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- Crushing WheelChairs, Medicine and Lives...
While the US government signs an executive order to literally disappear houseless comeUnities from cities across the Nation - A powerful new movie is created by houseless/formerly houseless artists, cultural workers, poets and survivors that tells the stories of the people he is trying to disappear. Benefit Screenings of the Trailer: 6pm Saturday, BlackAugust 2nd Swim Gallery 509 Ellis Street, San Francisco, Ca 8pm Thursday, BlackAugust 7th - Outside at East 12th Street and 16th ave - the site of one of the most violent “sweeps” of one of the largest street comeUnities in Oakland 7pm August 14th with WRAP's Art & organizing event at Eric Quesada Center 518 Valencia SF 8pm BlackAugust 28th outside at 61st & Adeline Streets at the Self-Help Hunger Program (More dates across the state TBA) “That’s my Wheelchair...” Reggie, a disabled, Black elder screams at a bulldozer coming for her comeUnity and her wheelchair. Crushing Wheelchairs, with an original screenplay written by houseless poet and povertyskola tiny gray-garcia, adapted from her award winning play of the same name focuses on the violence of homelessness, city and state sponsored sweeps, and poLice terror. The movie includes an all houseless/formerly houseless cast whose motto is: “We aren’t acting, we are living.” It was shot primarily in houseless communities (encampments) and on the streets in Oakland and San Francisco. The story of Crushing Wheelchairs is written in a prayer, a dream, and a scream felt and barely survived by me, tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola, my houseless, disabled mama, and all of my fellow poverty/disability skolaz & ancestors portrayed/lived in this movie/story. This is the art of our lives, our almost survival, and our death at the hands of laws that say our bodies and lives are criminal and that we are trash. The lead characters in this powerful movie feature tiny and her mother, who struggled with homelessness throughout her childhood and later were arrested for sleeping on the streets of Oakland; Aunti Frances Moore, a formerly houseless Black Panther in Oakland; Stephanie Grant, who was pregnant and homeless when she witnessed the murder of Luis Gongora Pat by poLice in 2016, for being houseless and indigenous in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco Mission neighborhood. The ancestors of homelessness we also focus on include Steven Taylor, murdered by poLice in Walmart while houseless for having a mental health crisis; Papa Bear, a houseless veteran of three tours in Vietnam, who died on the streets of San Francisco after receiving 280 citations for being houseless on the street, iris Canada , a 100 year Black Elder evicted to homelessness from her longtime home in the Fillmore due to gentrification, Shannon Marie Bigley, Cornelius Taylor and James Edward Oakley, all run over by bulldozers in sweeps of their tents in California and Atlanta, Anjileen “Green Eyes” Swan, who died after being violently swept in Los Angeles and Luis Temaj, burned alive while asleep in his sleeping bag and so many more. We are living in a moment when the US President signed an executive order yesterday to disappear houseless peoples bodies and comeUnities off the streets by force, and in addition is cutting all of our housing and treatment resources all of which further enhanced already dangerous sweeps that were amped up last year’s Supreme Court ruling that stated living while houseless in the US is a crime (City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson, 2024) and that houseless people have no protection under the Constitution. And that this crime is punishable by arrest and incarceration. But how can you incarcerate someone for being poor, for being disabled, for not having enough money or credit to pay rent to attain shelter? How can we be punished for living outside without access to shelter, for being poor? In the state of California, the Governor has claimed that our bodies are equivalent to trash. In the city and county of San Francisco, the mayor has deemed our presence a blight; and in Los Angeles where, on average, six unhoused people die everyday, our outside comeUnities (encampments) are being destroyed, evicted, and disappeared. Our Lives are now deemed unworthy of human rights, so I suppose in the eyes of the State we are not human, we are in fact trash. “But we are not trash. This movie at this time is urgent medicine for humanity itself, who through this art can realize that we as houseless people are just like housed people. We are workers, and artists, and poets and innovators, and survivors. We have solutions and backstories and HERstories and visions – this movie lifts up those urgent stories, those urgent solutions – this movie is Medicine for Mama Earth and all of us, “ concluded tiny gray-garcia. The movie was co-directed by Adrian Diamond and formerly houseless povertyskolaz, tiny gray-garcia, and Muteado Silencio and produced by Green Diamond Projects and POOR Magazine. It includes renown poets Tongo Eisen - Martin, Ayodele Wordslangar Nzinga, Luis Rodriguez, Devorah Major and Po Poets; Dee Allen, Frances Moore, Leroy Moore, Muteado Silencio and tiny gray-garcia, as well as indigenous leaders and prayer-bringers Corrina Gould, Tony Gonzales, OG Rev, Harry Williams, and Brother Mink as well as formerly houseless leaders from Wood Street Commons and Homefulness.
