversary 2024 [ For Whitney Sparks. ]

For Immediate Release: Contact: Jaz colibrí (413) 522-3116 / Tiny garcia (510) 435-7500   In the ongoing and violent war on houseless peoples bodies and lives The city of Oakland schedules a dangerous "Sweep" of a large houseless comeunity on West Grand and MLK.  What : Resource Fair for the Houseless ComeUnity of West Grand and MLK   When:  8am Monday, Sept 16th  Where: On the Block of West Grand and Martin Luther King Jr Way "We are not sure where we can go now," JohnX, a disabled elder resident of West Grand and MLK shakes his head  while trying to balance on his crutches and drag a hefty bag of his clothes away.  John X was one of the WeSearch reporters that contributed to the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report   released in August 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.(WeSearch report Sweeping us to Nowhere ) One of the findings of the WeSearch report is the majority of the residents of the MLK /West Grand Comeunity are gravely disabled elders. Additionally, the City has limited to no housing resources to refer people to that are ADA accessible.    Alternatively, a community of houseless/formerly houseless advocates, care-givers and housed allies are planning an urgently needed resource fair for the West Grand /MLK comeUnity to help residents in crisis 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.   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.  Resource Fair organizing committee includes Wood Street Commons, POOR Magazine/Homefulness, Coffee Not Cops, Lesgetit Networks, Anti-PoLice Terror Project,  Love and Justice in the Streets, Where Do We Go, EBLC, Punks With Lunch, East Oakland Collective. The Resource Fair will offer resources to actual solutions like the work being done by fellow houseless people at Wood Street Commons and Homefulness  and ways that housed people can actively get involved in  houseless peoples-led solutions, as well RoofLESS radio story-telling workshop, poetry, produce and healthy food distribution.  1st RoofLessRadio WeSearch Release

Momii Palapaz Poverty Scholar, reporter, radio programmer PoorNewsNetwork “You are not to talk about the Hunger Strike,” said Oakland Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to defense lawyers. "And if you bring it up again, I will put you in contempt.” On Monday, June 24, 2024,  the first day of  trial against James Perez, David Cervantes, George Franco and Guillermo Solorio, Judge Rogers attempted to squash and discredit the  2011 prisoner led movement against solitary confinement.   In 2015, the four men were charged with gang conspiracy, gang enhancement,  and gang racketeering.  Federal prosecutors hoped to make a slam dunk with a wealth of federal witnesses and thousands of pages of “evidence” against the hunger strikers.  All the defendants lived in solitary confinement of the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay for decades.   It’s a cover up of injustice with a coverup of claiming gang related crimes.   Suppressing the truth about the protest wasn’t the case yesterday, July 29, 2024. Into the second month of the trial, no objection was made to questions for the FBI witness regarding the “hunger strike."  It was a surprise to myself and the few spectators, including Lydia, sister of one of the defendants. “Yeah, I thought that it was not allowed to be brought up in court,” she said.  But we agreed that it was a good thing. Ceremony for brothers of Pelican Bay State Prison presented by POOR MAGAZINE HOMEFULNESS at the Oakland Federal Building SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IGNITES SOLIDARITY AGAINST TORTURE 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.  Languishing for years, without daily sunshine, forced into a loner life, fellow prison residents and guards are the only physical contacts.  Those living in the SHU, receive only non-touch visits, denied the right to free movement beyond a cage, denied the right to quality nutrition and the right to touch earth. Prison hunger strikes, for decades, in such places as San Quentin, California, and Red Onion State Prison in Virginia have repeatedly protested years of cruelty and inhumanity.  For example, it is known that “the only way to get out of solitary confinement was to tell on another,” called debriefing.  Temptations to lie to free yourself of the torture was testing all the men.   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 the prison authorities' surprise, they immediately tried to suppress and cover up the uprising.  When I say cover up, I mean the feds have pulled every stupid idea out of their supremacist head to claim the reason for the hunger strike was to get in gen pop and sell dope.  This is the thinking of the Bureau of Prisons.  The practitioners of this corrupt system cannot believe there is intelligence, even genius amongst the thousands of men behind bars.  Now the hunger strikers are on trial. POVERTY TO PRISON PIPELINE It’s the 13th anniversary of the Hunger strike by residents of the  Pelican Bay State Prison in California.  