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Por Teo/ By Teo Muchos, se puede decir que la mayoría de los que había convivido me platicaron sus planes de emigrar aquí a los Estados Unidos. Unas personas piden dinero para viajar, otras sus padres les consiguen dinero. Algunos otros tienen alguien aquí en los EE.UU y los ayudan a emigrar. Muchas personas dicen que en este país siempre hay inmigrantes porque las personas emigran- vienen con un propósito ayudar a su familia. Es un gran sacrificio dejar sus países, su gente. También, enfrentarse al terror de ICE. ICE es la migra que detiene a las personas que vienen de otros países. En los últimos años, cada vez más nos incriminan de todo lo malo que se refleja en la sociedad. El capitalismo nos afecta a todos en general, directa o indirectamente. Pero los políticos luchan por discriminar a los inmigrantes, y en especial a los políticos que dicen que los inmigrantes han hecho daño al país. Y es el trabajo de ICE a lograrlo. Cuando detiene a un inmigrante, le quita sus derechos porque el racismo y la injusticia se refleja en las falsas políticas que dirigen en estos tiempos de ICE. Many, perhaps even the majority of the people I used to live with talk about their plans to emigrate to the United States. Some people ask for money to travel, others’ parents get them money. Others have someone here in the U.S. who helps them emigrate. Many people say that in this country there are always immigrants because people emigrate - they come with a purpose to help their family. It is a great sacrifice to leave your people behind and face the terror of ICE. ICE is “la migra” that stops people who come from other countries. In recent years, they increasingly incriminate us with all the bad that is reflected in society. Capitalism affects us all, directly or indirectly. But politicians fight to discriminate against us, especially the ones who say that immigrants have done harm to the country. And it’s ICE’s job to carry out their orders. When you detain an immigrant, you take away their rights because racism and injustice are built into the fraudulent policies that run rampant in these times of ICE.

TL/DR: A month into the fires, Resource Generation is hosting a learning & action call for people throughout turtle island to radically address emergencies in LA with immediate needs and long-term, transformative solutions. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/LAFiresBriefing This Thursday, Feb. 6, Tiny & Poor Magazine will be joining Resource Generation's virtual event "LA Fires: Past, Present, & Future" to talk about long-term, transformative solutions to the emergencies in Tovaangar. From Resource Generation: “Every crisis, actual or impending, needs to be viewed as an opportunity to bring about profound changes in our society.” - Grace Lee Boggs   Wildfires continue to devastate communities and land across our city and region, most severely impacting unhoused, incarcerated, disabled, poor, working class, and Black, Latine, Indigenous, people of color. This crisis has revealed the failures of our economic and political systems, designed to prioritize profit and property over people and mother earth, amidst an escalating climate emergency and housing crisis. Nonetheless, millions of people have shown up for each other in miraculous ways, both to meet immediate needs, utilizing mutual aid groups, grassroots organizations, and unions, and to collectively invest in a liberatory future for all people and living beings.    We’re excited to share with you what we’ve learned about the past that has shaped the present and what’s possible for a more liberatory future. We need your support in resourcing critical work that will support our communities as we recover and grow, and ensure that we not leave anyone behind in years to come. We will hear from several organizations and projects, including RG LA’s chapter partners, and other local projects and organizations that are both addressing immediate needs and building sustainable, long-term projects in the face of harmful forces of capital and extraction. We will share a spectrum of solutions to address our ongoing land and housing crises and how we can support the return to living in reciprocity with fire and land.   This event is designed for people outside of LA, but all are welcome regardless of location and access to wealth. If you’re not able to attend the event, please sign up and we’ll share a recording.    We invite you to read or watch the following resources in advance of this call:  Poor Magazine (tiny): It’s a fire everyday when you live outside The Lever: The Architects Of L.A.’s Wildfire Devastation   Mike Davis: The Case for Letting Malibu Burn LA Times: The Tongva's land burned in Eaton fire. But leaders say traditional practices mitigated damage Teen Vogue: What is Disaster Capitalism   Resource Generation is a multiracial membership community of young people (18-35) with wealth and/or class privilege committed to the equitable distribution of wealth. Learn more at https://resourcegeneration.org/ .   Justice Funders is is a partner and guide for philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world. Learn more at https://justicefunders.org/ .  Register on Zoom to attend live or receive a recording! Link here: https://bit.ly/LAFiresBriefing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: tiny gray-garcia, Muteado Silencio POOR Magazine/Homefulness, 510-435-7500  Black, Brown, Indigenous, Houseless Peoples Release New kind of (Un)Tour Book  This new genre “guide Book” is full of poetry, prayer, stories and art on indigenous resistance to settler colonial erasure, poLice terror, homelessness and the many acts of indigenous/Black/Brown-led resistance from Turtle Island to Palestine and all across Mama Earth  What: Book Release Ceremonies from Seattle to San Francisco to Los Angeles  Feb 9th Seattle, Wa 5pm RoofLEss Radio Writing/Media Workshop at Tent City 3  Feb 10th Seattle, Wa 6pm Cafe Red Book Release Prayer Ceremony Feb 11th Seattle, Wa  4pm Bulldog News Book Release Reading  Feb 12th Olympia, Wa 6pm Orca Books Cooperative 315 5th Ave SE Feb 13th Tacoma, Wa 5pm - King's Books 218 St Helens Ave March 29Tovaangar (LA) 4pm LA Mutual Aid Fest Midnight Books 3382 E Florence Ave April 12 Coast Miwok Land (San Rafael, Ca) 1pm San Rafael Mission 1104 5th Ave  April 26 Huchiun (Oakland, Ca) EastSide Arts Alliance 2277 International Bl May 20 Yelamu (San Francisco) City Lights Books 261 Columbis Ave On February 9th houseless/No-income, indigenous, Black, Brown, Disabled visionary poets and cultural workers from the Bay Area begin the long journey to retrace their Herstoric Stolen land /Hoarded Resources UnTours to release the powerful UnTour Book Across Occupied Turtle Island.  The UnTour Book chronicles their walks into occupied land and stolen resources in the US. Sites like occupied Lenape Territory aka Philadelphias’ main Line and the historic “Old Philadelphia” rife with examples of what tiny gray-garcia calls Klanmarks and ManUmeants, honoring the multitude of self-proclaimed “discoverers” such as Cristopher Columbus who in actuality perpetrated great harm on indigenous peoples both personally and historically or Clayton Duncan and other indigenous Pomo leaders work to unwash the lies about the Bloody Island  Massacre in so-called KelseyVille named after the murderer who perpetrated the genocide of hundreds of innocent indigenous women and children, or Priscilla Hunter, the Pomo Mama Tree Warrior and Protector of so many old growth trees from the violence of the Lumber Industry to the Resistance Marks of Alex Nieto, Mario Woods and Sean Monterrosa to name a few, killed by PoLice but honored in San Francisco in beautiful street-based murals of resistance to the warrior work of indigenous women creating their own Land Trust, and the story of indigenous women taking down the ManUmeant honoring a Spanish missionary who committed genocide on California Indians, to sites of BlackLand Return and resistance, all of this and so much more, reaching globally into Palestine, West Papua, Hawai’i and Kashmir.  KlanMarks, ManUMeants and Plakkks- UnTour Guide Across Occupied Turtle Island “KlanMarks” are my word for all the colonizer blight claiming sacred spaces and sacred stories and washing the truth of genocide off the stolen land— thousands of mis-named, occupied and stolen indigenous lands and sacred sites across Turtle Island, where the land-stealers, occupiers, genocidal perpetrators, aka colonizers are lifted up as heroes. The names of the murderers, the rapists, the robbers, the stealers, the re-writers, and the occupiers litter Turtle Island. But, in this book, there are also so many powerful acts of re-creating, redefining, LandBacking, and land-returning  stolen Mama Earth—from Palestine to Chief Siah’l (Seattle) on Turtle Island, from Bloody Island to Lisjan Land—so this UnTourBook is also meant to honor, pray, dream, and lift up the voices of resistance until all of the KlanMarks are gone and all the LiberationMarks replace them.  Tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola - visionary and co-writer of the Untour Book Across Occupied Turtle Island  Book release events will feature prayer bringers from many traditions and many of the poets and land liberators featured in the book and in the Pacific Northwest will be dedicated to John Williams, of the Williams Family Carvers, a houseless, indigenous wood carver from Seattle who was killed by Seattle PoLice dept and will feature his brother and nephew Rick T Williams and EagleSun. 50% of book sales will go to the Williams Family Carvers and the remaining 50% to the building of Homefulness in the PNW. This will be the same for all of the Book release Ceremonies in all of the other settler occupied towns. It must be said that none of this powerful book would have been possible without the tireless work of the design/ klanmark research team from POOR Magazine's Solidarity family of Linguistic Liberators:, Asa Ikeda, Frankie Carter, Bridget Cervellie, Maya Ram, Ruby Roebuck, and Greg Barton! @poormagazine POORPress.net   Or websites: poormagazine.org

“ICE has been sighted in San Francisco and Oakland, they are driving a white unmarked van and are out of uniform wearing jeans, a tshirt and sometimes, a police vest.” Said an anonymous community care-giver/reporter.  Whose Land? to LandBack!!!  From the early days of the original theft of Turtle Island the stealing fathers ( as i call the so-called “Founding Fathers”) have perpetrated the myth of their implicit entitled “legality” on Turtle Island, while they built the notion of the Brown and Black Criminal from “somewhere else”. This all was happening even though the millions of melanated indigenous Turtle Island residents were here for thousands of years before the wite European immigrants arrived and began their genocidal terrorist campaign of removal.  But in their massive public relations campaign the settlers launched a completely counter narrative in which they conflated the original land stewards and protectors of Turtle Island, the enslaved Africans they exploited and brought here so they could profit off this stolen land and any and all melenated peoples who came from anywhere else besides Europe. On the converse the savior, implicitly and conveniently “legal”, hard-working,  wite immigrant (settler) from Europe was never questioned, charged or imprisoned for their hundreds of years of murder, terror, land theft, genocide and most importanlty for this argument, border jumping.  Notwithstanding all of their other distracting eugenicist lies, these wite European criminals were only interested in one thing, the theft of Turtle Island and eventual transformation into the colonial project called the US  This lie eventually led to the unfettered,  “ private ownership” and extraction of Mama Earth and her resources by people who have no accountability or responsibility or ties to stewardship of mama earth and only view her as a profit -making business.  The truth is the European settlers aka immigrants who “arrived” here, claiming they were “discoverers”  never had a proper immigration process, a green card issued or a passport demand and remain to this day truly illegal and criminal immigrants. From Palestine to Turtle Island - From GentriFUKation to Eviction to Homelessness What they did bring was a huge set of anti-poor and anti-disabled people laws that they imported and implemented on the land they stole, which laid the groundwork for the other violent aspect of their residency, the criminalization of poverty and the creation of Homelessness.  “We had no concept of homelessness in the time of my ancestors, this was created by the Settlers.” said Corrina Gould,co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust, Indians Working For Change and The Family Edelrs Council of Homefulness /POOR Magazine  Once these illegal immigrants flooded in to “save us” and create their genocidal campaign of so-called civilization, it was all about land grabs, fake treaties they never honored and bloody wars leading to more false lines on their maps. But most importantly it led to the individual “ownership” of Mama Earth and the privileging of so-called private property and even so-called public property, over people. The implementation of the Lie of rent, the subsequent evictions, redlining and speculation and the all out assault on Mama Earth as a commodity.  For the last year and a half we have watched in horror as the 21st century version of genocidal colonization of Palestine and its people by the Israeli Settlers unfolded. Interestingly, the Israeli settlers move freely across the land they have stolen, aka occupied Palestine, while indigenous PAlestinians are subject to endless paper document requirements, harassment and arrest while Trump and his son in law Jared claim, “ Wow this is some beautiful beachfront property,” about the indigenous stolen homeland of the Palestinian people known as Gaza.  LA Migra to DPW “This is your five minute warning,” said by PoLice, Caltrans and ICE agents across so-called California to houseless humans existing outside and indigenous peoples from the false side of the colonial border facing an ICE “raid” or ICE “sweep” of a workplace. There are so many connections.  Beginning with the word Sweep, a hygienic metaphor used to describe the removal and criminalization, arrest and seizure of humans that this racist,classist, ableist, system no longer wants to see, use or exploit. “20 poLice and CalTrans workers are currently towing cars and arresting anyone who refuses to leave immediately,” said a post on a text thread by a mutual aide worker And then there is the fact that a large percentage of houseless humans being swept, seized, arrested and criminaized in cities from so-called Chicago to San Francisco  are indigenous migrants themselves.  The other lie that connects the struggles of homelessness and anti-immigrant attacks, is like us houseless people, indigenous relatives are used as political fodder for politricksters to gain points with the racist United Snakkkes population,  Our protections are connected to our liberation This is stolen land and yet we as houseless people are criminalized for being on it. We are told this is public land, but its not public and is really only for the wite, rich public. The borders are a false colonial construct of the same colonial government that stole the land, killed the orginal inhabitants and commodified Mama Earth right out from under us.  Article 10. - Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories . No relocation shall take place without the free and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return. From the UN Declaration on the Rghts of Indigenous Peoples The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is a liberatory document created by leaders of indigenous nations all across Mama Earth over several painstaking years that must be included in our conversation, our overstanding and our resistance to this moment of so much racist, classist, ableist hate, harassment and illegal acts directed at indigenous relatives from the other sides of the false border by the US privileged wite settler class of illegal immigrants.    “As Indigenous peoples we have the right to traverse anywhere and around our sacred mama earth. In our efforts to indigenize ourselves in society it is to recapture that relationship to the earth and our inherent rights, Tony Gonzalez, AIM-West to POOR Magazine reportera Teresa Molina in Los Viajes/The Journeys - a POOR Press publication Like our response as revolutionary houseless/landless peoples at Homefulness is to UnSell Mama Earth and work to build sweep-free sanctuary communities while the politricksters and wealth-hoarder settler class continue to sweep us like we are trash, we are lifting up liberatory documents like UNDRIP and using it to fight not only to end the false borders and false border terrorism but to demand LANDBACK and Reparations for the Indigenous peoples used and exploited to build, work, feed and care for occupied Turtle Island residents.  As i proposed in the terrible climate change fueled  fires of 2017, the wineries that were still having indigenous relatives pick grapes without masks or protections when they should have had them shelter in place and stay home, where are the Reparations payments from these billionaire wineries to their workers for years of unsafe and barely paid work.  Similarly now, when will the reparations be paid to indigenous relatives from the US government for these violent PTSD causing, work-stopping, family and child abusing and terrorizing income interupting raids?   