- Your Profit Is Our Pain
By Crystal Sanchez, Western Regional Co-Director for The National Union of the Homeless, President of Sacramento Homeless Union 3/24/2025 Taken By Crystal Sanchez Count the dollars that you make From each tent that you forsake— Eighty bucks per empty bed While we sleep on concrete, dead. Your shelter-industrial scheme Profits from our broken dream. Million-dollar contracts flow To "fix" the crisis that you grow. Empty offices reach highWhile your "programs" pass us by. You build your empires on our backs, Then label us the ones who lack. Ten years of "emergency"— Your business opportunity. Each "sweep" brings funding to your door While we get beaten, blamed, and more. You call it "services provided" While human rights remain divided. Your "navigation centers" rise Like prisons touching troubled skies. Two toilets for a hundred souls, While you collect your payroll rolls. You say there's "shelter" when we call, But waiting lists become our wall. We see through your bureaucracy, Your forms of new hypocrisy. While billions flow through city halls, Our people freeze behind your walls. Your "housing first" became last place, Your "help" a mask on profits' face. But we're not numbers in your game, Not statistics you can tame. We're humans rising from these streets, Our Union growing with heartbeats. Your industry of homeless pain Won't break our will to fight again. From Sacramento's burning ground To every profit-poisoned town, We stand together, proud and strong, Exposing every systemic wrong. Your complex built on others' grief Will fall before our disbelief. So count your dollars while you can, Your "homeless services" grand plan. Our power grows with every lie, With every budget you deny. The truth breaks through your money wall: United people cannot fall.
- Lied to by the City of Oakland and Swept 7 Times
Houseless, Black, Disabled ComeUnity Refuses to Be Swept Again to Nowhere For Immediate release: contact tiny 510-435-7500, Satya: 408- 425-2627 or Jaz 413-522-3116 What: Speak-Out and Protest to Resist More Violent Sweeps to Nowhere When: 8:30am Monday, July 28th at 8:30am Where: corner of Sycamore and Northgate, West Oakland Houseless, Oakland residents who have been living on Sycamore and Martin Luther King Bl have been violently displaced 7 times since last September and the city is scheduled to evict them again next week. They are fed up, have nowhere to go and putting out a clear message to the city - stay away from Black elders and STOP THE SWEEPS! The demands are for the City of Oakland to: 1. Offer all residents of this community long-term housing 2. Stop sweeping and displacing the people who live here “These violent sweeps of elder, Black ,Disabled lifelong Oakland residents by the City of Oakland are shameful. Literally thousands of dollars are spent removing, displacing and poLicing us. To nowhere. We houseless peoples have solutions, why is this still happening?” said tiny gray-garcia, formerly houseless co-founder of POOR Magazine and Homefulness. Residents at Sycamore were displaced from 23rd/MLK last September when the city of Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant to give them interim housing with private rooms before offering them permanent housing by Sept 2025. When the city unexpectedly moved to sweep the community, it did so without providing residents with any of the accommodations outlined in its grant proposal. Since that time, residents have been subjected to 6 additional city-led sweeps - indiscriminately destroying tents, sentimental possessions, legal documents, essential medicines and medical equipment, etc., and towing vehicles - driving residents from one block to the next, in a strategy of attrition, undoubtedly aimed at pushing them out of the neighborhood they - and for many, their parents and grandparents - grew up in. Most of the residents are Black elders with chronic health conditions. Studies have shown that sweeps lead to higher rates of death and sweeping this community without offering residents any of the accommodations provided in its grant proposal, it effectively set out to eliminate 80% of all Black residents from the project. This is according to the city's own data. Residents will be available to speak on Monday at the protest
- People Skool August 2025 Applications Open
People Skool is a liberation education project in the ComeUnity taught by poor/houseless/indigenous/bordered/criminalized Poverty Skolaz in residence at POOR Magazine, co-led by tiny gray-garcia and her ancestor Mama Dee in collaboration with POOR Magazine youth, adult and elder family. Sign up link for folks with race, class, and/or formal education privilege Sign up link for poverty skolaz People Skool Aug 2025 Flyer Front People Skool Aug 2025 Flyer Back More information here: https://www.poormagazine.org/education Email for questions/support: poormag@gmail.com
- Gran y Hermoso projecto de ley; Big Beautiful Bill
