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By tiny gray-garcia aka @povertyskola, daughter of Dee, Mama of Tiburcio Anthropology, Ethnography, Psychology -just some of the studies about us without us Our spirits our cultures our traditions Deconstructing our struggles While our communities are dismantled and left in rubble ..excerpt of akkkademia by tiny from the Sidewalk Motel - Poems & Poshunary from a poverty skola For years I have critiqued formal institutions of learning for creating krapitalist* products out of knowledge, for raping, stealing, extracting poor, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled mamas and papas and ancestors cultures and peoples for the sake of “Study” for counting, examining, dissecting, caging, and experimenting on humans for surveillance, knowledge production, eugenics, art, medicine and what I affectionately call “wite science*”. And ultimately, silencing, firing, intimidating voices and actions of dissent. Mostly people of color who dare to speak up inside the institutional walls. I have called for poor and indigenous people to resist, to build our own spaces of liberation education outside the institutions, and few of us have, until now. In 2024, across occupied Turtle Island akkkademia* in its static sacred unquestioning form is being dismantled, redesigned, unSettled, re-made and re-visioned. Thousands of warrior truth-teller students and some liberation faculty allies, of so-called elite institutions of higher learning, institutions rooted in histories of genocide, enslavement, exploitation and extraction of this stolen land, with buildings and programs named after eugenicists, programs named and funded after corpRape* extractors and poisoners of Mama Earth and Mama Ocean, anthroWrongology* and arkkkeaology* departments holding indigenous ancestors hostage, are actively taking back their stolen land campuses in the name of Palestinian freedom, divestment and the end of complicity. But a funny thing happened on the way to these warrior moves for our stolen Palestinian babies and mamas and elders, the intentional and unintentional liberation of institutional education itself and over 500 Gregorian years of dusty wite* lies and silence. Tent-based reclamation in so-called California As I stood at the edge of a cluster of over 75 tents (at UCLA and UC  Berkeley) located in the centers of two of the most elite institutions of higher learning, where young peoples of all nations and communities were sitting together on the grass and the Greco-Roman palatial steps talking and activating about the oppressive institutions they were enrolled in, I saw it -the change was electric. They were surrounded by giant posters and handmade art and placards detailing the History of Palestine genocide, institutional complicity and demands for divestment. There were canopies filled with free knowledge, free medicine, free food and free information to any and all that needed it. I thought to myself, “the people, the learners, young people with a clear-eyed vision created this.” Young people paying an institution for turning knowledge into a product and then legitimizing it with a piece of paper. Young people who themselves were leaders as much as they were learners. As I was invited onto the oddly astro-turfed quad of University of San Francisco, a Catholic university in San Francisco, enriched and alive with tents, placards, blankets, snacks and students walking with each other, exchanging ideas, sharing dreams of liberation, I was struck again about the contrast to the ancient missionary architecture looming above from all four sides. When I stood on a bustling street with a Greco-roman name in front of University of California San Francisco, while medical students played music, dreamed and visioned liberation from institutional silencing and actually spoke to each other, planned with each other and prayed with each other….  I was struck by this moment of liberation from the other source of repression, silencing, pain and fear. The institutions themselves, spaces of so-called learning, rooted in medical apartheid, the experimentation on women of color, indigenous and disabled bodies has actively repressed the voices of its students and faculty of color whose only hope was to teach structural racism, health equity and consistently are attacked and threatened for speaking their truths, by the donors and ruling medical aristoKRAZY.* Warrior teachers, writers and practitioners of medicine like Rupa Marya, who has stood with all revolutionary actions in the Bay Area consistently for years, who launched the powerful DoNoHarm coalition with her students at UCSF in response to the violent poLice murders in amerikkklan*, tried to bring in Poverty Scholarship and this poverty skola to teach at UCSF and was squarely rejected because I was not “published” which is akkkademik* code for “Legitimized by academic journals”, which actually isn’t even true as Poverty Scholarship and many of my articles have been cited and used in multiple thesis’ projects and journals including The Harbinger out of NYU and Columbia and more. But these soft gates and quiet gatekeepers rule so much of the UC system in California and many of the akkkademik* institutions across Turtle Island that my voice was easily shut out. The beautiful visionary medical students at UCLA who did manage to launch a structural racism and health equity program at their medical school brought me in and of course I prayed for Palestine and a free mama earth, spoke on poverty skolarship and wite science*. And for those truths I was doxxed, lied about, and death threatened. Every single one of these student-led resistance spaces launched their own “popular universities” inviting in speakers, talking among themselves, sharing knowledge, and not commodifying knowledge. Many of these students and the faculty who supported them have been silenced, doxxed, framed and lied about by a silent wealth-hoarding class who are friendly, funded, or outright aligned with Zionism, corpRape* industries and war mongers. All of these spaces of tent-based resistance/reclamation** have many things in common, taking back occupied indigenous land for liberation, taking back their own power to educate, taking back and living into values of radical sharing and mama earth liberation. **tent-based resistance is my naming of the movements to reclaim akkkademik spaces for the people -I don't use encampment because it is a military industrial complex term used as a slur against us Houseless peoples street communities- I also called out the irony of the use of tents by the students because if this was done by people like me we would have been “swept'' like we are trash within seconds and are everyday. I asked them to promise to redistribute their tents to Houseless communities when and if their resistance came to a close. ComeUnity Education leads to ComeUnity Reparations My mama and I, in collaboration with fellow poor and houseless people at POOR magazine, created our own theory, our own canons- or to use one of the favorite words of the akkkademiks*- pedagogy. We created Poverty Scholarship-which helped to launch other Poor /houseless/Black Brown indigenous pedagogies like Voces de inmigrantes en resistencia, Youth Scholarship, Krip Hop Nation and KripHopOlogy. We called ourselves Poverty skolaz, Border Skolaz, Elder Skolaz, Caged Skolaz, Youth skolaz and Disability skolaz. We wrote our own Textbook and journals and non-extractive models of knowledge sharing. We created our own titles like Resistance Awards, Poverty Heroes and Po Poet Laureates. We launched our own educational movements open to all for free and even with support attend them- We Will Be Heard, FAMILY project, PeopleSkool and Deecolonize Academy- that worked to unTeach the racist, classist lies of poverty shaming, success, hoarding, extracting, and experimenting and teach back what was stolen from us, all of us. Our medicine, our theory, our prayer is radical love and interdependence, Unhoarding, decolonizing, degentriFUKing* Mama Earth and elder care-giving, love-working, anti-state violence, anti-poLice*, anti-eviction, anti-institutional, humble, street and community-based truth knowledge. We created new, non-violent terms for our knowledge offerings; Revolutionary Love Work instead of *Anti-Social Work, ComeUnity Reparations instead of Philanthropy, HERstory instead of History, HEALing Care instead of Hellthcare, poor people direct reporting media instead of about us without us middle class media WeSearch instead of research. Homefulness instead of homelessness and my most recent ISWAHT? The Institute for the Study of Wealth Accumulating, Hoarding and Truth… Our teachers were us: poor and houseless, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled povertyskolaz, recyclers, panhandlers, poor mothers and fathers, abuelitas and Tíos, domestic workers, trabajadores, Street Artists, Vendors, Poets, low/no wage workers, care-givers who had survived by any means necessary, whose college was life, whose PhD's were in poverty, incarceration, false borders, racism, ableism and colonization to name a few degree focuses. In the end, it is never my goal as a humble povertyskola to destroy anything, these institutions of learning provide jobs and money and space and time to people lucky enough to get into them, and to thousands of poor/working class, communities of color support staff who need those gigs, but they are also harmful racialized, ableist and class stratified spaces of scarcity, gates, poLice, tests, extraction, gentriFUKation*, hoarded land and resources. My hope and ask has always been to deconstruct the gates and gatekeepers that intentionally make things inaccessible if you haven’t