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Sweeping us to Nowhere  a RoofLessRadio WeSearch Project  By Tiny with Leajay Harper, Momii Palapaz, Frankie Carter, Alex DeLeon, Jay Paulino  RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr Asuncion with his bus ticket to Nowhere “Do you know where the bus station is,” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr. Ascunsion, laughed nervously, throwing back his wavy black /silver hair as he uncrumpled a small piece of paper he held in his hand ”And do you know where this town is?”  Sr Asuncion, a houseless elder pushing a small granny cart filled with a few carefully folded clothes and one sleeping bag standing at the base of the on-ramp to the I-580 freeway, was one of the recipients of London Breed’s bizarre, elder abusive “Bus ticket anywhere” program instituted after Gov. Newsom called all houseless people dangerous and demanded we all be “cleared” off the sidewalks like a used paper cup . Sr Asuncion, who had just been swept from a little corner he was standing at by California Highway Patrol officers, 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 Sweeping, Clearing, Cleaning, Disappearing our bodies like we are trash  Since the Grants Pass versus Johnson Ruling which was actively supported and promoted by London Breed and Newsom, all gloves are off for both of these desperate for votes politricksters, who have been waging an active war on our houseless bodies since they came into office. “As your mayor I promise to clean up the homeless problem,” stated Gavin Newsom to potential San Francisco voters in the 90’s when he swooped into the mayoral office literally on the backs of houseless peoples, claiming to San Francisco voters he was their best hope to “clean us up”. Me and most of us houseless/poor people at POOR Magazine at the time were knowing that an even more violent war than the one we were already struggling with, was on the horizon.  London Breed on the other hand ( or the same hand) has promised from her Day 1 in the Mayors office more than a decade later to “get tough” with houseless people, spending thousands of dollars on kops and DPW to move us from one side of the streets to the other, from under bridges to in doorways.  As well, she has encouraged, contracted, enabled and paid for the private police force of Urban Alchemy whose sole job seems to be poLicing houseless bodies all across San Francisco and many other cities in California.  Both of these demiCON politricksters, spewing violent Krapitalism with every step they take, have pandered to all the worst elements in San Francisco, welcoming in tech with endless payouts and right offs, encouraging luxury CONdo devil-opers and great and consistent love for the poLice,  meanwhile crushing, clearing, cleaning, and disappearing so many poor people from San Francisco, it’s almost painful to mention, while re-alocating, repurposing and discouraging  endless sources of money that was supposed to go to support poor peoples housing, and refusing to meet with Homefulness  leaders about a  Homefulness Healing Housing project  in San Francisco .  .  Thousands of Dollars wasted on PoLicing our Homelessness, but never housing us. RoofLessRadioTL reporters, tiny and Eugene  “There is no crime happening right here, no crime at all except having no place to sleep, all this mayor is doing is causing a problem for a vote,” RoofLessRadioTL reporter Eugene shouted out to all the 55 armed agents of the state who were lined up behind the DPW workers on Leavenworth in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco to oversee and poLice the “clearing” and cleaning ordered by Newsom and promoted by Breed.  “The money spent on all these armed poLice agencies could have gone to solutions like Homefulness, but rather these poltricksters would rather arrest, harass and kill us than ever listen to us about our own solutions,” I screamed to the endless line of squad cars on Leavenworth   Every day since Newsoms slanderous order of abuse across so-called California,, SF Mayor Breed has added her own venom by trolling the streets of San Francisco with multiple poLice agencies. Most of the viscous sweeps include at least one (if not 15) CHP officers, SF PoLice and DPW workers.  Sweeps and NEVER solutions From LA to Sacramento RoofLessRadioTL reporter with Sweeps Report “Homelessness is NOT comfortable,”  another warrior elder RoofLessRadioTL reporter  was responding to London Breed’s comment that the City is going to make it as uncomfortable as possible for homeless people in San Francisco. She was huddled up against the wall at Ellis street with a recycling can and a few belongings her and other sweeps victims were able to hold onto before they were violently removed from the tenderloin streets and sidewalks they were sleeping on. This fierce sister went on to explain that the shelter system was oftentimes more uncomfortable than living on the street, explaining the disrespect and abuse she felt at the hands of 20 something anti-social workers telling her where to go, how to be.  “They have stolen everything from me, yesterday they stole my purse” she added “In LA from the first day of Newsom’s order, the cops took our communities tents and belongings and began to arrest people,” RoofLESSradioLA reporter Carla and member of Aetna Street Solidarity reported to Poor Peoples Radio. “We have lost so many of our folks from the lies of Mayor Karen Bass’ InsideSafe Program, she is no better than any of these mayors and is causing our folks to die.  They are up here in the 110 degree heat, doing sweeps and arresting people, said Crystal Rose Sanchez from Sacramento Homeless Union and Camp Resolution.  RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Demetrius      “Where would I go?” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Demetrius K responded to the bus ticket to anywhere program, “I’m from San Francisco, I’m not going anywhere” Demetrus 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.  RoofLessRadio reporters LeaJay and JohnX (Not his real name)   “I’m out here trying to make an honest living, but they fuking Black people over in this town, I had my humble little food giveaway going on, we werent bothering anyone, we were helping fellow houseless folks, i have an LLC and a sellers permit,  all my paperwork in order, and these people from the City swooped down on us along with all the other folks they were messing with and seized all my tools, and haven’t even given me a way to get it back,” RoofLessRadioTL reporter John X concluded shaking his head walking.  “They said you can only take what you can carry with two hands, I asked them well can you hold it until I get some housing and they said no we can’t keep anything, “ RoofLessRadioTL reporter Mark reported. “I don’t know who they are giving this housing to, but I’m disabled and houseless and its not us, all they give us is these useless Navigation centers which don’t help anyone.”  “I lost my walker in this sweep, and they told me I couldn’t stay where i was, the problem is I have nowhere else to go and without people i trust around me, i have been raped and attacked,” RoofLessRadio reporter Alison whispered to me as she huddled in her wheelchair near the curb on Ellis street after being swept. Homelessness Kills and We have Solutions Mouse, houseless resident leader from Wood Street Commons speaking on the Mic at the Press conference on Wood Street Commons From Left Rear, Freeway Leajay, John Janasko and Monique with Wood Street Commons and Homefulness “Caltrans, the biggest landlord in California has so much vacant land, There is vacant land right here, owned by Caltrans that we could be living on but instead they just keep moving us onto the streets, putting us in danger,”, said John Janosko, resident leader of Wood Street Commons, a solution of healing and support and housing for houseless Oakland residents before the City and the State violently “swept” it and pushed everyone onto the streets. “Camp Resolution is one of the cleanest, most organized spaces for homeless Sacramento residents, but the City of Sacramanto just keeps trying to shut us down,” said Crystal Rose Sanchez, leader and povertyskola from the Sacramento Homeless Union who fought with the City of Sacramento to create a space for houseless residents of Sacramento. Homelessness Kills, Homefulness Heals Formerly Houseless, Now Homeful residents of Homefulness with revolutionary lawyers from Sustainable Economies Law Center who are helping them with their UnSelling process in this stolen land.  “Homefulness is a real time example of #4 of the 10 point plan of the Black Panther Party, that demanded safe, clean,habitable housing. Homefulness is our solution to our problems, said Aunti Frances Moore, Black Panther and Poverty skola is a co-founder of Homefulness and founder of the Self-Help Hunger Program in North Oakland  Homefulness currently has 21 houseless, homeful residents of a beautiful model of poor and houseless peoples self-determination, which was built with permission,  spiritual and elder guidance from the Ohlone/Lisjan Nation, who are first peoples of this land and is dedicated to provigin rent-free, forever housing for poor, disabled, houseless elders, youth and families currently struggling with homelessness and its related trauma. This innovative project which works to spiritually and legally unsell Mama Earth as tiny says is financially made possible by conscious folks with different forms of race and class privilege who radically redistribute to poor peoples self-determination, learning and unlearning in a liberation education seminar we at POOR Magazine call PeopleSkool   “I’m going to go to this town, even though I’m afraid and don’t know it, because I don’t know where else to go and San Francisco is kicking me out,” Sr Asuncion laughed nervously again and added, “Do you know where the bus station is,”  RoofLessRadioTL Reporters tiny,  Momii Palapaz, LeaJay Harper, (Behind) Youth RoofLessRadio Reporters Alex DeLeon and Jay Paulino  (out of pic but in the Cru- Frankie Carter)    Sweeps Don’t House Us,  Homelessness Kills us is a RoofLessRadio WeSearch Project RoofLessRadio and WeSearch is a poor people-led research project of POOR Magazine dedicated to listening, learning, hearing, and reclaiming the endless counting and shuffling of data, counts, surveys, reports created about us poor and houseless peoples without us poor and houseless peoples. WeSearch findings and results also integrates our own Poor Peoples Solutions   RoofLessRadio WeSearchers and poverty skolaz from POOR Magazine and Wood Street Commons and other organizations will be releasing our WeSearch findings and our solutions at a press conference on Saturday, BlackAugust 17th at 1pm which will also be a welcoming in ceremony and community celebration for the first two homes at Homefulness#2 at 7600 BlackArthur (MacArthur) in Deep East Huchiun (Oakland)

A teen-age girl on an errand for family. A strange car. Full of uniformed men. Pulled her inside. Door closed. Car drove on. Abduction. Promises of work far away in cooking, nursing, laundry, textiles were golden tickets out of a life of poverty the way a stranger told another girl. Deception. Able young women Disappeared from hometown streets. Reappeared at army stations. From Korea, from China, they were taken. From the Philippines, from Taiwan, they were taken. From Thailand, from Japan, they were taken. From Indonesia, from Malaysia, they were taken to serve strapping young soldiers from their beds, on their backs, took far too many shafts. Daily, they endured slavery. War within a war. Their own bodies, theatres of attack. Their own wills versus the Imperial Japanese male will. Enlisted men clutched onto charms, numbers on scrap paper, formed a queue that stretched through the door. Soon after, high-ranking officers took their sordid pleasures at night. At such stations, comfort was missing in action. Army commanders claimed they were started for the reduction of social diseases and rape. Both escalated behind their walls, along with beatings and limits on movement. Tides of war had shifted—Surrender of Japan, closer at hand— Printed records on military comfort stations and their captive females were set to flame when the Americans came. World War 2 came to an end, but for former military captive females, there was no home to return to— Years in isolation, decades in silence. Wartime trauma bottled up, memories of drunken/wilful torture, tethered to one building, one land, one area Like butterflies with soft wings pinned— Shame remained a constant worrisome companion. Until a brave Korean lady elder unloaded long-time hurt into a mic. One voice then became a resounding chorus of voices, liberating themselves from shame. Same hurt shared—army captivity, sexual savagery, escape impossible— Hands appeared from nowhere, pulling out pins from butterfly wings— Legions of the concerned—family members, community members—valiantly stand behind these former military captive women—now great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers and wives—outside of embassies demanding justice past due. And the Japanese government owe them tremendously. Statesmen offer the stone wall—not apologies—to a questioning public. Right-wingers say Japan has nothing to apologise for. Grade school history books contain nothing about comfort stations or their female captives. Bronze statues honouring comfort station survivors are ordered to be torn down, wherever they stand. So the war continues within old women's nightmares. So the battles continue over memory, hearkening to times they were seen as things. Until real resolution with the state is achieved, the fight must continue. It's not about repairing the damage with millions in yen. It's about calling out the guilty party to take accountability for past crimes Against the females of the Pacific & Asia. Horde of butterflies crowd the sky, flying for their liberty— ______________________ W: 3.24 to 4.24 Jūgun Ianfu > Japanese: “Military 'comfort women'.” Comfort stations: Military houses of prostitution. [ Originally published in The Literary Times #2, Summer 2024.]

