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Prayer Ceremony wth houseless and formerly houseless Oakland residents to welcome in the first two houseless land stewards to HOMEfulness 2  What Prayer Ceremony, Land stewarding ceremony  When 10:00am Feb 17, 2026  Where 7600 MacArthur Bl Oakland (Huchiun)  “The shelter evicted me because i had stayed there longer than 28 days, I have nowhere to go” said Maria, houseless, disabled,indigenous Oakland resident, future land steward of HOMEfulness2 While rain covers the Bay Area, homelessness among families and elders continues to rise. Meanwhile, the  “solution” offered by local, state, and federal governments remains the same: violent erasure of houseless bodies from public space through violent police-led “sweeps” “Following the decade long struggle by us houseless Oakland residents to build and “mamafest’ HOMEfulness #1 in Deep East Huchiun , now housing 25 houseless youth, adults and elders in rent-free forever, healing housing , We are beginning the prayerful journey to UnSell, care-take and build HOMEfulness2, said tiny gray-garcia, co-founder and visionary of HOMEfulness In 2020, with donations from  Solidarity Family members, POOR Magazine’s houseless leaders were able to purchase a second small parcel of Mama Earth in Deep East Oakland. Which the City of Oakland had slated for 14 luxury condominiums.  “I got out with the clothes on my back,” said Monique M. , POOR Magazine RoofLESS Radio reporter  elder and sweeps survivor. She was describing a violent sweep where she lost her medicine, clothing, and the RV she was sleeping in. Monique—like the majority of houseless residents in San Francisco and Oakland—is a disabled elder who had nowhere to go after surviving that sweep. “In the time of my ancestors, there was no concept of homelessness,” said Corrina Gould , Tribal Chair of the Ohlone/Lisjan peoples. “ Homelessness came with the commodification of Mother Earth .” Before building Homefulness Huchiun #1 & 2 (Oakland), POOR Magazine sought permission from First Nations people of the land, recognizing that the United States is a settler-colonial project rooted in theft and genocide. Those First Nations relatives now serve on Homefulness elder and advisory councils. That same process of permission, prayer, and relationship is guiding Homefulness in Yelamu. Because POOR Magazine understands clearly that Mama Earth is not a commodity, they worked with revolutionary legal advocates at the Sustainable Economies Law Center to establish the first-ever Liberation Easement , permanently removing Homefulness#1 land from speculation and profit. HOMEfulness2  will also create a similar easement to permanently take this land off the speculative commodities market.  “Predatory real estate speculation is why this sacred land was even slated for luxury condominiums in a neighborhood struggling with poverty and the effects of systemlc racism, redlining and intentional blighting,” said tiny   HOMEfulness is an answer to the immediate emergency of homelessness. But it is also healing medicine —not only for houseless elders, families, and disabled people, but for all of us, housed and unhoused, who are in need of hope, repair, and home. Follow:  📣 @poormagazine

By Dejuan Cattrell /PNN povertyskola reporter Today’s problem that I’m going to be talking about that has an impact on me and others around the world is the President of the United States. Trump keeps tweeting on social media and feeding people lies about this stimulus grant that he's going to be giving people around the world, but there's nothing. There is nothing coming to me or the people but content stories on all social media apps.                                                     What is a stimulus check? A stimulus check is a government grant for you to be able to pay for rent, bills, groceries, and any other everyday responsibility that you have to pay for like riding the bus, BART, or train.  All I see on TikTok is content about ‘Trump this and Trump that’, but we've all been hearing these stories for a while. We all can use this stimulus money right about now. I know I need it to take care of me and my responsibilities: bills, rent, phone bill, everyday hygiene, shoes, clothes, and the number 1 thing we all need more than anything: food, fresh water, and a roof over our heads to protect us from any weather changes and stuff flying around outside. The president himself is promising all these, but he's really doing nothing but laughing at everything that's going on around the world and doing things the way he wants to do it, while we the people are suffering from his foolish kid like ways. That's pretty much the connection that I and the people have to this issue that’s feeling like it’s never going to be solved. My opinion on today's problems is that I think what needs to happen is the President himself should stand on business. He should send these stimulus checks he keeps speaking about all over TikTok and everywhere.

By Momii Palapaz  Photo Credit: Momii Palapaz Thousands of students gathered at Delores Park in Yelamu/SF last week, protesting ICE. Responding to mass outreach from high school students in Minneapolis, thousands across Turtle Island shut down school and marched down the streets of their cities.   I thought of my mom when she was just 18 years old, ready but not allowed to attend graduation and get her diploma. It was 1942 and the Takagi family was ordered to report to a designated site. No other details were given. In the midst of round ups by the FBI and WRA (War Relocation Authority), Japanese Americans and their families were deemed a threat and imprisoned. Being farmers, they hauled mom and dad, aunts, uncles, grandpas, and 5 kids from Redwood City onto the truck destined to go east. “Go east” someone told them. They were one family of about 1,000 people who tried to get free of the concentration camp. They only made it to Marysville, CA. Not far enough. Mission, Balboa, Washington and numerous public school students were seen walking, getting off buses, and climbing the hillside of Delores Park. It was saturated with people, all ages, all ethnic backgrounds. But what was most impressive was the vitality of the movement and the serious attention they gave the speakers. “Fuck ICE” and chants of “ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE” that roared through the neighborhood of false borders.