mastered the oppressors language, if you don’t have enough money or even time away from caring for your community. We need to learn from accessible school models like the medical schools in Cuba that intentionally work to keep space open for poor students from destroyed and marginalized communities. We need to broaden, not shorten, the reading and learning and change-making so more of us can learn, soak up the urgent knowledge and be recognized for the knowledge we already have. We need to open the arkkkives* to include the peoples libraries, the povertyskola knowledge creators, the people intentionally left out and kept out of history and Herstory. We need to end the violent and impenetrable testing and scoring, judging and demanding that keeps these institutions elite in the first place. To break open the knowledge systems and the way our peoples' skoolwork are valued and seen. Perhaps degrees could be granted for taking care of our elders, taking care of our babies, stewarding and care-giving for community gardens, cleaning and stewarding watersheds. The concept of who is a teacher could be broadened to the abuelitas and mamas making teas and tinctures from flowers, the recyclers cleaning and sorting mama earth’s waste and people trying to survive through multiple traumas and intense poverty deemed as the experts, scholars and teachers they are. Elder prayer holders, bringers and culture keepers honored for the traditions and energy keeping they are already doing in degree programs that require no extractive skool time, but rather support time for what they are already doing. So education could come back to comeUnity where it began, from elder to youth, from village to generation. The violent and gentriFUking* force of the away nation (a concept I teach on in PeopleSkool) could be reversed. No more parks, homes, buildings and open spaces stolen for the profit of the Dorm industrial complex because community learning would be at the center of the educational processes. These akkkademik* hoarded buildings and lawns could begin to house houseless people and animals and grow food and build community equity. And so this povertyskola has a practicable launch proposal for all of these institutions. A proposal of not only complete divestment in ALL extractive industries from RealEsnakkke* to CorpRapeShuns* and all and any military, poLice* and war industries and companies, but Investment and Reparations to all and any communities profited off of, experimented on, bombed, terrorized, studied, exploited and used from Palestine to Oakland. ComeUnity* reparations supporting full scholarships for low-no-income, houseless students, free housing for houseless students and their families, free child care to students who are parents, LandBack of most (if not all) of the occupied land these schools exist on, with easements that include recognition of spiritual and physical leadership for all of the land, teaching and “board” positions for first nations relatives, guidance on curriculum design of things and knowledge they have long held in Science, land, medicine and art (to name a few), with a mandate to return all ancestors’ remains to all of the indigenous, Black, Brown and poor people they are stolen or “acquired” from who are languishing, un-cared for in their arkkkives* and basements. To invite houseless elders and residents who have been displaced by their extractive dorms - right of first return to housing in the dorms. To pay the gardening and cleaning staff of the school equivalent to the tenure teaching staff and offer them positions as teachers in the new land stewarding departments created as part of the proposal. This is only the beginning and I have a whole lot more in my proposal, but this is a start and very close to what I gave to the “liberal arts” college that gave this povertyskola “Credit for time served” i.e., accepted my 6th grade formal education and granted me an exemption from a BA for all the work I have done all my life so I could go onto receive an MFA, which I am eternally grateful to them for, because it saved my life. Their recognition and support helped this houseless/incarcerated, traumatized povertyskola artist write my first screenplay and produce a feature length movie on the violence of sweeping us houseless humans like we are trash. From day one at the beautiful campus where the residency was, I was overwhelmed by the miles of hoarded indigenous land. I proposed a ComeUnity reparations proposal to rematriate* the land back to the indigenous peoples of that territory, as well as at least 10 full scholarships to houseless/low/no/income students from the community where the skool is located and the worker staff who take care of their kitchens and cleaning and cooking to be offered, not only a full scholarship to go there, but to be seen as worker scholars who could teach on some of their own poverty scholarship in the program. Change and transformation never happens fast. It’s a prayer, it’s a journey filled with multiple pathways. This moment needs to be preceded by so many more moments and moves and refusal to accept or roll back into wealth-hoarder dominant status quo.  For right now, I send so much love to the warrior students who are still in the tent-based resistance movements*, refusing to pretend everything is ok. Demanding change and NOT giving up until they attain it. I see this moment as just the beginning, a powerful beginning to UnSell and unsettle these extractive institutions into love-centered, sharing centered community skools that brings knowledge back to where it began. With all of us, not just some of us. …In the meantime… consider coming to the next Decolonization /DeGentriFUKation seminar at PeopleSkool in Black August… *The terms Wite Science (no “H” cause it's not a color, it's a system), Akkkademia, Amerikkklan, CorpRape, DegentriFUK, WeSearch, ComeUnity, Arkkkive, AnthroWrongOlogy, etc. are from my PoShunary - a poor people's dictionary (and if necessary for publication, can all be transformed back to the linguistically dominant spelling)

Open letter to Oakland Ballers, republished for PoorMagazine By Freeway, Resident Organizer of WoodStreetCommons and Acting President of West Oakland Homeless Union To whom it may concern, My name is Freeway. I'm an unhoused advocate and a founding member of the Wood Street Commons. We're a local non-profit based out of West Oakland; we actually got our humble beginning on the very lot you will soon be using for parking. In case you're not familiar with the history of that lot, I'll briefly fill you in. For approximately the past decade, the 1707 Wood Street lot was the home of upwards of 300 unhoused Oaklanders. We were often touted as "the largest homeless encampment in Northern California", but we were so much more than that; we offered a safe space for anyone who had nowhere else to go. There was a community garden, a community kitchen- which fed anyone who came through on a daily basis; we had an organized community, hosting weekly community meetings; we had a clothing closet, and worked with Lifelong Healthcare to see that all of our residents got the care they needed. In April of 2023, after lengthy battle- both in and out of court- the remaining section of our community was violently closed, leaving over 300 people displaced, and with little hope for their future. A handful of us entered into the community cabin site down the street, only to be further traumatized and disappointed by the abusive staff, the lack of funds for programs, and the deplorable living conditions. To put it simply, we were better off on the streets. Over the past year, we've watched in horror as the city we call home had continually turned its back on its most vulnerable population. We've cried, shouted in anger, and sat in dismay, as over and over again, restrictive, dehumanizing policies have been passed, forcing us deeper and deeper into the shadowed corners of the city. These policies serve to only further criminalize us, and waste millions- sometimes billions- of tax payers dollars. But, the dollars lost pales in comparison to the lives lost. Since the closure of the original Woods Street Commons, we've seen more community members die than be housed. And still, the city continues to ignore us. When I read the article about your baseball team, and the new location you'll call home, I felt it absolutely vital that I reach out to you. In the wake of our displacement, many of our residents relocated to Raymondi Park, only to experience harassment, violence, even death threats from surrounding neighbors. Ultimately, these individuals were displaced from this location as well. It would seem with so much loss and despair that we would've given up; quite the contrary. Through all of this hurt and pain, our community had found a way to grow even stronger. Determined to not go down without a fight, a small group of us have been working tirelessly to help our community heal from these traumas and grow in the face of adversity. With the support of over 800 people, including our local team of advocates and lawyers, we've accomplished our short-term goal of becoming an official 501c(3) non-profit. With this recognition, we are now able to continue the work we started at 1707, feeding, clothing, and nurturing our community, as well as other local encampments. We've partnered with other local organizations to ensure that we reach as many Oaklanders that need us as we can. We have also continued to work towards solutions to the deeper, endemic, root problems that perpetuate homelessness; issues like restrictive policies that criminalize the poor, ridiculously high rent, and the false negative narratives that deepen the divide between the housed and unhoused. We've