image by Muslims For Just Futures There wasn't A Mumbling Word “There wasn’t a mumbling word said when thousands of Ukrainian immigrants came to the US,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson who went on to say he would Not, as a Black man, let white supremacy pitt him against indigenous peoples (immigrants)  whose land were stolen from them in the first place by this government.  Mayor Johnson lifted up the other silent and never mentioned “immigrant” - the white immigrant and refugee, who last time I checked isn’t being deported, raided or harassed while so many Haitian, Mexican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants to name a few, face the terror of these raids right now. Proving once again white supremacy is alive and well in amerikkka in the 21st century like it always has been. In the end we are implementing protocols of protection  within POOR Magazine’s and Homefulness family on our blocks, our communities, our barrios and our  neighborhood. But we are also continuing with liberation and liberatory narratives. This land doesnt belong to the Illegal Wite Settler/immigrant. Mama Earth is Not now nor Never has been for sale, and it never will be and in the face of all of this collective terror and terrorist actions against Black and Brown relatives from all across Mama Earth, it is more important than ever to lift up liberation, love, interdependence and deep community care-giving, because Creator knows we need each other more than ever to keep us safe. And safety is entwined with our collective liberation and our Mama Earth’s and poor peoples protection. Stay tuned to Poor Peoples Radio  for our forum on UNDRIP, Immigration and wite Illegal immigrants with indigenous leaders from across the US. As well, this year POOR Press will release the long-awaited KlanMarks, Plakkks and ManUmeants an UnTour Book Across Occupied Turtle Island  - a new genre “guidebook” from Palestine to Turtle Island, to help us all honor the sacred and the true heroes, leaders, stewards and caregivers of our sacred Mama Earth as well as the Resistance Marks to honor all the victims of colonization, PoLice Terror, Homelessness and removal. Beginning with several dates in the Pacific NorthWest: Seattle on Feb 10th at Cafe Red and Bulldog News on Feb 11th - Olympia, Wa and on Feb 13th at Kings Books There will be three dates locally April 12th in So-called San Rafael at the Mission , April 26th at the East Side Arts Alliance and May 20th at City Lights Books for more information go to poormagazine.org/calendar  or email poormag@gmail.com  -

HOMEFULNESS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: Book Release, Presentations and Workshops with houseless and housed allies   Houseless/Indigenous/Black & Brown poets and cultural workers will visit so-called Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia in February to share an innovative, healing, rent-free, permanent housing solution to homelessness called HOMEFULNESS, along with a powerful new book highlighting the connections between Indigenous LANDBACK and Black Land Return Movements, Palestine Liberation and homelessness.        PUBLIC EVENTS INCLUDE:   Monday Feb 10 -- 6:00 PM: Book Release and Prayer Ceremony  Café Red,  7148 Martin Luther King Jr Way S, Seattle, WA 98118 Tuesday Feb 11 -- 4:00pm: Book Release and Performance Bulldog News 4208 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105 Wednesday Feb 12 -- 6:00pm: Book Release and Performance Orca Books Cooperative,  315 5th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501   Thursday Feb 13 -- 1:30 pm: Workshop with Houseless community St. Vincent de Paul 4009 S 56th St, Tacoma, WA 98409 For anyone with current or past experience of houselessness, not general public   Thursday Feb 13 -- 5pm pm: Book Release and Performance King's Books 218 St Helens Ave, Tacoma, WA 98402   A group of houseless, indigenous visionary poets and cultural workers from the Bay Area are coming back to the Pacific Northwest to release their powerful  UnTour Book Through Occupied Turtle Island,  a book of poetry, prayer, stories and art on indigenous resistance to settler colonial erasure, poLice terror, homelessness and the many acts of indigenous/Black/Brown-led resistance across Mama Earth and lift up the dream of Homefulness, a homeless peoples solution to homelessness with houseless/indigenous residents of Seattle, Olympia and Tacoma.    “Homefulness is a practical dream rooted in self-determination and love," said Aunti Frances Moore, formerly houseless povertyskola, Black Panther and co-founder of Homefulness.   “Sweeps are literally killing houseless people from Shannon Marie Bigley in California to Cornelius Taylor in Georgia, both run over by bulldozers in a 'Sweep' of their outdoor shelters. As poor, houseless, indigenous people we have our own healing, practical solutions to homelessness, and they do not include spending millions of tax dollars sweeping humans like we are trash,” said Tiny gray-garcia, formerly houseless, incarcerated povertyskola and co-founder of POOR Magazine Homefulness.   Following the Grants Pass vs Johnson Supreme Court Ruling that deemed houseless residents of the US no longer protected by the 8th amendment of the constitution, state and city legislators, police and sheriffs enhanced their already violent "sweeps" policy of houseless people by directing state agencies to dismantle homeless encampments on state land. Hundreds of houseless elders and disabled adults have become gravely endangered and have died in increasing numbers due to this state sponsored violence over the last several months that is being threatened to get worse under the new administration.   “200 years ago, before colonization there wasn’t even a concept of homelessness,” said Talking Chief/spokesperson of the confederated villages of Lisjan/Ohlone and co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust and Family Elders Council member of Homefulness.   KlanMarks, ManUMeants and Plakkks- UnTour Guide Across Occupied Turtle Island Everywhere across this stolen land, I hear the ancestors scream, I see occupied lies and violent settler propaganda and false-narrative-washing embodied in what I call KlanMarks, Plakkks, and MANumeants. We are in a pivotal moment of LandBack and Black Land return where we can shift the anthroWrongological, arkkkeaological HIStories and arkkkives built and told and sold by enslavers, eugenicists, settlers, and land stealers to HERstories and truth, reparations and  HEALing for all of us together to rematriate* and return hurting and extracted Mama Earth to original peoples. To unSell and unHoard our sacred mother, she who was never meant to be bought and sold, and return her in right relationship with ancestors and all of life...              --  excerpt from tiny gray-garcia's introduction to the  UnTour Book - Across Occupied Turtle Island    Book release events will be dedicated to John Williams, of the Williams Family Carvers, a houseless, indigenous wood carver from Seattle who was killed by Seattle PoLice dept in 2010 and will feature h,is brother and nephew Rick T Williams and EagleSun. 50% of book sales will go to the Williams Family Carvers and the remaining 50% to the building of Homefulness in the PNW. . Homefulness , a homeless peoples' solution to homelessness which just welcomed their 22nd houseless family into rent-free forever healing housing,is one of the models we are presenting on the UnTour. In addition to Seattle, we are currently working with houseless comeUnities in San Francisco and LA to create their own Homefulness Projects and on a second site of Homefulness in Oakland    We will also be sharing and lifting up the powerful poor and houseless women led movement of Share/Wheel - and Tent City 3 - another example of a houseless peoples' solution to homelessness in action.    See Testimonials from houseless (Now Homeful) residents of Homefulness by clicking  here .    @poormagazine poormagazine.org ###

