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Uncle Brokin Cloud -a LoveUary.... 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 We will be holding a multinationed prayer ceremony and herb planting at HOMEfulness within a week -(date /time not yet confirmed ) and a Bike Ride for Brokin Cloud on July 27th at 10am -leaving HOMEfulness for Lake Merrit -His Blood family needs support with cremation -we r raising that for them thru the Bank Of ComeUnity reparations @poormagazine -pls redistribute to: POOR-magazine on Venmo Poormag@gmail.com on PayPal Brokin Cloud aka Billy Ervin Simpson 9/13/54-7/5/25 -houseless resident of Homefulness -powerful povertySkola, teacher , thinker, media producer, revolutionary Rest in Revolution And Power Forever On The Move At Homefulness Occupied Huchiun Turtle Island MamaEarth

On Juneteenth 2009, POOR Magazine began the two day herstoric revolutionary change session (that is now bi-yearly Peopleskool) that taught young wite privileged peoples the concept of Poverty scholarship, ComeUnity Reparations and radical redistribution which resulted in the creation of the powerFULL Solidarity family of Poor Magazine, the Bank Of ComeUnity Reparations that immediately implemented Poor people Reparations & created: the po mamaz Reparations fund for poor mamaz rent and utitilties and hoopties repair and so much more the HOMEfulness Hotel fund for houseless peoples to get in motel rooms, off the streets the poMamas panale /diaper fund and so many other emergencies And us poor/houseless Black/Brown/Disabled/Indigenous peoples received enuf blood stained dollars--that we transformed into love stained dollars--to "buy" then spiritually and legally unsell occupied land to mamafest HOMEfulness #1, which currently houses 24 houseless elders and families in rent-free forever housing with permission and guidance from 1st nations peoples on deep east Huchiun land, a tution free liberation school for low/no-income houseless children, a radio station, the sliding scale cafe, free food and groceries for all, and free media and education and healing for all the ComeUnity, and we r currently working in five other settler towns to bring the same template to their houseless povertyskolaz. #Juneteenth   #Herstory   #LaureMcElroy   #MamaDee   #PiriThomas   #BruceAllison   #KathyGalves #IdrissStelley #PapaBear   #KailaMoore   #LuisGongora   #LarryLattimore   #UncleAlRobles   #WoundedKneeDeOcampo   #JulioChavez  Iba Baba Iba Yeye Ase ahooooo ThankU so much SisStar Vivian Flaherty  and Carina Lomeli  for pics and your beautiful work and love and time and every povertySkola who walks this journey into self determination and Liberation.

Tiny aka @povertyskola Banner from a Powerful resistance protest organized by coalition on homelessness  I can’t rest  They are sweeping me to death One day its a tow The next day my home is bouncing in the road Then i end up in a tent  And then they want me dead  Then why take my RV  When it's us you don't want to see Now you've left us  Exposed    Why tow my home  When you have nowhere for me to go -excerpt of Towed by tiny 8th and harrison Berkeley -site of violent tows and then sweeps   “We can only hold two bags , choose one, screamed my mama to me over the shriek from a tow hitch scraping our already broken bumper against the asphalt “We don’t even have bags to put our stuff in,” I screamed back “Then grab whatever you can carry,” she motioned to my backpack and our one blanket we shared in the backseat when we slept to try to stay warm. But what about our bag of pictures, my favorite boots, her medicine, my emergency stuffie, I watched them all clunk down the road never to b seen again  This moment bled into so many trauma-filled moments of our houseless life, when i heard about the SFMTA “vote” to implement yet more laws making it illegal to live in your Recreation (read: survival) Vehicle (Read: home)  After a series of other anti-poor people actions like attempting to get rid of funding for life-saving harm reduction services and getting “tough” in the Tenderloin on houseless people, Mayor Lurie  proposed a terrifying and violent plan to implement a ridiculous two hour limit on RV’s  To this act of violence I ask  Lurie in earnest -why tow us when u have nowhere for us to go? RV’s aren't a long term solution but they are a form of insideness. As I have often said when we are outside we suffer the violence of exposure -our lives and trauma, our belongings and struggles now up for scrutiny from the hating public. When we have our cars and RVs we are provided a modicum of shelter, of privacy. It is anti-poor people abuse to intentionally deprive us of the most minimum of a roof.why ? Because the RVs hurt your *starbukian eyes.  