also been working diligently with a local architect by the name of Mike Pyatok to design an all-inclusive, self-sustaining, work- live community. At its complete state, it would be able to house and shelter about 750 people. That includes, single individuals as well as families and couples, with a special section designated to teachers and artisans. It would include vocational training, educational courses, a child care facility, a dog park, a cafeteria style food court, plus on- site mental, physical, and dental clinics. There would also be a specific section dedicated to RV dwellers with the option of training in refurbishment of these vehicles. Additionally, there are several options for micro- enterprises to help sustain the costs of maintenance, keeping the rent at a low-or-no basis. The best part of this is the staffing: the programs, including the safety ambassadors and case managers, would be staffed by unhoused individuals who have gone through a training process during their time on the campus. There is one detail that is blocking us from achieving this goal: we need the funds for the land. The site that we've got the best chance of success with is a 22 acre lot on Wake Ave. It's an old army base, and as-is would need land remediation. We're in the process of interviewing companies for the job at present time. Which brings me to the reason for this letter. In the article in Oaklanside, I read that the baseball team would potentially be donating some funds towards local charities. We'd like to be one of them. The eviction that took place didn't just destroy our belongings, or destroyed our faith in the city's leaders, and in human kind. This kind of donation would be the perfect bridge lessening the divide between the housed  and unhoused. It would also be an opportunity for your team to prove to Oakland that the bottom line is not more important than helping your fellow human. We'd love am opportunity to discuss this with you in further detail, and answer any questions you might have. If there's a time we could meet, we'd very much appreciate it. Our points of contact are myself and John Janosko. My contact info is located below, and his is the following: 510.712-7639, johnjanosko844@gmail.com. Please let us know at your earliest convenience. We look forward to hearing from you and potentially partnering in the future. Thank you for taking the time to consider this. In humble service, Freeway (they/ them) Resident Organizer/Dir. of Harm Reduction >Wood Street Commons< Acting President >West Oakland Homeless Union< >>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<< "If you choose to stay silent in the face of oppression, you have chosen to side with the oppressor." ~Desmond Tutu >>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<

Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … White noise shrouding months of live-streamed slaughter: Decapitated doctors; assassinated ambulance drivers; Wounded shrieks; dying moans— haunting screams of Mothers lifting what’s left of babies’ shrapnel-shredded bodies Soundbite-grabbing; headline-stealing; Goebbels-gotcha Big lies disguised as hearings. Wretched klan Kabuki Theater of moral paupers holding tattered, hand-lettered, Signs shouting:   “WILL WORK FOR GENOCIDE!!” Spectacle of skunk-scented hot air. Of bleached white Death Panel inquisitors asking AI “Yes or No” questions— Gaslighting—giving great Capitalist Hill cover for Genocide …Great cover for grand dragon government Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … Teargas tones. See-thru bomb bay bras. Revealing Open-hearted concern for blowing smoke in our Bloodshot eyes/broken hearts from seeing double Amputee children; mass graves; bombed hospitals A fascist filibuster. Evil MAGAt Mamas with Charlottesville Umbilical cords and J6 afterbirth.  A Capitalist Hill coven of Wicked, war-headed witches wielding one Weaponized word … Posturing as friends of Jews … Hot air superiority/McCarthyite complement to plastic Cuffs; rubber bullets; flash-bang grenades; baton blows; Mass arrests. A search and destroy Psy-Op, massacring Public education/educators caught in capitalist crosshairs Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … Airwaves saturated with antipersonnel elephant Excrement … Reich brain farts escaping as thought Balloons in cartoons: “Wish we could go Gitmo and Waterboard these bitches—Show ‘em we mean business!” Images of kaki-clad marchers chanting:  “Jews will not Replace us!” and J-6 teeshirts emblazoned: “6 Million Was Not Enough” dance through minds of cruelty contest competitors, Auditioning for Commandant of Concentration Camps 25 and 47 Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … Shhhhhhhhh … Shhhhhhhhh … We’ve heard enough … from the World’s greatest purveyor of violence. © 2024. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Organized, self-governed houseless people led solutions to housing by Momii Palapaz “I’ve been homeless for 13 years and I’ve been swept, had everything taken away from me.  I have felt …less than a person. They (*shitty hall) have taken that away from me.  I don’t have a reason to smile no more” said a Camp Resolution resident. Dennis shows his t-shirt of Camp Resolution 3.4 miles from the California State Capitol, Camp Resolution, at 2225 Colfax, sits on vacant property owned by the City of Sacramento. This neighborhood is the home of over 20 residents that hold a lease for land and have successfully committed themselves to self-determination, representation and self-government. Even though the City of Sacramento and residents of Camp Resolution developed and signed a contract together, the City representatives, Mario Lara; Assistant Manager, District Attorney; Thien Ho and Howard Chan; City Manager are turning their backs on Camp Resolution. Written with the community of mostly women and elderly, promises by the City turned into lies. Lies of permanent housing placement, dishonesty and the lie of offering stability. One check away… When I became a family member with POOR MAGAZINE HOMEFULNESS, I knew from apartment living what housing instability feels like.  Paying the *lie of rent, I see the Cal Trans aggressively sweeping people and their belongings.  I hear the cries from my houseless neighbors. We are all targets, especially those like my elder self, one SSI check away from homelessness. I listened to the truth tellers. I learned that those experiencing firsthand, those who know and are skilled from living on the streets are the people with real solutions to permanent housing and self-determination. Homefulness Building in Tongva Poor People Led Solutions to Housing From Nicklesville in Seattle, Washington to Aetna Street in L.A., organized communities of houseless people have refused to accept temporary solutions like *tiny tombs or prison motels and are fighting back against the constant sweeping of people on sidewalks, abandoned properties and vacant lots. Moms for Housing, Wood Street, Reclaiming Our Homes and other houseless led movements are taking back and leading in their right to housing. “This is the best thing that happened to me.  said resident, Danielle Wild from Camp Resolution. “The mayor (Darrell Steinberg) of Sacramento doesn’t want us in front of businesses, and schools.  Why can’t we just stay in the lots and stay out of their way instead of sweeping us?...  We got our own garbage pickup. We got our own bathrooms. It would keep homeless people away from schools and businesses…be less people on the streets sleeping in parks.  We have our own gated community until we get housing. It would keep a lot of people away from everybody that don’t want us around. “ Big business profits from homelessness Hearing her honestly describing housed people, I am ashamed our humanity has sunk so low.  Society has taught our children to despise, ridicule, and publicly taunt the houseless community. The shame of poverty, domestic violence, and mental illness accelerate with an eviction and nowhere to go. Add to that the scorn, bullying and exceedingly, the physical violence from the people who are housed. This system has graduated to an intense level of hate. To make more money, government and media, with real estate, lodges a barrage of degradation, justifies continued displacement, and campaigns for more police and social welfare punishment.  “... you will see less violence and homelessness and garbage on the street because we would be in our own community.” Danielle continued, “at least let us get on our feet and then it is up to us. Give us a chance. Why wouldn’t they want us to be in our own lot, away from that?” A Long History of Displacement Since immigration of the 1900’s to the WWII 1940’s my ancestors and their families moved numerous times.  