This is so significant that the US government with its gang of FBI is now attempting to railroad 4 men in Federal court. Supporters gather at the Federal Building in Oakland before the trial denouncing the inhumanity of solitary confinement Short Corridor Collective co-organizer of the hunger strike and Amendment to End Hostilities, Todd Ashker, said “Alleged gang-affiliation was sufficient cause for the CDCR to consign prisoners to SHU for the remainder of their lives, unless they were willing to snitch on other prisoners (the “debriefing” process), reach the end of their prison sentence (parole), or die. Prisoners described their choices as ‘snitch, parole or die.’  The Ashker  settlement supposedly ended the practice of sending prisoners to SHU for alleged gang-affiliation alone.”  Mr. Ashker is in his 27th year of solitary confinement. Another member of the Short Corridor Collective, Paul Redd, was incarcerated for 44 years,  30 of them in the Special Housing Unit of Pelican Bay.  He was the go-to lawyer for residents inside.  From Critical Resistance, "he was one of the most skilled and well known jailhouse lawyers in the US prison system.  A leader amongst not only blacks but all colors seeking his advice. He was instrumental in building a unified force against the system of SHU and confronted divided and conquer tactics amongst inmates." Said warden, “The only way Redd will leave Pelican Bay is in a pine box. " In May, 2020, with the support of legal advocates and then SF DA Chesa Boudin, Mr. Redd was released standing and walking, not in a pine box.  He left Pelican Bay with Terminal Stage 4 lung cancer.  He passed 2 years later on June 19, 2022. PRISON TO REVOLUTIONARY PIPELINE In US prisons, Over 80,000 men are doubly imprisoned, BEING separated from the general population and THEN in solitary confinement. The revolutionary power of incarcerated men and women, child and elder, is their strengthened mind, feared by corrupt power.                 “Pelican Bay Art” “SHU Syndrome” Michael D Russell In 2015, a landmark decision  “intended to end indefinite solitary confinement throughout California prisons” was not implemented. No surprise. Over 1000 residents of California prisons participated in a 60 day no eating protest.  It continued in stages first on July 1, to September 26, 2011 and then on July 8, 2013.  It grew to over 6,000 men and women in the State.  On August 12, coinciding with the hunger strike was a written statement called “An Agreement To End Hostilities." This was organized by those held at Pelican Bay.  The message spread in California and rippled through other penal institutions across the US. The following are demands created by the residents and issued throughout the system.   Eliminate group punishments for individual rules violations; Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria; Comply with the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement; Provide adequate food; Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for those indefinitely sentenced to the SHU. All prisons in the US must be abolished. Millions of boys and young men, like Husband, entered the penalistic system when they were teens or in their early twenties.  So now you see that many men still incarcerated are in their 70’s, and 80’s.  The C # will indicate the year, which is about the 1970's.  The US prison machine is the machine of fascism.  Many of it’s projects, plans and policies have escalated over centuries and instituted and streamlined into outside institutions.  The police, military and imperialist wars are in our everyday life.  The inside is trying to tell us on the outside.  We are all connected. THANKS TO SPIRIT OF MANDELA, PRISON RADIO, Critical Resistance, Center for Constitutional Rights, Solitary Watch, Todd Ashker website and mainstream press for information, stories, opinions and art from inside by Michael D Russell. Article by Dorsey from all of us or none “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution. Pass on the torch. Join us, give up your life for the people.” George Jackson

London Breed is a fraud. When she won her first full term as Mayor in 2018, she spoke of addressing the issues that plague San Francisco . I’d say that she hasn’t done much if anything to help the people of the city. In fact rthese past couple years have shown us that she’s begun to roll back on those promises and goals to try and get  more votes, as she’s pushed most of her voter base away.  When Breed first became Mayor in 2017 after the death of Ed Lee, she was replaced not even two months into office. In a speech made while figuring out her replacement, Supervisor Hillary Ronan said that Breed was supported by “white, rich men” like the billionaire Ron Conway. Not even two months in office and the cracks start to show.  