Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday that he is creating a task force to tackle the steady-rising issue of homelessness. After reports of the homeless rate skyrocketing and the failed attempts at “band-aid” solutions, Newsom has proposed for a 1 billion dollar budget to help finance employment and housing assistance programs. Homeless and poverty statistics for California alone was amongst the highest in the nation, with around 130,000 houseless folks and according to the HUD annual homeless assessment report of 2017, there were over 550,000 homeless people in the US in total.

Although lawmakers had allegedly approved a 2 billion dollar bond to create new and affordable housing over two years ago, no money has been spent to house adults, elders, people with disabilities and households with children as of yet- leaving one to believe that poor people and people of color were left for dead with another “pie-crust promise” backed up by “ghost funding”

The constant demand for housing from highly paid non-natives of the communities (gentriFUKation) and the boom for million dollar “luxury” devilopments (development) in the real estate-snake game has been the primary reasons SF is now known as “tent city” plagued with chronic homelessness and with very little support for residents dealing with mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction, life-threatening illnesses and the trauma of being treated less than human.

Gavin Newsom has also named Sacramento Mayor Darryl Steinberg and Los Angeles county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as co-chairs of the task force in collaboration to end the homeless crisis. Someone needs to have the courage to challenge the fact that there is a layer of abuse and a violation of one’s human rights when children, elders and folks with disabilities are forced out into the streets with the extra slap in the face being that it is a crime to sleep in cars, tents or parks when there is nowhere else to go without being dehumanized any further.

What makes sense?

Create affordable housing for low-income, impoverished folks by utilizing empty, abandoned, unused lots and spaces of land that don’t come with multi-million dollar price tags. Instead of spending money on just beds for “clients”, spend money on providing enough space for not only a bed, but a kitchen, bathroom, a bedroom- A WHOLE ROOF! As POOR Magazine does with the HOMEFULNESS project and how many tribes before have done before being poisoned with capitalism and colonization.

Provide adequate resources and treatment to people in need and employ staff or fellow poverty “skolars” who possess helpful, compassionate non-judgemental spirits that don’t take pride in representing the “agents of the state” and meeting “quotas” that contributes to the despair of the people.

Powers that be- stop investing in big money corporations that cruelly displaces lifelong residents by creating “booms” that raises the rent so high that the city caters only to those with higher incomes and privilege thus creating an exodus of evictions and cultural destruction/change. It is known that the Ellis Act and real estate snakeculation (speculation) are in the same bed together and if politricksters focused more energy on putting restrictions on high-powered corporations that evicts children onto the streets instead of restricting a woman’s right to choose then the vote will come in as some sort of progress towards a solution to an inhumane problem.

“yeah…I’m originally from the East Coast, this o’ New York girl can handle anything, even in the cold…”  This is not what an 80-year old elderly woman should ever have to say in her golden years…especially while living in California, the wealthiest State in the nation.

Having been forced out of her long-time apartment rental of over 10-years in Berkeley two years ago with nowhere to go, she now sleeps in an open doorway of a business, surviving through many damp nights in the cold wind and rain with only her personal possessions tucked away into a shopping trolley, covered in layers of warm clothing, bedding and plastic to keep herself warm with.

And just couple of weeks ago in the early morning on my way to work, I saw a lot of cop cars and an ambulance with yellow tape blocking off the next block on my street.  Little did I know at the time that an elderly man had died while sleeping in his cold van on the street…yeah, just one block from where I slept in my warm bed. Yet, there was nothing mentioned about it on the local news.

No, it’s not where our most precious communities, our elderly should ever have to live and die, especially in this wealthy, self-serving community, the SF Bay Area where it seems that building tons of unaffordable $3,000.00+ a month luxury apartments take precedence over humanity.  

In the past five years, there has been a mass increase of houseless elders living on the streets in Berkeley, a community that is supposedly known for its caring and compassion. Instead, there are several hundred disabled senior citizens over the age of 55 years living outside in the element, with many who are severely debilitated and wheelchair bound, unable to properly care for themselves.  

Many of these low-income elders, who are on MediCAL and/or on MediCARE are being rapidly discharged out of local area hospitals, shuttled into Berkeley and dropped off in the streets near pop-up winter shelters, which are not always reliable to be open every night and without any guarantee of getting a bed, especially for wheelchair bound elders who have severe mobility issues such as using the bathroom, with many dropped off still wearing their hospital gowns and/or ID wristbands.  

The numbers of houseless elders continue to rise, as more elders continue to be displaced from long term rentals that have now been ‘flipped’ and re-rented at a much higher rent, leaving them highly vulnerable in a community where it seems that overpriced housing for desensitized, overpaid techies takes priority over developing more affordable and accessible senior housing in the community.

What most people tend to not fully understand is that Alameda County now has full control of the low-income housing market in every city within its county jurisdiction.  This used to not be the case, as it used to be where each city within the County had its own affordable housing program, funded through HUD, however due to ongoing budget cuts to HUD on a Federal Level, all affordable housing has now been consolidated exclusively to the County, who now has full control. This includes all affordable housing for low-income individuals, families and most importantly, low-income seniors.  The County has implemented what is called a ‘Coordinated Entry System’, where everyone who is low-income and in need of affordable housing is jumbled into one huge database list, including elders.

This new Coordinated Entry System has now created a greater problem, making it even more difficult for low-income communities to access affordable housing, as only certain designated organizations are contracted to manage those in need of affordable housing through yet another database list which is only accessible to the County and these certain organizations, even further limiting low-income individuals, families and elders from getting access to affordable housing with most getting lost in this system, often silently falling off the list.  And in many cases, low-income houseless elders will most likely die before their number on these complicated lists ever comes up for affordable housing.

On top of this issue, the Coordinated Entry System’s list is also based on each contracted organization’s ‘criteria’ model, which is a ‘vulnerability index’ scoring system that is taken of each houseless person, including houseless elders, using a ‘point score’ criteria model, which usually results to many people, especially elders not scoring high enough to get in the top 50 on this huge list, despite of the fact that they are all vulnerable, elderly, disabled, houseless and poor…

Many of the houseless elders living on the streets mental health issues are also not being taken into serious consideration when they are being assessed for affordable housing through this system, as most of these contracted organizations are not properly trained to manage elders with such issues, especially when they are forced to live houseless on the streets.  For many of these elders, who have paid many years of taxes into this very system, being houseless is an extremely traumatic experience for them in every way imaginable, having to sleep outside in the element at a time in their lives when they are at their most vulnerable.

The whole system is broken…  It’s broken more than ever… This Coordinated Entry System is too large, fragmented and cumbersome to handle of the rising influx of houseless elders, many who have fallen victim to hyper gentrification in their communities and have been discarded. It seems as if there are too many different contracted organizations doing things in too many different ways with no real cohesiveness.  This has created a greater difficulty for low-income communities, especially elder communities to obtain affordable housing, which has become a rapidly growing epidemic of houseless elders in Berkeley…the East Bay…SF Bay Area…California. People are dying out there because of this.

The 211 service call center is ineffective, especially for elders.  It doesn’t actually help people find housing at all, let alone an elderly person houseless on the street. First of all, if a person doesn’t have a phone or has a severe hearing/visual/speech/mental disability, they most likely won’t have the ability to utilize the 211 call system as it’s all done by phone.  The 211 system also keeps people on hold for a very long time and once a person gets through doing a 20-minute ‘intake assessment questionnaire’ over the phone, which for many can be difficult, it doesn’t guarantee finding temporary shelter for those in dire need, let alone helping elders with special needs. Basically, 211 is a ‘referral’ service, therefore our low-income communities continue to fall through the cracks, especially our most vulnerable community, our houseless elders.  

It’s hyper capitalism, greed and soulless selfishness of big money developers, speculators, greedy landlords and the wealthy consumers that are taking precedence over humanity in this time and age which literally normalizes us silently walking past an elder living on the street, sleeping in a door way or slumped over in their wheelchair outside in the hot or cold weather. Having houseless elders living on the streets and in cold doorways would be unacceptable in most developed countries abroad, yet our low-income elders die alone in the cold here in one the wealthiest communities in the entire nation.