Displaced by the WWII suspicions of Japanese Americans' loyalty to America, the unUS concentration camps held them for at least 2 years. Once they were released, housing was not easy to find but eventually my mother rented from the Japanese owner of an apartment building in the largely Japanese 4 block area of SF. Back in the late 1950’s until the 1980’s, nationwide, The Redevelopment Agency (RDA) aka urban removal was the stage for today’s houseless crisis. My family and thousands of Black families, and people of color in the SF Fillmore district were violently evicted. Anti-eviction groups were almost non-existent in the 1970’s. Mass displacement reaped devastating upheaval and emptied thousands of homes in the Western Addition. Protest from the Committee Against Nihonmachi Eviction organized too late but with much resident support and spirit. Corporate development was delayed but the anti-eviction movement did not succeed in stopping displacement against the RDA, SF and Japanese corporations dedicated to gentrification. The RDA and government housing agencies nationwide schemed with corporate developers to “upgrade” and replace us with higher income, white and expensive condos. Black and other non-white established businesses of stores, restaurants, nightclubs, were permanently shuttered. Demolition wiped out the thriving neighborhoods and replaced it with impractical, privileged shops and pricey nightlife venues. Today, communities of color are scattered from Modesto to Sacramento to Stockton and Fresno. Today, tents, cardboard hovels, cars and uninhabitable SRO’s house longtime bay area residents. Homefulness resident Brokin Cloud with Camp Resolution member Housed Must Stand with the Unhoused “I am a volunteer and it’s a joke. Mario Lara, City Hall, has $5 million for Safe Grounds and refuses to do anything about it. There is a cheap, reasonable way to get water for people throughout the City of Sacramento. God forbid that they should give water for not paying the bill.  I am a voter. I voted for these people and am ashamed I did. They don’t care. They do not care and the City will not do anything to help them.” Since 2022, census reports over 500,000 homeless in the unUS. According to the National Alliance to end Homelessness, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are houseless at a percentage of 121.2 percent followed by 48% Blacks, 44% Native Americans, 36.1 multi-racial, Latinos at 22.4%, Whites, then Asians, the least affected by homelessness at 4%. Two years later, in 2024, there have been a multitude of climate disasters worldwide, fueled by profiteers and the local governments of unUS. Last year’s murderous Maui fire, killing over 97 people and leaving over 6,000 Hawaiians houseless, has yet to offer permanent housing to the native communities and locals. Land grabbing visions and prospects immediately started within hours of the tragedy. “The Shitty of Sacramento is “reneging on its agreement to house these people.  …Instead (Camp Resolution) is being bullied by the DA, bullied by false narratives and stigma of homelessness. It’s shameful.” said Mr. Baiocchi from the School of Social Workers at Sacramento State college. He went on imploring that Sacto Shitty Hall “should allow Camp Resolution to occupy an abandoned lot which isn’t being used for anything. These people want to be visible and want to be heard. The City should hear them. Camp Resolution is an incredible thing. I’ve never seen anything like this. The City should be studying it and seeing how they can have 10 Camp Resolutions, because this is actually working.” “They know what they need to do and think about the people less fortunate. They have housing they can go home to. They have cars that we can’t even manage to drive. They got a paycheck, we can’t even imagine to think of ‘what about us?’. We’re human too. All we want is our housing. Make it right for us. We’re Camp Resolution. We’re not going anywhere.”-Camp Resolution resident Long before colonizers killed en masse Native tribes and indigenous nations on Turtle Island, the Nisenan, Maidu, Miwok and Me-Wuk peoples inhabited and maintained the land now called Sacramento. Today, government arrogance and greed justify the stealing of land.  No one owns mother earth. *  from PoShunary by povertySkola aka tiny

Celebrate indigenous youth poverty skolaz as they graduate from Decolonize Academy! Time: Saturday, June 1st at 12pm Location: Homefulness 8032 BlackArthur (MacArthur) Blvd Huchiun (Oakland), CA 94605

¿Qué pasó con la libertad de expresión y el estilo de cada una de las culturas? Detrás de todos los años yo he escuchado que los Estados Unidos es uno de los países que conozco como el que tiene más libertad de expresión. Pero también es el en que muy fácilmente pierdes tus culturas y valores y el país te envuelve en sus redes. Pero qué pasa si quieres regresar a tus tradiciones o vestirse cómodamente y te desconocen o no te tratan igual, no sabiendo que eres la misma persona? Yo soy una de las personas que ya no me puedo poner algo cómodo, ni algo viejito lo cual tenía guardado por algún valor sentimental porque hoy día en ciertos lugares ya te miran como vagabundo. Hay gente muy importante en nuestras comunidades y han sido criticados y mal vistos como a mi muchísimas veces igualmente a mis compañeros. Esas son solo unas cosas que los estados unidos te hace cambiar. Pero lo más triste de todo que estas tradiciones, costuras, estilos de vestir, es que en poco a poco los estados unidos desunidos nos ha quitado nuestras tierras y todo lo ya mencionado. Si seguimos así nos quitará el alma. Nuestra madre tierra es la única que no discrimina y la única que nos da lo para comer y sobrevivir. What happened to freedom of expression and the styles of cultures? Over the years, I've heard that the United States is one of the countries that is known for having the most freedom of expression. But it is also where you very easily lose your culture and values as it envelops you in its traps. And then what happens if you want to return to your traditions or to dress comfortably and they don’t treat you the same, not recognizing that you are the same person? I am one of the people who can no longer wear something comfortable or something old which I had saved for some sentimental value because nowadays in certain places they look at you like a vagabond. There are very important people in our communities that have been criticized and looked down on many times, like me and my colleagues. Those are just a few things that america makes you change, but even sadder than taking away these traditions, styles of dress, and needlework, is that on top of everything already mentioned, little by little the dis-united states has taken away our lands. If we continue in this way, our soul will be taken away. Our mother earth is the only one who does not discriminate and the only one who gives us what we need to eat and survive.

(Image of Reclaiming Our Homes warriors mamas and daughters) We reclaim abandoned homes so our babies can be safe, we reclaim abandoned land so our elders can be safe, we reclaim abandoned streets so all of us humans can be safe from the violence of sweeps, and clean-ups, isolation, hunger and homelessness..From  Sacramento to El Serreno, we poor people bring love and care and solutions and hope to Mama Earth and our houseless, disabled, mamas and grandmommas, daughters and suns through self-determined solutions like Camp Resolution, Nicklesville, Homefulness, Juanita Street, Wood Street Commons, Aetna Street, Reclaiming Our Homes and Moms4Housing.  But no matter how beautiful, successful or simple our solutions are the  “powers” that be, the poltrickers, speculators,  and the poverty pimps who steal and profit off of mama earth smash and destroy and evict our solutions with guns and paper and courts and laws and armed agents of the state. "LA Housing authority (HACLA) is supposed to be housing us,instead they evicting us back into the streets"  said Martha Escudero, one of the Houseless mama leaders of Reclaiming Our Homes -a group of 13 houseless, housing insecure, low/no-income mamas, daughters and elders  who were struggling to survive on the streets of LA with their children and, inspired by Moms4Housing in Huchiun, decided to reclaim, take back, liberate and move into several abandoned homes owned and hoarded by Caltrans in their rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of El Serreno. (From Left: Dennis M from Camp Resolution and Brokin Cloud from Homefulness - photo by Momii Palapaz ) Camp Resolution “Camp Resolution is not about being homeless, it’s about community,” said Dennis, resident leader of Camp Resolution to POOR Magazine report Momii Palapaz at an action by Camp Resolution leaders held last week to resist a threat of eviction by the City of Sacramento. Camp Resolution is a beautiful community of houseless elders and youth who had struggled with violent sweeps and eviction and gentrification and seizure of all of their belongings throughout their lives of homelessness in so-called Sacramento (Occupied Nisenan/Maidu Territory)  Sacramento settler government granted Camp Resolution us of abandoned parking lot way out in the cuts of Sacramento to create their community, promising the residents they could stay there until the city was able to get them habitable safe longterm housing  Now several months and several stabilized humans later, the City of Sacramento is reneging on their offer. “I’ve been homeless for 13 years, I’ve been swept, had everything taken from me, but I am Camp Resolution,” said by one of the powerFULL povertyskola residents at Camp Resolution facing homelessness again while  attorneys for the Sacramento Homeless Union filed suit and served the City of Sacramento for Breach of Contract, Specific Performance and violation of the covenant for Good Faith and Fair Dealing. “Camp Resolution is amazing, the City should be studying it and trying to figure out how to support it not destroy it,”   said one of the advocates at the press conference in front of City Hall With the City still refusing to rescind the Notice of Lease Termination and the clock ticking towards June 1, 2024 - the date announced by the City to close the Camp - the next step for the Union will be filing an emergency motion for a Temporary Restraining Order. Eviction is Elder and Child Abuse "Homelessness almost killed me and my daughters, we were so depressed and even suicidal," continued Martha. My mind shuddered at the memories of me and mama going thru the same eviction and then homelessness violence in LA, Oakland, Frisco and Berkeley throughout my childhood.  