GAVIN NEWSOM, CAN YOU LIVE ON $395.00 A MONTH?

by Isabel Estrada with PNN interns, Gay Montgomery and Kristine Shih/PNN

Rent: $103.00

Food: $150.00

Telephone: $53.80

Cable: $37.56

Total: $344.36

After meeting his basic needs, which amount to approximately $344.36 a month, Carlos Trejo, a 56-year-old disabled immigrant from El Salvador, has $50.64 of leeway per month. "Y que me queda para la ropa?" "And what is left for my clothing?" Trejo asks. But now he has more than clothing to worry about. He will be deported to El Salvador, from where he has been trying to escape since 1989, because of political turmoil heightened by US involvement in El Salvador. When he first arrived in the United States, he pleaded for asylum as he was in great danger due to a family member who was involved with the guerrillas. He was denied, and when he didn't sign his deportation papers he was jailed for one year. Trejo is applying for citizenship again in May of this year. The problem is that his pro bono attorney left the case all of a sudden and the attorney who took over is charging him $500 per court session. That $50.64 leeway is not going to help much in Carlos' case.

Carlos is telling me about his predicament while we stand on the sidewalk across the street and around the corner from the Next Door Shelter on Polk and Post. I don't like the feeling of the light rain hitting my forehead. I can't wait to get inside, but we have to wait for Supervisor Gavin Newsom to arrive first. Then we can go straight through the lobby, up to the second floor and right into Newsom's press conference. We're all holding signs that say things like, "QUALITY HOUSING", "JUSTICE NOT RACISM", and "GAVIN NEWSOM, CAN YOU LIVE ON $395.00 A MONTH?" POWER organized this action and along with many welfare recipients, there are people from The Coalition on Homelessness, Homeless Prenatal, General Assistance Advocacy Program (GA A P), Picture the Homeless from New York, and other advocate organizations. Finally we get the cell phone call telling us that Newsom has arrived. In we march.

There are police everywhere with legs spread and firmly planted on the ground. Their furled brows don't quite hide the looks of confusion in their eyes. I'm towards the end of the line walking into the press conference. All I see are a bunch of cameramen interspersed with people standing and holding signs. At the center of the activity are the people with whom I came. It only makes sense that welfare recipients and homeless people should be the ones talking about issues of homelessness and welfare. For some reason, mainstream media loves to quote politicians as experts on these issues. What the hell does Gavin Newsom know about being homeless? It seems to me that those people who have had direct experience with poverty would be the most qualified to evaluate the effectiveness of methods to fight it.

As one homeless man pointed out in response to the smear campaign set forth by mainstream media, in which a big issue was defecation and urination on the streets, "You say don't do something but you don't provide the facilities." One spokesman from Paint a Picture directly addressed this new fad of idealizing ex-New York Mayor Giuliani's treatment of homelessness. Giuliani made jobs like selling oil and clothing, or drawing people for money, illegal. Many people made it sound as though there were all these new shelters built, but I found out the other day that in fact, in Manhattan, there is only one shelter for adult males, and even with shelters in the outer boroughs, there is simply not enough space for everyone. "The shelter system has failed us in New York. Instead of criminalizing people on the streets, we need to create housing."

After making the point that what was needed was LOW-INCOME, QUALITY HOUSING and not ineffective policies that only serve to criminalize poor people, several of the speakers asked Newsom to step forward and talk about what he was going to do to improve the situation. I was wondering where Newsom was, as I hadn't yet seen him at his own press conference. Then I saw him, just a tall white guy in a gray suit standing on the sidelines. He looked scared and too surprised in the face of all the true experts before him to respond to their requests. Instead, he invited us down to City Hall. Of course he wasn't going to discuss his proposal on how to end homelessness with people who really know what they are talking about in front of the media. That would just make the ineffectiveness of it that much clearer to the public.

Newsom's proposal would consist of cutting people's County Adult Assistance (formerly referred to as General Assistance) stipend from $395.00 to $50.00. The rest of the $395.00 would become vouchers to be placed in shelters for people to use to receive food. One of the main problems with this legislation is that there is not enough safe housing in this city in the first place. Also, living in a shelter is not the answer for most people, as Delphine Brody said about living in a shelter, "I had no choice but to deal with abusive people." There is a high rate of emotional, physical and sexual abuse that occurs in shelters. I remember reading of a woman named Anastasia Grandy whose 8-year-old son was traumatized after finding a dead body in the shower when he was living with his mother at a shelter.