“Some niggers got shot up!” Was the announcement made on one of the gentriFUKer’s blog, referring to this past weekend’s deadly shooting in the Fill-no-more community Saturday evening. One 25-year-old man lost his life and 4 others were injured when suspect(s) opened fire on the corner of Eddy and Fillmore streets. At the time of the incident, there was people attending the repass of businessman and alleged drug kingpin Ron Newt at the Fillmore Heritage Center but it has not been confirmed if the shooting is related to the homegoing celebration. There also have been no word verifying whether or not the authorities have any suspects in custody.

Regardless of the two events being connected or not- the lack of respect for those who have passed on, no matter the individual’s reputation is dishonorable to the very seed of our culture. Someone loved Adolph Hitler, Christopher Columbus and the slave massa that ran the plantation and by all means they are still being honored to this day- (MAGA). If there was any threat to the homegoing celebration of Mr. Newt then the respectful thing would have been for the “laws” to ensure the community and the mourners’ safety by making sure some kind of law enforcement was present because everyone has the right to a respectful, peaceful Ancestor gathering.

The doors of the Fillmore Heritage Center has been closed since the tragedy with future events being cancelled until further notice and some folks in the community have concerns that although the shooting did not take place inside the establishment, its fate (FHC) may be in jeopardy for permanent closure.

Emotionless, I scrolled through what I call “The GentriFUKers’ Blog” and read all of the comments from the Trumpaklan supporters that live in the hood. I was not moved, disappointed nor hurt in any way over the attitude of how we Black people somehow “had this (death and despair) coming to us because we ain’t nothing but nigger dopefiends and gangstas with baby-mama drama.” The majority of MAGA endorsers in the Fill-no-mo are comfortable with the conclusion that Black and Brown folks will just kill each other off and that we are all the same- less than human beings who deserve no compassion. MAGA folks have no care in the world for people struggling from poverty, addiction, homelessness, displacement, the colonizer mentality and for some reason they turn a blind eye to the fact that there are white addicts, gangstas, HIGH POWERED criminals and poor whites who also suffer under the rule of white (non) supremacy.

Completely numb from the hateful remarks,  the “niggers, this and niggers, that” rhetoric that spewed from the hearts of these folks left me with one crooked-smile response- Just like I get on you trumpaklan fools, I will also address the “nigger wanna be colonizer” mentality too!

……………….TO BE CONTINUED

Queennandi Xsheba, PNN KEXU,

WELL WELL WELL HOW THE TABLES WILL TEARN  I HAVE THE GOLDEN KEY TODAY I CELEBRATE ………

SEP 23 2018 WAS A REAL DEMON SLAYING DAY LAST MONTH I TURNED A NEW AGE BAREING NEW GIFTS ……..

IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SENCE I  ACTUALY HAVE HAD THE OPERTUNITY  TO SIT AT THIS DESK AND WRITE ………………………

I REMEMBER THE 1ST TIME I WAS ASKED TO PARTICIPATE IN WRITTING IN THIS BLOG I REJECTED IT THANK YOU BUT NO THANK YOU I REPLIED TO LISA TINY GARCIA NO REALLY YOU SHOULD HUN YOU WOULD BE AN GREAT WRITER

WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU SAY THAT I REPLIED , YOU GOT AN KICK ASS STORY SIS ..IM JUST SAYING … YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT IT …

I GAVE IT LOTS OF THOUGHT  LATER ON I WAS ASKED TO JOIN THE POOR FAMILY AND HELP OUT WITH THIS AIR TIME TV AND RADIO ….. KEXU 96.1FM of all THE THINGS IN THE WORLD WHY TV AND RADIO LORD ...WHY AM I HEAR AGAIN ...I DIDNT SEE THIS COMMING …...

AFTER ALL I HAD JUST LOST MY SON TORIAN DAJOUR HUGHES …. IM JUST HAPPY TO HAVE A SAFE PLACE FOR MY CHILDREN TO GO TO SCHOOL ,AFTER LEAVING RUBY BRIDGES ELEMENTARY TRAUMA…..

BUT IF THIS IS A WAY TO PAY MY DUES THEN I HAVE NO PROBLEM HELPING OUT HOW EVER I AM CAPABLE  … HELL I VOLUNTEER AT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS … THIS COULD ACTUALY BE COOL

ITS NOT LIKE I DONT KNOW A LIL SOMETHING ……. I EXCEPT ...

I AM NOT A WRITTER BUT I CAN ARTICULATE  VERY WELL … AND I DO HAVE A STORY TO TELL  SAGA’S … I SEEM NOT TO BE ABLE TO GET AWAY FROM MEDIA I THINK TO MY SELF  ...AS I RECIEVE THE PLATOON

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO WRITE OR WHERE TO START BUT I AM WILLING TO OPPERATE IN MY HONOR AND PURPOSE AS A TEAM PLAYER ….. IS MY ANSWER

SIS SEYS YOUR SON WANTS THIS FOR YOU IM SOLD HOOK LINE AND SINKER NOW.

WRITTING IS HEALING IT WILL BE YOUR THEARAPHY U CAN GET PAID THREW YOUR WRITTING  AND SHARE YOUR MEDICINE THREW MEDIA hitting THE AIR WAVES … ME PAID TO WRITE IT WAS UNHEARD OF REALLY …. YES YOU ARE FREE TO BE YOU AND WRITE FREELY NO JUDGEMENT BE HEALED AND GET HEALED THREW YOUR STREET POVERTY SCHALORSHIP ….AND SO I HAVE BEEN BLOGING AND DOING MEDIA EVER SCENCE INTO THE BIG BREAKDOWN …... OF TRAUMATIZING TRIGGERS POPPED THE FUCK OFF SEPERATEING ME FROM MY NEWEST FOUND LOVE 2ND TO MY SON’S WHAT YOU NEED MIGHT MAKE YOU CRY AND WHAT YOU WANT MIGHT PASS YOU BY IF YOU LET IT ….. SAID IN THE GREAT WORDS OF THE GREAT LAUREN HILL ….

AND SO FOR NOW I HAVE WEATHERED THE STORM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

“BLACKS KILLED BY WHITES- 2%

BLACKS KILLED BY POLICE- 1%

WHITES KILLED BY POLICE- 3%

WHITES KILLED BY WHITES- 16%

WHITES KILLED BY BLACKS-81%

BLACKS KILLED BY BLACKS- 97%”

This so-called “Crime Statistics” of 2015 was retweeted by then- presidential candidate Donald Trump to his followers prior to being elected president of the US in what looks more like he was endorsing a stereotype by retweeting false crime stats. Now while in office, he continues his rhetoric against Blacks along with other members of the Universal Majority and the poor by creating tougher biased immigration laws, supporting killer kkkops and cutting back on low-income services. The inhumane contempt that the MAGA crowd has towards the rest of us has always been out in the open- in our faces and discussed, however we cannot speak up on the MAGA folks and overlook the fact that there are those of color who perpetuate the sygma of the “violent criminals” jacket.

There is a high rate of Black on Black/ Brown on Brown crimes being committed and one of the reasons are that the “hood terrorist” persona is being glorified through music and social media and made to be accepted as normal- to ruthlessly murder someone’s child, husband, wife or elder is the “gangsta” thing to do. It has been made normal to worship the gun as if it were a God and to emulate old gangster movies that rarely depiced people of color, unless they were servants or bait. “Entertainers” are recieving significant paychecks to become posterboys and girls to push the propaganda of internalized racism through reality TV and the “Imma nigga and if I see a nigga Imma kill a nigga” lyrics that has contributed to the destruction of the minds of a generation.

The “indirect black employees” of amerikka’s gang, the ku klux klan fulfill the white (non)supremacy agenda when they terrorize their own communities- the only things that are missing is the burning crosses and white sheets. These crimes of ignorance is then used as a tool for the media to instill “fear” into the MAGA supporters who in turn blame the victims of poverty and violence through hateful blogs that spew racism, resulting in the push for more Trumpaklan dictaors to be elected into office.

The senseless murder of businessman, rapper, activist and philanthropist Nipsey Hussle, who was gunned down in front of his clothing store on March 31st was a hard blow to the community and the same question came to mind upon hearing of his death and that was why is that when a Black Man takes a step towards self- determination by empowering his community he is either railroaded or murdered? He is shot down on all levels because he’s a threat in this society when educated and put into a twisted competition with the one with the “nigga” mentality to determine who’s the most dangerous.