She later joined a GOP led effort to overturn or reform Prop 47, originally passed to combat overcrowding in prisons and save the state money. Her goals were to make it easier to imprison drug dealers, users, and petty thieves. Also happening around the same time was the major street sweeps of the homeless ahead of the APEC conference held downtown. Feels very connected to me! I get what you’re thinking, “it’s politics” right? You can’t accomplish every single thing you want to even if you promise your electorate but it isn’t that simple. She has barely addressed the core issues in San Francisco, she just moves them from neighborhood to neighborhood giving the whole city a facade just like she had been doing for years at that point. Homelessness has actually increased according to HER OWN GOVERNMENT’S SITE from her entering office to this year.  I was born and raised in San Francisco, i’ve seen the good, and the bad and I can most definitely say that the only times i’ve ever been afraid in the city have been while London Breed was mayor. I’ve seen more suffering, less services, and the crime is through the roof. I was literally robbed in broad daylight on Christmas of 2023! I don’t know what will work but I know that what we have now, ain’t it

Mayor London Breed has been following in Governor Newsom's footsteps by continuing the aggression against houseless people. She has ordered more sweeps, more incarceration, and more discomfort for houseless people. Last week, she said she will make it so uncomfortable that "they [houseless people] will have to accept our offer and will have to leave." I went along with Tiny, Momii, Leajay, and two youth scholars to San Francisco last Thursday and Friday to document how houseless people have been dealing with the recent sweeps. By 1pm in the Tenderloin, the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Urban Alchemy were already tossing people's belongings into large trash bins. Surrounding them was a throng of police cars and an absurd number of armed officers ready to carry out Breed's order to arrest or disappear as many houseless people as possible. We were armed with nothing but our phone cameras and breakfast pastries to stand in solidarity with our unhoused neighbors, who all of us at POOR Magazine once were.  POOR Magazine defines WeSearch as poor people-led research.  I watched as the mainstream media camera crew in the Tenderloin turned tail and ran when they saw us recording. Corporate media like CNN and local FOX news stations have never been interested in writing stories that feature our voices. They talk around us, turning us into data points and flattening us into "the homeless" with one story, one viewpoint, one experience, without bothering to ask us how we got to where we're at. After the report, Tiny outlined the point of WeSearch to me, saying, "We quantify data because politricksters like numbers. Crapitalism cares more about numbers than they do about people.” According to Tiny, WeSearch is “a very revolutionary aspect to this kind of community collectivity [compared] to ‘data collection’. Data collection is turning people into data. Community collectivity gives people back their sovereignty.” Part of giving people back their sovereignty is flipping the script on subject and interviewer. When we ask people to share their stories with us, they craft their own narratives, and in so doing, become reporters of their own stories. We met many people affected by Breed's new policies, all of whom spoke of harassment by cops and dehumanization at the hands of city workers tasked with "keeping the streets safe." One ROOFless Radio reporter said, “I got a seller’s permit, that means you can sell anywhere in California. Anywhere! And they still took my shit and impounded it and took everything from me last night with no remorse.”  On Friday, we saw the effects of Mayor Breed’s relocation venture to offer free bus tickets to houseless people regardless of if they are even from outside San Francisco. We met an older houseless reporter in SoMa who had just been given a bus ticket. He said he had chosen Salinas as his destination and they gave him a ticket on the spot. According to him, he has no friends or family in Salinas and needed directions to the bus station. This is elder abuse, plain and simple. The government has forced older adults to leave their homes to go to a random city simply to move the “nasty homeless” out of San Francisco. Displacement is not a solution to homelessness.  In this writer's opinion, poor people are as tired as they are angry. Tired because they have to cope with the daily struggles of being poor and homeless, and angry because they are becoming increasingly isolated as they attempt to carve out a life from the edges of society. Newsflash: we are society. We have our own communities where we live lives of joy and mirth and laughter and loss just like everyone else. We create our own solutions to the problems the government throws our way. We cleverly and skillfully navigate a world that has been set up to deny us basic human rights, and we do so with great success. Homefulness 2, POOR Magazine’s sophomore housing solution built by and for houseless people, is a success that proves every negative stereotype said about poor people wrong.