August 24th & 25th / 24 y 25 de agosto A DegentriFUKation/Decolonization seminar / Seminario de destrificación/descolonización Free for Poverty Skolaz, sliding scale for folks with privilege Join us on Zoom *In person option for Poverty Skolaz Apply Online: https://www.poormagazine.org/education Day 1 ​is for poverty skolaz AND people with race, class and/or formal education privilege. It will center Poverty Scholarship & the medicine of poor, houseless and indigenous people-led movements & media. Day 2 ​is for people with race, class and/or formal education privilege (optional for poverty skolaz), aimed at service providers, media creators, educators, organizers, researchers, artists, legislators, policy-makers, donors & philanthropists, students, community members, and anyone who wants to learn about following Black, Indigenous, POC, and poor leadership and aligning your work with poor people-led self determination movements. Follow-Up Sessions ​We continue learning about poverty scholarship. All sessions occur 2–6 weeks after the PeopleSkool weekend seminar. Sept 10, Sept 17, Oct 1. 6:30 pm PST GRATIS para los acad é micos de la pobreza, escala m óvil para personas con privilegios únete a nosotros en zoom Aplicar en línea: poormagazine.org/education *Opción en persona para Académicos de Pobreza Día 1 es para académicos de la pobreza Y personas con privilegios de raza, clase, y / o educación formal. Se centrará en la erudición de Pobreza y la medicina de los movimientos y medios de comunicación pobres, sin hogar e indígenas liderados por pueblos indígenas.  Día 2 es para personas con privilegios de raza, clase, y / o educación formal, dirigido a proveedores de servicios, creadores de medios, educadores, organizadores, investigadores, artistas, legisladores, responsables políticos, donantes y filántropos, estudiantes, miembros de la comunidad, y cualquiera que quiera aprender más sobre cómo seguir el liderazgo negro, indígena, de color y pobre e alineando su trabajo con los movimientos de autodeterminación liderados por personas pobres. Sesiones de seguimiento Seguimos aprendiendo sobre la erudición de pobreza. Todas las sesiones ocurren de 2-6 semanas después del seminario de fin de semana de People Skool. 10 de septiembre, 17 de septiembre, 1 de octubre. 6:30 pm PST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Contact: Muteado SIlencio or Tiny Garcia (510) 435-7500  We charge Gavin Newsom with War (On the Poor) Crimes  Newsom demands statewide "clearing" of ALL our houseless bodies to nowhere - Houseless Californians and advocates respond with a criminal charge  Today California Gov. Gavin Newsom enhanced his already violent policy of removal and harassment of houseless people just trying to rest by directing  state agencies to dismantle homeless encampments on state land. He is making this move after the US supreme court ruled on  Grants Pass versus Johnson which cleared the way for states and cities to move even more violently against houseless communities  by saying we as houseless residents of the US have no rights to protection under the CONstitution.  A coalition of Houseless peoples from Los Angeles to Sacramento who have already been rendered criminal just because we live outside without access to a roof hereby  respond to Newsoms violent threats. "I would ask the question were are all those unhoused people going to go? Why are you criminalizing people for not making enough money to pay their rent? How is this going to make anything better? And you know there are not enough shelter beds in California to put everyone in who want to sleep in a shelter/ hell. Who are you looking out for? " John Janasko- Wood Street Commons Resident Leader "This morning, the last remaining community members of Aetna Street ( a houseless community in occupied Tovaangar aka so-called Los Angeles) were given orders for their removal and destruction of their homes and arrest if they refused to comply. This order comes directly from Governor Newsom who issued an Executive Order to California officials to remove homeless encampments from public state-owned land. What happens to our community when they are removed from public? They are forced underground to places where they are no longer visible or detectable. This is a forced removal policy, an order to “disappear” the visible sight of poverty. " Aetna Street Solidarity  “We houseless, disabled, swept, terrorized residents of California at POOR Magazine and Homefulness charge Politrickster Newsom with War (ON the poor) Crimes for the deaths that have already resulted from his violent sweeping, removing, evicting and arresting and this order which will only act to enhance that violence against our bodies and result in the drastic increase in our death. .Like all war criminals protected by corrupt governments from occupied Palestine to occupied Turtle Island, we will resist, as we have no choice and nowhere else to go,”  Tiny Gray-Garcia, Leajay Harper, Muteado Silencio, Israel Munoz, Brokin Cloud, Aunty Frances Moore, Juju A, Angel Heart, Danielle Smith, Daveion L, Dee A, Teo E, Frankie, Evander and many more houseless relatives and ancestors at POOR Magazine/Homefulness    “The Governor’s executive order is punitive and builds in no protections for the unhoused. It builds in no punishment or consequences for resource providers that fail to conduct outreach or who fail to assist these vulnerable communities. The Governor does not build in guidance or direction on how state agencies and local governments can penalize continuum of care providers that fail to do their outreach prior to the sweep yet accept the millions of dollars to provide these services. There is no implementation of any oversight, therefore, leaving the unhoused subject to a new reign of terror and torment by state actors because they are poor and homeless.” - Andrea Henson, Executive Director, Where Do We Go “Newson is making  a big mistake bc he has no offer of shelter. A permanent solution, people don't have electricity, the state is over hot. Temperature over 90 an 100s no wather. Hosing hosing justice is a solution . Housing.”  Miguel Carrerra, Coalition on Homelessness  “The narrative around the country is that California is a bastion of progressive values. There's nothing progressive about the decision to sweep our unhoused relatives from their homes, This is just going to make way more un mitigated violence against our unhoused relatives. Given The political timing. One must wonder if Gavin is cleaning up the White House to clean up the reputation that the right has created about California in order to pave the way for Harris to the White House at the expense of the very people who should be the most protected by those we elect to do so" Cat Brooks cofounder executive Director Anti Police Terror Project “Democrats, Republicans, the Supreme Court and the police, you can oppress the people for so long before they fight back!  Yeah we will be at your front door!” Leroy Moore, Co-founder Homefulness and Founder of Krip Hop Nation  “This has already been a practice in Sacramento they've been arresting entire encampments” -Crystal rose Sanchez sacramento homeless Union  “There is no social justice in criminalizing our unhoused community their is no solution in solving homelessness by incarceration," Junebug Keaoloha, POOR Magazine /San Francisco  "Governor Gavin Newsom, if you are enforcing an unjust law lying in public, then you are complicit with killing the most vulnerable people in this country.  Most unhoused folk are highly traumatized people, survivors of sexual violence, veterans, and elders unable to pay the high and immoral rents in California.  There are not enough shelters for them, and shelters are often carceral and abusive, further traumatizing traumatized people.  I am saddened and angered by how we treat people who need and deserve love, care, support, and safe, dignified housing.  Instead, you should criminalize landlords and corporations that have shockingly high rents. The solution to homelessness is creating a system that puts people over profit and treats poor people as human beings.  We should have supportive permanent housing options created and managed by people with unhoused experience.  We have enough resources and money for everyone; we need to use them effectively.  Newsom, you should Do Better and Be Better.  