This tragic form of tricknology has caused for all of our hoods to suffer when individuals who care about our people’s destiny are taken away from us, especially by us. I think of Malcolm X, Huey P Newton and many other conscious community warriors past and currently that paid the ultimate price while racist white folks gloat over the fact that sometimes we can be our worse enemy.

Queennandi Xsheba PNN KEXU

415 Day at La Raza park. The faces are there, the faces, the minds, the bodies, the gestures that refuse to disappear. 415 and the temperature hovers between 415 degrees and 415 degrees below zero. The city sometimes feels like a freezer but as Al Robles said, "Soon the white snow will melt". All the young sisters and brothers flashin' Frisco badges of honor. Those tattoos, those scars, the letters SF in bold letters cut into the flesh, bruises of valor, bruises of honor, bruises of survival that no cop's badge can kill. It was a gathering, a remembrance. It was 415 Day, a day dedicated to our area code, our way, our story, our history, our blood, our pulse, our beat, our murals, our tongues of poetry dipped in wine and spitting up blood fire as the pain and love and heartbreak and the spirits of homegirls and homeboys who have passed on to the other side ferments in our lungs and on this day--415 Day--we release it into the air of La Raza Park and it spreads across the city in unified smoke, sweet cleansing smoke like the smouldering sage settling into the skin, giving the fog direction, moving slow like a lowrider procession reaching the highest peaks of consciousness as the speakers blare street symphonies, oldies that refuse to get old. And it rained, a light rain that got heavier like small talk that suddenly got deep. It rained last year on 415 Day at Crocker Amazon but that too was beautiful. We come together despite the gentrification and the ugly attitude that has settled in the city and has fermented in its lack of style and grace and class and its attempt to turn the park into "Cracker Amazon". We come together and share our laughter, our 415 laughter, our memories, our songs, our soul of Frisco--OURS.

Invasion of the Tent Snatchers II
2019 WeSearch Report from Poverty Skola/WeSearchers from the Occupied Ohlone/Lisjan Village of Yelamu (San Francisco) Presents: Ongoing Tent and Belonging Theft in San Francisco under Mayor London Breed
WeSearch def: Poor and indigenous peoples-led research. Launched by POOR Magazine poverty skolaz)

SF WeSearch Release Summary
In October of 2018 Poor, Unhoused San Francisco residents of San Francisco collected data on the 110 tents and belongings seized under the new mayoral administration of London Breed that were seized from 62 unhoused Sf residents. Now three months later we are releasing our second WeSearch report on the theft of over 400 tents belonging to 210 houseless residents by the new Mayoral administration of San Francisco
History of this “study”
"Since the inauguration of Mayor London Breed unhoused residents of San Francisco have struggled with a series of tent and belonging seizures and police and DPW harassment. The overall attacks on poor and unhoused people is a continuation of previous mayoral administrations’ ongoing attacks on unhoused San Francisco residents. What was evident from this WeSearch study is the attacks now include the specific seizure of peoples tents, which adds yet another inhumane and violent aspect to the attack on our lives for the sole act of not having access to housing in a city which has some of the most violent forms of displacement, removal and evictions of poor and working class families.
WeSearch Process
The 2nd WeSearch “study” was launched November 1st and ended Friday , Jan 18th  and revealed a 200% rise in the tent seizures of unhoused peoples, This was a follow-up to the October 24th report which was launched on BlackAugust 31st.

RoofLESS radio WeSearchers -a team of Unhoused, formerly unhoused, Working Class, Very low and no-income Black, Brown Poor and 1st Nations youth and adult poverty skolaz, all who have been working and sitting and and sleeping and living in and out of housing in San Francisco conducted interviews and conversations with their communities and families of fellow poverty skolaz and then quantified the data to the following results.

Who are the WeSearchers (demographics):
Data Creators/Collectors/WeSearchers: 210 San Francisco residents sitting, standing , convening, sleeping in San Francisco while houseless
 
65% were of African Descent or Mixed African Descent
35% were Raza /Indigenous,mixed race,white or other
30% were 65-75
70% were 30-45 
70% were men 
27% were women
25% trans & non-gender-conforming
70% were houseless after displacement from long-time homes and neighborhoods
80% are living with untreated psychological disabilities
70% are living with physical disabilities

WeSearch Findings of Poverty Skolaz SF residents:
-410 Tents were reported seized from 206 unhoused residents from Sept 7th-January 18th, 2019
-$56,310 dollars in belongings and medicine were seized and disposed of by DPW and/or SF police.
- Tent, belonging and medicine seizures resulted in severe illness and emergency room visits of unhoused residents of San Francisco and in at least four cases were related to street-based deaths

Demand/Ask based on WeSearch findings:
-Cease and desist in the taking of our enclosures and belongings
-Us Unhoused people of San Francisco are asking for liberated Ohlone/Lisjan land so we can build our own self-determined projects like Homefulness
-Asking Housed residents to send emails, calls, letters and visits to London Breed’s office demanding that they cease & desist Tent & belonging seizures from unhoused SF residents
The WeSearch Policy Group (WPG) is a project of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE- a poor and indigenous people-led, very grassroots, art-based movement. Please credit POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE WeSearch Policy Group when re-printing . for more information email poormag@gmail.com or go to www.poormagazine.org

(photo- The tile floor where folks sleep, if only for a few hours, in La Guardia Airport)

“Get up- you have to move along…did you hear me? - Its time to move along…’ The hard wood of the baton slammed against the soles of my already sore feet. It had been 2 hours since I tentatively laid my United Airlines issued paper-like blanket on the hard tile floor outside the Dunkin donuts in the closed La Guardia airport. I was leaning against a wall next to two other mamas and babies and a disabled elder. We were all houseless, me formerly, them currently. 

Above us all on the wall was a poster stating “The Port Authority has provided “services” to 4000 homeless people in one year alone.” I wondered if the services they described included wake up and removal at 4am. 

Ironically, this poverty skola was in New York to join POOR Magazine family Leroy Moore to teach on our new book Poverty Scholarship- Poor People-led Theory , Art, Words and Tears Across Mama Earth at an elite private college in upstate New York. Sharing the medicine of radical redistribution of inherited/stolen /hoarded resources with academics who might have access to race/ class privilege so us poor and unhoused folks could manifest a homeless  peoples solution to homelessness, aka the project we call Homefulness - which is  housing for unhoused families, children and elders and is supported entirely by redistributed resources and among other things is an example of spiritually and legally taking Mama Earth off the commodities market, cause so-called “housing justice” must include un-selling Mama Earth.

The entire trip was disturbing, rife with realizations that under Trump the (FAA) Federal Aviation Administration that is supposed to oversee the giant airline industry has been reduced to Boeing officials playing golf with Donald Trump and Mike Pence. That many of the planes currently being used are not really safe and the mechanics are the ones who have to resolve all the systemic problems on the ground all the time, causing a rise in delays, mechanical failures and cancelations of flights. But as I was forced to see the underbelly of this airline violence, I was also drawn into the growing number of another form of violence  unhoused people, mostly families, taking shelter at the airports across Mama Earth. From Newark to New York, from Phoenix to Chicago, there are literally hundreds of unhoused people carefully hiding out at airports and the numbers are rising everyday while more and more people can’t  afford to live in the commodity called “Private Property” aka bought and sold Mama Earth.

I say carefully because unhoused people in airports don’t identify themselves as unhoused, they are constantly forced to keep moving from one bench, one bathroom, one outlet, one over-priced cafe, one rug, after another, so as not to be identified by the airport poLice, the janitors, the staff, homeland insecurity or the private security firms always watching. Like in life and everything, in every one of these groups there are always subtle differences, some people know and look the other way, some people endlessly harass and some actually help. Starbux workers give free coffee, Janitors allow temporary washing and personal clean-ups and security guards don’t always call in unhoused communities in the airport, like they are supposed to.

This silent movement is similar to public library homelessness, but the airport culture is slightly less violent to unhoused folks than the library system. In San Francisco public library I have witnessed and intervened on countless violent attacks from SFPD and private security to unhoused folks struggling with mental health crises’ who take refuge in the ostensibly “public” space of the library because urinating, hand-washing, dressing and resting outside in the cold elements is just too much, which has only gotten worse under the new mayoral administration of London Breed, who has begin a policy of seizing peoples tents.