By Ananda My older brother was diagnosed with autism when he was five years old. I had a limited understanding of what that meant at the time, but I knew it put him in danger. My mom would talk to us about how to speak to police and what to do if she wasn’t there to protect us. I think back on that and how terrifying it must have been for her to have to imagine her children being violently misunderstood. I thought if we looked out for each other, made the right decisions, said the right thing, then we would be safe. Every time we moved to a new city, Mom would take my brother to the police station and introduce him, give them his picture, and say, “This is my son, he is _ years old, he is autistic, he is non-verbal. Do not shoot him.” Aliya Rahman decided to drive to her doctor’s appointment in Minneapolis the morning of January 13th, and was stopped and violently abducted by ICE agents. They broke her window, cut her out of her seatbelt, threw her to the ground, and stepped on her. She screamed for help, telling them she was autistic, had a brain injury, and needed assistance to walk, but she was laughed at and ignored. They took her to the Whipple detention center where she saw, “lines of Black and Brown people chained together.” I found out I was autistic at 25 years old and have learned a lot about my brother's and my disability through that process. The misconceptions that I had about my disability are held societally. Through educating myself, I have become more hopeful and accepting of myself – but much more fearful; fear that was echoed by Rahman as she told her story in a congressional hearing last week. “I felt immersed in a pattern,” she said, expressing that she thought about Jenoah Donald, an autistic black man murdered by police in 2021, and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, murdered by ICE last year, as she was being detained and beaten. This was an extremely difficult story to read about. I'm struggling to process my emotions even as I write about it. Aliya Rahman’s story is the realization of my personal nightmare. At the Whipple detention center, Rahman was subjected to horrifying abuse. She was denied medical care for her injuries, which were so severe she eventually fell unconscious and had to be taken to a hospital. She was forced to walk without aid and was taunted by ICE officers for requiring a wheelchair. She witnessed the ICE officers referring to her and the other detainees as ‘bodies’. She was dehumanized and made to fear for her life and still suffers injuries from that day.  Mom didn’t prepare me for something like this. If she had said the right thing, would they have treated her like a human being?  If we look out for each other, will that spare us from border terror? Rahman was brave enough to speak up for those still in ICE custody at Whipple. In her opening statement to Congress, she said, “I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home, and I offer this data because these practices must end now.” Disabled or otherwise, documented or not, these labels are excuses to take away our humanity and force us to live in fear. Rahman chose to speak up for herself and for all of us who have experienced this fear.

ALWAYS FILM THE POLICE, AFTP In Hayward, 2 young men were pulled over because of "dark tints". Kop watch arrives, and officers end up cutting them a break in a hurry to leave the scene of the bystander with a camera. The officers were again in a hurry to leave the scene, but not after Kop watch gets them to show transparency by collecting name and badge numbers as you will see in this episode. This is another example of why it is so important to ALWAYS FILM THE POLICE in every event.

Por/By Teo Se supone que Estados Unidos es un país modelo, como muchos residentes de estas comunidades han comentado anteriormente, pero con camiones por todas partes en sus vecindarios, el tema que prevalece en estos tiempos es el terror. Cada día vemos más y más actos de terror inexplicables, con políticas mal concebidas que expresan racismo hacia todas las personas que vienen a Estados Unidos en busca de una vida mejor con más oportunidades, que supuestamente este país ofrece a todos los ciudadanos del mundo. En los últimos días, la delincuencia ha aumentado y, con gran vergüenza, presenciamos las injusticias contra nuestros conciudadanos de algunas partes del mundo, como Somalia. Residentes que nos visitan de África, de Filipinas, personas a las que el ICE no molestaba antes, pero ahora, los políticos, enfermos de capitalismo y otras cosas que no puedo explicar, están causando todo esto. Las injusticias que reportan los periódicos y las redes sociales, como en Minnesota, son una vergüenza para las comunidades de este gran país. The U.S. is supposed to be a model country, as many residents of these communities previously commented, with trucks everywhere in their neighborhoods, the topic is terror in these times we live in today. We are seeing more and more inexplicable terror every day, with ill-conceived policies that express racism towards all people who come to the U.S. to live a better life with more opportunities, which this country supposedly offers to all citizens of the world. In recent days, crime has increased, and with great shame, we witness the injustices against our fellow citizens from some parts of the world, like Somalia. Residents who visit us from Africa, the Philippines, people whom ICE previously didn't bother, but now, the politicians, sick with capitalism and other things I can't explain, are causing all this. The injustices that the newspapers and social media report, like in Minnesota, are a shame for the communities of this great country.