and how we almost didn't make it . The  loss of a home for everyone is violence but for mamas and children, it truly is unbearable. For elders It often means death. In 2014 POOR Magazine was able to prove through extensive Wesearch ( poor people-led research) that eviction in fact is violence, and even more specifically, it’s a violation of the penal code 368 elder abuse. And sadly, in the cases of the elder weSearchers who contributed to the report, it led to their increased illness or in many cases, death. Elaine Turner, Ron Likkers, Iris Canada, are just some of the elders we lost to the violent act of eviction. Elders like many of the residents of Camp Resolution and Reclaiming Our Homes. Additionally, we include child abuse because in our WeSearch process, every mother or father with children documented how evictions and subsequent housing insecurity or homelessness caused them and their children extreme duress, sometimes leading to suicidailty like Martha spoke about. In me and mama’s case, depression and terror were our constant reality. Whenever we were able to find a stable home and build back some semblance of normalcy and mental health,our lives were devastated again by eviction due to multiple factors, having to do with poverty, mostly what I call the “Lie of Rent” and our  inability to pay it consistently. Affordable to WHO? “I don’t know how they (HACLA)  are calculating affordable,because I can’t afford any of the places, they refer us to,” Martha brought up the other lie perpetrated by politricksters and non-profiteer housing devil-opers, the lie of “affordability” Depending on where you live in the State, the concept of “affordable” varies insanely. Usually determined by the gentrified “market rate” of where the building or home is located, which nowadays in LA, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley is INSANEly unaffordable, but there are thousands of dollars in tax breaks the devil-opers receive by shaving off a percentage of the already too high rent so they get to call it “below market rate” Survival is our Networks “ We need to stay in in our community, our survival is based on the services and networks we rely on here,” Martha went on to explain her indigenous, disabled child is enrolled in a healing alternative school that is not something she can just find anywhere. and the violent impact of removal and gentriFUKation,  for poor families, especially disabled children and elders.  if you are lucky enough to get a section 8 certificate from Housing Authority (which has years long wait-lists) so many scamlords of apartments in the neighborhoods we have lived in for decades, refuse to even take the certificate so we are pushed into homelessness in our own neighborhoods  or into communties we don’t know that have none of our support networks. Our networks  are literally  a lifeline. This is rarely if ever considered by the gentrifiers casually paying double or triple the amount of rent that a place is even worth Gerry Ambrose, just one of the many longtime elder members of POOR Magazine, who I say was killed by gentriFUKAtion had lived in her San Francisco home for 40 years, had  3 children and six grandchildren and in 2001 was gentrified out of San Francisco into a trailer in Sacramento. Sacramento city never gave her or her family any support to survive and Gerry was never able to stabilize, her disabled sun, never able to receive services and her other adult suns, never able to get living wage employment,  tragically all of the stress, isolation and depression literally killed her. Habitat for What?? Finally, there is the insanity of huge housing non-profits like Habitat for Humanity, who as far as i’m concerned is complict with the CalTrans eviction as one of the housing devil-opers “offerring” money to Caltrans to “Buy” the homes these mamas and elders are living in,  so they can allegedly “house” other houseless and poor people. This is one of the urgent hypoKRAZIES that we teach on at PeopleSKool, and what happens so often, the lie of evicting people to house people. So many of these huge so-called affordable housing projects lead to eviction of communities so they can be built. Conversely, us poor folks who visioned Homefulness work intentionally to degentriFUk neighborhoods when we try to build the poor and houseless peoples-led Homefulness project.  Like Reclaiming Our Homes, we only decided on the site of the 1st Homefulness based on the fact that no-one was living on those small parts of Mama Earth, and in the case of Homefulness2 needed much healing rematratation work to even clean the land and make it liveable. “We are working with a land trust who offered to buy the homes, but CalTrans refused,” Martha concluded. Caltrans, the largest entity in the state who routinely sweeps houseless humans like we are trash, has no interest in actually housing anyone who needs the homes, instead they are just perpetrating more violence of removal on these mamas and elders. What the poltricksters and the non-profiteers can’t ever seem to comprehend is Camp Resolution, Aetna Street, Wood Street Commons, Juanita street, Nicklesville, the Reclaimers and Homefulness created is the intangible of love, stability, community support and community care. These communities of rent-free-forever housing and/or camping aren’t the same as a “cabin” or an SRO or an apartment. They aren’t another “campaign” or “project” these are life-lines built for us/by us/ informed by what we at POOR Magazine call Poverty Scholarship, poor peoples knowledge we have gained through experience of struggle, and the basic notion of love itself,  this is how humans hold each other into life. This is the love we need to not just survive, but thrive. If you are in the occupied Tovaangar area, (LA) Please support these mamas right to housing and pack the Stanley Mosk courthouse dept 93 at 111 North Hill street, LA, starting this week. If you are anywhere else follow them on IG @reclaimingourhomes . Watch the video on Poor NewsNetwork here If you are in Northern California please support Camp Resolution’s efforts to stay safe and in their campground  by following Sacramanto Homeless Union on X, Fb or IG To support the mamafesting of Homefulness 2, 3, 4, & 5 (so-called Oakland, Frisco, LA and Seattle)  consider registering for the next seminar of PeopleSkool (on zoom in BlackAugust) by going to www.poormagazine.org/education

REINAS del bienestar Escribir es Sanar/Escribir es Luchar con Recuperando Nuestras hogares en EastSide Cafe Sandra Saucedo Don’t stare into the abyss for too long, it will stare back at you. This happened on a random weekday in the early morning hours, as I started my shift at the General Hospital. This time I was walking extra slow as I was 9 months pregnant with my 3rd child. As I was walking into one of the elevators to reach the 15th floor where the operating room where I could see the graffiti on the elevator walls filled with words. I started reading and reciting everything I saw.  There was nothing different about my day at all in fact it was the monotony of the concrete jungle as some people call it. Many thoughts were going through my head, then suddenly I heard the elevator stop and everything got dark and strange voices started talking to me in the ear. Since then, everything changed. No mires fijamente en el abismo por demasiado tiempo, te mirará fijamente. Esto sucedió en un día de semana aleatorio en las primeras horas de la mañana, cuando comencé mi turno en el Hospital General. Esta vez caminaba muy lento ya que tenía 9 meses de embarazo con mi tercer hijo. Mientras entraba en uno de los ascensores para llegar al piso 15 donde estaba el quirófano donde pude ver los graffiti en las paredes del ascensor llenos de palabras. Comencé a leer y recitar todo lo que vi. No había nada diferente en mi día en absoluto, de hecho era la monotonía de la selva de hormigón como algunas personas lo llaman. Muchos pensamientos pasaban por mi cabeza, entonces de repente oí que el ascensor se detenía y todo se oscureció y voces extrañas comenzaron a hablarme en el oído. Desde entonces, todo cambió. Michelle Pate After a lifetime of abuse, sexual, physical, verbal and emotional, I began to self medicate and escape with heroin. Addiction needs money. The need leads to crime. And crime led to a life sentence and prison for 25 years. This is still current and chronic. I am a damaged and traumatized person with mental health concerns. Facing homelessness. I fear becoming overwhelmed and relapsing. I will be just another tragic statistic of mental illness, addiction and homelessness. Después de toda una vida de abuso, sexual, físico, verbal y emocional, comencé a automedicarme y escapar con heroína. La adicción necesita dinero. La necesidad conduce al crimen. Y el crimen condujo a una sentencia de cadena perpetua y a una prisión de 25 años. Esto sigue siendo actual y crónico. Soy una persona dañada y traumatizada con problemas de salud mental. La falta de vivienda. Me temo ser abrumado y recaer. Seré solo otra estadística trágica de enfermedad mental, adicción y falta de vivienda. Maria Benitez They say that the things you have and the place you live in are the definition of who you are.  