There is also the problem that not all necessities can be bought with a voucher. For example, I doubt that Carlos Trejo's new lawyer would accept a voucher as adequate payment. Then there is the fact that Newsom's program is based on a fallacy. He said that homelessness is an issue of drug abuse and mental illness, not housing. The thing is, while drug abuse is a problem, there are many people who can function while addicted to drugs. Many of our famed Hollywood actors make millions while on cocaine. The problem is lack of jobs that pay a living wage and lack of low-income housing. Many cases of drug abuse and mental illness are a result of having to survive on the streets, not the cause.

We took a brief moment to decide to go to City Hall and started to walk. Ironically, Newsom was escorted by the police to a cop car and chose that form of transportation. As we walked we chanted, "What do we want? Housing! What do they give us? Vouchers!" And, "Mayor Brown, Gavin Newsom, you sure are a gruesome twosome." We made our way through city hall quietly. When we got to the room, the main spokespeople sat at the conference table while others took chairs against the walls. While we waited, the press filtered in. Finally Newsom entered along with some police and security. The seat we set out for him was across from Rebecca, of Homeless Prenatal. But before he would sit, he asked the press to leave. He thought we had already received our "press points" back at his press conference; some were mad that the press was leaving. A few wondered about accountability if our discussion was not open to public view, but in the end we voted to talk anyway. When one man asked that the cops leave, Newsom eventually told them that they could leave. They took awhile but finally left.

Kristina, who is also from POOR Magazine, and I were diligently writing in our notebooks. It is odd that I didn't even consider myself to be part of the press that he had asked to leave. I assumed he would only care about mainstream media. But before beginning, he turned around to us and said something to the effect of making sure that there was really no press in the room. I looked up surprised and wide-eyed with half-false innocence, but I never had a chance to respond because he turned away too soon.

We started out by introducing ourselves. Newsom acted as if he was familiar with us, like a kid in high school trying to be cool with his classmates. He seemed to be saying things like, "I got ya" and "yeah man" out of the blue. When I said my name and that I was from POOR organization, he looked right into my eyes and smiled. It was weird. I remember thinking, "What, is this guy trying to hit on me?" Finally after all the introductions, a few people spoke.

Larry Latimore brought up that one problem is that poor people's work is only documented when they are late or tardy. But otherwise they can't even show it as experience on a resume in order to get another job. In fact, people on General Assistance do the same work as many people who are not on it; the major difference is that they get paid way less. As Delphine Brody pointed out, taking away both people's right to panhandle and their benefits would be a serious financial blow to many homeless people. Anthony Williams said that people will "never come out of poverty" unless they are paid a living wage. It's just common sense. Nora from Prenatal demanded well-paid, meaningful jobs, truly affordable housing (one person suggested defining the term "affordable housing" as something that a person who makes under a thousand dollars a month could afford), and childcare.

Before allowing Newsom to speak, Rebecca and several others asked him to remove the proposal from the table. He refused, saying, "It's not going to happen." So then we decided that if he was not actually willing to negotiate, then there was nothing to talk about. As Steve Williams from POWER put it, "This is just the beginning." We left City Hall chanting , "WE'LL BE BACK." And in fact, I'll be on my way to City Hall in a few hours.

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La gente storm city Hall …or ..Newsom, Maybe if You Could Stop Nodding For a Second You’d Learn Something…

It’s Monday, February 11th . This time The Coalition on Homelessness organized the action. First Jennifer Friedenbach briefed us all on what the effects would be, if Newsom’s proposal were to pass. She made the point that there are currently about 2,700 people on CAA (County Adult Assistance, formerly known as General Assistance) and there is no way that 10 million dollars is going to buy quality housing for 2,700 people. In order for people’s benefits to be replaced by vouchers, people need a place to use the voucher. This means that it is very likely that people who are not on General Assistance will be kicked out of shelters and SRO’s so that those who are on GA can move in. While the city refuses to provide low income housing there is no way to shelter those living on the streets without pushing others into the street.