Aetna Street in Van Nuys with fire looming (foto by AetnaStreetSolidarity on IG) Its a fire everyday when you live outside Houseless peoples are living the everyday emergency of homelessness and Climate Terrorism. by tiny , daughter of Dee, mama of tiburcio    The flames of intense heat dehydrate  The water from floods drown our outside spaces The Cold seeps into our torn clothes  Way down deep to our tired bones The tornado winds  The sun beats in  The smoke will choke  But none so hard as the  Cop Cars The park rangers and the DPW pickUp  Yards  Who take it all  No matter who you call Who predate and tow and take  Everything we have in our humble streetscape  Until we can’t breathe or see  Or live or even be  Its called a sweep  And it happens every day to houseless me This isnt climate change  This is a poltricksters game  For us impacted first and worst  So close to mama earth  So for all of u housed relatives too suffering the terrifying Hurricanes and fire moves  I ask u to recognize the pain  The absolute terror of losing all you have to your name  And for this moment you might be able to see The violence of living homelessly  Of daily and violent sweeps  On all of these stolen land Turtle Island and Palestine streets    “The roof (umbrella) blew off my home and the tarp blew away like a sail…” said Ruth Roofless, a houseless resident of Tovaangar (LA) “They took our last tarp and all of our blankets. I have frostbite in my hands now and i can’t go to work,” said Sidney,a houseless resident, recycler and RoofLESS radio reporter in Yelamu (San Francisco) who had just sufferred a sweep of all of his warm clothes and sleeping bag.  Across the US the people impacted first and worst by climate change or what Dine brother Klee Benally called Climate Terrorism, are houseless people, living, hiding, surviving on Mama Earth while unhoused.  Right now Los Angeles fires  have consumed  miles and miles of the county, have displaced at least 200,000 people and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and businesses including entire residential neighborhoods and so far 16 fatalities.  The Veterans Affairs Medical Center “relocated” already houseless, disabled veteran residents from its community-living facility on the north campus to homelessness again.  Aetna street houseless comeUnity is facing a threat of evacuation from their humble outside area in Van Nuys that they have already been violently removed and evicted from multiple times.   On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene swept over Western North Carolina, bringing record levels of rainfall. Rainfall totals reached 12 to 16 inches (305-406mm) in some areas, leading to what is now referred to as one of the most severe floods in the state’s recent history. Entire streets where houseless elders would sit or stand in that state were flooded and the few homeless shelters spaces were closed. Houseless peoples were pushed into more unsafe homelessness.  What is rarely, if ever, mentioned when these increasingly common disasters occur, is the impact on houseless residents of these areas.  This is not strange. Houseless peoples are never mentioned or discussed except in some vague amorphous way as though we are all a monolith called the “homeless people” with no face or name or identity except our lack of secure housing.  Whether it’s fires or floods, hurricanes or tornadoes, we ae dangerlousky impacted by these severe weather changes. As I often repeated in the Covid pandemic, and some of our California wildfire emergencies, “How do we shelter in place when we don’t have a place?”   From the air we can’t breathe to the heat or water we can’t escape from, our lean-to’s, tarps, tents and/or cardboard motels are destroyed, blown-off, lost or crushed in torrential rains. Our lungs get no rest from smoke or soot. We have no windows to close, no air conditioners or purifiers to turn on or outlets to plug them into and rarely any covered areas or trees to shade under to get cool in extreme and dangerous heat.  And when there are violent hurricanes like in Western North Carloina or never ending fires like the reality of LA right now and much of California these days, where can we, who are already evacuated, removed, swept and evicted people, go? A question articulated by comrades at Where Do We Go to the City of Berkeley, who like so many of these US towns have mandated its own non-fire related emergency of sweeps against its houseless residents.   How do you evacuate when you have already been evacuated? RV home to houseless Oakland resident being towed to nowhere by City of Oakland (foto credit: Love and Justice in the streets) Because the other terrorism we face is the terroism of criminalization. Since June of last year after the Grants Pass versus Johnson  Supreme Court ruling, every city in the US has waged an un-ending and deadly war on houseless peoples bodies.  No matter where we sit, stand, walk or god forbid, try to sleep, we are forcibly evacuated, removed, swept or evicted from,  only we have nowhere to go.    In Callifornia Governor Newsom has threatened cities to remove and sweep or lose their state funding. Local Mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, Sacramento, Berkeley and Los Angeles to name a few, have implemented their own endless attacks on houseless peoples bodies as well as new laws on top of the old laws that crimianlize our existence, and the result is houseless peoples don’t dare to rest for fear of removal. From everywhere.   “The city of Oakland is towing houseless peoples RV’s in Estuary Park, they are not giving them any referrals to safe parking places, even though they have nowhere else to go,” Oakland_revealed reported out from a highway in East Oakland this week. Across the City of Oakland every single day under the guise of “encampment management” hundreds of houseless Oakland residents are subjected to violent sweeps with subsequent arrests if they don’t comply, resulting in the loss of most if not all of their belongings, no matter how important or necessary they are. In San Francisco, you can’t even sit down or put up a tent without facing forced removal, meaning that when the rain and cold comes you have no protection.  Evacuation to Where? “I almost died in a fire (2018) and I have lasting breathing issues and can’t run for my life like I was able to then, I know the evacuation warnings are for people with phones and power and cars who can stay in hotels…they’re not for we the unhoused (who they then arrest under curfew orders)” concluded Ruth RoofLess  In this terrifying and dangerous time poor and houseless peoples have proposed actual solutions. Solutions rooted in right relationship with Mama Earth, Solutions created by the people impacted first and worst by climate terrorism and the violent criminalization of our bodies. Solutions that actually house and heal, not harm and hurt.  Solutions like Homefulness and Wood Street Commons On December 17th, several houseless peoples -led movements across California launched a state-wide sanctuary movement to respond to violence of sweeping peoples like we are trash  For five days we held sweeps free sanctuary spaces in all of the impacted cities to lift up these actual solutions.  Homefulness  is poverty scholarship informed, rent-free forever healing housing. But it is also informed by ancient teachings and spiritual traditions of 1st Nations people. It is not rooted in more extraction like buildings made of wood and concrete, deep and violent cutting down of Mama Trees that we need to provide us all with urgently needed shade and coolness.  Homefulness Projects launch with community gardens where there used to be asphalt. The planting of Ancestor forests where there used to be parking lots. Sliding Scale Cafes with free food and diapers and produce for the whole community for free and Humetkas (Ohlone concept of Emergency preparedness) to provide water and emergency support to the whole neighborhood when, not if, emergencies like the LA and Oakland Hills fires happen .  Solar and wind power so we don’t CONtinue to steal from and poison Mama Earth and babies in the Congo just to have energy.  Fire and Water and MamaEarth solutions based on Indigenous peoples ancient teachings (which should have been followed in Tovaangar and must be implemented across turtle island.) In addition HOMEfulness and Wood Street commons models include Liberation education for houseless youth and adults so we can all learn how to take care of mama Earth with humility and love for the next seven generations of fires and climate terrorism caused disasters that so many of us are complict in enabling.  And finally Homefulness is actively working to take parcels of MamaEarth off the extractive real estate speculative market by working with conscious lawyers at Sustainable economies law center to create a liberation easement that ensures that land will only be used for rent-free forever housing and gardens and radical sharing  and therefore humbly saving more mamatrees and safe spaces for all of us humans to benefit from.  Emergency Vs Emergency - How do you respond to an emergency when there is already an emergency? Solutions like Homefulness are the answer with or without the compounded emergency of fires or Tornadoes, because its an emergency every day when you are houseless,. Everyday we have no home, no roof, no medicine, no toilets, no beds or safe places to sleep. Everyday we have the emergency of PTSD from our trauma filled lives that is only compounded and made worse by just trying to stay alive everyday outside in the ongoing emergency called homelessness Everyday we are scared for our lives and subject to cold so intense we almost die. Everyday we find ourselves outside, roofless without a dry blanket or a warm plate of food or a heater to stand next to or a swamp cooler to cool down next to.  