Palabras de Donald Trumpsi se aprueba este proyecto de ley, que significa? Que si lo aprueban daran un incremento de Millones de dls a {ICE] y recortarian el presupuesto del programa Medicaiden un Billon de Dls y aumentara en 3.3 Billones de Dls la deuda del pais. “Con esto el 30% de la poblacion con menores ingresos del pais, que trabaja duro para pagar sus cuentas seran mas pobres, poe que les estan quitando la cobertura medica y la asistencia alimentaria. Y todo eso para dar extenciones fiscales a los mas ricos” El 20% de la poblacion con mayores ingresos del pais obtienen el 60% de los beneficios senala el legislador Democrata Ro Khanna. Mi nombre es Alvaro T. yo y mi familia hemos sobrevivido de desalojamiento, problemas de salud, trabajo y otras necesidades aqui en California’ si llegan a aprobar esta ley va a ser un gran impactoen mi y miles de familias que dependemos de este servicio, esperemos que esta ley sea revocada, si no vamos a tener una crisis de salud peor de la que tenemos ahora! Esperamos cambiar de esta administracion y que (ICE) este fuera de nuestras comunidades y deje de separar y aterrorizar a nuestras familias y comunidades. Nuestro unico proposito es solo reclamar nuestras tierras sagradas y trabajar la tierra!! OMETEOTL Translation: Donald Trump's words: If this bill is approved, what does it mean? If it is approved, it will increase funding to ICE by millions of dollars, cut the Medicaid program budget by a trillion dollars, and increase the country's debt by 3.3 billion dollars. "With this, the 30% of the country's lowest-income population, who work hard to pay their bills, will be poorer, because they are being stripped of health care and food assistance. And all of this is to give tax breaks to the wealthiest." The top 20% of the country's population receives 60% of the benefits, says Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna. My name is Alvaro T. My family and I have survived eviction, health issues, work, and other hardships here in California. If this law is passed, it will have a huge impact on me and thousands of families who depend on this service. Let's hope this law is repealed, otherwise we'll have a worse health crisis than the one we have now! We hope to change this administration and for (ICE) to be out of our communities and stop separating and terrorizing our families and communities. Our only purpose is to reclaim our sacred lands and work the land! OMETEOTL
- Lies of the Big Beautiful Bill
I have collected meager benefits from medicare since retiring in 2019. I am a 71 year old Japanese American elder, living in Huichin, aka Oakland, since 1995. Already, my rent is going up to $1139.07 in August. My health insurance doesn’t include pharmacy services. I pay nothing now, but am limited to the cheapest referrals for doctor and dentists visits. My retirement money is less than $2,000.00 and my husband's is less than $700.00. So what’s wrong with this picture? The big beautiful bill is really a baaaad brutal beat down of poor people. President cheezeit, to curry fa vor and make nice with billionaires, is cutting out the only health care in USA. Claiming that “waste fraud abuse” is rampant, the party of the extremely rich will be the beneficiaries of our monetary losses in receiving health care. 19-64 year old able bodied adults - 4.8 million people will soon lose medical, medicaid, and medicare, SNAP. Prez cheezeit says he won’t touch the medicare program. LIES LIES LIES. According to website American Prospect, these cuts “ have forced nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, the health program for the elderly....Medicare is one of the programs that will face the axe, and the damage sums to $490 billion over the next ten years, starting in the next fiscal year that begins in October. While many of the safety-net cuts in the bill are delayed to help Republicans with their re-election campaigns , the Medicare cuts must begin next year." Going back to the 1960’s, decades ago, cheezeit is using this same corrupted program where welfare recipients were under strict, unrealistic requirements to take classes in job preparation, find jobs and prove they are worthy of getting a pittance to survive. The government didn’t take into account that many of the welfare recipients had children, were single mothers, survivors of domestic violence, disabled and elderly. Today its an exhibition of the system that has only gone backward, exposing their ignorance and dispassion. A multi pronged weapon against poor people, the government, is creating pandemonium and divide and conquer amongst all populations on turtle island. What does it look like in the bay area? Poor Magazine Homefulness, is a family of staunch and determination. We are of color and poor and have been making our own decisions. Decades ago, the sliding scale cafe and Decolonize Academy was launched in a world that treats the unhoused and poor as trash. Permanent housing was constructed and today filled with 20 plus residents, living free on native land back in deep east Huichin. As an Alternative to the money based systems of health care and survival, POOR MAGAZINE started its own clinic in 1997. Through self determination and liberation, we now have doctors and dentists to do checkups FOR FREE. We are fighting for each other not at each other. We are determined to Fight for a self governed and free community with health clinics and more free food. There is a bottomless resource of those who are also feeling the future demise and are ready and available - hospital employees, nurses, health care workers, and in home care - waiting to be organized.