That has never been the case for me. I lost my home due to a fire, then falsely accused by our landlord. At moments like these all my family and I were hoping for was support. Support that we deserved; 19 years of rent. I’m sure that had some value. Right? I ask myself where are we going, what’s going to happen? Will life always be this way? Will there ever be that feeling of tranquility I am so faithfully seeking for? These things shouldn’t be of my worries. Yet, they are; my mom’s cries and her constant worries. Although she tries so hard to mask. They too are mine because that, that’s family. I’ll never ask for more because what I have is what I feel I deserve. But, we seek equality, because equality is equality. Dicen que las cosas que tienes y el lugar en el que vives son la definición de quién eres. Ese nunca ha sido el caso para mí. Perdí mi casa debido a un incendio, luego falsamente acusado por nuestro propietario. En momentos como estos, toda mi familia y yo esperábamos que fuera apoyo. Apoyo que merecíamos; 19 años de alquiler. Estoy seguro de que eso tenía algún valor. ¿Verdad? Me pregunto a dónde vamos, ¿qué va a pasar? ¿La vida siempre será así? ¿Alguna vez habrá esa sensación de tranquilidad que estoy buscando tan fielmente? Estas cosas no deberían ser de mis preocupaciones. Sin embargo, lo son; los gritos de mi madre y sus preocupaciones constantes. Aunque ella intenta tan duro enmascarar. Ellos también son míos porque eso, eso es familia. Nunca pediré más porque lo que tengo es lo que siento que merezco. Pero buscamos la igualdad, porque la igualdad es igualdad. Yulu CRISIS I was in middle school, 13 years ago-dad lost his job, my mom was depressed having her mom in a nursing home after home after home - dad full of stressed parents who fought every day.  He hated my mom - she told me he threatened to kill her. And so my mom told me to never trust him.  School wasn’t fun anymore, my friends called me annoying (ostracized me from the group) but I really just wanted to be loved and share joy I didn’t have at home. My dad would beat me with a belt for talking back-for feeling angry at home life. I begged my mom to leave him and take my brother & I elsewhere but she was talked down so much by my dad, she started to believe she was nothing, worthless, a burden in the world, idiota, imbecile - I was in middle school, I couldn't make rent money.  I felt so hopeless and alone.  My mom, despite distrusting my dad, wuld tell him when I was troublesome so he could physically discipline me.  This was when suicide became a pathway for my life.  Living next to a freeway, my fantasy grew strong.  I stood by the gate between the freeway & apartment, whenever the yelling and hitting was too bad to hear my heart beat. My mom’s reason for staying was so we wouldn’t be homeless And so I learned how to numb myself to violence to get by Until it broke me. CRISIS Yo estaba en la escuela intermedia, hace 13 años, papá perdió su trabajo, mi mamá estaba deprimida teniendo a su mamá en un hogar de ancianos después de casa tras casa - papá lleno de padres estresados que luchaban todos los días. Odiaba a mi madre - ella me dijo que él amenazó con matarla. Así que mi mamá me dijo que nunca confiara en él. La escuela ya no era divertida, mis amigos me llamaron molesta (me condenaron al ostracismo del grupo) pero realmente solo quería ser amada y compartir la alegría que no tenía en casa. Mi padre me golpeaba con un cinturón por hablar de nuevo por sentirse enojado con la vida en casa. Le rogué a mi madre que lo dejara y llevara a mi hermano y a mí a otro lugar, pero mi padre la había hablado tanto, empezó a creer que no era nada, sin valor, una carga en el mundo, idiota, imbécil - yo estaba en la escuela intermedia, no podía ganar dinero de alquiler. Me sentí tan desesperanzada y sola. Mi mamá, a pesar de desconfiar de mi papá, le diría cuando yo era problemático para que pudiera disciplinarme físicamente. Fue entonces cuando el suicidio se convirtió en un camino para mi vida. Viviendo junto a una autopista, mi fantasía se hizo fuerte. Me quedé junto a la puerta entre la autopista y el apartamento, cada vez que los gritos y golpes eran demasiado malos para oír mi corazón latiendo. La razón de mi madre para quedarse era para que no fuéramos sin hogar Y así aprendí a adormecerme a Violence para pasar por Hasta que me rompió. Elitania Ryuez Garcia Mi triste “historia” y sí, mi historia la he llamado así porque dejó una línea de música, oscura en mi y difícil de terminar o cerrar, dicho de una forma desde mi punto de vista, algo propio y personal, del lugar en donde viví con mi familia humana y animal. Sí animal porque en ese pequeño espacio vivíamos mis hijos, mi esposo y mis animales, donde por (19) años estuvimos en un lugar seguro. El día 19 de Julio del 2022, a la 1:30 a.m. mi hijo mayor de 19 años nos despertó con un grito alarmante desesperación pidiéndonos a mi y mi esposo que nos despertamos pues en nuestro departamento estábamos incendiándose. Actuamos como pudimos sacamos sola lo indispensable, algunas cosas y algunos de nuestros animales pues uno de ellos que es perro “Bombón” se había quedado encerrado dentro del departamento. Eso como familia, nos ponía, tristes, al igual que cosas la realidad del incendio de mi apartamento cambiaba un 100% el rumbo de nuestras vidas. No éramos ricos pero teníamos más como familia para celebrar la quinceañera de nuestra hija. Y el incendio cambiaba todo.  Pues su vestido era el primero que se había quemado.  Pero no solo era eso, sino que también nos quedaban sin un lugar en donde vivir al tiempo transcurrido de unas cuantas horas. Mi familia y mis animales nos íbamos sin hogar, prácticamente en las calle y sin apoyo, y la persona a quien le pagábamos la renta, tampoco nos dio ningún apoyo. My sad “story” and yes, I call my story that because it left a line of music, dark in me and difficult to finish or close, said from my point of view, something my own and personal, from the place where I lived with my family- human and animal. Yes, animal because in that small space lived my children, my wife and my animals, where for (19) years we were in a safe place. On July 19, 2022, at 1:30 a.m. my 19-year-old son woke us up with an alarming desperate cry asking me and my husband to wake up because in our apartment we were burning. We acted as best we could, we took only the essentials, some things and some of our animals, because one of them, who is a dog,"Bombón" had been stuck inside the apartment. That as a family, made us sad, equally did the things the reality of the apartment fire 100% changed the course of our lives. We were not rich but had more as family to celebrate our daughter’s quinceañera. And the fire changed everything. Her dress was the first thing that was burned. Not only that, but over the course of a few hours we were left without a place to live. My family and my animals were homeless, practically on the streets and without support, and the person to whom we paid the rent, nor did they give us any support. Maria Merritt 56 yrs old Life coping & learning the ropes to enhance your daily living needs. Emotional financial & race & gender. Skills to be recognized & be respected - Learning on your own & recognizing. People- circles of groups that can - hurt you or help you to learn to recognize & get knowledge of such. Consumes me when do I get to live for today without fears & struggles when & picked up - all of the above & there is no space or an ounce on my body to carry everything on my own. When would I be able to heal the memory of that beautiful little girl waking up about 3 or 6 in the morning to see my dad, pulling his hand out of my privates. He died & I love him so much with all because as a little girl I had my own issues & responsibilities… in between 7 or 10 & her mother - did not believe me or did nothing ever since then my life been shattered…broken …give me the knowledge and wisdom to get the answer to release that space in my brain to be free like other individuals. I even walk in the streets & I see they are not broken like me. I love me & still cannot release such ugly memories. Sobrellevar la vida y aprender las cuerdas para mejorar sus necesidades de la vida diaria. Emocional financiera, raza y género. Habilidades para ser reconocidos y respetados - Aprendiendo por su cuenta y reconociendo. Gente -círculos de grupos que pueden - hacerle daño o ayudarle a aprender a reconocer y obtener conocimiento de tales. Me consume cuando llego a vivir para hoy sin miedos y luchas cuando es recogido - todo lo anterior y no hay espacio o una onza en mi cuerpo para llevar todo por mi cuenta. ¿Cuándo sería capaz de sanar el recuerdo de esa hermosa niña que se despierta alrededor de las 3 o 6 de la mañana para ver a mi padre, sacando su mano de mis privates? Él murió y lo amo tanto con todo porque de niña tenía mis propios problemas y responsabilidades... entre 7 o 10 y su madre - no me creyó o no hizo nada desde entonces mi vida fue destrozada... quebrado... dame el conocimiento y la sabiduría para obtener la respuesta para liberar ese espacio en mi mente para ser libre como otros individuos. Camino por las calles y veo que no están quebrados como yo. Me amo a mí misma y todavía no puedo liberar recuerdos tan feos. Martha Escudero Coming back from rural Wallmapu was a road to insanity.  I was living among the Mapuche people.  They taught me that I am part of nature.  We, humans are nature.  Our Mother is Earth and she provides all we need to live and thrive.  If Mother Earth provides us with all we need, why are we all struggling so much?  We all deserve food, clean water, access to land, beauty, rest, joy, and so much more.  Why do some many of us struggle for these very basic human needs that are gifted to us by our mother?  I came back to the belly of the beast on Tongva stolen land concrete jungle of Los Angeles.  My spirit went into shock, my body ache, and my mind was going insane.  I felt as I was spiraling out of control into an abyss.  I had anxiety and a deep depression where each day I questioned wether I should live or not.  I could not adjust anymore to a system and way of life that tortures each day slowly dying in profound pain.  A system that sees us as robots to produce, and consume.  