In attribution on Poor People’s Radio Podcast.  Conversation with Nikcole Whipple, Save California Salmon. Water protector, policy advocate, and member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Nikcole Whipple, joined Poor People’s Radio to share about the Bay Delta, the threat of Voluntary Agreements, and how Save California Salmon is organizing to protect the Delta.  The Bay Delta is the largest estuary on the West Coast. The Feather, American, San Joaquin, and Sacramento Rivers all flow into the Delta, as well as the Trinity River which is diverted into the Delta. The Delta is vital for the migration of salmon, Indigenous connection to waterways, and the drinking supply for almost 27 million people. Every 10 years, the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan is supposed to be updated by the State Water Board. That hasn't happened in almost 30 years. Now, Governor Newsom is advocating for Voluntary Agreements (VAs). VAs are non-binding agreements that allow the water rights owners to make decisions about water flow with the State Water Board without clear oversight from the public. These agreements postpone updates to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan and provide no accountability for failure to meet guidelines on flow, habitat, pollution, or water temperature- all of which are essential for clean water and the survival of salmon.  The agreements sideline the public and Tribes from decision making, instead prioritizing the “owners” of water rights who can negotiate deals behind closed doors. Nikcole Whipple who works with Save California Salmon, an organization committed to policy and community advocacy for Northern California salmon and fish dependent people, shares about the lack of accountability in Voluntary Agreements.  “Today we are  fighting against the voluntary agreements because there is a fast track of “you have a water right, you have water right, go ahead and talk amongst yourselves”. Forget all of the Federal and State laws and policies and guidance that have been written and put into the place. You go about yourselves as water right holders and decide and determine how much water you will allow or how much you will charge. That’s very dangerous not only for our fish populations in the rivers, but also for communities to have access to clean drinking water which is a huge problem,” Whipple said. Whipple comes from a family of advocates and fish dependent people on the Mendocino coast, and has been called to protect waterways. After getting an internship with Save California Salmon, one of Whipple’s first tasks was to attend a State Water Board meeting.  “I sat there with our staff attorney and our Executive Director for like 3 days straight listening to all of the bs about how making false habitats and making Delta tunnels were good for the environment and going to make things better for the Bay Delta and all of our river systems…In the meantime, I’m travelling in and out of the Bay Area and I'm looking at the water like that's not good. That can’t be good. Why are these politicians lying, why are these scientists lying about all of this when the water is so poor”. Instead of honoring ancestral protection of the waterways and working with Tribes to care for the Delta, the Voluntary Agreements and State Water Board push out many Tribal members from conversations and consultation. As Whipple shares, this legacy is directly tied to colonization.  “California really has a poor history on how water rights became. Colonizers were going in and taking Tribal peoples land, rights, and waters,” Whipple said.  In resistance and opposition to the Voluntary Agreements, Save Save California Salmon hosted public comment trainings and gathered people for a rally at the State Water Resources Control Board hearing (January 28-30). For folks wanting to get involved, they will continue to provide training and education for campaigns and continue the fight to protect salmon and community connection to a healthy Bay Delta. You can find Save California Salmon online at their website  or on social media .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:  tiny gray-garcia or Muteado Phone:  510-435-7500 Email: poormag@gmail.com Organization:  POOR Magazine / HOMEfulness Houseless People Create a Real Solution to Homelessness in San Francisco With prayer and permission from First Nations land protectors, indigenous, houseless, and formerly houseless families and elders reclaim a tiny triangle of Mama Earth in occupied Yelamu (San Francisco) to build a healing solution to homelessness. What Prayer Ceremony & Press Conference announcing HOMEfulness in Yelamu When 1:00 PM, January 24 Where 3990 Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco, CA “We are dying just trying to be housed,” said Walter, a houseless RoofLESS Radio reporter for POOR Magazine and longtime San Francisco resident. As one of the coldest winters in the Bay Area and across the U.S. bears down, homelessness among families and elders continues to rise. Meanwhile, the primary “solution” offered by local, state, and federal governments remains the same: the erasure of houseless bodies from public space through violent police-led “sweeps” —a chilling, hygienic metaphor used to justify the physical removal of human beings from the environment. “When my mama and I were being police-harassed, swept, and arrested for trying to sleep in doorways, bus shelters, and the back seats of cars in San Francisco and Oakland, we dreamed of HOMEfulness,” said tiny gray-garcia , co-founder of POOR Magazine and visionary co-founder of Homefulness . “ Homefulness  is a dream born from a dire emergency. The emergency is homelessness.” After years of surviving poverty and homelessness, tiny and her mother Dee , a disabled artist, began articulating the vision of Homefulness. That vision’s first iteration emerged in 1996 with the launch of POOR Magazine, an intentionally glossy literary magazine co-created by houseless artists, poets, and journalists working out of community centers, shelter beds, and jail cells. The first issue—POOR Magazine: Homefulness—examined the root causes  of homelessness and uplifted solutions created by poor and houseless people themselves. Over time, the magazine became a movement: a poor-, houseless-, and Indigenous-led collective creating art, media, education, advocacy, and real-world solutions by and for poor and houseless people across the Bay Area. POOR Magazine launched a press, multiple books, curricula, theater and poetry workshops, a radio station, and an online magazine and video channel—while never letting go of the vision of Homefulness. In 2009, amid devastating budget cuts and renewed waves of homelessness