The settler myth of open road, RVs and travel is also clearly seen here.Certain RVs, the ones in over-priced “campsites” aren't ticketed. Their shiny new winnabego RVs aren't towed after two hours. Their dogs aren't killed by bulldozers and tow trucks like so many of our  houseless pets are in these violent sweeps and tows. And the reality is low-income/no-income & working class families who clean the bugie restaurant kitchens and clean San Francisco's  homes can't afford the insane rent in the Bay Area.  And god forbid we have a crisis and can't work.  “After Covid we ended up homeless, we had no money for the rent, “ said Alvaro T, formerly houseless San Francisco resident, povertySkola, Danzante and Janitor who is now homeful in rent free forever, healing  housing  at Homefulness after spending two years houselsss in his car in San Francisco. Homefulness is a homeless peoples solution to homelessness and currently houses 24 houseless youth , adults and elders with protocol and permission from 1st nations relatives of this land. We are trying to bring this powerful vision to SF, because we as poor people have solutions, maybe they could just listen to us and stop sweeping and towing us because we are not trash   “We don't need a sandwich or a navigation center we need a home, “ said junebug Kealoha, formerly houseless POOR magazine poverty Skola and community health worker in the Tenderloin working with me and so many more houseless mamas to bring a Homefulness to Occupied Yelamu aka San Francisco.  In so-called progressive Berkeley they just operated a viscious and violent sweep of houseless relatives in west Berkeley who used to live in RVs but after the city towed them all now they are in tents being subject to violent sweeps. Mama, where is your medicine,?  “I’m Sorry Ma’am it’s time, you can collect the rest of your stuff at the tow yard,”  - the tow hitch was dragging our home away, “Nooooooo,” I let out a silent scream knowing that just like the other times they towed our homes, there would be nothing left in the car by the time it got to the tow yard and most importantly that we could NEVER afford to get our home back. Our next home was a tent. Our next tow was a sweep. ## Houseless /poor mamas and papas present their poems to build HOMEfulness Yelamu (SF)

Photo: A. Camera, the guard employed by IPS On February 09, 2024 I was assaulted by Walmart's IPS armed security guard in San Leandro, CA at the Davis Street Store. While standing in line at the electronics department, deep inside the store, I noticed the armed guard posing in military position with his hand on his firearm. With children nearby yelling and playing in the aisles (I literally heard the kids close by). I asked the officer, “Can you please get your hand off your gun, Sir.” Gera's video of the incident The officer, as you will see in this video of the incident, flips out and walks quickly towards me yelling, “You don't tell me what to do, you hear me,” as he swings twice in an attempt to knock my phone out of my hand. I then replied, “Whoa buddy you just messed up. What's your name and badge number?” He said, “You just f***** yourself,” with an egotistical tone of voice. Just seconds later, he walks by me as if he was walking back towards the front of the store and mumbles “Get the f*** out of my face” (mind you I’m standing in line in the same spot and haven't moved). I told him one more time, “I need your name and badge number”, and before I could get out my final word he turned at me and punched me directly in my face causing my phone to go flying and injuries that still affect me to this very day over one year later. It is May, 2025 and this tyrant named A. Camera, his employer IPS (AKA International Protective Services Inc.) and WALMART have yet to be held accountable for this assault which resulted in personal, physical, and mental injuries. I went to the ER immediately after and have been receiving treatment for my injuries since the assault. An incident report was filed on the officer but no action has been taken.

Photo: Officer Gonzales of the Oakland Police Department Once again the Po-LICE, city workers, bulldozers, and accompLICES violently sweep our relatives in the East Oakland area near East 12th Street by the Burger King alongside the 880 freeway. This is an ongoing occurrence where they wipe away the houseless communities on ”STATE Property”, treating us–“the people”–like trash. Gera's video of the interaction “We don't see eye to eye on that topic,” said The Six Stripe (six body) Police Officer Gonzales of the Oakland Police Department, when I mentioned to him in this episode of KopWatch Aztlan Roofless Radio, how we know that he has killed at least 6 people including a 15 year old boy here in the City of Oakland. I asked him to please take it easy on the people and to please not get anymore stripes (bodies) in his career. This Tyrant Officer Gonzales is a cruel killer, typically leading these violent sweeps with a smirk on his face. His is at all locations that a sweep on the people is taking place. That’s because he obviously has no problem killing us.

