WHO'S QUALITY OF LIFE IS THIS, ANYWAY? (2002)

by Carol Harvey

"Disabled people have the A.D.A.Ý People of color, gay and lesbian people fought to get civil rights protections.Ý Itís an outrageous scandal that poor people are deprived of civil rights which cannot be taken from other minorities." --Terry Messman

A snub-nosed blue van, grill like snarling hound's teeth, charged into the driveway straight at me. A heavy-set woman, her long dark hair framing a pit bull jaw, growled out the window, "Stop bothering that woman!"

I live among swellegant robber barons, wryly termed 'Specific Whites' by Project friends. Strolling the evening sidewalk home at 7:00 pm, I passed a mansion around the corner from my small Pacific Heights Victorian. A well-groomed woman chatted with a man in a speckled painter's cap between Doric columns on curving front steps. My backpack was humped with groceries. A black bag slung on one shoulder contained a tape recorder.

I had been dizzy and sick in my tiny Victorian apartment.Ý A neighbor pointed out this house as a paint fume source.

I called politely to the woman,"Are you painting?"

"Construction, no painting," Suddenly, she ordered: "Get out of here." I'll call the police."

Shocked, I retorted, "What self-entitled Fantasyland do you live in?" It's a public sidewalk."

Her abrupt turn warned she was headed for the phone. I continued home, fuming, By what right does she threaten me? I'm getting her address. I went back. The unmarked van charged."What if I said I was plainclothes police?" she yelled.

"I'd say Produce ID and stop harassing me!"

I circumnavigated the vehicle, noting the house number.

"Get out of here!" barked the rent-a-cop at my back.

No shit, I thought. I've just been profiled!

Interesting timing! I had met that day with Terry Messman, gentle Street Spirit editor, and viewed video of the Press Conference on The Criminalization of Homelessness on the steps of the State Building at McAllister and Van Ness.

Tuesday, January 15th, advocates from The San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness and the National Coalition in Washington, D.C. held simultaneous press conferences marking the release of an official study of 80 cities that uncovered a massive new wave of nation-wide repression against the unhoused. It revealed a severely worsening national climate in which civil liberties, rights of free speech, of assembly, the right to sit, to stand, to sleep, to perform natural functions of daily life --- the very right to exist --- are punished as Quality of Life Crimes and denied to this most vulnerable impoverished group.

Lacking private spaces in which to carry out life-sustaining activities such as sleeping, resting, storing personal belongings, or activities associated with personal hygiene, people experiencing homelessness face the further indignity of arrest.

The press conferences marked the 73rd anniversary of Martin Luther King's birth. King was assassinated during his last great Poor Peoples Campaign championing the right to housing, employment, and income for those unable to work.

Paul Boden, high-powered, intense, San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness Director, told me, "Of 36 cities originally studied in 1999, 65% increased the numbers of laws used to incarcerate, and harass homeless people. Of the 80 cities surveyed, 90% of them are implementing anti-panhandling laws. The report shows that cities across the country are using the same patterns, methodologies, and laws to criminalize and eliminate homeless people. This is not a coincidence."

"More jurisdictions are enacting laws that effectively criminalize homelessness by prohibiting activities such as sleeping or camping in public, even when no shelter beds are available, and that the use of these ordinances is increasing.Meanwhile, 100 percent of communities surveyed lack enough shelter beds to meet demand."

"Special mention goes to Palm Beach County, FL for their chillingly Orwellian methods of tracking" homeless people."Their Sheriff's office developed a homeless database accessible on the Internet, including "information (on) the next of kin, previous medical treatment (to include broken bones), photographs of tattoos, and the last place the individuals received dental treatment," used to identify deceased and missing individuals," including prostitutes, and "develop a list of suspects."