Everyday mutual aid warriors like Wood Street Commons, POOR Magazine, Aetna Street Solidarity, Punks With Lunch and JtownAction, Love and Justice in the Streets and so many more show up with love, resources, tents, sleeping bags, food and justice to radically share to houseless relatives. Oftentimes these beautiful love-workers (as we call them at POOR Magazine) are replacing what is procedurally stolen from houseless peoples daily. It is a bizarre whackamole and yet without this support people would die at greater rates than they already do. It’s up to 6 people dying on the streets in LA everyday from the fire called homelessness.  In the end we must stop “responding” to emergencies as though they just started. We are living an emergency everyday when we live outside. And the answer to the emergency is to change the mind-set to liberation and love  I am humbly asking resourced , housed residents of Turtle Island who are or have suffered the great loss of these Climate terrorism fueled  disasters  to consider them as a moment of great transformation, to embody  what I'm calling radical empathy where you overstand that you  will be able to rebuild and recoup, there is a motel room or a family member to stay with or an insurance claim to rebuild or even a decision to relocate,  but imagine you had no such support and the same “disaster” was happening to you on a daily basis. From this overstanding reimagine the solution  you could be a part of implementing with radically redistributed resources to support your  fellow humans all the time not just in an “emergency”  Respond now with MamaFesting, supporting, building and implementing actual love-centered solutions that have answers to climate Terrorism and answers to the spirtual terrorism and physical abuse of sweeping humans like we are trash.  Scarcity is killing us, not fires, not hurricanes, not mama earth.  The love and liberation of Homefulness and Wood Street community are solutions for now and later and forever. Not just now.  Thanks to Ry and Ruth Roofless from Tovaangar and Oakland Revealed for contributions to this story  To learn more about Homefulness and Poor and houseless peoples solutions to homelessness thru radical Redistribution come to PeopleSkool Degentrification /Decolonization two-day Seminar on zoom which happens twice a year- the next session is Jan 25/26 for more information go to www.poormagazine.org/ education . To redistribute now to Homefulness in Huchiun ( Oakland, SF or LA ) go to poormagazine.org/donate   to support Wood Street Commons project go to www.woodstreetcommons.org

Del Seymour’s journey from living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness in San Francisco Momii Palapaz, PNN poverty scholar I really like this book. It’s funny, heart aching, an easy read and full of gratitude. And full of stories. Stories of his experiences formulating into an idea and a plan made Del Seymour the Mayor of the Tenderloin.  He had many jobs and professions, such as electrician, carpenter, public speaker, organizer, teacher, lecturer, Vietnam vet medic, plumber and fireman.  He was also a pimp, drug addict and at different times in his life, houseless. Code Tenderloin, Mr Seymour says, is like saying “Code 911” or Code Blue”.  The immediacy of life and death service was initiated in a project called “job interviews”.  Del gives confidence unlike what I had going to seek a job.  He calls it a business meeting.  Here’s a chapter quote from p.58. “ Let me say this first: This is the only day we use the word ‘interview’.  From here, we call it a business meeting.  We feel you are equal to that guy you’re going to talk to.  You’re trying to see if your resume will fit his job needs.  It’s an across-the-board business meeting, that’s all.” I was never taught that perspective going to a job interview.  I always went with the attitude of, i need a job.  I need money.   It was hit or miss.  When Del Seymour talks about job seeking and preparation, he plans each and every step based on his knowledge of the community.  Since he was living and working in the Tenderloin, he knew exactly what to expect from his neighbors on the streets of the Tenderloin SF. Roofless Radio reporter with Frankie and tiny, Poor News Network and South of Market and Tenderloin SF Before Code Tenderloin, Del Seymour made lots of money, even invented an alarm system for cars. His design was then stolen by a major car manufacturer.  (Evidence is in an installment of an SF Chronicle Herb Caen column) His “hustle” or entrepeneur working nature has kept his perseverance in the face of addiction and homelessness.  With so many professions, Del made a lot of money.  The one thing that didn’t seem so important to him was that he made a lot of money.  He could take it or leave it.  He proved that despite the drug dealing, pimping and addictions, he was not only a survivor but a leader for the most dehumanized and neglected. When Del, who is from Chicago, IL, was living in the bay area, he had many creative ways to get business.  He calls it a “hustle”.  “I had my own plumbing company called Shitman Plumbing.  People always laughed…It was Shitman Plumbing.  Once I tell you my company name, when your pipe busts in the middle of the night: ‘a plumber, a plumber.  Shitman’.  This was a marketing ploy.   You could only do it in San Francisco.” In 1960’s Tenderloin, there were Newman’s boxing gym, Sam’s Hofbrau, movie theatres, the Downtown bowling alley and the SRO’s housing families of poor, Black and Brown working class, elders, immigrants, and the off Market Street entertainment trades.   Many Saturdays, my friends and I would get on the bus and go to Downtown Bowl on Jones and Eddy.  Right around the corner was Del’s and many other drug dealer’s offices on the street.  Even younger, my family ate at the Polo’s Restaurant on Mason and Turk.   Around the corner was Original Joe’s on Taylor between Turk and Eddy. It then became Piano Fight, and also housed the Code Tenderloin.   Down the street on the Turk corner of Taylor was La Bamba Restaurant.  Reading “The Mayor of Tenderloin” brought memories of days when the Tenderloin community, although poor and a drug destination, my parents never worried.  It was safe enough.  Homelessness had yet to be an issue.  It was an era of working people, poor people, thousands who lived and worked in SF.  You didn’t hear about people commuting to work. One thing I realized reading Del Seymour was my own addiction to cocaine and liquor.  I was and am still housed.  I was never homeless, so the thought of having a drug addiction AND being houseless would send me further into a deep hole.  I had already hit bottom as a housed person.  My jobs went to drugs, liquor and paying the rent.  Saving money in the credit union went to $0.  But I was still housed.  I did this for 20 years.   I had to leave SF and move to Oakland.  But to do this while unhoused?  And have a job? In the depths of addiction, I was lucky to not get fired from a 5 and 10 cent store, FW Woolworth, a few blocks from ground zero; the Tenderloin.   “I served in the Vietnam War,” said Del Seymour, “served the streets of South Central LA as a firefighter paramedic. I saw a lot of stuff.  You know what my nightmares are about?  Being homeless in the Tenderloin. I think I’m homeless again...I wake up in a sweat, running out of the room.  How can this happen?  I’m homeless again. That surpasses all that trauma, is being homeless.” Del Seymour taught me about resilience.  It was the one thing that kept me from continuing on that dark bottomless path.   At a meet, greet and hear him talk, I had that opportunity.  Along with the author, Alison Owings, and Reverend Harry Williams, Tiny, co-founder with Mama Dee of POOR MAGAZINE, confirmed the scam of homelessness.   The houseless movement to homefulness is deep and wide. The  daunting work over the past years has come to bear fruit everyday.  The houseless community found me as I was looking for them.  Now it’s we. If you have a home please consider redistributing whatever you can so houseless peoples can build/house ourselves1) $1.00 to 1 million  To build rent-free forever homes for houseless families, & elders   www.poormagazine.org/homefulness  -currently housing 21 houseless youth adults and elders in Deep East Huchiun (Oakland)