In 2015, CDCR began to release hundreds of inmates out of the SHU (Security housing unit) through the dedicated work of inmates on hunger strike attorneys and family support. CDCR vowed to do away with long-term isolation (SHU) and gang validation. But time has passed, and things are beginning to change.  CDCR is still trying to lock down certain inmates, specifically those involved in the hunger strike. The only difference now is that CDCR is doing it underhandedly by transferring state inmates to BOP (Board of Prisons); they will be placed in the SHU (ADX Colorado).  Housed in the most restrictive conditions and denied CDCR rehabilitation programs. The CDCR secretary believes they have the power to relinquish the primary jurisdiction of state inmates without the Governor’s consent.  But, under state law, only the Governor or state sentencing courts can relinquish the primary jurisdiction of an inmate’s state life sentence. CDCR has abused its power and underhandedly worked with BOP to manipulate the system since California no longer houses inmates long-term in the SHU and BOP still does. CDCR is now saying they can relinquish primary jurisdiction so we can be housed in the SHU. CDCR California State Prison, Nacht & Lewis Photo Gallery Here is the proof:  in September 2022, CDCR agreed underhandedly, along with BOP, to transfer thirteen (13) California state inmates so they can be housed in the BOP in the most restrictive conditions.  All inmates were serving a state life sentence and had previously participated in the Pelican Bay SHU hunger strike. Even though at the time all inmates were only being charged in a federal racketeering case (Quiet Storm), CDCR already presumed they were all guilty and agreed to relinquish primary jurisdiction to BOP. In the eyes of CDCR, there was no innocent till proven guilty. This means CDCR believes they have the power to transfer any inmate to BOP SHU without even being found guilty of any federal crime. CDCR’s way of thinking is not only retaliatory but also biased. After almost three years of CDCR withholding the agreement, finally, in January 2025, a federal judge ordered CDCR to disclose it. The underhanded agreement showed what was believed. CDCR stated they are relinquishing the primary jurisdiction of (13) inmates who were being federally charged. CDCR’s purpose was so they can be housed in more restrictive conditions due to being purported gang members. CDCR did not want them to return to CDCR; most importantly, it showed the agreement was not signed by a court or Governor. It was not an official certified document.  The letter was solely signed by a former CDCR secretary named Kathleen Allison; see attached letters. The law of relinquishing primary jurisdiction of an inmate is complex and can be confusing. Let me explain in the simplest terms: relinquishing primary jurisdiction only happens when a sentence is complete, such as through release bail, dismissal of charges, parole or expiration of sentence.  This would mean the sentencing court or Governor can only relinquish primary jurisdiction of an inmate serving a life sentence. The CDCR secretary does not have the power to stop, interrupt, change or commute a state life sentence. The authority of the CDCR secretary is clearly outlined in Title 15 3076 (a) & (b).  The CDCR secretary only has the power to recommend a sentence. When relinquishing primary jurisdiction is not done correctly/unofficial, this means the inmates are still doing their state life sentence, but in BOP if this occurred, then CDCR violated their due process and equal protection rights by failing to ask each inmate for their consent in being transferred to another jurisdiction required under California penal code 2911.  What is more shocking is that when nine (9) of the inmates got federally sentenced (4 still pending), all received a federal “consecutive sentence”.  A federal consecutive sentence means it can only start under law once the first pre-existing sentence is complete.  In this case it would be their state life sentence. Instead of the inmates being returned to CDCR after federal court proceedings were terminated, they have all been transferred to BOP. CDCR ignored this court order and still forced the illegal transfer by placing a detainer on each inmate which states that their sentences are imposed to run concurrently, this NOT true. If this is not enough, the CDCR officers who gathered the intelligence to manipulate this transfer were demoted for officer misconduct. These CDCR officers and the Salinas Valley State Prison warden allowed inmates to have cell phones so long as they gave up intel within prison walls. This was self-admitted by the officer in the trial (case * United States v. Cervantes No. CR-21-0000328 YGR). These CDCR officers would text informants housed in prison and used that intel collected to federally indict the thirteen inmates' names in the agreement.  CDCR has gone to great lengths to keep this scandal from the public.  This is a warning to all those who opposed California’s long-term confinement (SHU) and defended prisoner’s rights. CDCR has not changed and will never change if we don’t continue to speak up and stand up against these dirty tactics. Right now, CDCR believes they are above the court system and Governor by transferring inmates to BOP with no due process. Please share this without others and make them aware. Authored by, SHU kick out in Solidarity *Those who would like to attend the sentencing hearing: June 17, 2025 8AM Northern District Court 1301 Clay Street Courtroom 1, 4th Floor Oakland, CA 94612