Boden told me, "Supervisor Gavin Newsome is proposing an ordinance that includes fingerprinting, and a centralized information database on every homeless person, to be implemented by the new Department of Homeless Services.If Palm Beach County's methods give evidence of the trend of considering homeless individuals to be criminals simply because of their economic status, and lack of homes, then San Francisco may soon become equally draconian."

The report distinguishes California as the meanest state in the Country for people who are poor and homeless, with New York City vying with Atlanta, GA and San Francisco, CA - the three meanest cities nationally - for top notoriety. Santa Cruz, a purportedly liberal community, was high on the list.

According to Chance Martin, Street Sheet Editor, "The report was a joint effort between the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, and National Coalition for The Homeless.Ý The entity originating this report was the National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP), a study done by the National Coalitions Civil Rights Work Group. We had people from all over California reporting to CHROP The California Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project."

The National Coalition on Homelessness has regional offices in New York, Atlanta, Kentucky, Washington D.C, Chicago, Texas, Los Angeles. The San Francisco Regional Office represents Northern California and Nevada.

The San Francisco press conference, included advocates from Northern California. Said, Boden, "Those are people we work with out of our local office and connect what's happening on a local level to a federal and national fight, telling all the local groups that are getting their butts kicked by police departments, and local boards of supervisors and city halls across the country, how similar this whole campaign is."

Boden notes solidarity, education."The challenge reflects our ability to bring those groups together. United, we are strong. Every local fight around quality of life enforcement programs is about all these homeless people in our city, all these people on my street. When you realize that's actually millions of people on streets all over this country, you have a better context to debate, fight, challenge, and hopefully reverse the trend and stop it."

Northern California speakers were Lillian Hanson (CHROP).

Cliff Crooks of SHOC: Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, described five-day incarcerations "just for the crime of sleeping."

Muliaga Togotogo, Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, San Jose, noted the Human Rights Declaration drafted in San Francisco guaranteed jobs, homes, health care, saying if America doesnít solve this problem, "We are doomed."

Becky Johnson, HUFF, Homeless United in Friendship and Freedom of Santa Cruz, spoke of privatization of downtown public space excluding the homeless.

Ken Lane, Stanislaus County, Modesto, described armed police sweeps of camps.

L.S. Wilson, San Francisco, Oren Sellstrom, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, and James Tracy from San Francisco's Right to A Roof spoke eloquently.

Kimiko Burton for Senator John Burton, said, "I'm glad St. Francis isn't around to see his namesake city labeled one of the meanest in the nation The vast majority (of people here) are interested in real and humane solutions to homelessness.

Lisa Williams, Hastings law student, asserted, the economic argument behind criminal law is to raise the price of criminal activity so people choose not to do it,substituting legal activity. "There is no substitute for camping on streets, sitting or pissing on sidewalks, If you fine the activity, a $100 dollar ticket for sleeping on the street, or be put in jail, income is going to be less. The penalty will increase the activity you want to deter.

Such activities not performed cause sickness and death.

Under, Individual Costs of Criminalization: says the report, "Once people do their jail time, they are still homeless."

In his speech Boden asked, "Who's quality of life are we talking about? The quality of life of poor people that are being put in our streets with no access to alternatives, or the quality of life of Tony Hall, Gavin Newsome, Willie Brown, politicians using 30 second sound bites to get elected by beating on poor people? Identify the enemy, attack the enemy, get elected to public office."

I asked Boden why the study concluded San Francisco and California are the worst human rights violators.

"People working compiling the data found no state close to California. The numbers of laws, the heavy enforcement of those laws. The lack of State funding for health care and housing for poor people. The tone, the brutal language used by our local politicians (in the media and in City Hall meetings) to describe homeless and poor people as bums, derelicts. The dialogue around piss, and shit. in California is powerful, the fifth largest economy in the world State policies and laws are driven by corporate money, and slimy boys. Overwhelmingly."