- Big Bloodstained Bill
The One Big Beautiful Bill has sparked protests over its tax relief and cuts to safety net programs. Jim Lo Scalzo/AAP. Source: The Conversation Big, BRUTiful Bill July 7, 2025 By Angel Heart A few months ago, I had a severe toothache. It was the kind of toothache that made my face throb. I had a terrible headache for days on end, and it was difficult for me to eat. I surely needed medical help, and right away. And since I’m a United States Army Veteran, I turned to my VA Clinic for help. When I called to inquire about what to do, and how to schedule, the Veterans Representative reply was, “the VA only provides scheduling with the Dental Clinic, for Veterans with a 100% service connected disability.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! It made me think I need to make an appointment under my Medi-Cal coverage. Medi-Cal is medical coverage obtained by persons & families living at, or below poverty level, in the state of California - Many of whom qualify for, and receive food stamps - also known as SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. On July 3, 2025, President Trump passed The Big Beautiful Bill. This bill includes cuts to food stamps, estimated at $1.2 trillion, and specifically cuts federal funding for SNAP by $285 billion. States will also be required to shoulder costs at a higher rate than previously responsible for. The bill also imposes new work requirements, at an 80 hours per month stipulation, for able-bodied adults within the outlined age range of 18 - 65. The Big Brutiful Bill limits future increases to the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines SNAP benefit amounts, potentially causing benefits to grow at a slower rate than food costs. It also changes how utility expenses are calculated, which may lead to reductions in benefit amounts to about 600,000 households. This bill also creates significant cuts to Medi-Cal, by at least 28.4 billion dollars, in the state of California, with employment requirements for “able-bodied” adults at a rate of 80 hours per month, which could lead to millions of people losing their health coverage. If my Medi-Cal were to be cut, I don’t know what I’ll do if I were to ever need dental care again. When I had that toothache, it was already difficult finding a dentist or a dentist's office to help me, as there was only one endodontist listed as “accepting new Medi-Cal patients” in the city of Oakland. This bill isn’t beautiful, it’s brutiful. It’s an act of violence to all poor, houseless, disabled people, including children and elderly who rely on SNAP and Medi-Cal. This bill allows for significant tax-cuts for the wealthy, which is essentially funded, or paid into, by the poor. It allows for nearly sixty percent of the benefits of this bill being directed to the “elite,” or the “top” twenty percent of the population. As a woman, United States Army Veteran who lives below poverty level, I’m grateful to be part of a revolutionary movement. The project called Homefulness at POOR Magazine, provides access to The POOR People's Clinic where I can be seen by a Medical Doctor, Chiropractor, Existential Therapist, 5-Point Acupuncture, Sound Therapy, and many other modes of healing that is often invalidated by the medical-industrial-complex. It’s one of the many ways communities can think, and enact ways of healing, and supporting one-another, that isn’t rooted in dependence on the current system of government. It’s what the Co-Founder of POOR Magazine, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia calls, “Interdependence,” which is a reference to Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and providing love, and support to one another in our communities. It’s a nod to the ancient, cultural practices historically demonized by the White, patriarchal stomping out of, natural care and remedies, created and provided by women. By MONIQUE I am a 36 year old Afro American woman, seemingly able-bodied, single filing in the lower 30% tax payer level, with no dependent, making less than $30,000 a year, surrounded by women--all my relative men are dead, imprisoned, or estranged, never to have been able to hold one single place of employment for more than eighteen months. I am the daughter of a mother with terminal illness, and chronic debilitating conditions forever evolving plus aging. I am a granddaughter of a grandmother raised by her fathers ex ex-wives folks, and a third grade education. Why was it that the last time I went to update my coordination entry via BACs, Bay Area Community Services, there was an update made to the list of questions, and the question that really was freaking outlandish to me was: “Have you ever had an abortion?” Are you for real, who’s asking, where is this really getting reported, and whom the actual fuck, and why it this relevant to my housing score exactly? The White Supremacy House in DC under President tha Fuck Trump passed a tied bill, winning with the vote breaker of VP Vance 51 to 50. This bill will make cuts go, break, and permanently dismantle Medicaid and SNAP, and will increase sending of weapons of war. I mean increase spending and energy production... aka help erect facilitation of wars and policing and around 100 billion $ flushed into ICE. In California, according to United Way, over 100,000 children depend on SNAP, supplement nutrition assistance program, and millions on Medicaid will be without access to essential and emergency care. And 2.4 million Bay Area residents rely on Medicaid, equaling 25% of our population. In California, according to Straight Arrow News, 17 million people will lose healthcare, that's 13.7 million people nationwide. United Way reports from other independent studies predict 51,000 additional deaths every year. What is