within the movement itself, POOR Magazine shifted toward a radically different funding model rooted in interdependence, repair, and reparations. “We tried HUD grants. We approached housing developers and established nonprofits in San Francisco and Oakland,” said tiny. “No one believed houseless people could create our own solutions. So we had to do it ourselves.” This prayerful shift led to the creation of the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations , and Solidarity Family of POOR Magazine , composed of housed or class-privileged allies. “I come from generational wealth built through real estate here in the Bay Area, and I see how my family’s story is directly connected to the housing crisis we face today,” explains River , a Resource Generation  member who graduated from PeopleSkool and helped lead fundraising for Homefulness in Yelamu (San Francisco). “I also see how my own liberation depends on projects like Homefulness succeeding.” In 2011, with a donation from a Solidarity Family member, POOR Magazine’s houseless leaders were able to purchase a small piece of Mama Earth in Deep East Oakland. Today, in 2026, 25 houseless youth, adults, and elders live homeFULLY—rent-free forever—in healing housing at Homefulness Oakland.  “In the time of my ancestors, there was no concept of homelessness,” said Corrina Gould , Tribal Chair of the Ohlone/Lisjan peoples. “ Homelessness came with the commodification of Mother Earth .” Before building Homefulness Oakland, POOR Magazine sought permission from First Nations people of the land, recognizing that the United States is a settler-colonial project rooted in theft and genocide. Those First Nations relatives now serve on Homefulness elder and advisory councils. That same process of permission, prayer, and relationship is guiding Homefulness in Yelamu. There is now a small triangle-shaped lot in Yelamu that POOR Magazine can begin the process of spiritually and legally unSelling and building Homefulness—which will include the Homefulness healing center, educational space, sliding scale cafe/free market, and housing for over 30 houseless residents. Because POOR Magazine understands that Mama Earth is not a commodity, they worked with revolutionary legal advocates at the Sustainable Economies Law Center to establish the first-ever Liberation Easement , permanently removing Homefulness land from speculation and profit. A similar Liberation Easement is now being shaped in partnership with Ramaytush Ohlone leaders in so-called San Francisco. “At the beginning of time, our Ancestors came to know the Original Instructions from Creator. Among the most important is that we are to care for the earth and all things upon it—especially one another. It is time that we remember these covenants that have guided our blessed lives and communities for countless generations. Let us remember our commitments that allowed no hunger or homelessness in the bounty that surrounds us, let us turn to HOMEfulness in our hearts,” said Gregg Castro  (t'rowt'raahl Salinan / rumsen & ramaytush Ohlone), Culture Director, Association of Ramaytush Ohlone. “No one owns Mama Earth—she is not a profit-making commodity,” said tiny at a statewide action demanding “Sanctuaries, Not Sweeps”  held one year ago in response to escalating, deadly sweeps across California. “The dream of bringing Homefulness to Yelamu is at the heart of my work and organizing,” said Mohini Mookim , an attorney at the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Resource Generation member who partnered with POOR Magazine on this land liberation move. “I feel the immense wisdom and medicine that POOR Magazine has to offer to our housing justice movements.”  “I got out with the clothes on my back,” said Monique M. , POOR Magazine RoofLESS Radio reporter and sweeps survivor. She was describing a violent sweep where she lost her medicine, clothing, and the RV she was sleeping in. Monique—like the majority of houseless residents in San Francisco and Oakland—is a disabled elder who had nowhere to go after surviving that sweep. Since the 2024 Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson , houseless people have lost constitutional protections, leading cities across California to dramatically increase sweeps—each one more dangerous and deadly than the last. HOMEfulness is an answer to the immediate emergency of homelessness. But it is also healing medicine —not only for houseless elders, families, and disabled people, but for all of us, housed and unhoused, who are in need of hope, repair, and home. Please join us on January 24 at 1pm at 3390 Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco for a Prayer Ceremony & Press Conference announcing Homefulness in Yelamu. Follow:  📣 @poormagazine

This review was written by devorah major and originally published on her website. It can be read here . The unhoused, who are said to live on the margins of our society, are in front of our eyes every day we walk or drive down our streets if we look. Too many complain about the view, applaud people’s lives swept up and moved from one corner to another. But to not see the unhoused, is to be blind to a wealth of survival tactics, and a goldmine of individuals and families creating their own self-supporting communities. They do not see imagination, strength, love, cooperation, artistry, unity. And it is not as if these things are hidden, but one has to see these people not a category but as part of one’s family, the human family with all of its glories, fragilities and weaknesses. The film opens with Reggie, a disabled, Black elder screaming, “That’s my Wheelchair…” at a bulldozer coming for her “comeUnity” and her wheelchair. When I saw “Crushing Wheelchairs” last year at the end of the film many of the people in the film, the actors who played various roles that were or had been themselves homeless came up on the stage to answer questions or make statements. One of the women featured in the film spoke saying that when we see someone who is unhoused on the street offer a smile, that just a smile would make a significant difference. My thought was that it was something, but it really isn’t enough. “Because we are not trash, this movie at this time is urgent medicine for humanity itself, who through this art can realize that we as houseless people are just like housed people. We are workers, artists, poets and innovators, and survivors. We have solutions and backstories and HERstories and visions – this movie lifts up those urgent stories, those urgent solutions – this movie is Medicine for Mama Earth and all of us, “  tiny gray-garcia aka PovertySkola “Crushing Wheelchairs” it’s an honest unvarnished look at a worthy population that so many want to ignore or hide from insult or punish for the crime of being poor. There are no political speeches or banners in this film, but it is a clear indictment of capitalism and how it harms so many. After all, we live in a nation where homelessness has been declared a crime by the Supreme Court (City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson, 2024) It is critique of local governments that have ample time and money to call out the police to uproot homeless encampments but no time or money to sit down with these people and work out real viable solutions. The story of Crushing Wheelchairs is written in a prayer, a dream, and a scream felt and barely survived by me, tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola, my houseless, disabled mama, and all of my fellow poverty/disability skolaz & ancestors portrayed/lived in this movie/story.  