By Momii Palapaz, PNN Poverty Scholar Across Turtle Island, hurricanes, tornados, fires are relentlessly displacing thousands.  Over 200,000 in North Carolina are houseless due to the Helene Hurricane in late September 2024. Thousands are waiting for RV’s, temporary housing, tiny homes and are self sheltering since local temporary shelters are full. Private and community groups are scrambling to make up for lack of government resources and financial support. “We are still digging through the rubble and trying to find a way out,” said Kenyon Lake, Asheville resident and founder of My Daddy Taught Me That.  Mr. Lake and his organization immediately responded to their neighbors with van services, food and clothes.  Left to their own local resources, Black and Brown communities are experiencing catastrophic trauma and devastation. Toxic waste dump sites, oil pipeline installations, poisoned wells, hog farming production produced more waste and health misery.  Current environmental disasters bring to light the centuries of racial discrimination, displacement and stolen land of “freed” slaves. After the hurricane, a car is halfway underwater. First responders are surveying the scene in a small motorboat. People watch from a porch as opaque brown water floods in beneath them. October's hurricane Helene is shocking. The tv camera shows bodies floating by in the rushing river, once a street.  Dogs, furniture, vehicles and an abundance of household appliances gush along, crashing and settling down in heaps of garbage.  The latest death toll is over 227 of the people  in North Carolina who died. The  city of Asheville, North Carolina, was literally closed down due to the hurricane rains and flooding.  Mud and wildlife debris, coming from the thousands of acres of timbered trees, rolls down the balding forest, settling on homes, highways, paralyzing the whole infrastructure. In a town northeast of Asheville, is Princeville, founded by freed slaves.  Racism put the community there.  Whites were not interested in the property and soon it was found that flooding was common in that area.  As hurricanes throughout the years impacted Princeville with floods, resident and descendant, Resita Cox, questioned  that and made a film from all her research.  “It’s not just a film; this is my life. My folks are in Eastern North Carolina,” she said. “We are taking on the burden ourselves. We are teaching our young people in North Carolina ourselves about environmental racism and Black history through documentary filmmaking.”  Asheville, in North Carolina is the home of the Biltmore mansion.  It is also the native land of Shiloh, where Cherokee natives lived for centuries.  The trail of tears took place here.  It is named for the violent, forced removal of Indigenous Cherokee by the US government and the stealing of over 108,000 acres of land.  In the late 1880’s, over 125,000 acres was purchased by the Vanderbilt family.  Freed African slaves who lived on this land were also forcibly removed when George Vanderbilt fell in love with the vast forest.  He bought over 600 parcels of land from the Black community called “Old Shiloh.  About 6,000 freed slaves, their churches and cemeteries were displaced and moved to an area called “new Shiloh”.  Clear cutting  in Asheville lost 6.4% of its tree canopy from 2008 to 2018, which is equivalent to 891 acres of trees.  Over 200,000 acres of forests are logged every year. The removal of acres of trees amounts to 60,000 in a year.   Katrina returns. Google searching for the effects of Hurricane Helene on the Black and Brown neighborhoods of Asheville, I come across a writer named Parisa fitz Henley in the September 30, 2024 issue of “Word in Black.”  Her opinion starts out,  “Katrina.  A word I’ve hesitated to say aloud because of its weight, it’s gravity. A word that’s been quietly repeating in my mind. Not a name anymore. A symbol. People standing on rooftops, frantically waving at helicopters, begging for power for medical devices, for water, for food. Begging to be seen. It’s become synonymous with neglect of the most vulnerable people, neglect of places with poor infrastructure and few resources. Now, ( after Hurricane Helene ),  I’m seeing that kind of neglect play out in real time.” Hurricane Helene and all the decades of environmental disasters have compounded the already intolerable conditions. All contributed to the loss of life and degraded land value.   History shows the population of Black and Brown, indigenous communities has reaped the worst of Amerikkkan environmental racism. Colette, a lifelong friend, moved to Charlotte, NC, 6 years ago.   She said, “ I work at the local grocery ‘Food Lion’, and the shelves were empty with people supporting the victims in the mountains.  Nobody seemed to care about color.  There are plenty (of) white people in Asheville, you know ‘hippies’ so to speak.  They wear tee shirts that say ‘Mountain Strong’.  Everyone down here in Charlotte had no clue of the devastation in the mountains.  I had no idea it was so bad?  I don’t know if that’s due to racism?  From my view, everyone was helping the Mountain community!  It still is amazing to me how many lives were lost, but people keep it moving”.   Despite the onslaught of racism, and economic losses, we come together.  Anyone facing a threat to their housing, immediately finds solutions.  We can no longer wait for the government.

Por Alvaro Kepokamaztli Tellez/ By Alvaro Kepokamaztli Tellez Feliz año nuevo Gregoriano!!! Sin consumir, con mejor salud física y mental!! Después de dos meses de mi recaída y recuperación me tocó vivir uno de mis mejores momentos de mi vida!! ¡Pasar la Navidad y Año nuevo con mis hijas y nietas! Estas son las consecuencias de no consumir, tener mejores tiempos, pensamientos, disfrutar a mi familia con mejor tiempo y calidad. Estoy esperando el año nuevo en México con la misma intención de seguir con mi recuperación y seguir agradecido con la vida. Espero ser una motivación para otra gente y yo seguir aprendiendo de otra gente y seguir adelante! Yo se que no puedo hacer esto solo, es importante mantenerme en mis grupos de recuperación N/A ya que ellos entienden mi enfermedad y tienen los cuartos abiertos las 24 horas y lo más importante para mi es seguir con mi tradición y expresar mi rezo por medio de la Xitontekiza [Danza] Mi mensaje es apoyarse en un poder superior a uno y tener esa fuerza mental y espiritual. A mi me esta ayudando!! Tlazocamati a Homefulness y Poormagazine por su apoyo a mi y mi familia!!  Happy Gregorian New Year!!! No drinking, with better physical and mental health!! Two months after my relapse and recovery I got to live one of the best moments of my life!! Spend Christmas and New Year with my daughters and granddaughters! These are the results of not drinking, having better times, thoughts, enjoying my family with better time and quality of time. I am waiting for the new year in Mexico with the same intention of continuing with my recovery and continuing to be grateful for life. I hope to be a motivation for other people and to keep learning from other people and keep going! I know I can't do this alone, it is important to stay in my N/A recovery groups since they understand my illness and have the rooms open 24 hours and the most important thing for me is to continue with my tradition and express my prayer through Xitontekiza [Dance] My message is to lean on a power greater than yourself and have that mental and spiritual strength.  It's helping me!! Tlazocamati to Homefulness and Poormagazine for their support of me and my family!!

By Juju Angeles A NICU nurse in Richmond Virginia was recently arrested for allegedly breaking and fracturing the bones of seven NICU babies. All of the babies were African American and because of the incident, Henrico Doctors’ Hospital closed their NICU department until further notice. According to research from George Mason University, when babies are cared by White doctors, Black babies are more likely to die in comparison to being cared by Black doctors. With the recent incident with the Virginia nurse, we can see that racism exists even with the most educated in society and the fatal consequence of hate that stems from the color of someone’s skin. From the Tuskegee experiments, Henrietta Lacks, and Marion Sims, there is a long history of medical racism that costs Black people their lives up until this day. Not even our babies are safe. This is why I am a revolutionary birth worker and believe in birthing outside of the system and the care of traditional midwifery care. The one on one, tailored care for pregnant people is crucial to the overall health of pregnant folks and babies. But, then what happens if a baby needs the care of the NICU? We do not have these kinds of resources within our communities. We would have to transfer care and risk the death of our Black babies. These are the realities that Black and Indigenous people live with every day--the inherent distrust of the Medical Industrial Complex is grounded in the legacy of the delusion of White supremacy every single day.