Similar to cities across the US, each airport is slightly more or slightly less violent to poor folks, For example in Newark they have put a price and a CorpoRape afilliation on everything. Just to sit down and wait, you are encouraged to “buy” food and/or pay for a charging station for your phone, or only use a charging station if you are able to buy food, In La Guardia airport, they have pretty much taken all of the benches out of the accessible areas, and all of the carpets. 

And above all most of the airports close, no longer really “open” all night, closing bathrooms, front doors, public areas, shrinking their accessible and open cafes down to one and only if you purchase something can you sit there at all. 

After 24 hours of non-stop plane stoppages, mechanical failures and weather delays I ended up in La Guardia airport in New York, an airport which had obviously implemented anti-homeless people policies. ( yes thats a thing) La Guardia not only had these weird hypocritical posters all over about how much help they provided “homeless people” but they made it clearly impossible to rest anywhere. Like the violent architecture that PNN correspondents Lisa Ganser and Laure McElroy wrote about multiple times, they have implemented multiple examples of this inside the airport. 

“Me and my family have been homeless in this airport for 30 days,” Tasha, a single mother of two children, adjusted her inconsolable 3 year old in her lap as she reported for RoofLess radio airport report. 

“ I really don’t know where else to go, shelters are full, and unsafe, at least I know we won’t be violated here, but I can’t ever really sleep, if I want them to sleep,” she concluded looking at her 12 year old sun and her baby girl, defeated. 

Tasha and her babies were “sleeping” on a hard vinyl chair in the corner outside La Guardia, while I tried the impossible task of actually curling up the cold cement ground. 

“I play it safe and never leave my wheelchair, cause if I do, poLice will take my chair and kick me out of here, keep it cool and keep it moving, thats my motto, at least I’m a little less cold than when I am outside, but these Port Authority Mofo’s are not nice to us Po folks,” said Mr Sykes, a houseless, disabled elder who was also trying to rest next to me in La Guardia. 

“I been to San Francisco, they hella mean there, took my walker, my tent and my belongings so I came back home to live with distant family in New York, but they weren’t here so I ended up houseless out here, really no better, just colder, but sometimes the airport staff looks the other way, sometimes.” said Larry, who recycled and lived houselessly in La Guardia, when h wasn’t getting harassed for being houseless in La Guardia.

This collection of harassed, airport hiding poverty skolaz were all in La Guardia airport, an airport facing a bizarre and insane amount of devil-opment. Ironically, the man of the same name, La Guardia, was responsible for some of the worst forced removal and displacement efforts of the 20th century, causing fires and “code violations” in the tenements he owned so he could turn force the diaspora of poor immigrants out of Manhattan and build luxury housing. 

My 48 hours of airport hell was deep and sad and triggering me down a memory lane of my childhood between 11-18 when me and mama slept in doorways and bus shelters and our car when we were able to acquire one, and then again as an adult with my sun before we moved to Homefulness causing a lot of trauma, that I have trouble shaking, but at the end of it, I got to go home-fulness. Tasha and her babies, Mr Sykes and Larry said goodbye to me, with those defeated eyes me and my mama used to hold. The defeat of having nowhere to go and no idea what to do. And so as I told them and tried to teach “the haves”  at the college I was supposed to go to, Homefulness is possible for all of us unhoused folks, it just takes folks with resources understanding they are responsible for us too. That while we poor people revolutionaries fight to stop the criminalization of our unhoused bodies, the owning class can un-own and radically redistribute some of the resources they don’t use to house their families, so that us folks who have no resources can be housed.  

Additionally, these public spaces need to stop sliding towards privatization, as long as these cities and towns continue to build, legislate and enable rich people development, they need to liberate and implement policies to ensure that public spaces actually stay public. That people who have nowhere to go, can at least be somewhere without being hurt, harassed, hated and criminalized. That our bodies, if unhoused are not inherently criminal, we are just houseless, and still members of the public. 

Join POOR Magazine poverty skolaz, unhoused, disabed, elder and youth poverty skolaz for the 2019 Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour on April 23rd at 2pm in front of the Oakland /Berkeley Assoc of Realtors at 2855 Telegraph Av in Berkeley for a WeSearch release on the privately owned mama earth lots that we are asking folks to buy so poor folks can build their own solutions to poverty more info here

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Let it blossom

Part of a greater garden

Part of the growing green future

Beyond this lush garden

Born of economic, existential, educational

Trauma.

Let it blossom

Let it start

With a prayer

From poor

Single parents

Wanting to break

From the false

Scarcity model.

Let it blossom

So the saplings

And the seedlings

Can be nourished

From knowledge

Buried under history’s

Dense weight.

Let it blossom

Let them blossom

Into strong, healthy

Branches, bear

Myriad fruits

Children of tomorrow

Can feast on

And digest

The lessons that will break them out of poverty.

W: 1.13.19

Hoarding Mama Earth

 A WeSearch Release & Demand for Radical Redistribution to build Homefulness #2  by Formerly homeless Youth & Family Poverty Skolaz at POOR Magazine/Deecolonize Academy

WeSearch def: Poor People-led Research- a POOR Magazine project

Introduction:

Vacant lots and empty buildings are being “hoarded”   i.e. not housing people who are in desperate need of housing , sometimes for years, and us homeless and formerly homeless youth and families  at Homefulness by doing extensive research can help take them back for the good of the people. This is happening at an increasing rate year by year, and us at Homefulness, Poor Magazine and Deecolonize Academy are making sure the word of the Houseless people who need to live on these lots to avoid criminalization from the police is heard, and that in the near future, the template of Homefulness can be utilized on some of this stolen land on Mama Earth, taking it off of the Real Esnake Market once and for all.

We as youth and family skolaz who have been homeless for much of our life launched this WeSearch project by walking in our own poor people of color neighborhoods where land and homes are hoarded, where race and racism causes the “blighting” and destroying of our hoods and towns and barrios so that land can be flipped and we can be evicted, not redistributed. And now our communites are facing eviction and displacement at an extreme rate. We learned in this process that  that the only way you can find out who the house flippers and snakes are is by going to the Tax Assesors office in Oakland. Which we did. After a long process of what we call poor people-led research aka WeSearch we created the following inter-generational, Poor people-led report:

The History of the Real Estate Industry in Oakland

The history of the real estate industry began within the wave of the first form of gentrification, colonization. California was one of the last states to be colonized in the U.S, first of all, because it was all the way to the west, and secondly, it was a part of Mexico. At the beginning of the 19th century began the brutal colonization and genocide of the people who were native to Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville, the Hiuchin tribe of the Ohlone. This is where the true founding of Oakland began. Luis Maria Peralta received the Rancho San Antonio that encompassed the entire East Bay region and called the area that Oakland now is its name because of its voluminous amount of oak trees.

Just stating that to show that the bloody history of Oakland didn’t begin with the crack epidemic. When the United States bought Oakland along with the entirety of California in the Mexican Cession, it was a completely white community. Until WW2, the black population of Oakland was only 3%. That completely changed however, when there was an onrushing when black and white but most importantly poor, workers migrated to California from the Deep South and brought the black population up to 12%. Since then, there have been numerous attempts to either get rid of the black community of Oakland entirely, as the government attempt of pushing cocaine and heroin into the streets of Oakland. The way they were able to do this so successfully is by a process known as “Redlining”.

Redlining is the process that was created when Oakland was still being laid out as a city, to completely separate, segregate and block off all of the black and brown people that lived in the city. They did this by specifically taking the neighborhoods that the black and brown people lived and made sure they sent fewer government funds than any other neighborhood. Redlining, as I said before, was also the primary way that the government was able to directly channel drugs into black and brown communities without them getting everywhere. Oakland isn’t the only city where redlining has happened and is still happening. All over the United States, there are redlined communities which have been used in various government experiments as well.

Now, after the redlined communities have been completely destroyed by the careful planning of the government, bringing guns into them for the residents to kill each other, drugs to become addicted to, liquor stores on every corner to encourage the decline of their health, the real current real estate market is seeing an opportunity in them. Because of the countless families that have fallen apart, and all of the other reasons that make the “hood” also known as redlined communities bad, are being used as propaganda by real estate agencies. For instance, the encouragement to “get out of the hood as soon as possible” will get the real estate industry an onrush of cheap houses that can be “flipped” to be made more expensive. Those houses are sold to unwitting “Gentrifiers” as we at Poor Magazine like to call them, for 2 to 3 times more than they are worth.