The lead characters in this powerful movie feature tiny gray-garcia, who first created this work as a staged play and then re-framed it as a feature length film, and throughout her childhood with her mother struggled with homelessness, Aunti Frances Moore, a formerly houseless Black Panther in Oakland; Stephanie Grant, who was pregnant and homeless when she witnessed the murder of Luis Gongora Pat by police in 2016, for being houseless and indigenous in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco Mission district neighborhood. This film through series of interconnected vignettes shows not just the struggles of the unhoused but also the way things such as gentrification affect them. When a young lesbian couple move into the house that they are so excited they have “finally” been able to buy, the couple is offended by all the neighbors who they must have walked past on their way to view the house when it was for sale. One of the more than comfortable new homeowners has a panic attack when she sees one of her homeless neighbors accosted. Her partner consoles her, but neither one of them addresses or tries to work with or even get to know these people who are indeed their neighbors. This is the art of our lives, our almost survival, and our death at the hands of laws that say our bodies and lives are criminal and that we are trash. tiny gray-garcia aka PovertySkola The film is narrated with thoughtful poems and a hypnotic music track drilling into your consciousness as you see real people with their real stories open and honest, difficult and uncomfortable. The movie was co-directed by Adrian Diamond, formerly houseless povertyskolaz, tiny gray-garcia, and Muteado Silencio  and produced by Green Diamond Projects and POOR Magazine. It includes important poet voices, including Tongo Eisen – Martin, Ayodele Wordslangar Nzinga, Luis Rodriguez, devorah major and Po Poets; Dee Allen, Frances Moore, Leroy Moore, Muteado Silencio and tiny gray-garcia. Also in the film are Indigenous leaders and prayer-bringers Corrina Gould, Tony Gonzales, OG Rev, Harry Williams, as well as Brother Mink and formerly houseless leaders from Wood Street Commons and Homefulness.  This is not a film made by politically correct people looking from the outside at a situation they have never experienced. It is a film written and directed and performed by the unhoused. It is a montage of real stories unmasked, unfiltered and always compelling. Some of the people are employed, but never with a living wage or with respectful compassionate employers. There are women who for a time endure abuse to have a roof for their children. There is one young adult ashamed of the family’s homelessness who works at a regular job, uses drugs, and in a fit of madness kills an unhoused person. These things happen. Though not a documentary, the film documents the hardships and struggles of multi-generational, multiethnic, multilingual, multi-talented people who find a way to survive in a city that alternately ignores and oppresses them. A society that at its best closes its eyes and far more often tyrannizes them, choosing incarceration of their bodies, (attempted) crippling of their spirits and destruction of their belongings as justifiable, indeed laudable. Despite ongoing sweeps where they lose the few things that make their difficult lives a bit more bearable, they work, they love, they create, they survive. If you are in the Los Angelos area you have an opportunity to see the film 7pm Wednesday, January 7th If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have an opportunity to see “Crushing Wheelchairs” 2220 Arts Archive 2220 Beverly Bl LA (Occupied Tovaangar) 6pm Saturday, February 21st Black Repertory Group 3201 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA, USA Watch this trailer to geta taste of the magic it spins This film needs to be seen because far too much time is taken up talking about the homeless problem instead of talking with the unhoused communities. Too much time is taken up in judgments and assumptions about who these people are and how they find themselves on the streets and not enough time spent listening to what their stories really are. Here is an opportunity to see truths of the unhoused in all of their colors displayed by the people who live those realities. To learn more about how the unhoused are working together to educate each other, to, with true allies amass political power and not only survive, but work with a vision of flourishing, please visit the following sites: POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork(PNN)/Homefulness IG/Twitter/FB/TikTok: @povertyskola & @poormagazine  www.lisatinygraygarcia.com www.poormagazine.orgwww.poorpress.net   If you have specific strategies to suggest to increase home-fullness, or resources to share, or any comments please leave them below.