Hundreds of houseless/formerly houseless residents of Occupied Huchiun and Yelamu rise up with our own solutions and create sweeps-free sanctuaries across California and Seattle By tiny aka povertyskola, daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio  When your roof is the sky and your light bulb is the moon ….It's the police flashlights who steal your room - excerpt from "when the roof is your sky" by tiny  “The Park is closed, you have 15 minutes to remove your belongings and vacate the premises or you will be arrested… Actually now you have 14 minutes ,” This statement was made by one of the over 54 heavily armed San Francisco PoLice officers, DPW workers, and Park Rangers who arrived at 2am on the 3rd night of the Sweeps-Free Sanctuary Comeunity at Yelamu SF city hall and announced to over 35 peacefully sleeping houseless comeUnity members that if we didn’t vacate the “park” within 15 minutes we would be arrested. “Get away from me,” said one houseless, neoro-divergent relative to an army of kkkops who loomed over the entrace to her tent. A terrifying, triggering sweep ensued with advancing armies, causing terror and trauma in all of our houseless hearts. That said, these brutal acts of war ON the poor are nothing that we don’t face EVERY single day in all of these settler towns perpetrating the lie of public, so as brutal as it was we were all prepared,and ready and thanks to the housed solidarity relatives who were with us from the beginning of this powerful move, no-one lost their belongings, no-one was arrested and no-one was physcially harmed. “I don’t know where I’m going now, I hope to find a doorway i can hide in,” Theresa, a disabled elder who had packed all of her belongings in a granny cart that was provided by radical redistributors (aka mutual aid workers) at the ComeUnity, shakily walked down Polk Street at 2:30am leaving the violent scene. Before she left she turned to me and added, “But we made a difference, they heard us, we were seen, and I’m so thankful for these last three days and nights because it reminded me something else is possible. Please don’t stop fighting for sanctuary,” she concluded and gave me a hug. In San Francisco At the end of this brutal night everyone was removed to nowhere in the dark, cold night, like we always are, including gravely disabled residents who were lied to about shelter beds being available and none were. Before the violent state sponsored destruction the sweeps-free sanctuary at SF Shitty Hall, which was NOT a protest encampment, but rather a lateral move by already houseless people who are in prayerful defiance of the ongoing War ON the poor, was, like all of our self-determined poor/houseless peoples led comeUnities, was absolutely beautiful. The houseless residents received healthy, daily meals, clean and warm clothes, medicine, support, writing workshops, planning circles and inspiration that something else besides endless violence, removal and terror was possible. Mutual aid groups from all across the Bay supported this beautiful, prayerful, poor and houseless peoples led sanctuary. Day One: On Tuesday, December 17th in response to increasingly violent and relentless sweeps of houseless residents of California, houseless and formerly houseless sweeps survivors along with housed allies and spiritual leaders launched several “sweeps-free sanctuary comeUnities” at City Halls and other public land sites in Yelamu (San Francisco), Huchiun (Oakland), Yocut (Fresno), Tovaangar (Los Angeles) and Sogorea Te (Vallejo) and Chief Sia’hl (Seattle). Us Houseless/formerly houseless organizers from POOR Magazine and Wood Street Commons planned this five day action for many reasons, not the least of which is we are dying on the streets from these violent policies of daily and sometimes hourly sweeps of houseless humans like we are trash, implemented with more brutal force since Grants Pass vs Johnson ruling came down.Up to six people a day are dying in Tovaangar (LA) and the number is similar in the Bay. Conversely, there are thousands of vacant and hoarded buildings across Turtle Island that could be transformed into actual healing housing solutions. Solutions like Homefulness , which already exists in Oakland and houses 22 houseless family in rent-free, healing, forever housing (and is in process to come to LA, SF and Seattle, not to mention a second site in Oakland.) Solutions like what Wood Street Commons has spent months designing with renown architect Mike Pyatok which would include housing, healing and education for houseless residents of West Oakland. Third, we as pan indigenous, Black/Brown/disabled and poor wite houseless settlers cannot talk about homelessness, housing and land without talking about the fact that we exist on Turtle Island on stolen indigenous land. That there already is a powerful LandBack and Black Land return movement happening now across the US which we absolutely stand with and support, and that Homefulness doesnt get mamaFested without permission and protocol and spiritual guidance from 1st Nations relatives in the territories that it exists on, with prayer and spirit from all four corners of Mama Earth. And finally, we did this to challenge and resist the settler lie of public space. Not only is Turtle Island stolen indigenous land, especially the so-called “Parks” which were another tool of genocide and removal of 1st Peoples, but because the so-called public land is clearly not for all of the public, aka the poor and houseless public. US public land is loaded with an inherent race, class and ableist bias. If you look “homeless” or act “homeless” or some other vague arbitrary category, and dare to sit down, rest, sleep on even convene, you are subject to removal and incarceration. Huchiun (Oakland) “You can’t stay here,” On Day One In Huchiun, the Oakland City Manager threatened our Sanctuary with immediate removal which was peacefully set up on supposedly public land He absentmindedly and dismissively cited “illegal lodging” and other arcane codes that criminalize sleeping while houseless in the so-called public. 200 years ago, before colonization there wasn’t even a concept of homelessness,” said Talking chief/spokesperson of the confederated villages of Lisjan/Ohlone and co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust and Family Elders Council member of Homefulness “We have relocated to the parking lot of the Greyhound Bus station and are holding space “ said John Janosko, formerly houseless resident leader of Wood Street Commons. The Greyhound bus station is one of thousands of empty buildings in Oakland where many houseless peoples are already sleeping. This lot could be a perfect location for the Wood Street Community Housing Project. “Sweeps fracture communities, displace people and damage physical and mental health,” Western Regional Advocacy Project(WRAP) “We have solutions, they are houseless, indigenous people-led solutions called Homefulness and Wood Street ComeUnity, not sweeps,” said Muteado Silencio, formerly houseless co-founder of Homefulness and Sanctuary resident. In addition to the powerful comeUnities in the Bay, there were solidarity actions from settler towns like LA, Vallejo Seattle, Novato and Fresno, all of which not only have no real solutions led by poor and houseless people but have implemented new laws since Grant Pass vs Johnson that criminalize our houseless bodies even more. Tovaangar (LA) “Yesterday we gathered at the site of a former city-run shelter that has since been abandoned and locked up by barbed wire fences where a year ago, our community on Aetna Street was violently displaced. On these vacant, so-called “public” lands we rebuilt our sanctuary community on Aetna Street,” Aetna Street Solidarity from LA Occupied Duwamish land (Seattle) : We had 30-40 houseless warriors and housed allies on the steps of "Seattle" Shitty Hall. There was music, food, hot drinks, safer drug use kits, clothes, blankets, sleeping bags. We had speakers from Nickelsville, International League of Peoples Struggle, vehicle residents and WHEELs Women in Black held a moment of silence for our stolen relatives. Yocut lands aka so-called Fresno “ Yesterday we met at City Hall lawn. We had prayer then we had four speakers one regarding the housing elements and lack of units we had the attorney speak on the data of the arrest the criminalization and also the current trials that are in the courts due to the arrest for being unhoused. Day 4 & 5 Yelamu & Huchiun “Housekeys Not Handcuffs… Sanctuary Not Sweeps”... a powerful chant rose from a crowd of over 100 people who marched from a SF Shitty hall to the site of a privately owned location on MamaEarth, the Civic Center Inn, one of so many hoarded and unused locations across the Bay Area which could be transformed into the San Francisco location for Homefulness. It has in tact rooms and doors and windows and plumbing and electrical and only would need a minimal amount of work to bring it up to habitable shape. “Together we are Better…” Junebug Kealoha, formerly houseless community Health Worker, advocate, Poet and longtime POOR Magazine SF organizer and cultural worker spoke these powerful words as our group arrived at the Civic Center Inn on Friday. We houseless organizers (none of whom can risk arrest, due to our current states of poverty and at risk lives) had already decided we would prayerfully and peacefully enter the building while one of our solidarity family members from revolutionary legal group working with POOR Magazine to unSell and liberate more of Mama Earth for the Homefulness Projects, Sustainable Economies Law Center had reached out to the Hotel’s owners only to find out that they are asking the insanely large amount of 9 million dollars, but talked with the owners agent and asked permission for our peaceful and temporary entry, so we could pray and vision this solution. “I am a longtime San Francisco resident and i was evicted from my home, now i can barely get a nights sleep on these streets,” an elder named John spoke to me at the radical redistribution table outside the hotel, while we distributed healthy hot food, sleeping bags and tents to the surrounding houseless residents. “We are human , we are not trash…” said Lisa Wheeler,an indigenous houseless povertyskola with POOR Magazine Yelamu (San Francisco) from the balcony of the Civic Center Inn as we stood on this Ohlone land and prayed to Mamafest Homefulness here. “These sweeps are killing us, we are swept to nowhere everyday, people