But see, most of the time, real estate agencies don't want to wait for a family to decide to move out of the hood. They need those houses, and that money, quickly, especially with the Bay Area being a popular place to move these days. So, they evict. They evict en masse. To get the already nervous and tired-of-life black and brown people out of their houses as quick as they can, the real estate agencies and landlords threaten us with all the prestige they have. The bigger the company, the easier it is. This is how I was kicked out of the city I was born and raised in, San Francisco. This is how many people have died, being kicked out of their house with nowhere to go. This is how 71% of that city’s houseless population is now on the street.

Poor Magazine Youth Skola Reporter

-Tiburcio Garcia

Parcel Map

This is a map of every Brownfield*, Vacant Lot, Parking Lot, and Housing Opportunity Site* in Alameda County. Just by seeing this, you can see how much land could be available to housless people. Because most houseless people lived in homes, and were evicted. Because of the eviction, they were not able to keep up with their job, or even if they were, they weren't able to afford to keep up with the rapidly rising rent in the Bay Area and were unable to get back the house that they were evicted from.

This Parcel Map is a cry of help, from every houseless citizen of the Bay Area, all of us who are on the brink of having no home, and those who never even considered that there was another option besides giving up and living on the street. This is a cry of help to all of the owners of those unused properties, which most of which have not been developed on in the last 5-10 years.

Poor Magazine Youth Skola Reporter

-Tiburcio Garcia

10 Vacant “Privately Owned” Parcels of Mama Earth on BlackArthur (MacArthur) in Deep East Huchuin (Oakland)

NOTE- Thru this study we literally have 10 pages of addresses of vacant property - available on request if someone wants to sit down and enact a liberation move - buy one or more of them for use/housing for unhoused families/yout/elders

1. 7600 MacArthur ( lot 5580).

2. 7951 Richie and MacArthur.

3. 5139 Macarthur Boulevard

4. 4550 International Boulevard

5. 5115 Macarthur Boulevard

6. 6620 Foothill Boulevard.

7. 5107 Macarthur Boulevard

8. 2625 San Pablo Ave.

9. 4760 International Boulevard.

10. 5216 International Boulevard

Youth Skola WeSearch on the destruction, lack and removal of Poor People from Housing & Why so many of us are Houseless in 2019

What are “H.U.D, R.A.D, and Hope VI”?

My name is Solomon Kealoha-Campbell a Youth Poverty skola at Deecolonize academy. I live in Fillmore, SF with my momma and sister. There we are surviving on food stamps and section 8. In my segment, I will be talking about HUD, RAD, Hope VI and what they mean and how these “plans” are how the government is gonna get rid of us po folks.

HUD “ Housing Urban Development” is a (US) government lead organization working on making housing for low-income families “ fair and affordable”.section 8 Housing Voucher Program is a rental program administered by this agency. The tenant's portion of the rent payable to the owner is based on 30% of the family's adjusted gross income. HUD and section 8 keep my family alive and housed along with many other low-income families.

HUD was developed in the 1900s, helped by President Roosevelt to first help widows of white war veterans. HUD was thought of because starvation and homelessness were the worse it’s been. From the shallow beginnings of trying to segregate poverty and keeping the brown poor, HUD branched out welfare, food stamps, section 8 and more that help us brown poor people survive.

From the good, there is also evil. Hope VI is a plan by the government and HUD to “restore” the worst public housing neighborhoods and turn it into mixed-income developments. Their plan is to get rid of most of the poor people and replace them with the middle class and a few working class people to “ better the community and cleanse the violence”.

The Government is trying to erase poor people housing or any housing dedicated to low-income families by making this plan called RAD “ Rental Assistance Demonstration” but they aren't assisting anybody but the people who don't need help. They plan on making any public housing to private housing and wiping the poor people out.  

In conclusion of “ What is HUD, RAD and Hope VI ?” we know that HUD was never made for us poor people of color. Since it was never designed for us, they are trying to erase it entirely. That's where RAD and Hope VI come knocking on your door. And by 2020 their plan is to have HUD and Welfare be a myth.

This subject on HUD, RAD and Hope VI relate with the vacant lots that are being held because these vacant lands can be turned into houses and more specifically Homefulness or even just more space for the poor people of the bay area. Let us create our own public housing.

Student of Deecolonize Academy

-Solomon Campbell

The Legacy of Redlining

I'm a 16-year-old youth poverty skola and I live in a blighted and gentrified area and this work here is my life. The past problems are still present today. Just like the people before me I will have to face these same problems of segregation and separation.    

Segregation, Separation, and Racism of Poor people and our neighborhoods.

Redlining is: The separation of black and brown communities by district or neighborhood is called red-lining, this was a law enforced by the U.S  government to enforce rase based separation policies causing communities of color to be criminalized and predated on by the real estate and banking industry.

One of the most heinous of these policies was introduced by the creation of the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 and lasted until 1968. Otherwise celebrated for making homeownership accessible to white people by guaranteeing their loans, the FHA explicitly refused to back loans to black people or even other people who lived near black people. As TNC puts it, "Redlining destroyed the possibility of investment wherever black people lived." (A Racist Housing)

In the late 1930s, as Detroit grew outward, white families began to settle near a black enclave adjacent to Eight Mile Road. By 1940, the blacks were surrounded, but neither they nor the whites could get FHA insurance because of the proximity of an inharmonious racial group. So, in 1941, an enterprising white developer built a concrete wall between the white and black areas. The FHA appraisers then took another look and approved the mortgages on the white properties. (The Fair Housing Center)

20th-century Realities:

In the early 1980s and 1990s in the ghettos of AmeriKlann an epidemic of crack cocaine swept the nation off its feet. In my own backyard of Mcarthur Ave of Oakland California, had become inflicted by this drug. In 1986 us congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for the progression or trafficking of crack when compared to penalties for trafficking of powder cocaine which Macarthur Blvd became a red line for black people 18 to 24 for search and use of the cocaine.

Gary Webb an investigative journalist had researched extensively of the flood of cocaine selling in the United States. Garry Webb had claimed the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) was actually the one responsible for the enormous influx of cocaine, Gary claimed that there were documents that proved that this reality was nightmarishly true.

What is ‘’Sell Your ugly house’’ ?,

A group of a real estate agent’s that purchase your home, and then flip(Resale) your house at a higher price than the original price’’ you the owner bought it for’’. This type of work is targeting red-lined areas like Macarthur Blvd where billboards are as common as your local liquor store’s and blights are distributed like tickets.

The reason I wanted to go and research this in the first place, was because I wanted to be aware and make light of the situation to reflect on the many cases the U.S government made almost impossible for families of low income or no income to capitalist society. I also felt that it was very important to also understand the many obstacles poor people and people have to struggle to stay housed.

Also, I have had my experience with living in a red-lined community, in San Francisco called Hunters Point. Hunter’s point is decommissioned navy shipyard in the 1950s. This area is a place for low-income affordable housing. I know the red-lined area because of all of the police that constantly patrol the area.

Student of Deecolonize Academy

-Kimo Umu

What Are Ugly Laws?

San Francisco Ugly Laws were passed in 1867, significantly earlier than the1890s. Also,20 first century Ugly Laws were created to target unhoused people to arrest them for being homeless in the streets. Berkeley is especially harsh toward unhoused people, that’s why they have Ugly Laws in Berkeley, you can’t sleep in your car, or you can’t sleep in a public park,and some other Ugly Laws but if the police officer sees you do any one of these things you will get arrested right away.

Leroy Moore is a black male and co-founder of the international music company and organization Krip-Hop Nation. He was riding his bike on University Ave in Berkeley and a police officer pulled him over because the officer thought Leroy Moore was drunk but really Leroy Moore has a disability But the officer didn't know that but still pull over him over. I was criminalized by the police for being black and brown in Oakland too.

Ugly Laws that criminalize disabled people like Leroy and unhoused people like in Berkeley every day are criminalizing the people that are directly affected by the Hoarding and stealing of Mama Earth by these real Esnake agencies. All of the agencies that we are talking about here are the ones that are responsible for these Ugly Laws in the first place.

Student of Deecolonize Academy

-Amir Cornish

Business Improvement District

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS, or b.i.d is a district dealing with gentrification and homeowners kicking people out that are poor and colored, putting them in the ghetto, making it only business property, and saying it will improve the place.