The next AC Transit Board Meeting will be Wednesday June 11 at 5 pm at 1600 Franklin Avenue, 2nd floor in Downtown Oakland. Public comment is immediately opened at 5 pm, so we need to be there at 4:30 or 4:45 pm to check in and sign a speakers' form to make public comment.  Our problem is that AC Transit has moved/re-moved TWO bus stops that end the safety of elderly and disabled persons going to and coming from the Wednesday and Friday Pantry sessions, and in so doing AC Transit has violated the ADA law that seeks to retain and/or provide "reasonable accommodations" for Seniors, Disabled, and others who would NOT be able to enter or leave our Agency, Telegraph Community Ministry Center, 5316 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland California , without incurring INCREASED RISK Of INJURY and DEATH, because AC Transit first removed the bus stop from in front of the Temescal Oakland Library, which was only ONE stop light crossing for the Elders, Disabled, and Parents w/ young children to cross to catch the Southbound #6 bus.  That #6 bus stop was moved, from a solid sidewalk in front of the library at 52nd and Telegraph, to a detached concrete island beyond 51st and Telegraph: TWO whole additional streets south of the Library AND across two additional, very dangerous intersections (1) at Telegraph and 52nd Street which the is the short-cut to the 980 Freeway entrance at 51st and Shattuck; and (2) at Telegraph about a 1/2 block beyond 51st Street which is a very wide, four- lane, intersection with staggered traffic "go" and "left turn" timed-signal starts and stops.    As if that was not bad enough, the Southbound #6 bus stop at 55th Street is equally as treacherous and dangerous because it is 4 full blocks farther north of that bus island at 51st Street, and people walking to that bus stop with grocery carts full of food frequently have had to RUN to 55th and then negotiate two signal lights that control cars at both the #6 AND the #12 bus stops, turning left from 55th, north toward the 24 Freeway,  cars driving straight across the 55th Street Crosswalk into the gas station, AND the #12 bus, turning right from 55th onto Southbound Telegraph. So now, the AC Transit Board of Directors has removed the Southbound #6 and #12 bus stop at Claremont, yet again from a solid sidewalk, backward one block so that shoppers, Elders, disabled persons and parents with minor children will be endangered ONCE again, arriving at Telegraph and Claremont to shop at our Agency's Pantry three times per week,  because they will be forced to dodge traffic turning right onto Claremont to go northeast rapidly toward the Rockridge area. The danger here for ALL walkers trying to cross Claremont at Telegraph is that far too many drivers, bike riders and motor bikers do not really observe the law when making a right turn: they simply barrel through the crosswalk, on a red or a green light, and accelerate as fast as possible, either in route to DMV or some other sacred venue.  Maybe the drivers will see the pedestrians attempting to cross the street on a green light and maybe they won't, resulting in screeching tires and bus-dependent riders running for their lives all day every day. Whoever planned these bus stop removals and redistributions did not study the usage patterns of thistle North Oakland, Temescal population. Instead, the planners simply looked at WHAT SEEMED to be expedient, cost saving, commercially beneficial for the new Whole Foods (a.k.a. Whole Paycheck) store that now will surely benefit from having the Northbound #6, #12, #800 bus stop right in front of its door, no matter whose lives are inconvenienced or lost in the process! Please restore the bus stop in front of the Temescal Oakland Library, and please do NOT cancel the original Telegraph at Claremont bus stop.  Err on the side of humane morality, respect for Seniors/Disabled/Working Class Parents with Children, and the integrity of our Community. Thank you. Peace and Health Equity with Justice and       Courageous Respect for Everyone,  Ms. S. Omowale Fowles, Housing Director  MANNA From Heaven Breakfast Program/  "A ROOF Over Their Heads" Emergency-to-  Permanent Housing Program at Telegraph  Community Ministry Center (TCMC)

I will never intentionally use generative AI. My writing comes from a place of authentic expression. I notice that people use AI because they are not confident in their writing skills. Personally, I would rather fail due to my own human error than rely upon the often factually incorrect product that comes from AI. Machines such as ChatGPT cannot replicate the hurt, pain, trauma, and growth that comes from transforming my life experiences into reflective pieces of art. As an individual, I am committed to journalistic integrity and artistic creativity, and will never replace my human voice with generative AI. —------------- POOR Magazine and the content of its website, radio shows, and articles will never contain generative AI. As poor people, intellectual property is often the only property we own and that must be protected. Machines such as ChatGPT cannot replicate the hurt, pain, trauma, and growth that comes from transforming our experiences with poverty into reflective pieces of art and healing. POOR Magazine is committed to journalistic integrity and artistic creativity, and will never replace the human voice with generative AI.