Do Not Enforce Immoral Inhumane Laws!" Martha Escudero, Reclaiming Our Homes El Sereno, LA  This entire violent move by Newsom is only possible because, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Grants Pass v. Johnson , a case that had barred cities from citing and arresting people for the sole act of being homeless in public. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, said fining and arresting homeless people does not violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. “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. “Who is being subject to the Governors order? Elders, people with disabilities, often both who will now have to move further and further from sources of food and water. California, the 5th largest economy in the world, is leaving people to die of forced starvation and dehydration, in addition to the threat of criminalization that people forced to live outside are faced with every day. As these orders go in to effect, our people will die. There’s no need to house people once they are gone. It’s a final solution for people who are forced to live outside. This is a death march from the 5th largest economy in the world.” Aetna Street Solidarity  This is an example of why Homefulness - a homeless peoples solution to homelessness who just welcomed their 21st houseless family into rent-free forever housing is such an emergency need and not possible unless wealth-hoarders radically share so poor and houseless peoples can build our own, self-determined healing solutions to housing that will offer us rent-free forever homes, not subject to the classist , racist hate of the state that protects stolen indigenous  land over people,  The krapitalOST state will always incarcerate us for being poor., tiny gray-garcia, Homefulness /POOR Magazine

By tiny gray-garcia aka @povertyskola, daughter of Dee, Mama of Tiburcio “There are many opinions, but in my perspective, Non-Indigenous peoples should leave peyote ceremony to Indigenous peoples. That has been shown and highlighted by the Native American Church with a lot of their advocacy and what they have said they want. There are so many different medicines that non-Indigenous peoples can use — they can sit with San Pedro or synthetic mescaline or so many other psychedelics that aren't facing ecological threat” Sutton King, indigenous daughter, co-founder of Urban Indigenous Collective  Long hair strands were touseled in the imaginary wind. A vague sparkle emanated from traditional regalia modeled in shining Black rock. Sandaled feet seemed to be in motion. I gazed upon what appeared to be an indigenous man struck in mid-motion in stone aka a  “statue” He stood in pseudo mid-air in the center of dozens of shopping malls in the occupied Yavapai, Tonto Apaches, Hopi and Navajo  lands aka so-called Sedona, Arizona. Right there, in the center of that settler “town” was a tribute to  indigenous medicine  spirituality directing the tourists to the endless storefronts peddling different pierces of commodified Mama Earth and stolen plant medicines.   Crystals, carved stone, magical earth, mystical dirt, potions and rocks glittered from 1970’s style wood encased plate glass windows along the main road.  Each store proclaiming their products had the most potent healing powers. All of these healing qualities were purportedly mined, extracted, stolen, I mean, “found” in the sacred red earth and mountains that surrounded so-called Sedona.  I made the journey to this place with an indigenous Mayan elder who was houseless for years and now is disabled and  i care for ( one of my under the table survival jobs)  She requested to go there because she was sick and lurched away from her own land based indigenous medicine had heard the derivative hippie narrative about this being “magical” land filled with healing medicines. So-called Sedona , Arizona ,is  named after one of the original wite settler, land stealers of the genocidal pioneer days named Sedona Schnebly. ,, This part of Mama Earth is draped in the  finest of  rust-colored Mama Earth regalia. Red mountains and plains as far as the eye can see. So beautiful but so much felt  off. This town is the Krapitol of what i affectionately call the Healing Industrial Complex. And to affirm that reality, there are multiple signs everywhere for the next “spiritual tour” or “vortex tour” which is replete with kundalini yoga, a portable ceremony led by a real live Guru and a plethora of magical rocks, potions, tinctures and crystals they can provide you with, at a nominal extra fee, that is.   Mystical, Sacred and spiritual.  These terms are currency in the Healing Industrial Complex. From Sedona to India,  they are thrown around like confetti at a wedding. The thing is that in many highly commodified “healing” locations it’s not only land that gets sold and profited off of, its not only ancient spaces of sacred Mama earth, its culture, tribal and ancient medicine and practices and sacred ceremonies From yoga to sweat lodges, from peyote ceremonies to cactus, these are all products to be traded, bought , sold”taught” and extracted.  When me and Dona Sandra got to the supposed “vortex” mountains there are casual references made by swarming Tour” guides to native plant medicine, which in addition to being named is being peddled, sold, hustled, and used without any patent, ethical or legal accountability to the indigenous mama earth care-givers, medicine carriers and tribal nations they were stolen from. This happens all over the world and is one of the reasons I coined the term “wite Science” - with no “h” cuz its a system rooted in white supremacy that includes all practitioners including people of color trained in, working for or profiting off of wite science. It’s rooted in extraction and theft of culture and community and is completely irresponsible to the indigenous lands and ancestors that brought it to humans  From mushrooms to peyote, from copal to sage, there are hundreds of plant medicines which have been cared for for time immorial, way before colonial gregorian calendars by indigenous science, which work in tandem with what Mama earth has to give and offer .       I’ve been sick for as long as i can remember, not the physical kind, the mental, truamaPTSD, not sure where it comes from kind. Every second of every day, i battle suicidality, depression, severe anxiety and CONfusion.  I have also worked since i was four years old, not because i wanted to but because i had to. Mama was disabled and we were in poverty. Our life was a war zone of survival, depression, fear, evictions, abuse and homelessness. I try everyday to get on my bike and race the insanity out of my mind. For the last few years i have had the blessing of having  loving self-care-givers, and radical healers in my comeunity and extended community. They are always encouraging me to “heal” the thing is,  im not sure if you can ever “heal” from what ails me. Im never been willing to take Big Pharma as a solution and have severe body and trust issues in terms of touch. Matter of fack my kinship proximity is my fellow street warriors walking around screaming to themselves and the world. They are me i am them. I feel like i walk thru life holding my breath, because if i exhale to deeply, i will  disintegrate.    And yet, maybe thru my ghetto scholarship, i can’t get down with the gray area of commodfication and extraction in terms of medicine. If you are not indigenous to that plant or ceremony or tradition, its gonna feel fake to me. That isnt to say i dont’ believe in spirit.  Nor do i fault anyone in any of the medicine, spirit they practice or practice in. I pray and listen to my ancestors and mama earth everyday .But im not ok with the arrogance and rampant industry of appropriation of literally everything .   Learn where your medicine comes from and just because it “sounds exciting to be part of something it doesnt mean you should have complete unfettered access to it  My proposal for the Healing Industrial Complex and its purveyors who are profiting off of and peddling these earth and plant sacred medicines,  you have a responsibility to give back to not only Mama Earth but the peoples, lands and traditions you are extracting from. And to propose that spiritual healing also comes from radical redistribution and LandBack work to the 1st peoples of the lands and tribes the medicine used u “use” was “sourced” from.