“I’m really scared, they are doing the final Wood Street sweeps tomorrow, i have nowhere to go..” Rocky, a disabled houseless elder RoofLessRadio reporter, spoke quietly on the phone to me from the last block on Wood Street where houseless peoples have been pushed to after the violent evictions by the City of Oakland last year of their beautiful comeUnity known as Wood Street Commons. She called me on Monday, as I stood in front of a line of hundreds of 20 foot tall  steel barricades, placed on public streets and sidewalks all over the stolen Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi lands known as Chicago. Just beyond those barricades were hundreds more barricades of the same height and size essentially incarcerating public sidewalks, streets and blocks for the billionaire poltrickster party known as the Democratic National CONvention24 (DNC) “You need to move back Ma’am,” the order was mechanically barked to Cheri Honkala, formerly houseless mama, grandmama, organizer and founder of the Poor Peoples Army/Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign as she peacefully, humbly tried to deliver a citizens’ arrest warrant to the Poltricksters in the DNC when heavily armed, robo-cop appearing Chicago poLice officers blocked her ability to walk down a public street. Not ironically, the same 20 foot steel barricades which were placed all over Chicago, were the exact same barriers used to block and destroy Aetna Street, a houseless peoples community in occupied Tovaangar territory, so-called LA, they are as high and as prevalent as the barbed wire fencing being placed all over public streets to destroy and CONtain houseless communities on Wood Street Commons in West Oakland, in Sacramento at Camp Resolution, in Fresno, in San Francisco and on almost every corner that houseless people try to humbly survive and in almost every settler town from Turtle Island to Palestine. These terrifying connections of removal, erasure, arrest, and destruction were frighteningly evident. These are being documented by our houseless RoofLessRadio reporters across the Bay Area in our recent WeSearch release report: Sweeping us to Nowhere - While Silencing our Solutions    The violence being perpetrated against Rocky and all of our houseless bodies across occupied Turtle Island (US) was why sister warrior Cheri and me and all of the Poor Peoples Army were peacefully attempting to bring a citizens’ arrest warrant to the billionaire Poltricksters in the DNC  “If you aren’t going to arrest me then let me pass” Cheri repeated quietly to the military agents of the state increasing with every second around us.    “Why are you trying to arrest one peaceful mama, a grandmother, a woman alone walking on a public street and why are you even here threatening us poor people when the real criminals, the perpetrators and the wealth hoarders are in there?” I shouted at them pointing to the looming red , white and blue letters spelling out DNC logo flashing in the background. The first five officers who blocked Cheri increased to over 300 officers lined up in military formation to surround Cheri,who refused to stand down. The frightening military-like poLice descended on Cheri and handcuffed her as she continued to walk toward the so-called security perimeter near Damen Avenue and Washington Boulevard. Honkala was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, then released and picked up early Tuesday morning by members of the Poor People’s Army. “Think of the amount of homes they could build from all the public money paid to police to arrest a peaceful woman standing up for humanity.” I continued to shout above the din of more and more poLice marching up to surround us.   Now I was shouting to the now over 300 riot gear wearing poLice lined up 10 deep on both sides of me and Cheri, Pastor  Caliph Muab-El, with All of us Or None Chicago.   