a ITIN? For families who are individual entities of that unit file taxes. Taxpayer identification number. The reconciliation bill eliminates child tax credit (ctc) and earned income tax (etic) for ITIN families, or supposedly these individuals. For me this means essential aid like InHome care essentials (like caregivers and vendors jobs or entupernuerengunuity law abiding people, human beings, entities, sole properties, etc. For me and working in the nonprofit sector I believe we as non profit are already seeing cuts to funding and scrambling to find grants and residual income to support the funding of regular programming. ~Losing Our Benefits and Assistance By Jay Paulino I am the son of a formerly unhoused mother of six. I am trying to get Cash Assistance to help me get started with my life, or at least get on track. I just graduated high school two years ago and I see my people struggling and suffering from the plans the State has made within the Political-Republican Party. I also understand that it will take my assistance away. If this does happen, my family won’t be able to eat as good as we do now. Who? Our President is taking away our Support to Live. There’s war going on, and a few other issues Donald John Trump/Our President of the United Snakes can prevent from happening. The Government is slowly ripping us apart with Sweeps every single week, taking people’s lives or belongings and throwing it away like it’s trash. It happens on a regular basis. It's sad. Seventeen million people are most likely losing food stamps, Cash Assistance and Medi-Cal. Why does it affect us? We are already worrying about paying for housing. There are people living on the street, dying and sick as well because there’s no proper functional housing for the percentage of people living on the streets. California is one of the highest states that pay more than others because of how expensive it is to live. Why take away our Cash benefits if we are already struggling or in a stuck situation? I’m just saying millions of people are going to lose coverage. Our Pay is a little lower because the Government wants to take a chunk of that, going to CHP, OPD, SFPD and CTS (California HIghway Patrol, Oakland Police Department, San Francisco Police Department and CalTrans). Sounds like the Richer People are becoming Wealthier and The Poor Keep Getting Poorer. By Momii Palapaz I have collected meager benefits from medicare since retiring in 2019. I am a 71 year old Japanese American elder, living in Huichin, aka Oakland, since 1995. Already, my rent is going up to $1139.07 in August. My health insurance doesn’t include pharmacy services. I pay nothing now, but am limited to the cheapest referrals for doctor and dentists visits. My retirement money is less than $2,000.00 and my husband's is less than $700.00. So what’s wrong with this picture? The big beautiful bill is really a baaaad brutal beat down of poor people. President cheezeit, to curry fa vor and make nice with billionaires, is cutting out the only health care in USA. Claiming that “waste fraud abuse” is rampant, the party of the extremely rich will be the beneficiaries of our monetary losses in receiving health care. 19-64 year old able bodied adults - 4.8 million people will soon lose medical, medicaid, and medicare, SNAP. Prez cheezeit says he won’t touch the medicare program. LIES LIES LIES. According to website American Prospect, these cuts “ have forced nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, the health program for the elderly....Medicare is one of the programs that will face the axe, and the damage sums to $490 billion over the next ten years, starting in the next fiscal year that begins in October. While many of the safety-net cuts in the bill are delayed to help Republicans with their re-election campaigns , the Medicare cuts must begin next year." Going back to the 1960’s, decades ago, cheezeit is using this same corrupted program where welfare recipients were under strict, unrealistic requirements to take classes in job preparation, find jobs and prove they are worthy of getting a pittance to survive. The government didn’t take into account that many of the welfare recipients had children, were single mothers, survivors of domestic violence, disabled and elderly. Today its an exhibition of the system that has only gone backward, exposing their ignorance and dispassion. A multi pronged weapon against poor people, the government, is creating pandemonium and divide and conquer amongst all populations on turtle island. What does it look like in the bay area? Poor Magazine Homefulness, is a family of staunch and determination. We are of color and poor and have been making our own decisions. Decades ago, the sliding scale cafe and Decolonize Academy was launched in a world that treats the unhoused and poor as trash. Permanent housing was constructed and today filled with 20 plus residents, living free on native land back in deep east Huichin. As an Alternative to the money based systems of health care and survival, POOR MAGAZINE started its own clinic in 1997. Through self determination and liberation, we now have doctors and dentists to do checkups FOR FREE. We are fighting for each other not at each other. We are determined to Fight for a self governed and free community with health clinics and more free food. There is a bottomless resource of those who are also feeling the future demise and are ready and available - hospital employees, nurses, health care workers, and in home care - waiting to be organized. By Amir Cornish I am Amir Cornish from West Oakland, a youth poverty scholar. I'm a young adult that uses Medi-Cal to help with my health expenses. I can't afford my own expensive medical bill otherwise. I use my Med-cal to get check-ups as a low income