POOR Magazine family and extended family outside of Roxie Theatre where our Movie Medicine Crushing Wheelchairs was premiered (on the sacred red "bathmat") Dear family and community: This has been a year of deep grief, fear, and pain. The antidote is solidarity and radical interdependence – the medicine of POOR Magazine and poverty scholarship.  POOR Magazine has changed the way that many of us move through the world, including me. I have been part of POOR Magazine's Solidarity Family since 2021. Because of POOR, I know I have a role in radically redistributing resources and caring for my family. The teachings of POOR Magazine’s PeoplesKool and DeeColonize Academy reconnect me with the values and practices of my poverty scholar ancestors. I have been called to elder care and caregiving as a practice rooted in my poverty scholarship. We cannot leave our disabled, chronically ill elders and community members behind. We cannot ignore our responsibility to those who gave us life. POOR Magazine helps me listen for ancestral wisdom that has been hidden through colonization, the "American Dream" and assimilation. I am learning to do love and care work, with my elders and my mom, through all the pain and trauma and avoidance. This work is not easy on the body or mind, but it is the revolutionary love work that the world needs. The loss of Uncle Broken Cloud , Homefulness resident and recent ancestor, reminded me of this. As a teacher at DeeColonize Academy for four years, I am constantly awed and humbled by the way this school raises young revolutionaries. By witnessing their joy and love for community, I am experiencing this healing medicine and learning from the voices of poverty scholars. DeeColonize Academy students learn art, storytelling, poor people's media, civics, danza azteca, Kemet, math, animal stewardship, science for mama earth and so much more! The work is not easy -- the trauma of poverty is very real for our families and youth in struggle. But because of DeeColonize Academy, our next generation of youth poverty scholars know that Palestine should be free, that no one is illegal on stolen land, and that houseless people have real, liberated land solutions like Homefulness. None of this work can happen without the support of our powerful, revolutionary radical redistributors and donors. Your dollars helped provide fresh produce at Sliding Scale Cafe , which fed the BlackArthur community when SNAP payments fell through. Your dollars keep DeeColonize Academy alive. Your dollars led to the powerful premiere of the Crushing Wheelchairs  film. Thank you for helping sustain the movement! Every day, more people are evicted and more tent communities are destroyed . We need the medicine of Homefulness to continue building housing for houseless families, elders and youth -- from fulfilling the dream of 14 units  at Homefulness 2, to building the decades-old dream of Homefulness Yelamu, to making Homefulness Tovaangar a reality. We need to keep liberating and protecting land across Turtle Island. As Tiny says often, “ We are in an emergency . Poor people are facing constant attacks on their homes, their stability and their safety”. We need each other: poor and privileged alike need to be interdependent as we build our liberated future. I ask that you be part of the solution by sending your love and resources to POOR Magazine.  Lots of love, Maya & the POOR Magazine Family 2025 has been unbelievably challenging for POOR Magazine. And yet, the work always continues in powerful ways, guided by the ancestors to support the vision of a poor people-led movement. Here are some 2025 highlights: We moved our 25th resident into HOMEFULNESS #1 DEECOLONIZE ACADEMY is in our 12th year with 10 enrolled students 14h year of SLIDING SCALE CAF É,/Mercadito de cambio   a radical redistribution (mutual aid) of healthy food groceries, diapers & media, support for deep East Oakland every Thursday Continued in-person People Skool for East Oakland poverty skolaz with Theatre of the Poor and Po Peoples Radio workshop series UnTourBook Across Occupied Turtle Island: Klanmarks, Manuments, and Plakkks  was released on Poor Press ( www.poorpress.net ) in February 2025.  Listen to PNNKEXU 96.1FM every Tuesday, Wednesday   & Thursday for multi- generational radio programming: We r All Connected, The Peoples Botánica, Dr. Sweets Critique, & In the Spirit of Nat Turner.  We had two annual People Skool Decolonization/DegentriFUKation Seminars on Zoom. Next People Skool Seminar is January 31st & February 1st, 2026 ( www.poormagazine.org/education )  Liberation Easement Mama Earth is NOT for Sale! This summer, POOR Magazine in collaboration with First Nations Peoples of this land created a HERstoric document, called a liberation easement, to decommodify a small part of Mama Earth in Huchiun (Oakland). This was done alongside Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and with the legal support and solidarity work of the Sustainable Economies Law Center. Crushing Wheelchairs  movie The original narrative film, Crushing Wheelchairs , premiered this year across the Bay Area in tent communities and movie theaters. With an all houseless cast, the movie premiered in SF, Vallejo and will be in Oakland on 12/6. Stay connected to attend future screenings! Updates on the Building of Homefulness #2 This year, POOR Magazine successfully set up two container home units with solar power. We need your support in purchasing 12 more container homes to create 14 units to house unhoused elders, youth and families in the next year. Please share any resources you have! Mamafesting the Dream of Homefulness Yelamu Elephant and Elders Councils have met and are working to MamaFest Homefulness Yelamu, a 28+ year dream. With the support of Solidarity Family, we have raised resources and continued the search for possible sites. A powerful performance on May 10th, Po Mamaz Build Homes with Poems , highlighted the stories and dreams of poor mamaz and families. We are still working to raise the resources needed to acquire and UnSell Mama Earth – BIG news to come! Please stay tuned… Ancestors and Relatives Working towards Homefulness Tovaangar Houseless relatives with Aetna Street Solidarity, POOR Magazine Tovaangar and Reclaiming Our Homes have formed their own Elephant Council and have made two important decisions along with so much art, theatre and liberation. They are now in the planning and visioning stage to mamafest this dream. Your radical redistribution can make this happen!

In the middle of this deep grief for all of our relatives facing colonial terror- We povertyskolaz want to lift you up, our supporters, ComeUnity reparators/radical redistributors/revolutionary givers, ComeUnity care-givers, prayer-bringers, art creators, Mama earth protectors, system upsetters and fellow povertyskolaz for walking another way on this occupied terorrized, extracted Mama Earth. For walking with us poor/houseless/indigenous peoples from all four corners of Mama Earth into a vision of poverty skola informed & led liberation, love, art, healing, and deep care-giving, created by poor and houseless peoples for poor and houseless peoples. Please overstand there would be no us without all of yu - Sending u powerful prayer energy for continued powerful Love-work in Gregorian Colonizer Calendar date 2026! Ase, Amen, Ometeotl, Semign Cacona Guari, A'hooooooo! PS- if u in Tovaangar(LA) - the movie premiers this coming wednesday - more info here and the next Bay Area date will be Feb 21st at Black Rep Theatre in so-called Berkeley!! P.S.S- Join us in the all nations prayer ceremony for ancestors & press conference on January 24th at HOMEfulness4 in Yelamu (SF0 - Corner of Cesar Chavez & Mission Streets