This small part of public land which was part of the Chicago Housing Authority and the site of another RAD’ destroyed housing project was a security checkpoint through which Harris and Biden motorcades had reportedly just passed through. After Cheri was put in a police wagon, she was held handcuffed for hours, before being taken to a police station for processing. We Had a “Permit” - the Settler Lie of Permission. The Poor People’s Army won a permit, ordered by an administrative judge in February, due to a mistake by the city of Chicago for a missed deadline in response to the permit application. The original application, deemed granted by law, allowed them to march from Humboldt Park to the front steps of the United Center. But in the days and weeks leading up to the March, the city tried to get the group to change their route. As the group held their peaceful 48-hour vigil in Humboldt Park, they were harassed and threatened repeatedly by Chicago Police, including threats to report families there to child protective services. On the day of the March, police blocked some streets listed on the original permit application. The Poor Peoples Army struggle with the “permit” to march reminded me of our struggle at Homefulness to get permits to build and open a homeless peoples solution to homelessness we call Homefulness-  back and forth with lies and new requirements and in the end arbitrarily rescinding it like it was never there.  The Chicago Police Department received $75 million in funds to police the DNC. The Poor Peoples Army, of which i and all of POOR Magazine/Homefulness  houseless, no-income folks are proud members of, is a national group, led by poor and homeless people, arrived in Chicago after marching 91 miles from Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention in July, where they attempted to deliver a citizen’s arrest to the RNC  “Poor men, women, and children are having their lives and limbs lost from expensive bombs provided by the Democratic Party while poor people’s lives are being lost to the preventable human rights violations here at home.”. Said Cheri at the press conference that proceeded the permitted march by Poor Peoples Army “Neither of these parties are parties of the people,” Revolutionary Pastor Keith Collins who also spoke on the mic at the press conference “Jesus would not be down with the gentrification and removal of our people, he was not part of the Prosperity Gospel and taught and spoke on the necessity for the massive redistribution of wealth,”  In addition to Revolutionary Pastors like Pastor Collins and Caliph, Poor and Houseless youth and elders explained the impossibility of trying to survive, much less ever thrive, as working poor mamas or houseless resident of any of these settler colonial towns, the connection of the genocide here to houseless peoples bodies and the genocide happening to our relatives in Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and the Congo, to name a few. “My baby was born in a tent, i have three generations of family in the Poor Peoples Army and we are not giving up until there is justice for us poor, said Tara Colon, organizer, mama and grandmother with the Poor Peoples Army.      “I am a formerly houseless mom and managed to get a small home and now can barely pay my mortgage, I have three jobs and struggle to make ends meet,” Anne Honkala, a single mama in struggle with Poor Peoples Army said the conference.  Our march with all of these warriors was peaceful, prayerful and beautiful, until we realized the poLice and City politrickters were kettling us into a giant square, with no intention of letting us anywhere even remotely near to the CONvention center. So disrespectful. Every street had over 50 kkkops lined up to block our entrance and keep us going around in a useless circle.  Thats when we realized we needed to try another route.  Thanks to some revolutionary legal work by Andrea Henson, lawyer and organizer with Where Do We Go, and the ongoing resistance by hundreds of housed and houseless  ComeUnity warriors and advocates at Love and Justice in the Streets, Anti-PoLice Terror Project, POOR Magazine and many more there was a temporary restraining order issued to stave off the last violent Wood Street Commons Sweep. “I heard they not coming today, tiny, at least maybe i have a little time to rest, but i still have Nowhere to Go..”