person. Medi-Cal is the 900 billion state-federal health insurance program that covers low-income and disabled people and accounts for 19 % of all spending on hospital care. "President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill would make changes to U.S health care, leaving millions without health insurance," said an anonymous person. Recent changes to the bill would cut roughly 1.1 trillion in health-care spending and result in 11.8 million people losing health insurance over the decades, according to the nonpartisan budget office. Other estimates predict that the Trump bill with policy changes could result in an estimated 17 million people losing health insurance. Our current president Donald Trump passed the bill cutting off healthcare access to the people in our state who are low-income, who can’t pay without the help of Medi-Cal. The new policy requires people to work in order to be eligible for Medi-Cal. The health industry's warnings to lawmakers have been dismissed because the hospitals, health centers, and other healthcare groups are seen by Republicans as strong backers of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which is considered Democrats' biggest domestic achievement in decades . Many people relying on this health care act are low-in come people. Trump is cutting all of the medical insurance for a lot of elders that need that need it because they are not in the work force anymore. This bill is going to affect everybody, not just low-income-people. The cuts will affect the working class. Gran y Hermoso projecto de ley Translation: Big Beautiful Bill By Alvaro T. Palabras de Donald Trumpsi se aprueba este proyecto de ley, que significa? Que si lo aprueban daran un incremento de Millones de dls a {ICE] y recortarian el presupuesto del programa Medicaiden un Billon de Dls y aumentara en 3.3 Billones de Dls la deuda del pais. “Con esto el 30% de la poblacion con menores ingresos del pais, que trabaja duro para pagar sus cuentas seran mas pobres, poe que les estan quitando la cobertura medica y la asistencia alimentaria. Y todo eso para dar extenciones fiscales a los mas ricos” El 20% de la poblacion con mayores ingresos del pais obtienen el 60% de los beneficios senala el legislador Democrata Ro Khanna. Mi nombre es Alvaro T. yo y mi familia hemos sobrevivido de desalojamiento, problemas de salud, trabajo y otras necesidades aqui en California’ si llegan a aprobar esta ley va a ser un gran impactoen mi y miles de familias que dependemos de este servicio, esperemos que esta ley sea revocada, si no vamos a tener una crisis de salud peor de la que tenemos ahora! Esperamos cambiar de esta administracion y que (ICE) este fuera de nuestras comunidades y deje de separar y aterrorizar a nuestras familias y comunidades. Nuestro unico proposito es solo reclamar nuestras tierras sagradas y trabajar la tierra!! OMETEOTL Translation: Donald Trump's words: If this bill is approved, what does it mean? If it is approved, it will increase funding to ICE by millions of dollars, cut the Medicaid program budget by a trillion dollars, and increase the country's debt by 3.3 billion dollars. "With this, the 30% of the country's lowest-income population, who work hard to pay their bills, will be poorer, because they are being stripped of health care and food assistance. And all of this is to give tax breaks to the wealthiest." The top 20% of the country's population receives 60% of the benefits, says Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna. My name is Alvaro T. My family and I have survived eviction, health issues, work, and other hardships here in California. If this law is passed, it will have a huge impact on me and thousands of families who depend on this service. Let's hope this law is repealed, otherwise we'll have a worse health crisis than the one we have now! We hope to change this administration and for (ICE) to be out of our communities and stop separating and terrorizing our families and communities. Our only purpose is to reclaim our sacred lands and work the land! OMETEOTL
- Losing Our Benefits and Assistance
I am the son of a formerly unhoused mother of six. I am trying to get Cash Assistance to help me get started with my life, or at least get on track. I just graduated high school two years ago and I see my people struggling and suffering from the plans the State has made within the Political-Republican Party. I also understand that it will take my assistance away. If this does happen, my family won’t be able to eat as good as we do now. Who? Our President is taking away our Support to Live. There’s war going on, and a few other issues Donald John Trump/Our President of the United Snakes can prevent from happening. The Government is slowly ripping us apart with Sweeps every single week, taking people’s lives or belongings and throwing it away like it’s trash. It happens on a regular basis. It's sad. Seventeen million people are most likely losing food stamps, Cash Assistance and Medi-Cal. Why does it affect us? We are already worrying about paying for housing. There are people living on the street, dying and sick as well because there’s no proper functional housing for the percentage of people living on the streets. California is one of the highest states that pay more than others because of how expensive it is to live. Why take away our Cash benefits if we are already struggling or in a stuck situation? I’m just saying millions of people are going to lose coverage. Our Pay is a little lower because the Government wants to take a chunk of that, going to CHP, OPD, SFPD and CTS (California HIghway Patrol, Oakland Police Department, San Francisco Police Department and CalTrans). Sounds like the Richer People are becoming Wealthier and The Poor Keep Getting Poorer.