What : ComeUNITY Festival with DJ/Dance-off, Food, Prayer, Poetry, Solar & Wind Energy Education. Benefit for an off-grid solar system for Homefulness When: BlackAugust 17th (8/17 Saturday 1pm) Where : 7600 Macarthur Blvd (Blackarthur), Occupied East Huchiun (Oakland) Tables available for artists and organizations - email by 8/5 Please redistribute if you can't make it in person: link Qué: Festival ComeUNITY con DJ/concurso de baile, comida, oración, poesía, educación sobre energía solar y eólica. Beneficio de un sistema solar aislado para Homefulness Cuándo: ( 1pm El Sábado 17 de Agosto Negro) Dónde: 8032 Macarthur Blvd (Blackarthur), Ocupado East Huchiun (Oakland) Mesas disponibles para artistas y organizaciones: envíe un correo electrónico antes del 5 de agosto Por favor redistribuya si no puede hacerlo en persona: enlace

LeaJay HARPER Who : Stop the Sweeps Seattle WA What : Have increased their sweeps defense for the unhoused. Where : Downtown Seattle Why : Because there was an “accelerated 200% increase from 2022-2023,” says Tai, one of the STS advocates. The average sweeps per day in 2022 was approximately 2.5 per day to now approximately 7.75 per day, sweeps defense advocates credit this because the city of Seattle have showed strong support for rulings like the recent Johnson vs. Grants Pass Oregon (where people can now be ticketed and arrested for camping in “public spaces”). STOP THE SWEEPS Momii palapaz From the stolen lands of Coast Salish territory in the Pacific Northwest, Stop The Sweeps has experienced and witnessed escalating attacks and sweeps of houseless communities.  Made up of houseless people, members Kaitlin and Tai have been instituting a variety of ways to meet the ongoing displacement. Also known as Seattle, the extremely conservative powers in local government are encouraging and implementing blockades to stop the erection of tents and structures for shelter. It has been reported that RVs have been set on fire and cars are deliberately driving into tents. A man, white and 25 years old, was recently seen carrying an ax, looking to use it on a houseless person. Stop the Sweeps visits Homefulness by Angel Heart  “Ultimately, we’d love to build a Homefulness in the Indigenous Southwest” stated Tai, Co-Founder of Stop the Sweeps located in Duwamish/Coast Salish, aka Seattle. Tai and Kateland of Stop the Sweeps both visited POOR Magazine/Homefulness on July 8, 2024. Tai shared that the percentage of sweeps in Seattle has increased 200% from 2022-2023; which was the equivalent of 2.5 sweeps per day. Stop the Sweeps has also noticed an increase of violence against houseless people; with no real action taking place from the city government. Not only was this information troubling, but it was also painful to hear that their city government has publicly stated support for Grant Pass. The City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, is a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that local government ordinances with civil and criminal penalties for camping on public land, does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment for homeless people.  Stop the Sweeps believes in a world without state-sanctioned violence, and mobilizes to challenge state violence directed at our unhoused neighbors during sweeps; seeking to build a society where everyone works to meet each other’s basic needs through mutual aid, community care and radical solidarity. Both Homefulness, and Stop the Sweeps aim to address and support houseless persons and communities. “  “We are criminalized in our bodies for being poor outside, for living without a roof, sleeping in our car, in doorways, in parks, on streets and in tents. What is never mentioned is we are in these doorways and cars because of a system of krapitalism that commodifies mama earth and profits off of our poverty and the incarceration of our bodies.  So-called Grants Pass, Oregon itself is stolen land, and should be returned to the Takelma, Shasta and Athbaskan relatives, who are the first peoples of that territory. And many of whom make up the houseless relatives in so-called Grants Pass. Just like they do in so-called Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle and much of the Pacific Northwest (and all of occupied Turtle Island). Un-reparated, un-supported, original peoples, houseless on their own land. Secondly, I don’t recognize the Stealing Fathers’ and their lying lies aka the CONstitution, which has proven over and over again to be a fluid document that only protects the white, wealth-hoarding, land-stealing class that originally stole Turtle Island,” states Tiny Gray-Garcia aka poverty skola, Co-Founder of POOR Magazine/Homefulness. Stop the Sweeps and Homefulness at POOR Magazine plan on collaborating in the near future; in hopes of building a Seattle Homefulness.

By Charles Pitts Randy Shaw just published a new story mentioning people staying in shelters having a 14-day limit. Mr. Shaw complained that poor people are using drugs in the neighborhood. The rebuttal is: Temporary shelter of 14 days- one does not have adequate time to do much of anything such as transition from shelter to housing. At 14 days, the only thing one really has the time to do is apply for more shelter. At 14 days, that's just enough time for someone to get their ID if they immediately leave the shelter and go to the DMV. Getting an ID at that rate would also mean everything would have to go correctly and no errors be made. Mr. Randy Shawn’s suggestion of 14 days also goes in violation of city law which states a person has 90 days, and you can have it extended up to 180, as noted in the shelter grievance policy page 18. This policy has changed in face of the pandemic to stop the spread of disease such as coronavirus and possibly tuberculosis. The goal should be to help homeless people get an income stream and housing and escape extreme poverty. At 14 days, none of this can be achieved. The housing process could take up to 6 months. Getting IDs, bank statements, birth certificates, SSI cards, to get housing applications completed and addressed takes much more than 14 days. The logistics of it could take more than 180 days. At 14 days, it's not enough time for case management to connect with people in order to address any of their needs to escape extreme poverty or homelessness. Randy Shawn’s 14-day plan has not worked in the past and very likely will not work in the future. I'm sure 14 days goes against all best practice models. San Francisco needs to start working on viable plans and alternatives to help people get income streams and economically advance. San Francisco needs to create volunteer opportunities and more job fairs.   San Francisco is dealing with an aging population and disabled population where many people need medical assistance and outright In-Home Support Services to deal with physical and mental disabilities. Mister Shaw's primary argument about homeless people having housing with attached bathrooms instead of everything being down the hall. Half or the majority of the housing Mr Shaw has bathrooms and every other amenity down the hall. Very likely, people with ADA requirements and other issues need bathrooms and other cooking facilities in their unit. We need to have serious dialogue regarding the best housing model for poor people and we need four different types of housing models.  1 ) A shelter system where there's legitimate accountability for shelter staff and shelter where poor people have the authority to adjust policy and procedure regarding how they live.  2 ) Halfway houses where it's other than 200 people stacked up on top of each other. Something where five to 20 people live communally. 3 ) Housing where people have an attached bedroom and bathroom all together. 4 ) Independent housing where it is primarily a residence by itself such as a house.  The housing model of the single room occupancy only works because that's the only housing model that's available. The single room model needs to be totally eliminated and revamped. How society treats poor people needs to be redone. We need several philosophical and economic changes within our society.

and Demand of Land Back/Land Return and Reparations for Black/Indigenous Houseless Residents and Decriminalization of all “public space” on Turtle Island for temporary or life-long use by Houseless, Disabled, Poor residents and ComeUnities anywhere they may commune.   This Decline to Accept, Decriminalization and Reparations demand  is co-created by poor, houseless, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Disabled peoples from all four corners of occupied Turtle Island. The following are some of the Writers, Signers, and Survivors from poor /houseless/disabled, Indigenous people-led movements. To watch an emergency press conference featuring all of the groups, signers and commenters listed below please go to this link on POOR Magazine's Facebook page If you would like to add your name, your Comments and your organizations name please email poormag@gmail.com . For more background on the settler roots of this CONstitutional ruling see Grants Pass is NOT for Sale article by tiny gray-garcia here - The Signers/Commenters Who Collectively Decline to Accept Homefulness/POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork Poor Peoples Army Self-Help Hunger Program  Aetna Street Solidarity Reclaiming Our Homes  Wood Street Commons Krip Hop Nation Camp Resolution  Roofs Over Their Heads  Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC)  Rooflesser  Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) Street WatchLA Peoples Park, Berkeley Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) The following document is a response to the violent ruling Friday, June 28, 2024, by the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned Grants Pass v. Johnson , a case that had barred multiple settler cities across stolen Turtle Island from citing and arresting people for the sole act of being homeless in public. The Supreme Court, packed with a majority of wealth-hoarding, land-owning, classist, racist, ableist settlers,  in a 6-3 decision, said fining and arresting homeless people does not violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. We Decline to Accept this Settler CONstitution Ruling. We, as houseless, Black, Brown, Indigenous peoples from all four corners of Mama Earth, who have suffered multiple forms of oppression in this krapitalist system, ranging from colonial genocide, false border terror, historic violent racial profiling, and over-poLicing of our neighborhoods and bodies, redlining, ComeUnity violence, sweeps, theft of belongings and lives, incarceration, eviction, banksters, foreclosures, theft of land and generational wealth, ableism, poverty, scarcity,  ancestral and current trauma, and multiple more forms of gender-based violence, child abuse, and predation and survive and reside by any means necessary in street-based Communities, our cars, RV’s and/or wherever we can lay our heads, if even for a minute, all across Turtle Island overstand and know that Turtle Island is stolen, occupied Indigenous land and must and should go back to Indigenous stewardship.  