a homeless peoples solution to homelessness comes to Yelamu with a request for humility, prayer, love, liberation.... and patience Street Newsroom with houseless residents of Yelamu and Huchiun Lands Before the ink was even dry on the settler colonial paper lie  That which is  tied  to multiple acts of genocide  from Turtle Island to Palestine Eviction, foreclosure, treaties, Murder  and  Sweeping humans until we die….  They came for us - enforcing, removing, with multiple tools to criminalize..tiny  “I’m from Code enforcement,” a lady standing at the entrance to a tiny triangle of land at Cesar Chavez and Mission streets, wearing an official looking lanyard claiming DPH (Department of Public Health) and handing me a card said. “I’ll be passing onto my manager what I witnessed here and if you want to send an email to her directly you can.” she concluded “Instead of enforcing, sweeping, cleaning, criminalizing and removing, how bout actively redirecting those funds and all of that work into housing these San Francisco residents,”.i asked her, to which she replied, well this isnt my call.    Before the ink was even dry on the settler colonial paper that says us poor/houseless/indigenous peoples at POOR Magazine “owned” a tiny slip of Mama Earth at the crossroads of Cesar Chavez, Mission and Capp street, in the so-called Mission district of Occupied Yelamu, we were bombarded with calls, messages and emails about houseless residents of the land, most of which included all the usual tropes about our houseless bodies, nothing we weren’t used to of course.  “Just letting you know there are discarded needles and broken glass on the property you own,” literally one week had passed after the papers were signed and POOR Magazine started getting an endless stream of CONcerned calls from housed neighbors, wanting us to “take care of the homeless problem on this lot’ In the same week we got a call from a trusted ally and homelessness advocate we have worked with on the streets for years in Yelamu, who also had received  calls “about us”.  Then we got a call from one of the more progressive board supervisors in SF, who had also gotten calls from more irate and CONcerned “neighbors”  And then on our first herstoric day stepping on the land, where we came to begin building relationships with houseless residents already there, offering what we call a “love-clean”  which is poverty scholarship informed care, support and advocacy  to find out what the lot residents and other poverty skolaz in the neighborhood needed, it was another in person endless stream of so-called CONcern. Code enforcement “visiting” , Kkkops circling, and more neighbors questioning. But this is always the strangeness of HOMEfulness- because we are the “homeless people” that society casually disrespects, we are also the people that society never believes could have the answers to our own problems. We are never listened to or honored for what we call our Poverty Scholarship. And in fact we are usually met with fear, disgust or straight up hate. Even if we supposedly “own” the land.  “I have a room the City got me, but I don’t feel safe there and I’m all alone, I have no family,” Paul, a current houseless resident of HOMEfulness4, explained in our street writing workshop we held on the land on day 1 to write the HERstories and HISstories that will “build” HOMEfulness Yelamu, that after having all of his clothes, medicine and tent stolen in a sweep by the City, they gave him a referral to a room that he doesnt feel safe in and also feels so lonely he would rather sleep outside near his friends.There are so many ways krapitalism causes homelessness, not the least of which is the violence of loneliness.  One of the many things Poverty Scholarship teaches us, is isolation kills and is one of the many things we have to address if we build homes for houseless people. It is why the politrickster “solutions” of just putting people alone in a room never works and why HOMEfulness is such a powerful healing model. HERstory If you are scratching your head wondering how us poor & houseless peoples -led movement, who don’t have two nickels to put together, own anything, much-less over-priced, gentriFUKed and commodified Bay Area mama earth, first of all, we don’t.  We teach people with different forms of race and class privilege the concepts of ComeUnity Reparations, Poverty Scholarship and Radical redistribution at PeopleSkool, theories of change and concepts  rooted in radical interdependence, i.e. ending the violent acts of looking away, scarcity, hate and separateness, all values we are taught, modeled and shown in this stolen land, krapitalist system. The Decolonization and DegentrniFUKation seminars, led and created by all of us poor, houseless, disabled, indgienous peoples at POOR Magazine’s PeopleSkool, focus on teaching, healing, decolonizing and changing the ways people are conditioned into behaving in this society so they can be numbed into uncaring, exploiting and extracting Mama Earth and her earth’s people, all for their own profit or gain, which leads to the multiple crapitalist diseases of hoarding money, land and resources while people are starving and freezing on the street with nothing. Our seminars held since 2009, have led to the creation of the POOR Magazine solidarity family of conscious folks with race and class privilege who put in practice these teachings in many ways in their own lives, in street based mutual aid and support of the many reparations funds of poor and houseless people and the Bank of ComeUnity Reprations- which is currently supporting over 15 houseless residents in the HOMEfulness Hotel Fund , hundreds of houseless mamas in the Po Mamaz Reparations Fund, Po Mamaz PAnale Fund (Free diapers for Mamaz in poverty) the weekly Slidng scale cafe, which currently provides fresh organic produce, bakery  food, diapers and groceries to over 500 families and elders and the HOMEfulness project which currently houses 25 houseless youth, adults and elders in rent-free forever housing. As well, the seminars  help wealth-hoarders unlearn the violence of hoarding and practice radical sharing with HOMEfulness, Bank of ComeUnity Reparations and other poor,  houseless and indigenous peoples led land liberation movements like Wood Street Commons, Sogorea Te Land trust Self-Help Hunger program and Aetna street Solidarity to name a few     After a trail of tears of loss which included being gentriFUked out of SF’s Mission with a $700 over nite rent increase of Mamahouse- a collective home we poor and houseless mamas created to provide love, community and resources with each other. And thru radical redistributed dollars of the Soildarity Family and permission and prayer protocol from 1st Nations leaders and land protectors and endless work , labor and time from all of us houseless povertyskolaz we were able to launch HOMEfulness #1 in deep east Occupied Huchiun. Which is the ONLy reason this chronically houseless poor single mama and my Sun are housed and homeful.  