Photo: A Scene in a Library by William Henry Fox Talbot By Ananda  Homeroom and another morning free-write I had already decided not to do. I sat waiting for my classmates to finish while I stared at the clock, ignoring the teacher's looks. He walks to my desk and I prepare for a lecture…but today he asked me to get up and go to the counselors office? I walk down the halls, thinking about my missed assignments, reach the outside of the office and see my sister waiting on the bench outside. We both laugh, surprised to see each other. We were very different students, both freshmen and already set on opposite tracks. I was pulled out of my remedial classes often to make an ‘action plan’ to recover my GPA. I rarely saw my sister during the school day–something very serious had to have happened to take her out of AP prep. Jokes and joy turn into confusion. What could this be about? She doesn't know either. The door opens. The school counselor, Miss Ambros, is there. She once told my sister she “reads too much and people who read as much as her must be using it as an escape to not have to deal with their real issues.” She gestures us into the office, where a woman I have never seen is already sitting and smiling at us. Immediately, I knew we were on trial. Fear, embarrassment and anger all rushed through me at once and in that same moment I knew I couldn’t show it. She introduces herself and tells us we're not in trouble. She asks us about school, about mom and about home. Home. Our tiny two bedroom apartment–the first place we ever called our own. Loud neighbors, warm kitchen, big couch, the occasional mouse (mom was gonna get more traps soon) and two bathrooms! One for us and one that was just for mom. She worked for years to get us out of Haven House and promised we would have our own place someday. It was hard at first, she always found a way to make rent but there were weeks with no food in the fridge. All my siblings struggled through middle school–all ‘bright’ but ‘undisciplined’. At that time, we only saw her a few hours a day. We got ourselves to school and back. Got home and threw our homework to the side for cartoons. She would get home later that night, see our messy room and unfinished homework and we would get spanked and sent to bed. That was the rule and that's how things went day by day. Sometimes we would do our work, but most of the time we didn’t. My sister wrote about this in a poetry assignment in her high school English class. So there we were, Miss Ambros printed out the poem and read out the parts she found ‘concerning’ and asked my sister if what she wrote was true. I had passed on every morning free write assignment for the first half of the school year. I didn’t realize our words, or lack thereof, were being monitored. What wasn’t I saying? How much dread I felt over my future, how impossible it felt to keep up with my school work, how I felt like giving up and really already had. My bad attitude around school was constant and something I was expecting to grow out of, like one day it would just click for me the same way it seemed to for my sister and everyone else. Until then I was just a bad student, choosing to fail, waiting to prove them wrong. But this was different, did they think I was failing because of mom? Because she was abusing us? My mom who had survived so much and did everything for us. Could they really take us away from her? In the following weeks, the social worker follows up with a home visit. Mom tells her about those difficult years–how she worked on her anger on her own. I remember she had even apologized to us for hitting us years before. We get a passing grade and mom gets a child abuse investigation report on her permanent record. School is back to normal and we are free to go along our tracks as planned. I flunk out and get my diploma at a finishing school. My sister goes on to be the only black student to qualify for and pass an AP program in the entire school district her graduating year.