We believe that Mama Earth is NOT now, nor has ever been for sale.  We also believe and know that the “legal” document known as the US CONstitution and the peoples appointed to adjudicate and uphold said document  are not now , nor will ever “rule” in favor of poor and houseless people. They can’t.  The document known as the CONstitution was created by the original Land Stealers known and referred to as the “Founding Fathers”  and is a document that is now, and has always been there to protect the racist and classist settler lie of private property and the wealth-hoarding white people who originally stole this land and imported Black and Brown bodies to build it and who continue to hoard, pillage, extract and steal from Mama Earth and her precious waters, air, oceans, and land.  Which we, as houseless people, are directly opposed to by our very existence. Conversely, the entity known as the Supreme Court believes and upholds the full, unfettered rights of protection for the kraptialist system of buying, selling, extracting, trading, and profiting off of Mama Earth.  Read on for more comments by signers and/or add your own.  Some of the Signers /Commenters: POOR Magazine Houseless/Formerly Houseless Poverty skolaz individually   JuneBug Kealoha  I’m poor! I’m unhoused! I’m not trash! I’m not a criminal ! Sweeps on unhoused neighbors is a crime! Tiny aka @povertyskola:   We are criminalized in our bodies for being poor outside, for living without a roof, sleeping in our car, in doorways, in parks, on streets and in tents. What is never mentioned is we are in these doorways and cars because of a system of krapitalism that commodifies mama earth and profits off of our poverty and the incarceration of our bodies.   So-called Grants Pass, Oregon itself is stolen land, and should be returned to the Takelma, Shasta and Athbaskan relatives, who are the first peoples of that territory. And many of whom make up the houseless relatives in so-called Grants Pass. Just like they do in so-called Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle and much of the Pacific Northwest (and all of occupied Turtle Island) . Un-reparated, un-supported, original peoples, houseless on their own land.  Secondly, I don’t recognize the Stealing Fathers’ and their lying lies aka the CONstitution, which has proven over and over again to be a “fluid” document that only protects the white, wealth-hoarding , land-stealing class that originally stole Turtle Island.  Tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola  Wood Street Commons  All the government  "Solutions" like Cabin Communities and shelters have failed to create the necessary foundation unhoused people need to be able to rebuild our lives,” said John Janasko, houseless resident leader at Wood Street Commons Self-Help Hunger Program/POOR Magazine   There are so many atrocities of homelessness for all of us poor people one of them  i am most concerned about is for the babies - the lack of water, safe housing, healthy food, and abuse… We are constantly under attack as poor and houseless peoples. We are constantly under attack as Black people and Black families. This is an emergency.  RECLAIMING OUR HOMES  This is horrible sleep is a body’s survival need. If unhoused people are a concern then provide housing for them or truly affordable housing options. Rent is too high and wages are low there are too many people struggling that may be unhoused soon. Elders are the highest population growing as unhoused because they can’t pay rent with their pensions. Martha Escudero, houseless mama member of Reclaiming Our Homes  Aetna Street Solidarity: The Grants Pass decision will mean what it has always meant for poor people, houseless people living in every city and town in the United States: we do not belong in your world. Which means we are committed to building ours, where everyone has a home, everyone has a place to go, everyone has enough food to eat and a place to rest. We refuse every ruling that attacks life, including the Grants Pass decision to continue and accelerate the slow genocide of poor people, black people, queer and trans people, indigenous migrants, elders and disabled. We belong to us. Aetna Street Solidarity is committed to fighting for a world where everyone belongs. We were born out of resistance to LA Municipal code 41.18 which banned sitting, lying, sleeping on public sidewalks in Los Angeles including Aetna Street in Van Nuys. The Grants Pass decision is an extension of an ideology rooted in white supremacy and capitalism that brought us from the ugly laws to this moment in history, where 6 unhoused people die a day on the streets of LA. When LA passed an amended version of LAMC 41.18, we saw unprecedented loss of those living on the streets who died in the days and weeks following the passing of 41.18 coupled by state-sanctioned raids led by our city’s sanitation, police, and housing authority. All while city politicians declared “VICTORY!” over the bodies of our friends with your tax money. The only services that were offered were permanent fences, the threat of punishment, arrest, illegal search and seizure (sweeps) and nothing beyond a temporary shelter bed. This is the Wheel of (Mis)Fortune, created by Ron, an unhoused member of our community organization dedicated to saving life while living on the streets. These are the names of our friends who have died in a world that enforced our criminalization. We choose LIFE over DEATH. We reject the Grants Pass decision that rejects life. We choose life, which means we choose to resist any law that seeks to criminalize our existence as poor people living in the heart of Empire. Long live the struggle of poor people fighting for our common goal and cause— a life worth living. KRIP HOP NATION  "Man over Mama Earth. Is the Supreme Court going to pay my rent, or should we be knocking on your door, Move over we are moving in," said Leroy Moore, Formerly houseless, disabled povertyskola with POOR Magazine, Homefulness and Founder of Krip Hop Nation Peoples Park, Berkeley In response to the frighteningly inhumane us Supreme Court ruling on grant’s pass, with the generous offerings of @plantingjustice, an autonomous collective of community members have planted a food forest and extended the mural in the “Dwight Triangle” Chuck P Herrick Peace and Freedom Memorial park. We denounce scotus’ grant’s pass ruling as an act of colonization, setting a vile precedent for displacement, incarceration, human rights violations, and fascism. We vehemently reject and will continue to organize against all attempts at mass enslavement and land seizure. We will eat free fresh fruit in our future— peaches, apples, cherries, plums, figs, loquats, pears, pomegranates, gooseberries, and olives— available for all to share in a liberated Xučyun. Now, as our ancestors since time immemorial and forever into the future as our descendants, we will take refuge and delight in our right to sleep, outside, to camp, to live, to leisure, to love, to rest, luxuriate, to dream... to LIBERATE! By any means necessary. Land back is our demand; NO peace on stolen land! Fuck the fascist haters. From People’s Park to Palestine, our liberation is intertwined. May 1000 food forests bear fruit! End all settler occupations. End empire! Permanent ceasefire! Free Congo! Free Sudan! Free Palestine! Free People’s Park! Like a mycelial network, People’s Park survives attempts to colonize it by shifting tactics and expanding territory. Keeping our baby food forest alive and thriving WILL require that we take turns watering the triangle in shifts. There is NO running water at the park! We need You to haul water (by any means necessary…) to Dwight and Telegraph, to hand water the saplings and other plants growing in the ground AND in containers at Chuck P Herrick Peace and Freedom Memorial Park. StreetWatchLA The role of the courts has always come at the convenience of the ruling class, and it’s unsurprising that the same guys getting free vacations from billionaires and flying MAGA flags sided with total criminalization of homelessness, and we shouldn't be surprised that it was in total agreement with the liberal governors and mayors  Trump-appointed judges made the same cynical anti-homeless rhetoric used by disgraced racist LA councilperson Nury Martinez, claiming it is injustice for the housed  people when encampments occur more often in poor, working class, and Black and brown neighborhoods. As rents continue to rise, tenants lose their housing and then are banished from their own neighborhoods while a politician calls it social justice. One of our members who has cared for his community in the midst of brutal encampment evictions at the hands of LAPD, Sanitation, and Los Angeles City Council said, “i had a feeling Martin vs. Boise was going to be brought up again. The politicians didn’t like that the Ninth Circuit Court ruled against them, because their intentions are to change the laws to criminalize people for being homeless. What we really need to do, is to get in touch with all homeless people here in the state of California and push back as hard as we can against our government. Make them give us that housing that we need. Seems like our government doesn’t give a shit about people who are struggling in paying their rents and whatever other bills they have, like utilities, because it seems like they’re only after the money and nothing more!” Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) Our hearts break at this ruling, thinking of the increased violence against poor people that this decision will enable. However, we are not surprised. The U.S. legal system is doing what it was designed to do: protect private property at all costs and uphold the system of racial capitalism. When our communities, livelihoods, and very existence are deemed illegal and subject to violence, we respond: the U.S. is illegal, as it causes the most violence to all living beings. This violent white cishet property system imposed on Turtle Island has led to people in cages or inescapable conditions of death, stolen wealth hoarded, and ecosystems devastated. As lawyers, we know that private property and U.S. empire has had no greater source of legitimization than the Supreme Court. We firmly reject this ruling, and we reject the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. We support people building community, with each other, and with Mama Earth. If any Supreme Court Justices on the majority opinion are reading this, go to Poor Magazine’s People Skool  on August 24 and 25—it is powerful and necessary medicine that will help heal your generational wealth hoarder/capitalist trauma!