Twitter in San Francisco is an example of a corporation that is in San Francisco located in a BID zone, which if its in place in addition to the already existent race and class profiling of poor people, youth of color adds another layer to the criminalization.  An example of this playing out was one of my friends got pulled over by the poLice for being Black and young and riding a bike in SF - and they crushed his bike. Why is that? That's because he is colored and has no race and class privilege.

It doesn't just happen in San Francisco it happens all through California. “October 2015 Sacramento PID Executives high-ranking members of the Sacramento Police Department STD and other City officials exchanged almost 2,000 pages of emails regarding homeless people 62 of 72 homeless people we surveyed who were the living within b I d  boundary in Chico Sacramento and San Francisco Reported being approached San Francisco Union Square Biv Lobby for more police officers to enforce anti-homeless lost and received a 3 million Grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to increase police patrol during the holidays and crew install security cameras “ (UC Berkeley law University of California)  also bid Was the solution to the economically Klein of the mid-twentieth century US government to prevent itself from collapsing bankrolled urban renewal project leaving Urban small businesses to compete desperately with their massive department store counterparts

I am a poverty skolar I currently live in public property.

Student of Deecolonize Academy

-Ziair Hughes

Definitions

Parcel Number = A number assigned to parcels of real property by the tax assessor of a particular jurisdiction for purposes of identification and record-keeping.

Situs = The place to which, for purposes of legal jurisdiction or taxation, a property belongs.

Documentary Transfer Tax (DTT) = Any kind of tax that is levied on the transfer of ownership or title to property from one entity to another. Transfer taxes are usually non-deductible, although they may be added to basis on the sale of securities and/or investment property.

Conclusion

Every single one of these topics, from the history of redlining to the Ugly Laws that once were and still exist, we wrote for a reason. We wrote on all of these specific topics to show to you, our readers, a connection between each and every one of the struggles that we face, the connection to the wealthy stealing and profiting off of Mama Earth. If it weren’t for the redlining techniques all those years ago, real esnake agencies wouldn't be able to make so much money on the flipping of houses in low-income neighborhoods, the same neighborhoods, or “hoods” as they are known which were redlined.  

Without the Ugly Laws that were up in place in the late 19th century, and like I said, still exist today, there would be the means to criminalize the very people they are trying to kick out to make money off of. Without B.I.D’s, there wouldn’t be any reason for the customers of the real esnake agencies, the homeowners, to stay in the cities that they would figure out were not actually as pretty as they were made out to be.

We need liberated Ohlone Lisjen land to the unhoused people because they are tired of sleeping on the streets moving around to find a place to sleep and also find some food.

Lberated  to homeless, that means let us unhoused people build our own houses rather than sleeping on the streets. We don't have to cover the sidewalk anymore we just need resources to build our own.

We need help, not for us, not for the popularity of Poor Magazine or for the good of Homefulness, but simply for all of us folks who are still on the street us unhoused people, who aren't able to go back home, to lay in a warm bed and not be rained on at night. We need help for the people who are being criminalized and brutalized by the police and the government simply for not having a home, because those people, are us. Those "homeless" people that the media alienates so passionately, are our brothers, mothers, sisters, cousins, friends, and acquaintances.

They are also poets, artists, and most importantly humans. Humans who should have the right to housing, because being in a house is a privilege that most don’t even realized they are blessed with.

Recommendations

As Unhoused and formerly unhoused youth and family poverty skolaz who are currently housed and educated on a small piece of liberated Mama Earth we poor folks call Homefulness- we know that the “answer” to our homelessness does not exist in more grants, lygislations and politricks- we know that liberation of Mama Earth is possible and one of the ways to end homelessness is through building more Homefulness projects - through the launching and supporting of the Bank of Community Reparations which supports poor and unhoused families to build their own solutions to homelessness and to stop buying, selling and profiting off of Mama Earth

1. Liberate ( Buy & then Un-sell- spiritually and legally) vacant privately or publicly “owned” parcels of Occupied Huchuin Ohlone Lisjan land on BlackArthur, in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland) for the building of Homefulness and/or other poor and unhoused people-led projects with the leadership of 1st Nations communities llike the Sogorea Te Land Trust  

2. Take 20% of publicly and privately “owned” Mama Earth off of the “commodities” market (real estate) for the building of landless peoples self-determined land movements like First they came for the homeless and Homefulness to communities like “Friends on Wheels in Berkeley - Unhoused RV dwellers and RoofLESS radio in San Francisco

3. Support/ Donate/ Radically Redistribute/Community Reparate resources, trust funds , 2nd or 3rd homes, stocks or assets you dont live in to the Bank of Come-Unity Reparations so unhoused elders, youth, families and adults can rent apartments, buy cars, stabilize their lives and income

4. Come to a DegentriFUkation/Decolonization Seminar at PeopleSkool to learn about #RadicalRedistribution and Community Reparations

5. Real Estate Industry pay a mandatory 20% Homefulness Fee to  the Bank of Community Reparations whenever a sale is made of Mama Earth for profit and donate to the Shumi Tax

Sources:

-Poverty Scholarship - Poor People-led Theory, Art, Words and Tears Across Mama Earth published by POOR Press

-WrapHome.org reports on Criminalization

-POOR Magazine WeSearch reports 2015-2019

-UC Berkeley report on the Business Improvement Districts

WeSearchers/Poverty Skolaz: Youth and Family Skolaz: Tiburcio Garcia, Amir Cornish, Ziair Hughes, Solomon Kealoha-Campbell, Kimo Umu, Zion Angeles, Tiny Gray-Garcia, Jasmine Hain, Muteado SIlencio, Aunti Frances Moore, Leroy Moore, Dee Allen,Queennandi, Jewnbug, Corrina Gould, Mama Dee Support Team: Yael & Paige - Ancestors, Creator and Mama Earth

What is the Stolen Land /Hoarded Resources Decolonization, Redistribution and Community Reparations Tour and the Bank of Reparations?

Herstory:

The Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources tour launched on Mama Earth Day 2016 in the stolen Lisjen/Ohlone Village of Yelamu (SF) in CalifAztlan, with poor & indigenous peoples touring “rich” neighborhoods across the US and knocking on doors humbly asking that wealth hoarders redistribute their surplus money, resources and assets to poor and indigenous led land liberation movements. The tour has so far toured 8 wealth-hoarding cities across the US including Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Oakland, Manhattan, Conn and Philadelphia   Poor & indigenous Tour Guides are joined by conscious folks with race and class privilege walking in solidarity and change.

The tour is loosely based on the Bhoodan Movement of India launched by Vinoba Bhave who walked through India asking wealthy "land-owners" to gift their land to landless peoples. With a similar vision, this small group of landless and indigenous peoples being hit the hardest by displacement and gentrification will be intentionally crossing the invisible and visible lines between the land and resource hoarders aka the very rich and the victims of generations of white supremacy, theft, colonization, criminalization, racism, eugenics and silencing, aka the very poor.  

Two action models/solutions that Homeless and 1st Nations folks are presenting is the poor people-led self-determined movement called Homefulness in Deep East Oakland (Huchuin Ohlone Land) as well as Sogorea Te Land Trust which is a Native Woman run land trust based in the land of the 1st peoples who lead it.

The Bank of Community Reparations

This tour officially launches the Bank of Community Reparations - a national fund of redistributed and stolen wealth that is distributed equally among poor and indigenous people-led land use projects - the 1st four of which are the following:

1)Homefulness in Deep East Huchuin(Oakland),  a poor and indigenous-led landless peoples movement working to build 9 units of housing for unhoused families and elders, a liberation school, radio station, garden and healing center in Deep east Oakland

2)Sogorea Te Land Trust (Huchuin/Oakland) the first Native woman-run land trust working to reclaim stolen Ohlone/Lisjen land (Oakland)

3) Frohms Martial Arts- a Black-led Martial Arts studio displaced/gentrified from their East Oakland studio

4) Homefulness#2 in North Oakland, Berkeley or San Francisco ( Launched by fellow poverty skolaz from Friends on Wheels in Berkeley, (Unhoused RV dwellers and Manna From Heaven- a Black elder-led breakfast program being gentrified from their long-time North Oakland location)

Community Reparations is a concept launched by Lisa tiny Gray-Garcia and is rooted in Poverty Scholarship and the notion of Interdependence - Meant to be a healing medicine of  resistance to the lie of independence and the separation nation that encourages the violent act of looking away. Instructing us all to recognize our humanity, and resist the normalizing of capitalist separateness, “success” through land-stealing and wealth-hoarding.  