A ComeUnity Demolished, a relative dead  So many deaths  From the perp called swept  Swept and swept and swept to death From East Huchiun to West til we have nothing left  No belongings, no homes, no tents, no phones From Shannon to Desiree From James Oakley to JT (John Thomas) to my Mama Dee  From Cornelius Taylor to someone we dont know or havent yet seen Bulldozers and backhoes coming for us  Our houseless bodies percieved always as  Not enuf  These relatives Killed by the violence of sweeps To maintain the settler lie of CLEAN Streets  The war rages on as u look from your sun-drenched window With scorn Shaking your head  Why i gotta look at these people who r  poor  When the backhoe came for me and mom She barely looked up  said i dont really care - i guess we done  her heart drenched with fear Bring the bulldozers and the backhoes near Take me away cuz the loss is just too great And i can’t pick up all my belongings fast enuf anyway  tired of searching  tired of running  They want us dead -  Bring it  Im done with the dread..    When the backho came by tiny  People moved slowly. A relentless beep-roar of multiple bulldozers and back-hoes provided a violent symphony to a man and two helpers dragging a mattress, blankets, sheets, two pillows, a tiny end table, a mini-frig and a threadbare chair out of a 10x 20 foot rectangle house solidly resting on the medium on East 12th street in East Huchiun(Oakland)  into a nearby moving truck.  The siding of the house was a tan colored tarp attached very securely and carefully to a plywood outer wall . Everything was geometrically precise. No superfluous material or unfinished corners. There were two perfectly placed windows facing out and the roof was carefully constructed out of metal sheeting with roofing shingles on top. A soft wind blew below us all.  A relentless Backhoe filled with a mattress munched away in the background. “On this medium here…People have been living for over 10 years - this is an obvious war on people who don’t have the money to pay rent or buy a house,”  said Satya, one of the Sweeps Defense warriors who along with Jaz and many other love-warriors show up everywhere the city poltricksters are perpetrating more of the violent sweeps on our houseless bodies, “This house here,” Satya said, motioning toward the home being evacuated, “is bigger than the temporary rooms being offered to a few of the people displaced from here.” Launched on May 12th one of the largest comeUnities in occupied Huchiun (Oakland) was violently  “Swept”  by the City of Oakland. Which with the accompanying armed poLice officers, CHP and DPW workers cost Oakland taxpayers several thousand dollars per day, $90,000 or more, to put a fine point on it, just  to remove people to nowhere.  One of dozens of beautifully constructed homes demolished on East 12th St There were dozens of humble well constructed homes viciously destroyed by the arsenal of machines hell bent on demolition. Cloaked in lies about “safe work zones” and a pretense at offers of housing, a thriving comeUnity was scattered to the wind. Literally.  There was no excuse for that destruction. The city literally has nowhere to house us. We are builders. We are architects. We are designers. We create homes that last. We just need our own self-determined spaces on Mama Earth to mamaFest these dreams.These solutions …solutions like  Homefulness ..  As reported before by me, there was one jail-like motel charged with housing residents from three swept and dismantled comeUnities in Oakland and when it came down to it, there were only 16 beds left, which hadn’t previously been registered for the meager 79 beds earmarked for East 12th street. Temporary beds, I must add, with a 1-2 year expiration date and no guarantee for a referral elsewhere. Sweeps Kill- We lost a Warrior  A street altar created on East 12th St for JT “Im kinda lost without JT. I don’t know. He kept us all together,” said Doe, at a prayer procession and ceremony organized for his brother,  J.T., a lifelong resident of Oakland lost to the sweeps violence and all the ancestors of these violent sweeps. In addition to destroying peoples homes, these violent City funded, hater demanded, removal policies of sweeping houseless humans like we are trash, has destabilized and caused the death of a longtime resident of the East 12th Street Comeunity. On Monday, May 19, 2025 JT aka John Thomas, a long-time resident of East 12th street was found deceased in his camper after the City of Oakland had taken all of his belongings and RV where he resided houselessly for several years. He was found by friends from Sweeps Defense and Oakland Homeless Union, when they came to try to save his last remaining form of shelter, because it too was scheduled to be towed away. “His faith in humanity and his compassion for others was unwaivering, despite the repeated disappointments he experienced on the part of the City and those who were supposed to be serving him. Said Freeway in a LoveUary  she wrote for POOR Magazine    “He was a soldier, he knew how bad this was and he was always strategizing different ways to survive, to navigate the system and to help other people,” said Satya speaking at the ceremony for JT from Oakland and James Edward Oakley from so-called Vallejo and all the ancestors of this non-stop War ON the poor.  Prayer procession for JT(John Thomas), James Edward Oakley and all ancestors of these violent sweeps The beautiful prayer procession down the now empty East 12th street was led by all of us youth and elder prayer warriors from POOR Magazine, Deecolonize Academy and Homefulness along with organizers and comrades from Oakland Revealed, Sweeps Defense, Oakland Homeless Union, Love and Justice in the Streets, Wood Street Commons and so many more. We prayed, we shared words and we lifted up all the ancestors all across this stolen land.  Little sister warrior and student of Deecolonize Academy Anniyah Zepeda, 11, closed the ceremony with a short prayer. “This is a prayer for JT and for all the houseless ancestors and for mama Earth,”