By Alexander De Leon Governor Gavin Newsom, a man in charge of millions of lives, using evil words that minimize the lives of those who suffer daily in the streets. “Dangerous encampments” words said by Newsom, words that hurt my mind and soul. As a formerly homeless person I was taken aback by the new state order given by Newsom. On Thursday July 25th, 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a brutal and horrifying order to California state officials. He ordered state officials to begin an urgent removal of homeless encampments, stating “There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part,” telling state agencies to “adopt humane and dignified policies” and “move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them.”  After hearing these statements made by the man in charge of my state I relived the fear I felt as a child when being in the streets. Remembering how alone with my mother, we slept in staircases, benches, we were cold and hungry. I remember seeing my mother crying alone with me in her arms acting strong like everything was ok everytime I asked her what was wrong. The fear of being outside and that there isn't a place you can call home, all of this brought back by the evil words of this man. The questions of where am I going to go? Where am I going to sleep? When am I going to be under a roof?, came flooding back, filling my mind with new questions. I asked myself, where exactly does Newsom plan on “clearing” all of these people he's planning on sweeping away?  Stating that the homeless encampments are dangerous increase hatred and fear towards those who live in the streets. This new order leaves many questioning where exactly Newsom plans on taking the people of these homeless encampments to. He had already withheld money last year from state homelessness funding, because of local governments’ “unacceptable” plans to reduce homelessness by 2% by 2024. Local governments stated that it was unfair for Newsom to take away this funding since it was because of a lack of overarching vision or structure for combatting homelessness from the state that led to a small decrease in homelessness that year.  “... I just wanted to say that the problem isn't the homeless, it's not even the lack of resources that we have outhere, the problem is the capitalist society and that money equals the value of a person,...” said LeaJay Harper formerly unhoused on Wood Street Oakland, now housed at Homefulness in East Oakland. Here LeaJay expresses the reality of a capitalist society and how the amount of money in someone's possession sadly represents how that person is valued in society. She said that there isn't really a lack of resources, which is true, in San Francisco alone there are thousands of empty units that could be used to shelter and provide a home for those out in the streets, just as district 5 supervisor Deann Preston said “tens of thousands of units tonight in San Francisco will sit empty while people sleep in the street.” Once again, homelessness is not a choice, it is a result of greed and desire for more and more money. It is the product of high rent prices that make it very difficult for many to afford. It is inhumane to have people in the streets to begin with but it’s more inhumane and cruel to sweep them off the streets, to arrest them simply because they cant afford a place to sleep, to treat them like trash. As a person who once lived in the streets I understand the fear and struggle of being homeless, and because of the help of my aunt Tiny, Poor Magazine and everyone else who helped my mother I to get back on our feet, I can now stand and help my fellow brothers and sisters fight back the evil of capitalism.

By Jay Paulino         I Realized as I was listening to the ceremony of a sister that died from Police terror, that you better cherish the good memories you have with your family or friends. Life goes on no matter what happens, that's why you shouldn’t take life for granted. Enjoy what you have in the future and for what you have lost, make it a strength for you to change in any positive way.  I've learned from my experiences and challenges.Things could get really deep and serious when our brothers, sisters and ancestors can relate in a direct way. The day I realized I should’ve opened up a little bit more is when I showed up to an action on Sonya Massey. The grief was in the air and all around, I  knew I wasn't the only one hurting because I literally felt the energy there.       