For more information on the Tour and/or Revolutionary Giving to the Bank of Reparations call (510) 435-7500 or email poormag@gmail.com. To register for the next PeopleSkool Seminar in Black August for Folks with Race/Class Privilege email deeandtiny@gmail.com or go on-line to www.racepovertymediajustice.org or www.poormagazine.org

In the past few years I have seen more of us suffer with the black mold issue in silence than with any other issue out of fear of retaliation or eviction, but why is it that landlords are able to rent out these poisoned boxes in the disguise of apartments to unsuspecting tenants while landlords are more than likely aware of the risks to the people’s health?

Mold is a fungus that is produced in the moisture of tile crevices, HVAC systems, attics, doors, crawlspaces, windows and under carpets. It is known to stick to walls and other surfaces but mold can also be airborne.

According to WeSearch, (POOR Magazine research) prolonged exposure to Mold, AKA Stachybotrys especially Black Mold can lead to more serious and permanent respiratory damage if the poison is not eradicated in a urgent timeframe. Those in contact with mold also increase the risks of medical problems such as allergies, asthma, chronic fatigue and even depression. Chronic coughing, irritation to the eyes nose and throat area are also symptoms of mold/black mold poisoning.

A longtime member of POOR Magazine along with her family has been the victim of not one incident of black mold, but 2 incidents where herself and her children’s health had declined to a point where the doctor even said that they can no longer reside at the residences that were infested by the mold. All of her clothing, furniture, books and other possessions were contaminated with the poison and the poor family had to bear the burden of being houseless without the adequate help from millionaire slumlords who does not care if the tenants live or die from this “domestic cyanide”

Was it the same “domestic cyanide” that sickened our elder Panther Richard Brown, whose Prince Hall apartment unit was riddled with black mold everywhere and to the point that walls had to be torn down in his home and poorly replaced? Mr. Brown was constantly in the ICU department at UC hospital where according to his caretaker and daughter-in-law, Ms. Kenyatta “He would be doing better with his breathing and overall health, but soon as he was sent home he would be sick all over again. I pressed for the management to do something about the mold for a very long time,  but by the time management took the issue seriously it was too late.” We lost our elder Mr. Brown in the summer of 2018.

In my own apartment in the Fill-no-mo my family has had issues with black mold, bug infestations and the year long wait periods for basic appliances like a stove and although I was number #6 on the list to get the damp, muggy carpet removed -there are vacancies in the Plaza East complex that have been attended to better than the unit I live in after being immediately moved in after a family without so much as new blinds, repairs to the previous families’ damages nor a fresh paint job. My daughter deals with headaches and nosebleeds while I’m always feeling fatigue and “down”. Our kitchen sink is leaking water and our garbage disposal is not working. I’m always trying to budget my low income to pay for the repairs but when all you can afford is cheap labor with a  band-aid patchwork don’t expect for the problem to be solved via discount- you get what you pay for.

The slap in the face is that you will have the naysayers with a whole bunch of money spew from their mouths- “If you don’t like the condition of the place, MOVE!” These wealth hoarders that outlaw homelessness and poverty speak upon this housing sin committed against humanity as if we all have thousands upon thousands of dollars to give to a careless, greedy “landlord” who, in return rents to us poor families and those a notch above poor poisonous places we are suppose to be able to call “home”...

We’re honoring you! This is our tradition. If we didn’t do this, you wouldn’t be remembered. Why are you being so P.C.? Don’t you have better things to do? You don’t pay taxes here!!! These are but a few statements Indigenous Peoples hear when we use our voices to say, “We don’t feel honored, remove us as your Indian mascot.”  All the while, these same folks are standing on Indian Land defending a stereotypical image as they willfully ignore the pleas and requests of actual First Nations Peoples. Why do non-natives think it is okay to tell First Nations Peoples how we should feel? We’re telling you we don’t feel honored. 

For over 100 years Arnijo High School has perpetuated institutionalized racism by using an Indian as their school mascot. As presented in an online poll, by Fairfield Suisun Unified School District (FSUSD) earlier this year, FSUSD asked the community if they believed using the term Indian as a mascot was/is offensive.  SSPRIT’s Executive Director Kim DeOcampo iterates, First Nations Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, Native Americans, Indians…”We ARE NOT terms!! We are living-breathing cultures of peoples with contemporary relevance and we have a voice of our own!” Racist mascots like Armijo’s Indian mascot keeps us as a peoples of the past. How can our voices be heard if we are continually dehumanized and seen as relics?

In late 2018, Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSPRIT), an Indigenous led organization based in Solano County, formally addressed FSUSD requesting the removal of the Indian Mascot at Armijo High School. After several meetings and addresses to the board, FSUSD’s Superintendent Kris Corey, directed the board to create a mascot advisory committee, with the goal of creating a recommendation. The mascot advisory committee comprised of district educators, administrators, students, parents, and alumni, met for several months. SSPRIT provided a presentation in which information was provided regarding civil rights and the use of First Nations Peoples as mascots. The use of Native American mascots is not about being politically correct; it’s a civil rights issue. In fact, the removal of Indian mascots in public schools is not a new one. Mascot removals date back to 1968 when The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) first began the work of addressing Indian mascots in schools, sports and media. NCAI, civil rights, and many other organizations, such as The ACLU, NAACP, The National Education Association, The American Psychological Association, The American Counseling Association, The American Sociological Association, The American Indian Movement and numerous Tribal Nations and Tribal Governments, advise against the use of Native American mascots and have resolutions in place stating, “Native American images, symbols and Native American cultural and religious traditions - as sports names, logos and mascots perpetuates racist stereotypes and undermines the self-determination and dignity of Indian People.”

Yet, each time we address school boards requesting the removal of Native American mascots, we are met with hostility and backlash; mostly from alumni who can’t seem to move past their high school years. Sometimes, we’re verbally threatened and at other times, we’ve been physically attacked….All while being told to “Get over it” and that “It’s just a mascot.”  If it’s just a mascot, then why can’t you JUST remove it?  And On Thursday, May 9, 2019 the FSUSD Governing School Board may vote to do JUST that! On April 25, 2019, FSUSD will hear the recommendation from the mascot committee; the recommendation will be given at the districts’ board meeting located at 2490 Hilborn Road in Fairfield, CA at 6 pm. The board will subsequently place the mascot on the agenda as an action item and will vote to either keep or remove the mascot on May 9, 2019.

Maintaining the Indian mascot at Armijo high school goes against district policy. According to FSUSD’s policy 7310, “The school mascot is defined as a symbol, character, name or logo. The school mascot shall demonstrate principles of justice, democracy, equality, non-discrimination, good governance, good faith, and respect for human rights.”  Civil Rights are Human Rights and The United States Commission on Civil Rights states, “The stereotyping of any racial, ethnic, religious or other groups when promoted by our public educational institutions, teaches all students that stereotyping is acceptable, a dangerous lesson in a diverse society. Schools have a responsibility to educate their students; they should not use their influence to perpetuate misrepresentations of any culture or peoples.”

Furthermore, The California Racial Mascot act states, “The use of racially derogatory or discriminatory school or athletic team names, mascots, or nicknames in California public schools is antithetical to the California school mission of providing an equal education to all.

Many individuals and organizations interested and experienced in human relations, including the United States Commission on Civil Rights, have concluded that the use of Native American images and names in school sports is a barrier to equality and understanding, and that all residents of the United States would benefit from the discontinuance of their use. No individual or school has a cognizable interest in retaining a racially derogatory or discriminatory school-athletic team name, mascot, or nickname.”

I heard a non-native say at an FSUSD school board meeting, “Why don’t we ask the Indians of THIS land what they think?” After which he and an Armijo High School alumni immediately told the board it would cost too much money to remove the Indian mascot. Did they not take in to account how much it would cost to keep it?! What is the true price of perpetuating institutionalized racism? What is the cost of teaching young people for 100 more years that it’s okay to uphold racist stereotypes? What is the true price of First Nations youth seeing their culture being used as a mockery by their entire school? And last but definitely not least, what about the voices of the original inhabitants of the land on which we are standing, The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation? What do they think about being, so-called, “Honored”? 