While it robs us of our connection, identity, and humanity. When I was younger I wanted to succeed in Capitalism.  I thought that if I worked hard enough I could win and be successful.  As I grew older I just wanted to survive.  To keep myself going to work, paying the bills, and pretending I was okay.  I was not okay I could not sleep at night thinking about mothers and children living in the streets of Los Angeles.  Surviving was unimaginably torture, it was more painful because I did not have the illusion of succeeding in Capitalism, I knew I was doomed and I knew so many others were worse than I was and I did not know how to stop the pain.  So I wanted to die as it was too painful to live this way.  As I felt my grief I also found my rage. Why do we have so many resources while so many people lack so much?  I found power in my rage, the power to create change.  I rose with my rage for my daughters and for all the generations after me, for the future of nature.  I reminded myself and my daughters that we should not adjust to a system that is not sustainable, it is unnatural for us to do this.  My loving rage said “Fuck this! We are human beings! We are nature! We deserve more!” We as humans have a choice, other parts of nature do not have a choice, they either adjust or die.  Human beings are capable to create something new, and something more sustainable for every living being.  We need a system that puts people and nature over profit.  We should all know that we deserve more and should demand more.  Revolutionary rage and love gives me hope. I want to live, not just survive. I feel like I'm in a loop, just trying to survive. I feel trapped in this system that profits out of other people's oppression; the system that we live in makes us work, work, buy, and then die. I feel hopeless and trapped in this messed-up world that treats us like we are animals that don't have any feelings. Sometimes, I lose all hope, but at the end of the day, losing hope won't buy; all we can do is fight for our rights, which will change this world. We can't just stay in bed all day. We have to do something to make our world change and make our world see what we are going through. Volver de Wallmapu rural era un camino a la locura. Yo vivía entre el pueblo mapuche. Me enseñaron que soy parte de la naturaleza. Nosotros, los humanos somos la naturaleza. Nuestra Madre es la Tierra y Ella proporciona todo lo que necesitamos para vivir y prosperar. Si la Madre Tierra nos proporciona todo lo que necesitamos, ¿por qué todos estamos luchando tanto? Todos merecemos comida, agua limpia, acceso a la tierra, belleza, descanso, alegría, y mucho más. ¿Por qué muchos de nosotros luchamos por estas necesidades humanas muy básicas que nos son regaladas por nuestra madre? Volví al vientre de la bestia en la tierra robada de Tongva en la selva de hormigón de Los Ángeles. Mi espíritu entró en shock, mi cuerpo me dolía, y mi mente se estaba volviendo loca. Me sentí como si estuviera en espiral fuera de control hacia un abismo. Tenía ansiedad y una depresión profunda donde cada día me preguntaba si debía vivir o no. Ya no podía adaptarme a un sistema y una forma de vida que tortura cada día muriendo lentamente en un profundo dolor. Un sistema que nos ve como robots para producir y consumir. Mientras nos roba nuestra conexión, identidad y humanidad. Cuando era más joven quería tener éxito en el capitalismo. Pensé que si trabajaba lo suficiente podría ganar y tener éxito. A medida que crecía solo quería sobrevivir. Para seguir trabajando, pagando las cuentas, y fingiendo que estaba bien. Sobrevivir era inimaginablemente tortura, era más doloroso porque no tenía la ilusión de tener éxito en el capitalismo, sabía que estaba condenado y sabía que muchos otros eran peores que yo y no sabía cómo detener el dolor. Así que quería morir ya que era demasiado doloroso vivir de esta manera. Mientras sentía mi dolor también encontré mi furia. ¿Por qué tenemos tantos recursos mientras tanta gente carece de tanto? Encontré el poder en mi rabia, el poder de crear el cambio. Me levanté con mi rabia por mis hijas y por todas las generaciones después de mí, por el futuro de la naturaleza. Me recordé a mí mismo y a mis hijas que no debemos adaptarnos a un sistema que no es sostenible, es antinatural para nosotros hacer esto. Mi rabia amorosa dijo "¡A la mierda esto! ¡Somos seres humanos! ¡Somos la naturaleza! ¡Merecemos más!” Nosotros como humanos tenemos una opción, otras partes de la naturaleza no tienen una opción, o bien se ajustan o mueren. Los seres humanos son capaces de crear algo nuevo, y algo más sostenible para cada ser vivo. Necesitamos un sistema que ponga a las personas y a la naturaleza por encima de las ganancias. Todos debemos saber que nos merecemos más y que debemos exigir más. La rabia revolucionaria y el amor me dan esperanza. Quiero vivir, no solo sobrevivir. Siento que estoy en un bucle, solo tratando de sobrevivir. Me siento atrapado en este sistema que se beneficia de la opresión de otras personas; el sistema en el que vivimos nos hace trabajar, trabajar, comprar y luego morir. Me siento desesperanzada y atrapada en este mundo desordenado que nos trata como si fuéramos animales que no tienen ningún sentimiento. A veces, pierdo toda esperanza, pero al final del día, perder la esperanza no va a comprar; todo lo que podemos hacer es luchar por nuestros derechos, lo que cambiará este mundo. No podemos quedarnos en la cama todo el día. Tenemos que hacer algo para que nuestro mundo cambie y que nuestro mundo vea por lo que estamos pasando.

By tiny, formerly houseless daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio aka @povertyskola “You have five minutes to leave,” Before the words were out of the LA PoLice officers mouth the two men in fluorescent green vests flanking him were grabbing me and mama’s tent and all the tents set up next to us, subsequently crushing medicine, baby pictures and everything we had to our names, throwing them all violently into the nearby trash truck. To me and mama this was just another day in the struggle to survive while houseless anywhere on Occupied Turtle Island. In the last few weeks when me and the world witnessed all the violent arrests and brutality against student and faculty resistors for Palestine, including the LAPD standing by while zionist terrorists attacked a peaceful tent based resistance to Palestinian genocide at UCLA and then subsequently came in to the camp and tore down the whole UCLA student comeUnity, i was eerily reminded of me and mamas life and how uncomfortable and terrifying the settler colonial connections from Occupied Turtle Island to occupied Palestine really are “Gazing out at all these beautiful tents in this powerful peaceful movement i can’t help being reminded that when we houseless folks put a tent, a tarp, a sleeping bag or a blanket anywhere in these occupied city streets we risk removal and worse, arrest, I’m asking you to remember those paradoxical connections with love and care in your collective hearts while im also praying for your safety” This was me to the students at UCLA two weeks ago when they launched their peaceful resistance in the main quad of that campus located incidentally on occupied Tovaangar lands in what the settlers call Los Angeles. I also explained that i refuse to use the term “encampment” about the student resistance movements as that word is a Military industrial complex term used as a slur against our houseless bodies when we live, reside, commune or sleep while houseless. As I witnessed the violent, state sponsored attacks by zionist hate groups that were allowed to continue for hours unchecked on the campus of UCLA , i literary became nauseous, triggered by the odd similarities of the violent attacks on houseless bodies like mine by both PoLice and housed people, if we are seen sitting, standing, leaning, or god forbid, sleeping outside anywhere on Turtle Island. Relatives like Steven Taylor, Mario Gonzales, Luis Gongora Pat killed by classism and racism and PoLice terror and Luis Temaj, burned alive in his sleeping bag in Yelamu for the sole act of not having access to a roof, aka being houseless, or the attacks from the retired fire department chief spraying pepper spray at houseless relatives and then somehow figuring out a way to blame it on the houseless people who were just sleeping. How that blame that is always put on the shoulders of houseless people instead of the system that intentionally is set up to profit off the removal of Black, Brown , working class and disabled bodies, when we no longer serve the purposes of the stolen land “owning class” And similarly , the blaming and mis-leading of the public by CorpRape media of who is “at fault” fault for this genocide on Gaza Holding onto our belongings, baby pictures, last remnants of clothes and personal effects, our tents, our sleeping bags and our medicine is a never-ending struggle for houseless peoples. In addition when we even try to create outside caring, organized comeUnities like Wood Street (Huchuin aka Oakland) and Aetna street (Tovaangar aka LA) we are targeted for removal, sweeps and other hygenic and dangerous metaphors, equating our bodies and humanity to a used paper plate or plastic fork. ComeUnity after comeUnity, small or large, when we are together we create space of love and interdependence, just like the UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC, STANFORD, Humbolt, SJSU, USF, SFSU, Columbia and beyond have done. And isn't it terrifyingly ironic that so many of these spaces were destroyed, smashed, obliterated with the same state-sponsored violence that is paid to destroy houseless comeUnities across Turtle Island. And then there is the litany of settler colonial pauper (anti-poor people) laws brought here