Sonya Massey was a Black African young thirty-six year old female who was also a Mother,sister,niece, cousin and Aunt. She was very loved by her family and friends. This Tragic incident happened on July 6th 2024. Massey called the police because there was a prowler at her house so, she called the police because that's what they there for apparently to “Serve and protect.” I don’t think that’s what happened with this devastating killing. To also mention Massey  had an illness of schizophrenia. As the call goes through, Two officers respond to the call and at least a minute later things escalate quickly. Officer Sean Grayson was one of the officers that responded to the call and made a huge impact on the world. This is where he used foul language to Sonya and threatened her life and took her life away from her and her beautiful family. Massey was talking to the officers and had a pot of  water in her hand, boiling water . Than Massey said “ I will rebuke you in the name of Jesus Officer Sean Grayson replying with a yell “ You better fucking not or I will shoot you in the fucking face.!” Yelled Officer Grayson. The second police officer draws his weapon also why is he not fired as well? This is  why Police Brutality should be more of a topic because  the Police System just doesn’t stop with the violence on innocent families.         These Police Struggles should have a brighter Voice in general, because me being a bystander of these situations happening right in front of me is beyond me.I lost my Pops to Police Brutality I can relate as much as others do. My pops name was Jose Enrique Paulino Jr and trust me “He was somebody.” An unarmed Black  African-American dominican Man tazed to death in front of a gas station because he was arguing with a female on the phone and had a big  argument. My dad pretty much knew Spanish more than English and had a serious heart condition. Somebody called the Police on him because he was yelling and was really angry so what normal people do is show emotion and the police just took it a whole different way. They made my dad look like a criminal the way they made the story sound  and mind you I would say at least eight officers showed up for a little noise complaint. So just wrapping this all up, I could tell you that I feel for my relatives. Bringing it back to the ceremony this shows and tells you  that this Police Act on Violence is not the answer and it happens all around the world, where there should be a tremendous amount of Difference  in this Violent Act. I cried because when I spoke at that ceremony , I felt the grief connected with my own personal life and I couldn’t hold it in either  way, because I was thinking of my mom also. I wouldn’t know what to do if I also lost both of my parents .So be happy for what you have now.

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. - Poor People’s Army, a group of self-organized poor and homeless people with a 30-year history, is marching from Milwaukee to Chicago to protest at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on August 19. After a week of marching, the group reached the state border of Illinois; 47 miles from the starting point. The two-week march is meant to highlight people in the U.S. experiencing poverty and basic human rights violations such as lack of housing, health care and access to food, connecting these issues with the struggles that poor people face internationally. Central to the group’s focus is the Supreme Court decision, City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson , stating people experiencing homelessness can be arrested and fined for sleeping outside when there are no safe alternatives. Poor People’s Army, led by people who are homeless or formerly homeless themselves,  is setting up encampments in different towns en route to Chicago. On the first night of the march, their encampment at Morgan Park in southern Milwaukee was swept by the police in the middle of the night.  “Poor and homeless people are being brutalized, with tents and encampments destroyed and bulldozed away from San Francisco to Philadelphia to Gaza and the West Bank,” said Poor People’s Army spokesperson, Cheri Honkala. “These preventable human rights violations are being committed by Democratic and Republican leaders alike.” Honkala, leading the march with her young children, is an internationally recognized human rights advocate who has been the guest of governments and organizations across the world, including India, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Israel and Palestine. Honkala was recognized by Front Line USA as a “human rights defender.” She was granted asylum status by Ireland, recognizing the political persecution she faces as a human rights organizer in the U.S. The Poor People’s Army has marched on Democratic and Republican National Conventions for decades. They were the only organization granted a permit to march on the DNCin Chicago, due to a city mistake. The City has been asking the group to change their plans, but confirms they will be marching from Humboldt Park to the gates of the United Center at 4 p.m. Aug. 19. About Poor People’s Army: For three decades, The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)/Poor People’s Army has been organizing poor and homeless people by “reclaiming the basic necessities of life” with free food distribution and housing takeovers of abandoned government-owned properties. They have released the book, Takeover! A Human Rights Approach to Housing . Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) / POOR PEOPLE’S ARMY  Press Release, For immediate release August 11, 2024. Press Contacts: Leela de Paula, 413-270-2087   Cheri Honkala, 215-869-4753 PPEHRCorg@gmail.com