By Leroy F. Moore From public section eight housing in Berkeley to graduate housing at University of California at Los Angeles no matter where I go housing nightmares are reality. I thought I'd escaped my bad landlord that we had to sue because of a broken elevator in 2019. Although we won that case, the apartment complex continued to go down quickly with theft of our mail, the complete stop of maintenance of the property and what got me out was when it was taken over by bedbugs. At that same time, because of the bedbugs thus I was forced to sleep in the bathtub for temporary escape. I thought I was blessed by an offer from the graduate anthropology department at UCLA. After a month of living in a hotel and house sitting for friends to escape my bedbug section eight apartment, I received the official offer to be a graduate student at UCLA with housing included. I didn’t know at that time, but the housing nightmares hopped in my suitcase and popped out in LA as soon as we drove up on campus. Firstly my apartment was not ready, so my family and I had stay in a hotel, then a friend’s house. Finally after like three days, my apartment was ready. We drove up to find my UCLA graduate apartment was in a middle of a hill on a street that you couldn’t stop on. So my sister and my nieces and nephews had to carry my stuff up a hill. Kiss my family bye, first thing I did was call housing and complain. Their answer was to show me a dorm that my scooter didn’t even fit inside so I shut up and made a home in my UCLA graduate housing in the middle of the hill for almost four years. Now in 2024 it will be four years living in UCLA graduate housing in Westwood and in those four years I have had a toilet pipe exploded flooding my bedroom and living-room, UCLA housing workers using their own key to get in although I was at home and told them I didn’t need their help, hiding in the bathroom, to my refrigerator leaking for months, to the recent pipe bursting in the apartment above me sending water in my apartment at 2am on June 27, 2024 and had to wait until 10am for UCLA housing workers to show up. Through all of the above, I continue to pay my $1,530.00 monthly rent until this recent incident of pipe bursting sending buckets of water through the ceiling and walls and because of that I’m asking a month of free rent. However when I told a housing employee who came out with the workers to investigate that I wanted a month of free rent, she replied in a sharp voice, “withholding rent is not a good idea.” Today, on June 28th, 2024, UCLA workers have a big air purifier in my living-room and they finally replaced my refrigerator after a month complaining of it leaking on my kitchen floor. On June 27th when the UCLA housing workers were cleaning up the water, the chemicals that they were using was so bad that I had to go to a café to get rid of bleach taste from my mouth and to relieve my headache. As I follow what society’s equation for success i.e. a freaking highest degree, a Ph.D., still as an older graduate student I am faced with consistent housing nightmares that hunts me on a daily and at age 57 and I see no way escaping it even though I have worked in non-profits, started an international network called Krip-Hop Nation, been published in the New York Times, Bloomberg News and authored four books plus awarded an Emmy but all of my accomplishments can’t fight with the ongoing housing nightmare that I living right now as the noise from this big air purifier in my living-room becomes normal as I close my eyes to take a nap because in my sleep my housing nightmares are not in my dreams. Leroy F. Moore

By Leroy F. Moore As an activist in my middle fifties, one very important thing that have been so obvious to me over and over again and that is many people in power are intimidated to the people they suppose to work for and they have a lack of original thought thus continue to bring back pieces of policies that has a long history rejection from the people they supposed to work for. The recent Supreme Court ruling, Grant Pass vs. Johnson Ruling makes it illegal for houseless people sleeping outside. This ruling is nothing new for activists like me. There’s a long policies from our own governments, locally and federally from the 1867 when San Francisco’s wrote and enforce what has become known as the Ugly Law was the first American ordinance pertaining to preventing people with disabilities from appearing in public was passed in 1867 in San Francisco, California. This ordinance had to do with the broader topic of begging. According to SUSAN M. SCHWEIK’s 2009 book, The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public the San Francisco’s Ugly Laws came out through the notion and practice of charity from the church to large organizations and it also seeped into social work and other bureaucracies would give out permits to “qualified people” who will have a doctor’s say that disabled person only income is playing music on the streets so at that time between 1867 to 1974 a lot of disabled musicians had to go through these bureaucracies just to approve their way of making money. Under Mayor Willie Brown ( 1996-2004) in San Francisco in the height of gentrification and the dot com boom, I witnessed up close how city government made their own anti poverty policies an decisions on their commissions like the one that I was sworn in to be on aka the Mayor’s Commission on Disability. One vote caught me off guard because it was a proposal to remove all the benches from downtown San Francisco and I thought surely this proposal can’t pass because of the city strong access laws on top of the federal disability civil rights law, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act but it did and a week later the benches were gone! Under Mayor Gavin Newsom we saw constant anti poverty policies to programs like Care Not Cash to shelter redesign to force treatment to anti poverty art where you would see big rocks on sidewalks to spikes on bus shelter seats and so much more. It not only male mayors, today Mayor London Breed continues these policies from sweeps to attacking the work of the Coalition on Homelessness to what Newsom did when he was mayor and I quote from a SEPTEMBER 27, 2023 article in 48hills.org : “The latest Breed move: Announcing that she’s going to take the minimal cash people get from General Assistance if they don’t take drug tests or if they test positive (for what isn’t clear) and don’t go into a treatment program that won’t be available anyway.”. Now the US Supreme Court is regurgitating what city mayors Black, White women and men have been doing since the Ugly Laws of 1867! From mayors, legislators, governors and now Supreme Court judges are regurgitating the same old vomit! Leroy F. Moore