are so tired, we don’t know where to go,” said Marquis Ausby, formerly houseless organizer and advocate with POOR Magazine and the City Hope Community Center in San Francisco Huchiun /Oakland “We are here providing medicine, love and care, people are already here, this building would be the perfect location for Wood Street Community, we are already here.” concluded Monique French, one of the organizers with Wood Street Commons and POOR Magazine. “This is the just the beginning….” said Andrea Henson, lawyer and advocate as she spoke to us at the Greyhound Parking Lot for the final day. Andrea is with Where Do We Go who supported us all the way through with her words and presence. Other beautiful organizations that supported us included Self-Help Hunger Program, Punks with Lunch, The Poor Peoples Campaign, RVtv, Aetna Street Solidarity, We Are Not Invisible, Stop the Sweeps Seattle, League of Revolutionaries,Mixed Collective and Western Regional Advocacy Project. Solutions to homelessness   presented by houseless people Sanctuary Communities, Not Sweeps Land Back/Public Land for Public Good: Prevent Homelessness Defund Coercive “Care Courts” *More Homeless peoples solutions available at this link  Homefulness in Huchiun that currently houses 22 houseless families would not have been possible without the radically redistributed dollars of folks with race and class privilege who attended PeopleSkool. Wood Street Commons and Homefulness#2 Huchiun, SF and LA and Seattle will also not be possible without radically redistributed dollars or occupied land. To learn more about PeopleSkool which happens twice a year and the next session is on zoom on January 25/26 go to poormagazine.org/education . To support the efforts of all of us houseless people trying to buy and then UnSell Mama Earth so we can create our own homeless peoples solutions to homelessness from Huchiun to Tovaangar to Yelamu email poormag@gmail.com Huchiun (Oakland) Sanctuary at the Greyhound Bus Station Parking lot on san Pablo near West Grant remains intact and needs your help to stay open and support the comeUnity: Tents, Tarps, Sleeping bags,flashlights warm clothes or just stop by to say hello. Yelamu (SF) will begin POOR Magazine's street Newsrooms at the Civic Center Inn in January so stay tuned to @poormagazine

“You can’t sit here,”  “But it’s a park bench, they are sitting down.” i said pointing to a yuppie couple two benches away making out.   A Park Ranger with a gun and mace on his holster was towering over me and my mama in Golden Gate Park. We  had walked for hours deep into the recesses of the park to find a good hiding place, but somehow they found us. This was just one of countless times we were harassed for being houseless in “public”.  Throughout me and my mama’s life of homelessness we were always hiding - houseless families have always risked incarceration and separation if we are “seen” in the co-called public. But what was even more full of hypoKRAZY was the settler lie of public itself.  We were sitting in the daytime on a public bench surrounded by other people sitting on a public bench eating their lunches or brunches or resting or watching their children play. And yet me and my mixed race mama were always targeted and threatened and harassed. How were we different? Was it our old clothes, our skin, our hair? Our carefully rolled up sleeping bag, tucked near our feet or our telltale over-stuffed backpack and adjoining hefty bag with that days collection of recycled bottles and cans? The Roots of the Lie of Public The word Public comes from the Old French word public  (c. 1300) and directly from Latin publicus  "of the people; of the state; done for the state," also "common, general, of or belonging to the people at large; ordinary, vulgar," and as a noun, "a commonwealth; public property. As early as 1640 the Stealing fathers (Founding Fathers) were using the word  “public” to describe the “vulgar” regular people. To describe poor, disabled, houseless, migrant/indigenous, Black and Brown poor people.  Today the word public is used and abused as a lie, a cover for politricks, gentriFUKation, encroachment and displacement. It’s also a cover for an open form of class apartheid. Demanding implicit and explicit bias about who the “public” is and where they get to be versus the rest of us.  The concept and word “Public” is abused and co-opted  from the people to describe heavily raced, classed and ableized spaces on Mama Earth, allegedly “owned” by the state. The funny thing isn’t the “state”  supposed to also mean “the people” .  In actuality the  concept of the “state” began with feudal societies ruled over by Kings and gentry, which birthed the settler colonizers who stole Turtle Island, re-named it and committed genocide on the 1st Peoples of this land. The colonizers never intended public to mean the peoples land, or belonging to the public. Now hundreds of Gregorian years later we are functioning with the same set of lies and a new set of violence against the actual public. In every settler town on Turtle Island after the Grants Pass Versus Johnson ruling we houseless people struggle with the already existent class-based apartheid implemented in the so-called public with an extra literal kick of now claiming that houseless residents of any state or city are no longer protected under the 8th amendment of the CONstitution which effectively means we are not really seen as humans at all. The violent state sponsored sweeps continue to rain down on our heads, we aren’t allowed to sit anywhere, we aren’t allowed to rest or sleep and god forbid we sit in the same so-called “public” spaces as the “other” housed, wealthy and able public.     “They have been sweeping almost everyday,” Joe X who used to stay on 35th and 9th street near Fruitvale, told me yesterday morning as he was shivering in 35 degree cold while hastily moving his belongings  in one of a series of violent sweeps launched in Oakland after Grants Pass. “We had just left West Grand and MLk and now they are here. I really don’t know where to go,”  From Where Do We Go to Sweeps-Free Sanctuary ComeUnities? Two months back the advocates and warriors at Where Do We Go set up a resistance community for houseless relatives and refused  sweeps orders, given to them from the allegedly progressive city of Berkeley and instead launched three other communities (i don’t call them encampments, cuz thats a military industrial complex word and we are just trying to rest and be safe). Inspired by their warrior work, several of us houseless/formerly houseless residents of the so-called State of California who are currently being or have been violently swept for resting, sitting, standing or sleeping in the not -really public will be launching a series of Sweeps Free Sanctuary ComeUnities and other activities on “public land” on December 17th.  “Public land should be for the public, instead we face violent sweeps,” said La Monte Ford, Wood Street Commons Sweeps survivor. In addition to providing crucial resources for fellow houseless relatives in the cold, wet winter, in settler towns across this stolen land from so-called San Francisco to Oakland to LA and all the way up to Seattle our Sanctuaries will be presenting solutions to homelessness created by us houseless people. Solutions that are healing housing sanctuaries like Homefulness  and Wood Street Commons Community and Tent City 3 in Seattle. Tent City 3 in Chief Siah’l (Seattle)  “It took several years of fighting and not giving up, but now we have an agreement with the City to set up self-governed (that’s houseless peoples governing ourselves) tent cities in Seattle. Said Anitra, one of the formerly houseless co-founders of SHARE/WHEEL to Poor Peoples Radio  podcast. Up to 350 people each night find safety, shelter, dignity, and respect in our self-managed shelters and Tent Cities. After years of struggle, community education, and negotiation we established the first Tent City in a suburban area in May 2004. Overcoming initial intense public opposition, we negotiated with King County to define and establish land use standards for temporary homeless encampments. From Share/WHEEL’s website  Tent Cities arent a permanent solution. But they are an actual realization of public space for all of the public and a safe place to rest and to sleep and therefore should be implemented immediately in all of California ( and all across occupied Turtle Island)  where we are literally dying from these ongoing and violent sweeps to nowhere perpetrated in all these settler towns. “We set up Tent Cities on either public or private locations in Seattle,” concluded Anitra.  This anti-poor people in public violence manifest in endless sweeps that cause houseless elders and disabled communities to become sicker, more destabilized and more prone to serious illness.  In San Francisco Mayor Breed blocked the use of public funds for social housing projects like Homefulness which we proposed for SF. In Oakland, Mayor Tao decided to take the “clearning order” of Newsom a step further and is, as i write, systematically sweeping every single person outside all day everyday.  My mama used to wonder how to “not look homeless” it became an obsession of hers, and even when we got access, at least temporarily to a roof, she was always looking over her shoulder for the next kop to harass us for the sole act of sitting down in public  Over the years, more anti poor public hate has materialized across the United Snakkkes, from the sweeps, to the endless tows of peoples homes on wheels to violent architecture, spikes and bumps, and planters and concrete rocks wherever us poor public might need or wat to sit down or rest. All of these hateful measures sending a clear message that public space is NOT for ALL the public.  And until and unless we unSell and decommodify Mama Earth there will be more and more of us that can’t pay the lie of rent and need to sleep, stand, rest and sit in public while houseless.    Please join houseless /formerly houseless leaders at POOR Magazine and Wood Street Commons in Huchiun (Oakland) at 3pm and San Francisco at 11am on December 17th as we launch Sweeps-free Sanctuary come-unities on both sides of the occupied bay. For more information or to sign up to help- email poormag@gmail.com . For people outside of the Bay Area- join us at 9am at City Hall in Yocut Lands (Fresno) and 11am in Sogorea Te (Vallejo) at Aetna Street in Tovaangar (LA) at 6060 Van Nuys Bl at 12noon at City Hall in Chief Siah'l (Seattle)