Houseless people create our own research investigation to "prove" that these violent Sweeps orders are killing us while we celebrate the 2nd Homefulness- rent-free forever housing site in Oakland.   For Immediate Release: Contact: Muteado or Tiny/poormagazine  (510)-435-7500 What : Sweeps WeSearch findings Release and Welcoming in ceremony and community party for Homefulness#2   When:  1pm Saturday, BlackAugust 17th  Where:  Homefulness#2 7600 MacArthur Bl , East Oakland, Ca “Do you know where the bus station is,” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr. Asuncion, who had just been swept from a little corner he was standing on by California Highway Patrol officers, 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 a bus ticket. (excerpt from the 1st WeSearch report Sweeping us to Nowhere ) Sr Asuncion is just one of the houseless povertyskolaz who contributed his story and struggles to the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report on these violent moves 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. 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 are waging a war against our houseless bodies. Sweeping, disappearing and arresting us to nowhere. RoofLess Radio WeSearch is poor and houseless people-led research project which will reveal the impact of the deadly violence of sweeps, bus tickets, jail-like motel rooms, navigation centers, temporary shelters, cabins, and arrests, that are killing us. We are also highlighting that we do have actual solutions created by us for us - solutions like Camp Resolution, Wood Street Commons, Aetna Street solidarity, Reclaiming Our Homes and Homefulness to name a few.   We Are Building Solutions in the middle of this war ON the poor - why can't we get any media attention? On BlackAugust 17th, POOR Magazine WeSearchers, Homefulness residents and resident leaders of Wood Street Commons will release Part 1 of the RoofLess Radio Findings on these violent sweeps and policies of removal,  as well as welcome in the first two homes at Homefulness#2 iat 7600 MacAthur Bl in Deep East (Huchiun) Oakland with all nations prayer, education, a free bbq, poetry, art and love for ComeUnity.  Homefulness #1 was an 11 year long journey In 2022, after being blocked for over 11 years by the City of Oakland, the 1st Homefulness project  located at 8032 MacArthur bl was finally allowed to open its doors to houseless families, elders and youth. As of July 2024 we have 21 formerly houseless, now homeful, residents  living in rent-free forever healing housing. Homefulness#2 is the second example of this practicable dream of rent-free forever housing we poor and houseless people are working on to house over 35 houseless families and disabled elders.  “Where would I go?” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Demetrius K explained why he rejected the bus ticket offerred to him by London Breed to erase Houseless peoples from the streets of San Francisco, “I’m from San Francisco, I’m not going anywhere” Demetrius went on to explain that he has been asked to move multiple times but never was offered housing and how the money and resources of San Francisco continue to go for the rich. “They keep building all this housing for rich people, but hardly any for the poor, look at all these empty buildings,” he said pointing his hands to all the nearby towering  empty office buildings, “ why can’t we build a Homefulness here?” he concluded.(excerpt from Sweeping us to Nowhere RoofLessRadio Sweeps WeSearch POOR Magazine is currently working with houseless communities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and West Oakland at Wood Street to open their own versions of this powerful and doable dream we call Homefulness. "Saturday's event is celebrating a Herstoric Day- 530 years after the violence of colonization we poor and indigenous peoples are building our own solutions..". Muteado Silencio- formerly houseless co-founder,povertyskola and lead builder Homefulness "With permission, prayer and guidance from 1st Nations Ohlone, Lisjan leaders we are opening a 2nd site for our own self-determined solutions of Healing Housing without the Lie of Rent... only possible because of the radical redistribution of conscious housed residents with resources radically redistributing to us poor peoples so we can mamafest this dream," tiny aka povertyskola, formerly houseless co-founder, povertyskola and visionary of Homefulness   Event which will include teachings on off-grid energy sources, housing and waste reduction in low/no-income communities, as well as poetry, music, children's activities, art, free barbecue for the neighborhood and so much more is co-sponsored by POOR Magazine a poor/indigenous, homeless people-led movement dedicated to providing media access, art, education, advocacy and solutions to youth , adults and elders in poverty locally and globally and Self-Help Hunger Program- a poor/Black elder led movement towards self-determination and Wood Street Commons movement- a homeless peoples movement of healing and activation  1st RoofLessRadio WeSearch Release