- On the Big Beautiful Bill
By MONIQUE I am a 36 year old Afro American woman, seemingly able-bodied, single filing in the lower 30% tax payer level, with no dependent, making less than $30,000 a year, surrounded by women--all my relative men are dead, imprisoned, or estranged, never to have been able to hold one single place of employment for more than eighteen months. I am the daughter of a mother with terminal illness, and chronic debilitating conditions forever evolving plus aging. I am a granddaughter of a grandmother raised by her fathers ex ex-wives folks, and a third grade education. Why was it that the last time I went to update my coordination entry via BACs, Bay Area Community Services, there was an update made to the list of questions, and the question that really was freaking outlandish to me was: “Have you ever had an abortion?” Are you for real, who’s asking, where is this really getting reported, and whom the actual fuck, and why it this relevant to my housing score exactly? The White Supremacy House in DC under President tha Fuck Trump passed a tied bill, winning with the vote breaker of VP Vance 51 to 50. This bill will make cuts go, break, and permanently dismantle Medicaid and SNAP, and will increase sending of weapons of war. I mean increase spending and energy production... aka help erect facilitation of wars and policing and around 100 billion $ flushed into ICE. In California, according to United Way, over 100,000 children depend on SNAP, supplement nutrition assistance program, and millions on Medicaid will be without access to essential and emergency care. And 2.4 million Bay Area residents rely on Medicaid, equaling 25% of our population. In California, according to Straight Arrow News, 17 million people will lose healthcare, that's 13.7 million people nationwide. United Way reports from other independent studies predict 51,000 additional deaths every year. What is a ITIN? For families who are individual entities of that unit file taxes. Taxpayer identification number. The reconciliation bill eliminates child tax credit (ctc) and earned income tax (etic) for ITIN families, or supposedly these individuals. For me this means essential aid like In Home care essentials (like caregivers and vendors jobs or entupernuerengunuity law abiding people, human beings, entities, sole properties, etc. For me and working in the nonprofit sector I believe we as non profit are already seeing cuts to funding and scrambling to find grants and residual income to support the funding of regular programming.
- Big, BRUTiful Bill
July 7, 2025 A few months ago, I had a severe toothache. It was the kind of toothache that made my face throb. I had a terrible headache for days on end, and it was difficult for me to eat. I surely needed medical help, and right away. And since I’m a United States Army Veteran, I turned to my VA Clinic for help. When I called to inquire about what to do, and how to schedule, the Veterans Representative reply was, “the VA only provides scheduling with the Dental Clinic, for Veterans with a 100% service connected disability.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! It made me think I need to make an appointment under my Medi-Cal coverage. Medi-Cal is medical coverage obtained by persons & families living at, or below poverty level, in the state of California - Many of whom qualify for, and receive food stamps - also known as SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. On July 3, 2025, President Trump passed The Big Beautiful Bill. This bill includes cuts to food stamps, estimated at $1.2 trillion, and specifically cuts federal funding for SNAP by $285 billion. States will also be required to shoulder costs at a higher rate than previously responsible for. The bill also imposes new work requirements, at an 80 hours per month stipulation, for able-bodied adults within the outlined age range of 18 - 65. The Big Brutiful Bill limits future increases to the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines SNAP benefit amounts, potentially causing benefits to grow at a slower rate than food costs. It also changes how utility expenses are calculated, which may lead to reductions in benefit amounts to about 600,000 households. This bill also creates significant cuts to Medi-Cal, by at least 28.4 billion dollars, in the state of California, with employment requirements for “able-bodied” adults at a rate of 80 hours per month, which could lead to millions of people losing their health coverage. If my Medi-Cal were to be cut, I don’t know what I’ll do if I were to ever need dental care again. When I had that toothache, it was already difficult finding a dentist or a dentist's office to help me, as there was only one endodontist listed as “accepting new Medi-Cal patients” in the city of Oakland. This bill isn’t beautiful, it’s brutiful. It’s an act of violence to all poor, houseless, disabled people, including children and elderly who rely on SNAP and Medi-Cal. This bill allows for significant tax-cuts for the wealthy, which is essentially funded, or paid into, by the poor. It allows for nearly sixty percent of the benefits of this bill being directed to the “elite,” or the “top” twenty percent of the population. As a woman, United States Army Veteran who lives below poverty level, I’m grateful to be part of a revolutionary movement. The project called Homefulness at POOR Magazine, provides access to The POOR People's Clinic where I can be seen by a Medical Doctor, Chiropractor, Existential Therapist, 5-Point Acupuncture, Sound Therapy, and many other modes of healing that is often invalidated by the medical-industrial-complex. It’s one of the many ways communities can think, and enact ways of healing, and supporting one-another, that isn’t rooted in dependence on the current system of government. It’s what the Co-Founder of POOR Magazine, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia calls, “Interdependence,” which is a reference to Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and providing love, and support to one another in our communities. It’s a nod to the ancient, cultural practices historically demonized by the White, patriarchal stomping out of, natural care and remedies, created and provided by women.