Settler neighbors of a public park that exists on occupied land of the Ohlone /Lisjan people is pushing the City of Berkeley to criminalize and remove a small, humble and clean comUnity of houseless residents. by tiny “WE WANT THE PARK CLEAN AGAIN”  We want the streets clean again We want the sidewalks clean again Clean like when? Like the jim crow south clean Like rafah & khan Yunis clean Like Derik Chauvin clean Like we are not people when we live outside clean Kill houseless people with bulldozers from Huchiun to Palestine clean  Like ethnic cleansing clean..? How clean do the streets have to be So clean we can’t be seen So clean there isn’t one houseless person that can ever even be  How clean must it be ? Like a shiny metal countertop at StarBUx How long must i wash? Do i need lye and bleach and a colonial cross Can i sit - can i hide- can i make myself so small there is nothing left of me inside  just so i dont hurt your eyes when u walk by  Just so the streets stay clean of my dirty life ... .....CLEAN by tiny .... Editors Note: TODAY WEDNESDAY THE SETTLER SWEEPS ARE SET TO BEGIN _ PLS COME OUT TO THE PARK IF U CAN Florescent green paper signs with large black lettering sat calmly in their laps. Grey wisps of hair brushed against their placid cheeks.  One after the other, shoulder to shoulder, mostly wite housed settlers of occupied Huchiun, Ohlone, Lisjan Land aka North Berkeley held signs and lined up at a “community” meeting to make statements demanding the City of Berkeley “do something about the homeless problem.”   They used the hygienic metaphors of “cleaning” and “sweeping”  which are 21st century codes used by poltricksters and hater neighbors alike to describe removal, erasure and the complete eradication of houseless bodies from supposedly public spaces and in this case, referring to a public park in North Berkeley named Ohlone Park. Me and fellow houseless and formerly houseless poverty skolaz at POOR Magazine attended two of these supposedly community meetings held by the oddly named FOOP (friends of Ohlone Park) which i believe  should be re-named EOAPP (Enemies Of All the Poor in the Park) or SUOPWTC (Settlers Using Ohlone People Without Their Consent.) I say supposedly community, because although the main agenda of the meeting was about the houseless community of Ohlone Park, there were no houseless residents in the two meetings we attended. The meetings and the FOOP have existed for awhile and the oddly named “Ohlone Park” itself has a somewhat revolutionary  Herstory tied to Peoples Park resistance back in the 1970’s.  Now the park, as with most of so-called Berkeley, which is best known recently for being one of the few cities across the US who refused to call for a Ceasefire in Gaza over the last year and a half of genocide, has moved to decidedly bugie uses and includes a thriving dog park where mostly expensive dog breeds frolic in a gated area, two play areas for children, many beautiful Mama Trees, acres of green grass and most recently, a very clean, well-maintained houseless ComeUnity.   When me and my mama Dee were sleeping on the streets of so-called Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, we would always be afraid of that park, not because of our fellow houseless comeUnity members only a few hidden in corners of the park at the time, but because the minute we would sit down on any of the few benches or stop our broke-down car, nearby when we were lucky enough to still be sleeping in our hooptie, we would immediately get hateful stares, odd questions about what we were doing there from random passerbys and poLice calls and drivebys telling us we “needed to move along”   “The recent Supreme Court decision that gives local governments more power to relocate people who are currently camping illegally in public spaces has been hampered by limited local resources.”  ( excerpt of a letter by settler residents of so-called Berkeley in a group called “FOOP, Friends Of Ohlone Park, to the City of Berkeley citing the Grants Pass Vs Johnson Supreme court ruling to force the City of Berkeley to remove the peaceful houseless community)  The Ohlone Park houseless *comeunity (I dont use the word encampment as that word has its roots in the military industrial complex) came to life months ago after the Grants Pass versus Johnson supreme court ruling that essentally stated that houseless peoples were no longer protected by the 8th amendment of the CONstition, therefore that our houseless bodies were no longer considered human. Period   Following the ruling there was a huge push by politrickster Newsom to order “sweeps” of  our houseless bodies  from every settler town and city in so-called California and then a  demand from the City of Berkeley poltricksters to remove ( read; erase) 2/3rds of the houseless population in Berkeley from its streets which was then followed by a resistance movement  of houseless peoples and comrades from Where Do We Go Berkeley to create new comeunities across Berkeley as soon as their previous comeunities were destroyed by non-stop sweeps across the City. “By not enforcing the law prohibiting camping in public parks, the city has effectively allowed part of Ohlone Park to become an encampment preventing full and open use of the park by all its citizens and user groups..”