Houseless/Indigenous Peoples respond and refuse the Ban on Our Bodies and Lives “Pleeeeease don’t take my mind… please don’t take my mind, “ my aunty rochelle was screaming and crying at the cop while they motioned to the orange-vested men hurling her collection of dolls, her torn sleeping bag and her last tarp into the trash truck near us.  “We will arrest you Ma’am if you don’t leave now,” the cops were robotic, barely registering my Aunty’s  terror. Muchless her humanity. This was years ago in San Francisco when she was staying with me and mama in our broke-down hooptie, which we parked wherever they didnt arrest us or cite us for parking in public while houseless.  Aunty came up from LA where she was a legit doll collector, but like the fate of so many Black, Brown/Indigenous disabled women and men alone, she lost her home, which housed her little doll store in South LA,  through a violent paper trail of foreclosure and eviction and ended her up with nothing but 22 dolls, which she kept wrapped up in a series of old paper bags. Now she equated the loss of her dolls with the loss of her family. Her kin. Her people. Her mind.  Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Grants Pass v. Johnson , a case that had barred multiple settler cities across stolen Turtle Island,  from citing and arresting people for the sole act of being homeless in public. The Supreme Court, packed with wealth-hoarding, land-owning, classist, racist, ableist haters,  in a 6-3 decision, said fining and arresting homeless people does not violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Decolonizing Homelessness “200 years ago, before colonization there wasn’t even a concept of homelessness,” said Corrina Gould, 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.    So-called Grants Pass, Oregon itself is stolen land, and should be returned to the Takelma, Shasta and Athbaskan relatives, who are the first peoples of that territory. And many of whom make up the houseless relatives in so-called Grants Pass. Just like they do in so-called Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle and much of the Pacific Northwest (and all of occupied Turtle Island) . Un-reparated, un-supported, original peoples, houseless on their own land.  Secondly, I don’t recognize the Stealing Fathers’ and their lying lies aka the CONstitution, which has proven over and over again to be a “fluid” document that only protects the white, wealth-hoarding , land-stealing class that originally stole Turtle Island.  “This (ruling) is horrible, sleep is a body’s survival need. If unhoused people are a concern then provide housing for them or truly affordable housing options. Rent is too high and wages are low there are too many people struggling that may be unhoused soon. Elders are the highest population growing as unhoused because they can’t pay rent with their pensions” said warrior shero Martha Escudero, houseless leader with Reclaiming Our Homes in occupied Tovaangar (LA)  Not having a home and being forced to sleep on the street is only a crime in this stolen land governed by krapitalism. a colonial system that criminalizes poverty and commodifies Mama Earth. The US CONstitution is a document that not only holds in place the theft of occupied turtle Island, but the theft of poor and houseless peoples bodies and belongings.  Now is the Time to Fight “Today, the Court stated that these ordinances that criminalize poverty are not "unusual" because they remain the "usual mode[s]" for punishment. Historically, the "usual modes of punishment" in this country have been slavery, lynchings, mob violence, jim crow, LGBTQ percecution, gender discrimination, the genocide of indigious communities, the shunning of the poor, disabled, those with mental illness. Now is the time that we stand up for those experiencing homelessness and those who are in desperate need of affordable housing. Today, we fight, " Andrea Henson, Lawyer with Where Do We Go? Under the 8th amendment Houseless peoples have already been terrorized by hundreds of laws, like the Sit-Lie Law and the Encampment Ban, 41:18, and Prop 1, and that’s just the current ones. These lies (laws) were all written on the backs of hundreds of years of settler colonial hate for poor people, that creates the criminalization of the so-called public space. As well as the racist, classist codes for the public. Its not illegal for people in a park who “don’t look houseless to sleep on the grass or for luxury RV’s to park in paid parking lots and paid "campgrounds" on more National (read: stolen land "Parks") across Turtle Island.  “The Grants Pass decision will mean what it has always meant for poor people, houseless people living in every city and town in the United States: we do not belong in in your world. Aetna Street Solidarity is committed to fighting for a world where everyone belongs. We were born out of resistance to LA Municipal code 41.18 which banned sitting, lying, sleeping on public sidewalks. The Grants Pass decision is an extension of an ideology rooted in white supremacy and capitalism that leads to 6 unhoused people dying a day on the streets of LA. When LA passed an amended version of LAMC 41.18, we saw unprecedented loss of people living on the streets coupled by state-sanctioned raids led by our city’s sanitation, police, and housing authority. The only services that were offered were permanent fences, the threat of arrest and nothing else beyond a temporary shelter bed.” said Aetna Street Solidarity. We are criminalized in our bodies for being poor outside, for living without a roof, sleeping in our car, in doorways, in parks, on streets and in tents. What is never mentioned is we are in these doorways and cars because of a system that commodifies mama earth and profits off of our poverty and the incarceration of our bodies.   “All the government  "Solutions" like Cabin Communities and shelters have failed to create the necessary foundation unhoused people need to be able to rebuild our lives,” said John Janasko, houseless resident leader at Wood street Commons   According to Paul Boden of Western Regional Advocacy Project “Criminalizing poverty and homelessness not only fails to address systemic causes of mass homelessness, it also exacerbates both the underlying structures of oppression that continue to plague our society, racism and classism”  "Man over Mama Earth. Is the Supreme Court going to pay my rent, or should we be knocking on your door, Move over we are moving in," said Leroy Moore, Formerly houseless, disabled povertyskola with POOR Magazine , Homefulness and Founder of Krip Hop Nation Homefulness - a homeless peoples solution to homelessness created by houseless peoples at POOR Magazine, just welcomed their 21st houseless family into rent-free forever housing stands together with fellow houseless peoples, advocates and allies Wood Street Commons, Reclaiming Our Homes, Krip Hop Nation, Self-Help Hunger Program, Camp Resolution and Aetna Street Solidarity we resist and refuse this recent legal decision on Grants Pass that will allow, enable, condone and promote the ongoing violent criminalization of our bodies and our lives and instead we demand reparations for the land theft, ableism, classism, border terrorism and violent poLice terror.   I took Aunty with me to make sure she wasn’t taken to the psych ward at General that day. But we were houseless too so there was really nowhere for her to be safe. After they took Aunty’s dolls she was never ok. She used to whisper and cry softly most days, checking every dumpster she could. One day without saying anything to anyone she wandered into I-80 Freeway, never to be seen again..     See Testimonials from formerly Houseless residents of Homefulness by clicking here