HOMEfulness#4 Now we begin the love journey to build the same vision in occupied Yelamu and Tovaangar. One year  (Dec 17th) after an epic state-wide action we called Sanctuaries NOT sweeps on Dec 17th of 2024, to challenge the settler lie of public and private property hoarding and scarcity and violent act of sweeping jumans like we are trash, which got  terrifyingly worse and fatal to houseless communities after Grants Pass v Johnson, and in collaboration with fellow poor/houseless people-led movements Wood Street Commons, Aetna Street Solidarity, Homeless in Fresno, Western Regional Advocacy Project, Self-Help Hunger Program and many of the powerful homeless unions across the bay, we began the prayer, love and liberation work of unselling and liberating this small part of Mama Earth in the occupied village of Yelamu (SF) with our street newsroom, street-writing workshops, sliding scale cafe, direct advocacy  and HOMEfulness Hotel Fund not to sweep or terrorize the residents who are already houselessly staying there but to figure out safe housing and shelter for them until HOMEfulness is bult!  29 years later  The prayerful and sorrowful part about of HOMEfulness Yelamu is that ever since me and my disabled mama were on the streets, sleeping in doorways, shelter beds, bus shelters, golden gate park benches and the back seats of hoopties whenever we were lucky enough to have one (cuz they were usually towed for expired registration and/or too many parking tickets for sleeping in our own vehicle) we dreamed the vision of HOMEfulness. Then in 1998, two years after the launch of POOR Magazine and while me and my mama were still struggling with homelessness ourselves we proposed the vision to HUD,, taught ourselves how to write the insane 94 page grant application and submitted it.  3 months later we found out “we got the grant” but because we didnt know what we were doing and they offered no technical assistance to fill out the insanely hard budget of the grant, we only received a grant for $12.00 per month. Yes, i did say 12.00 per month, which wouldnt buy a loaf of bread much-less enable us to “purchase” or lease anything to have houseless families like ours live in in San Francisco. We were so heartbroken. But we kept trying.  In 2004 , while then mayor Gavin Newsom was stealing money from houseless people in his Care NOT Cash program, so he could get points on the backs of poor peoples suffering, we approached the City council of San Francisco with a proposal for Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness. It was rejected because we didnt have enough experience with housing! Then in 2005 we submitted HOMEfulness to the “homeless czar” or whatever rediculous name Gavin Newsome was giving it. Rejected again because we didnt have enough support?   In 2007 when POOR Magazine the organization and its members were houseless again after losing all of our funding, we proposed it to non-profit housing Devil-opers and big non-profits working on “housing for the homeless” . Again, rejected because I dont think they trusted our knowledge In 2008, knowing that HOMEfulness would never happen unless we, the poor and houseless folks ourselves, built it,  I began the journey with my fellow houseless/poor mamas and povertyskolaz to create the curriculum of the Revolutionary Change Session at PeopleSkool  Once we received the first act of redistribution for 100,000, and  we began desperately searching all of occupied Yelamu for a site. But for what seemed to me like sooooo much money, aka the $100,000, we couldnt find any place to build, stop , stay or dream. After prayer with ancestors and multiple elders council and Elephant meetings (where we poor/indigneous peoples decide together about our actions and movement), we expanded the search for a small part of mama earth to the neighborhoods my mama and i had been houseless in in Oakland and where many of our other members were from.POOR Magazine was always an all Bay Area organization, even though our original headquarters were in SF.  On a rainy day in March we found the site of HOMEfulness1 - a place, not accidentally, where me and my mama parked when we were houseless. It was an almost empty lot, abandoned long ago and with hardly any space to build the vision of 14 units of rent-free forever housing for houseless families , elders and children, but it was the best we could find.   “Here come the crackheads and the homeless people,” the landlord next door greeted us with the usual warmth one reserves for your worst enemy. But hey, nothing new for us. People were always calling poLice, calling us out our name and blaming us for all of the “crimes of poverty”  “I gave up, after I lost my housing, i looked and got on waitlists and showed up to endless meetings,  but none of it panned out, I guess i just gave up” Sal, another houseless resident finished by looking down.  “I have cancer in my spinal column,” Juan C, one of the residents,who has created a street bicycle repair business, tried to get into housing and very little luck even though he is struggling with a serious health fatal health condition like Cancer.  There are many reasons we are on the street. These reasons take care and love and time to solve and hold. This is the medicine of Poverty Scholarship, PeopleSkool and HOMEfulness and can’t and won’t be solved by sweeping us criminalizing and enforcing us, but rather how about caring and housing us.  Instead of calling for sweeps, enforcement and removal - please concerned housed neighbors, comeUnity and friends - call the City and ask them to fast track the HOMEfulness building project thru the zoning and permit process - and/or help us raise the resources to build the HOMEfulness Project which includes the HOMEfulness healing center, sliding scale cafe/free market and housing for over 30 houseless SF residents, and urge the city to open vacant motel rooms for houseless relatives like we are doing right now with our meager resources and redirect all that money spent on sweeping humans into housing humans right now. We will be having a press conference about what we are doing and a prayer ceremony with Ramaytush Ohlone Relatives, Danza Azteca, Ifa prayer warriors and for the whole comeunity on Jan 24th at 1pm at HOMEfulness4. To get involved in this caring movement and learn more about the next session of PeopleSkool which is on Jan 31st/Feb 1st - go to www.poormagazine.org/education