In a letter of support provided to SSPRIT, FSUSD’s Governing School Board and The Mascot Advisory Committee, The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nations states, “Changing public perception of offensive Native American mascots and imagery has long been a focus of our Tribe. We understand this is a complicated and sensitive matter. For several years, our Tribe has been a leader in local, state and national efforts to end the use of offensive Native American mascots and imagery in sports and entertainment culture. These images promote racist, derogatory stereotypes and fail to honor the culture, religion and legacy of Native Americans in this country.”  

FSUSD has the opportunity to be on the right side of history. FSUSD has an opportunity to provide an educational moment. SSPRIT asks FSUSD to truly HONOR First Nations Peoples. The removal is long overdue. Remove the Indian mascot at Armijo High School! The time is here! The time is now!

To learn more about SSPRIT please visit: ssprit.wordpress.com or contact SSPRIT at: sspandrit@gmail.com

Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSPRIT) is an Indigenous led organization dedicated to protecting Native American sacred sites and to preserving the cultural and spiritual freedom of First Nations Peoples. SSPRIT advocates for the removal of Native American mascots in public schools and educates the community about Native American cultural appropriation and decolonization. 

Angel Heart, Quechua-Puna, is SSPRIT’s Volunteer Secretary and Public Relations Officer and has been with the organization since 2013. She has led & assisted in the removal of 5 Native American mascots to date. If successful, removal of the Armijo Indian mascot will be her 6^th. Angel Heart is a Suisun City resident and has two grandchildren who attend school in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District.  

Thank u, dear heart, please do I'm trying to get Help I'm involved too much not to have What I need For Basic Survival Every one thinks the next person is Taking care of me And I'm getting passed up pushed to the side and looked over ... We die out here and put into much work not to sit by and watch others Reap the Benefits and I and the Children get Left Out ...  I've reached out Several times not to you but in the 3 years and to no Avail now it might be too late to get Any kind of help due to Stupid Stipulation of time Gap that's why I got involved with Survivors Speaks So that I can reap the Benefits Folk claim to be For ME ... What I got to do put a Skee mask on ... 3 years no answer no Money No Death Certificate No Body Educating me on Steps on What to do But we got a bunch of Pictures of being out in the Community ...and for What to have my car towed Strangers Reaching Out Facebook Associates Turning A Blind Eye but hitting like button on Bullshit modeling images ... I reached out to have a few conversations.. folk Speak highly of my kids and give me Kudos for Well behaved Kid's ...how much more can THEY take Before THEY Begin to Feel the Pressure Of Lack of Basic Necessities Due to their Big brother Being Taken so unfairly & abrupt. And Really I should keep this to my self there probably not much u can do Folk say call any time ...its Soo not True...
thank u hun for at least Responding I don't know how much more We can Take as An Family ... I met a mom that Lost all 3 of her sons It would be A Shame if that pattern were to happen to me and my kids With all that We do all folk could say is Not a got Damn thang But Make us Hashtags show up to funeral and be a memory in the Past talk about all our young Great accomplishments while alive probably be capitalized on by the same family that turn their backs on us ...this ain't even yo fight sis We got our own cross to bear let me take my Grieving ass back to bed I just got up to pee-pee and done got Triggered all over again this was supposed to be short and a sweet thanks for saying you gone call me offline someone did throw away but I couldn't answer phone broken like dat .. I will say this thank u And it Only Takes One to be the willingly Used As Gods Tool of Choice Of Instrument 

“Put that fruit back,” says Mahershala Ali as the pianist Don Shirley to Viggo Mortensen as Frank "Tony the Lip" Vallelonga in the movie Green Book, with controlled disdain for Tony. Tony’s casual theft of an apple from an outdoor fruit stand could either be seen as the privilege of a “wite” man who isn’t constantly predated, watched and poLiced, like all melenated/african peoples are every ]day in amerikkka- or an “act” of food liberation common among urban poor folks of all colors, who have had to liberate, abscond or steal food all of our lives just to eat. The gaze of Don Shirley who as the movie shows had overt disdain for many of Tony’s obviously working class (read:ghetto) behavior was a constant theme in the movie, causing fights between the characters and culminating in series of dangerous encounters with racists, classist and poLice across the Deep South tour they were on.

These moments of race and class consciousness and conflict were threaded through the entire production of Green Book. Which is one of the many reasons I don’t agree with Spike Lee and others that critique Green Book as only a feel good Wite Man/Black Man story. Driving Miss Daisy 2019….. (LOL tho) 

But that said, both Green Book, Blindspotting earlier this year and another recent release The Best of Enemies are actually incisive illustrations of the ways us Po folks understand and overstand one another way beyond our melanin count and the very specific way that in amerikkklan race and poverty are intrinsically linked and the fact that poverty scholarship, ( poor folks leading our own movements, telling our own unfiltered stories, art, etc) is rarely if ever shown in almost all Hollywood depictions, maybe because the writers, and producers have , as my Mama Dee would always say, never missed a meal themselves, the same way that so many of the art, education and media forms rarely if ever include our voices as leaders, writers and producers. 

And oddly in contrast to some movies repping purely race/identity politic such as US and the newest sloppy production called The Intruder, a Black krapitalism image of success is viewed as natural “cues” that the Black protagonists are like everyone else . That they all “made it” cause they have country homes, high paid jobs, wite friends and condominiums in deeply gentrifUKEd neighborhoods like San Francisco where the Intruder was set  

Whereas Green Book and The Best of Enemies culminated with examples of post-colonial culture, art and inter-dependence . In Green Book its seen as Tony’s  indigenous interdependent, multi-generational, Italian culture of connected-ness versus the isolation of accumulation- depicted in Don Shirley’s huge, empty New York penthouse filled with African Iconography and art but no people. And in Best of Enemies, poverty skolaz join forces to fight the over-arching wealth-hoarding “wite Citizen’s council.” Showing the real “power/force/hate was the wealthy, more “civilized” wite people who didn’t need to wear hoods to destroy Black peoples lives

Green Book is about  race and class and the ways they are intimately connected, about Black culture, Italian culture and the cross- race culture of poverty, which believe it or not is, as my sister. Po poet and welfareQUEEN and educator, poverty skola jewnbug says, is a culture too ! And the reason a lot of Black Scholars can’t see that aspect is they are middle-class themselves, perhaps having a poverty skola in their past but really working hard as possible to distance themselves from all that  is “ghetto”

The relationship conflicts at their most superfificial reading is the fact that Don Shirley is black and Tony is Wite, and Ann Atwater is Black and CP Ellis is wite. But what is revealed is their connectedness over struggle, oppression, and forced treatment, in many ways completely trumps the purity of race and racism and actually lifts up interdependence and community and consciousness.

In The Best of Enemies the thing Badass organizer and revolutionary poverty skola Ann Atwater, played with smooth precision by Taraji and Klan member C.P Ellis, played beautifully by Sam Rockwell,  bond over is class, poverty and disability, in fact, not only do they reluctantly realize that they understand each other, they have very similar problems and concerns.

Whereas in the Intruder, the “past” which could be one of poverty of one of the main characters of witnessing his brother shot at 12 years old is completely subverted as only a tale of why he is afraid of guns and in fact his character wants nothing to do with his past and is constantly tryin to become as “rich” as possible.

As a formerly houseless poverty skola from LA who with mama were movie junkies ( bad, good or indifferent) I can’t even watch un-critiqued wealth-hoarders/fake veneer of middle class lyfe in film and I would suggest all poverty skolaz see Green Book and Best of Enemies and challenge Hollywood to actually create a story about poor people creating their own solutions outside of krapitalism and poLice and the cult of independence…. ummm that sounds oddly like the POOR Magazine/Homefulness/Deecolonize Academy movie, which I guess we Po folks might have to do ourselves to get it right…

In the mean-time run don't walk to the screening of local poverty skolaz and POOR magazine family Audrey Candy Corn, Peter Menchini, Amir and Ziair's new film Soar Torian Soar which will show on June 9th at the Roxie Theatre at 2:30pm as part of the Indie FIlm Fest.- Stay Tuned for this poverty skolaz reviewforTHeReVoLution on this beautiful film