- The Big Beautiful Bill comes for Medi-Cal
By Amir Cornish I am Amir Cornish from West Oakland, a youth poverty scholar. I'm a young adult that uses Medi-Cal to help with my health expenses. I can't afford my own expensive medical bill otherwise. I use my Med-cal to get check-ups as a low income person. Medi-Cal is the 900 billion state-federal health insurance program that covers low-income and disabled people and accounts for 19 % of all spending on hospital care. "President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill would make changes to U.S health care, leaving millions without health insurance," said an anonymous person. Recent changes to the bill would cut roughly 1.1 trillion in health-care spending and result in 11.8 million people losing health insurance over the decades, according to the nonpartisan budget office. Other estimates predict that the Trump bill with policy changes could result in an estimated 17 million people losing health insurance. Our current president Donald Trump passed the bill cutting off healthcare access to the people in our state who are low-income, who can’t pay without the help of Medi-Cal. The new policy requires people to work in order to be eligible for Medi-Cal. The health industry's warnings to lawmakers have been dismissed because the hospitals, health centers, and other healthcare groups are seen by Republicans as strong backers of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which is considered Democrats' biggest domestic achievement in decades . Many people relying on this health care act are low-in come people. Trump is cutting all of the medical insurance for a lot of elders that need that need it because they are not in the work force anymore. This bill is going to affect everybody, not just low-income-people. The cuts will affect the working class.
- A Survivor of 25 years of Homelessness Joins the Ancestors
Uncle Brokin Cloud on his Self-made Bike from recycled parts- photo by Momii Palapaz Listen and Watch LoveUary for Brokin Cloud here By tiny Brokin Cloud aka Billy Simpson Jr, an Afro-Indigenous Elder, was a warrior, revolutionary, artist, teacher and povertyskola, but above all he was a survivor. Non-profit industrial complex workers and anti-social workers as i call them, would consider and label Uncle Cloud as they did me and my houseless mama, "Service Resistant" which is just a way that the system describes houseless, traumatized, often severely disabled, medically fragile houseless people who refuse and resist the harmful, unsafe temporary fixes such as Navigation Centers, Emergency Shelters, Transitional Housing, cabins and so many more solutions for houseless peoples created about us without us. Uncle Cloud, like many of us houseless and formerly houseless folks at POOR Magazine/Homefulness refuse those "resources" because they are dangerous places for vulnerable, barely holding on and residing on the street folks. Uncle Cloud was an indigenous Black man and like so many poor peoples of color had lost his families home to the violence of white laws and white lawyers, aka foreclosure and bankkksters and his large family was scattered to the wind. Many of them never recovered from that loss. Uncle Brokin Cloud struggled with severe trauma which manifested in the compulsive need to collect recycled trash, way more than he could ever manage or store or use, this is often referred to as Hoarder/Clutterer illness, yet another by product of decades of survival on the street and great loss experienced in your life. In any state or federal sponsored or funded "Housing project" he would have faced violations, criminalization and eviction, but Homefulness is informed by Poverty Scholarship (poor people-led theory of change and healing) so instead we launched a series of what we call Love Cleans , which supported Uncle Cloud to live in habitable living while we slowly worked with him to heal from the trauma of collecting and hoarding. These are just some of the multiple strategies we povertyskolaz at POOR Magazine employ to care for each others severe trauma that never engages the State or the PoLice or other agents of fear as we know that triggers more trauma and pain. After 25 years on the street, Uncle Brokin Cloud, like 24 other houseless youth, adults and elders found not only a home at HOMEfulness - he found healing, love , family, support, food, art, spirit, prayer, and hope. Uncle Brokin Cloud moved into his own beautiful unit we called the Luxury SRO ( Single Room Occupancy ) at Homefulness in September of 2022 when the City of Oakland finally allowed us to open our beautiful homeless peoples solution to homelessness, On July 5th, 2025 at 7pm Uncle Brokin Cloud joined the ancestors from heart damage related to his decades long survival on the street. We are supporting his Blood family with Cremation costs and will hold an all Nations Ceremony in his honor tomorro, Sunday , July 13th at 3pm on the sacred land us houseless peoples call Homefulness in Deep East Huchiun - 8032 BlackArthur Bl (MacArthur) , Deep East Huchiun (Oakland) LoveUaryFor Brokin Cloud aka Billy Simpson by tiny gray-garcia Sometimes the birds disappear So that we can see our way out of here Sometimes we get to touch the clouds Sometimes Tonateu collides with Omayacan and the wind calms us down Sometimes a coyote whispers sometimes a story becomes a dream In the shape of a man Hello little sister Sometimes trauma looks like love Sometimes pain grips us tight like a glove Sometimes waves talk to the moon and Sometimes -once in a lifetime we r on the MOVE There is a memorial made of clouds In the shape of a bicycle At the entrance to a revolution called Homefulness Built by poor and houseless people For poor and houseless people Uncle Brokin Cloud brought it With all of the things he brought Broken tools, molded bread magic , revolution and more bicycle seats than anyone could ever sit on I know u are riding on one of your cloud chariots now Cloud And we will miss u everyday REST IN POWER BROKIN CLOUD aka Billy Ervin Simpson 9/13/1954 - 7/5/2025 Listen to the LoveUeary here Read the whole LoveUAry here