. From the FOOP to the City of Berkeley   After barely a couple weeks of the ComeUnity being in Ohlone Park there began a string of letters to the City of Berkeley demanding “they take care” of the blight, “clean” the park and other code words used when housed people talk about us without us houseless residents.  “They were coming up to the people humbly sleeping in their tents and saying hateful things, and threats and actual anti-poor people slurs against the houseless residents,” said Andrea Henson, former WDWG staff attorney and one of the leaders of the Where Do We Go resistance at the time “The hate has been non-stop, and yet they never made an attempt to speak to us or include us in their meetings or “strategies” because it was all about getting us out of the park,” said Ian Cordova, organizer with Where Do We Go Berkeley  POOR Magazine received an anonymous tip from an indigenous/1st Nations elder,  who was disgusted by the attack on humble houseless peoples just trying to sleep and forwarded us the letters. After reading the vitriol and the 21st century low-key call out for tiki torches and erasure of this comeunity, myself and other houseless comrades from POOR Magazine showed up to see what was up.  The first meeting was a strange and sad admixture of hypocrisy or what i call HyPoKRAZy. Allegedly progressive Berkeley residents, highly-educated, mostly wite (but not all) people who will throw down for global poverty struggles, against war and genocide everywhere else, but in their own “neighborhood” or as the saying goes, “backyard” they refuse to see it , believe it, or hear it. Or even worse, they demand the same violent erasure, ethnic cleansing, poLicing, harassment,racist and classist, removal of comeUnity, of residents that they lead protests against across Mama Earth.  “The Bathrooms will be locked at 5pm everyday, the police will ensure that,,,”,,,presenter on restructuring plans at the Friends of Ohlone Park (FOOP) mtg.  To which i stood up and responded, “then how will the houseless residents use the bathroom?,”  One after the other, the FOOP members called for the removal of houseless people from “their park” so it could be “safe” for the community.  This referral by the FOOP members to this supposedly public park as “theirs” and their classist exceptionalism in regards to who was community, were odd to me, as how was the houseless community not considered part of the community and why ddnt they deserve to “feel safe in the park too”?  Why weren’t the houseless park residents invited to this meeting considering it was supposedly for the “community” and how was this park referred to as Ohlone Park which at its social justice origins was a soft attempt by settlers to call out whose land this really is, abiding by, asking leadership from and/or even moving in right relationship with the erased ancestors of this very land they were talking about. “In a place that we have always called home since time immemorial, we were the first to be swept from our homes, into prisons we were forced to build,(Missions), into forced labor, and then off the land. What has this society learned over the last few hundred years? History is repeating itself in all the bad ways, continually creating harm and trauma on those who are the most marginalized. When will humans find their moral compass? When will they realize that each of us needs all of us?” - Corrina Gould, Tribal Elder, Prayer-Bringer and Co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust.  Corrina Gould, who is one of our family elders council members at Homefulness, who we asked permission and spiritual guidance from before we even began to build the homeless peoples solution to homelessness we call Homefulness in deep East Huchiun,, teaches all the time that the concept of homelessness didnt exist in the time of her ancestors.  Finally, this situation with the FOOP and the so-called Ohlone Park, is another act of settler violence which proves what i call the settler lie of public, i.e. we know that these so-called public spaces aren’t actually for all of the public and that in fact the public land, like private land is all occupied indigenous land and use, presence and even walking through or on it is very raced and classed depending on your melanin, and your position in this class stratified culture.  Landless Not Voiceless "We hope to have a dialogue - to help Berkeley residents understand that everyone, housed or unhoused deserves dignity, safety and place in our city," Berkeley Homeless Union, a humble group of houseless and formerly houseless Berkeley residents held a beautiful gathering at the park last Saturday to try to foster dialogue between housed and houseless residents of the park.  "How are we different just cause we don't have four walls," said Marcus a park resident who we spoke with at the party. As we left the humble and peaceful gathering i was shaking my head thinking, Yes, Berkeley, Housed or unhoused, don't we all deserve to feel safe in public?

Poor Magazine/Homefulness will be joining Interfaith4Ceasefire to walk in recognition of the Palestinian Right of Return to their land, and to affirm the human right for ALL people to stay, migrate, and return, and to not face displacement. We are walking with the knowing that borders and settler claims to land are built on violent lies and with the knowing that another world is possible. The walk is 22 miles, beginning in Alameda and ending in Berkeley.