According to Friedenbach, Newsom’s new legislation is essentially saying that CAA money is "better spent by the city than the individual homeless person." After the briefing Jason Negron from POWER told us that we were basically going to interrupt the board meeting with our chants and let a few people who really knew about the issue speak on it.

When we arrive at City Hall we go through the usual process with the metal detectors. I noticed that there were already quite a few cops with sour faces at City Hall. They were probably expecting us. We are quiet as we go up the few stairs to the boardroom where the supervisors are meeting. On our way in we pick up some 8 1/2 by 11 signs that state in big black letters, things like "Gavin Newsom, Stop Attacking the Poor" and "Vote No On Newsom’s Attack, We Need Real Solutions."

I’m wondering what we’re going to do until I hear a chant leader speak up: "Stop Using the Poor for Political Gain" and we all shout: "Pretty Boy Newsom: Shame, Shame, Shame." Gavin looks a little red in the face but somehow still maintains that patronizing concerned look that I’m so sick of seeing after the action at Newsom’s press conference on Thursday the 7th. And as we talk about the same things that we’ve been talking about, the need for truly affordable, quality housing, jobs that pay a living wage, childcare services and on demand treatment centers, he nods and nods and nods and nods, as though he’s hearing it for the first time. We’re in and out fairly quickly but the press got all excited.

Once outside some decide to go back in and stand in line so that we can participate in a quieter sort of public commentary as well. I did noticed that there were quite a few uniforms around but I didn’t notice them materialize into a line in front of the door. There’s a whole line of deputy sheriffs in front of us, a few even have their batons out. This is our City, my City Hall and yet there were Deputy Sheriffs M. Reid #1530, Manalang #1347 and about eight others blocking our entrance. I asked them who they were protecting, I thought they were supposed to be protecting us the citizens. Omana Imani of POWER and Gay Montgomery from POOR Magazine got right in their faces. Gay, who is African-American was especially disappointed to see a very large brother blocking her way.

While outside I saw one corporate reporter ask Omana why we hadn’t gone in quietly and taken our turn to speak. The answer is that homeless people and advocates have made very obvious the numerous ways in which homelessness can be solved. If the supervisors don’t get the point yet than it’s not because we haven’t made it clear. It has to be due to some resistance on their part. Poor people are sick of quietly talking of their lives and quietly being ignored and stepped on. We needed to take some action.

Unfortunately one problem that I noticed was that those of us who were stuck outside talking to the media weren’t well enough prepared to make our points clearly. I for one had tons of thoughts and opinions I wanted to bust out but was so afraid of sounding inarticulate, of just giving the media clips that they could use to show us as disorganized, that I kept my mouth shut. However, some of the other people did a good job of making their point while on the spot.

Soon, Lieutenant Sheriff Hess #66 told us that "at this time" we could not enter and "you’ll have to contact the president of the board." Well, Omana sent Hess back to contact the president himself and eventually they let us in, saying that we would be "escorted out" if we were found standing or making a disturbance.

Most of the people who spoke were in support of the homeless and very much against Newsom’s proposal. Jack Hirshman, who got a brief honorary introduction from Supervisor Matt Gonzales, told Newsom to stop allowing himself to be influenced by the technocracy and urged the whole board to instead embrace something called democracy. Newsom kept nodding. The rest of the supervisors just looked kind of board. I was somewhat surprised to see Matt Gonzales and Newsom getting buddy-buddy and chuckling at something in the corner, but who knows what that means.

Marisa Franco asked Newsom to stop the "racist, opportunist, attack" and invited him to "sit down and talk about how we can come to a solution." Gay spoke about how shelters really aren’t the answer to homelessness. As a homeless woman she was horrified when she found out that if she were to go to a shelter she would not be able to bring her 13-year-old son because he is over 10 years of age.

It’s not hard to understand. We need housing, living wage jobs, childcare, on-demand treatment and adequate health care and quality education. That’s what we need and as a wealthy city in the richest country in the world, we can do it. It’s a matter of fighting so hard that it’d be dangerous not to give it to us.