by the settlers to CONtain and incarcerate 1st peoples and Black and Brown, disabled and houseless bodies through to today. From 41:18 code in Tovaangar (LA) to Encampment Bans in Huchiun (Oakland) to the newest LIEsuit (Lawsuit) facing the supreme kkkort which would allow settler towns to essentially "disappear" houseless communities completely, again so terrifyingly similar to the apartheid laws of occupied Palestine from the West Bank to Gaza. All of these violent connections made with the backdrop of the genocide raining down daily on the heads of babies and mamas and grandmommas in Gaza. More terrifying connections - poLice officers trained in the Israel Defense Force (IDF), and ex-IDF officers perpetrating violence against students, all to the goal of settler colonial lies of private property and land theft. The facts that this genocide has not only killed and permanently wounded and traumatized thousands of indigenous babies and mamas and families and elders in Palestine, but it has caused the destruction of thousands of homes of poor and working class Gaza residents. Leaving thousands of people homeless and with no place to return to. Because no matter the stated goal, the actual goal has always been removal, just like the genocide and removal projects against the 1st Peoples of Turtle Island. And then there is the 21st century removal, targeting and removing of our houseless bodies from the streets of Turtle Island because of the “cost” our mere visibility has on “property values”. And then settler colonial soul-ed out politrickster mayors like Karen Bass and London Breed, lining up to engage in “business deals “ with RealEsnakke corpRapeShuns that have “holdings” read: settler land theft in the West Bank, Lennar CorpRapeShun- who “owns” land in the West Bank also “owns” land in the spaces where poor people used to have affordable housing projects like Hunters Point Bayview until they were “raised” to build luxury CONdos, under more violent, benignly named politrickster removal policies like RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) that CONtinues to threaten the housing security of poor people housing complexes across the US like Plaza East right here in San Francisco’s FillNoMore- (home to POOR Magazine povertyskola reporter Queennandi X SHeba who has been dealing with this RAD project harassment for months) One of the final ironies in this sick moment is when i was in LA teaching poverty scholarship to conscious medical students who invited me in for their structural racism and health equity class at the "David Geffen School of Medicine" i was doxxed, death threatened and harassed for connecting these dots and praying for Palestine and a Free Mama Earth From my prayer for warrior students at the University of San Francisco (USF) comeUnity last week… “So as we connect all these multiple acts of settler violence in our collective hearts, from Palestine to Turtle Island, I ask all of you warrior students with love and respect to commit to not only the ongoing resistance for LandBack in this terrifying moment but also TentsBack, to commit to redistributing these tents, sleeping bags and surplus resources to the brothers and sisters right down the street who just lost their tent to yet another racist, classist “sweep” of their belongings and shelter, because this US settler society wants houseless people like me disappeared off the face of this earth.. Free Free Palestine Free Free Turtle Island.... PostLoveScript: Please Consider coming to the next session of PeopleSkool (Every January and August) at POOR Magazine to continue your true ComeUnity Learning and heal from this institutional violence

For Immediate Release: Press Contact:s Muteado or Tiny/poormagazine (510)-435-7500 Houseless Mamas Have HEALing Solutions for Housing Houseless mamas, elders and youth, who have created their own solutions to homelessness, propose a practical solution for San Francisco's hundreds of vacant and hoarded buildings in time for Mothers Day What: Houseless Mamas Propose Homefulness for San Francisco for Mothers Day When: 1:30pm Tuesday, May 7th Where: Civic Center Inn Polk and Ellis, San Francisco Homefulness - a homeless peoples solution to homelessness who just welcomed their 20th houseless family into rent-free forever housing will stand together with advocates and allies to propose a Healing housing soluiton for San Francisco's hundreds of vacant buildings in a time when violent measures and lawsuits like Grants Pass Vs Johnson are being adjudicated on to criminalize the very existence of houseless peoples and ultimately erase us from the face of the earth. "All across San Francisco there are so many vacant buildings like the Civic Center Inn, these could be homes for houseless mamas like us," said Mary X, currently houseless, mother of 3 and resident of San Francisco Homefulness was launched in Deep East Huchiun (Oakland) in 2011 by houseless, indigenous, Black, Brown and Disabled elders, youth and families, with permission and spiritual guidance from 1st Nations Ohlone/Lisjan relatives and ancestors and all Nations prayer-bringers from Maya to Africa All the "solutions" put forth by poltricksters are never rooted in healing and interdependence, it isn't just a roof we need, its love and community, " said tiny gray-garcia, formerly houseless co-founder visionary of Homefulness. "Homelessness is violence, Homefulness is Healing," concluded tiny Buildings like the Civic Center Inn which has been vacant for months could be quickly transformed into healing housing like the Homefulness Project, with leadership by houseless peoples, for houseless peoples. See Testimonials from formerly Houseless residents of Homefulness by clicking here Welcoming pictures of new Homefulness Residents

The construction of Homefulness #2, a fully off-grid project, is underway. The site where this visionary project will be realized was a plot of land that was targeted by speculative real Esnake development. Through the work of poverty skolaz, elders, and solidarity family, this land has been unsold and liberated to become a site of Homefulness! So far, concrete foundations for the container homes have been poured, and two units have been purchased. We need support to buy and install solar panels for these homes for houseless mamas! Homefulness is a Poor & Indigenous people–led solution to homelessness. A sweat equity, permanent co-housing, education, arts, micro-business and social change project for landless/houseless and formerly houseless families and individuals. Homefulness #1 in East Huchiun (Oakland) now provides housing for families, space for Deecolonize Academy, PeopleSkool , Community Newsroom, Sliding Scale Cafe , the Uncle Al & Mama Dee Living Library, Revolutionary Radio on PNN–KEXU, and all of POOR Magazine's indigenous community arts & media programming.

Lisa Gray Garcia, who writes as Tiny, gets attacked after New York Post does a sensational story about her work with UCLA me By Tim Redmond Originally published on 48hills.org on April 14, 2024 A wildly inaccurate and inflammatory New York Post story on Lisa Gray-Garcia, who is known as Tiny and writes regularly for us, would be little more than a bad joke—except that now she’s getting death threats. This, sadly, has become all too common in a world where misinformation saturates social media circles patronized by violent right-wing Trumpists. Tiny, who is wearing a Cuba hat (not anything to do with Hamas) talks about the threats with UCLA med students supporting her. And now Tiny, a formerly unhoused person who works tirelessly for the rights of those left out of society’s bounty, is getting calls on her phone (and UCLA is getting calls) saying she is going to die and “we are coming with knives and guns.” All of this because she gave a talk to medical students suggesting that they pay attention to poverty (and made what are hardly radical or unusual criticisms of the modern medical and scientific model). A UCSF doctor said much of the same thing in a recent New York Times oped piece. From the Post: First-year medical students at the University of California Los Angeles were forced to sit through a lecture given by a Hamas supporter who blasted modern medicine as “white science” and ordered them to pray to “mama Earth.” First: Like many, many people in the United States today, Tiny is horrified by the death toll in Gaza and has been outspoken about Palestinian rights. That does not in any way make her a “Hamas supporter.” In fact, I can say with full confidence, after knowing her for many years, that Tiny is not a supporter of any governmental or military organization, anywhere on this planet. She doesn’t support Hamas, or the government of Israel, or for that matter the US government. “I’m not a Hamas supporter,” she told me. “I’m not any government supporter. I am a supporter of oppressed people everywhere.” Then: The idea that medical students were “ordered” to “pray to Mama Earth” is just as silly; I’ve heard Tiny speak many times, and she often offers secular prayers invoking Native American ancestors and the planet we share. But I don’t think she’s ever “ordered” anyone to do anything. Right now, she’s a visiting activist in residence at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, where she’s been giving lecture (which nobody is “forced to attend”) on poverty issues. After the death threats, she’s had to postpone another talk about community reparations. “It’s been hell,” she told me. “That’s the saddest part. Doing this time-wasting BS means more homeless people will die in LA. “But I’m not going to stop.” Original story can be found here: https://48hills.org/2024/04/wildly-inaccurate-story-leads-to-death-threats-for-activist-48hills-writer/