An overall finding of the study: Systematic abuse of the civil rights of homeless people is used as a strategy to remove homeless people from sight by local governments and private business districts. However, Paul Boden, Director of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness explains, "Homeless peoples' organizations are becoming stronger and united to defend our rights to housing, treatment, living wage jobs, and quality education. People who are homeless will not disappear or cease to exist."

PROFILED / STEREOTYPED BY APPEARANCE

Outside the San Francisco Public Library Jeff, a denim-clad 45-year-old man with an articulate Jersey accent shed light on profiling." Police target by appearance.We look alike, always got a bag, need a shave, clothes a little dirty.

ÝEASY TARGETS

We're easy targets. To avoid the hassle, we take what they give and get out. If the cop came up to Joe Citizen: "Let me see some ID. He'll say, "What are you doing?" Homeless guys will go, Okay. Here's my ID. Police think they have a right to just walk up to somebody and ask for ID, but they only do it to us. If you were in the Tenderloin, the Police would never bother you. But, they could pull up on me any time.

AVOID QUALITY OF LIFE CRIMES: KEEP MOVING AND A KEEP A LOW PROFILE

"I'm harassed every day. They kick you out of the shelter at 6:30 a.m. Walk down the street, cop sees you, automatically you got a bag, and you're a target. I'll sit down somewhere, get up, move, sit at a bus station: "Let me see your ticket."

When was the last police harassment?

"On a weekly basis, I am bothered by the police. Sitting over there on the bench Sunday at 6:30 a.m. A cop came up. Got to keep moving. Can't get comfortable. If this wasn't the library, we'd be gone. Sit over there in the park more than half an hour, they'll make you move, unless you're eating a lunch so you look like you work at City Hall.

"I keep to myself, keep a low profile".

HOMELESS PEOPLE EXPERIENCE DISCRIMINATORY CIVIL RIGHT ABUSES,

When was someone last rude or treated you differently?

"I walk into a bar, Can I use your bathroom?", I say

"NO! You've got to be a customer!"

"Okay, give me a soda. Not good enough. They know you just want to use the bathroom."

"At a gas Station on Van Ness at 7:00 a.m., I need to use the bathroom. NO! Can't use it, Somebody came in after me. Here's the key"

QUALITY OF LIFE CRIMES

What do you think of being ticketed for sitting, sleeping, going to the bathroom?

"This is the City bathroom. More people in this library are homeless than anywhere in the City. It's the only place you can be inside, sit down, read a book, and nobody will bother you."

It's a damn shame. Tickets for loitering, panhandling in the Tenderloin. Nobody bothers the dealers on the corner selling dope.

Ý

SHELTER:

The study's second finding: 100% of communities surveyed lack enough shelter beds to meet demand and housing costs are out of reach for many, including the working poor.

In most cities" "shelters and transitional housing facilities select their residents from among the thousands of people seeking beds daily. .The overwhelming majority of communities from Boston to Birmingham to San Francisco lack sufficient emergency shelter beds on any given night for people who are homeless and seeking shelter. Needs so far exceed resources that specialized facilities operate at capacity, while thousands remain unsheltered.

Under the Interfaith Winter Shelter, the City pays churches to house a few from December to March. You bounce from church to church. This week I'm at St. Mark's.

WILLINGNESS TO WORK:

"People think you want to be homeless. I don't. I'm a certified mechanic. I know building trades. Apply for a job, where you going to call me? On the street a couple years; a gap in your resume. People won't hire you.

"We had a flea market in the Tenderloin. Honest work. Police won't let you stay, take your stuff, ticket you for selling with no license. Down the street they sell dope.

HOMELESSNESS: A BORING, TIME-CONSUMING JOB

Being homeless is a boring job. You want to eat, you gotta be in line. Two hours in the morning for breakfast at Glide. Two hours at St. Anthony's. Two hours at Glide at night. One or two hours at the shelter waiting to get in. Six or eight hours a day in line.

CITY MONEY SPENT ON HOMELESSNESS

The study cites the Economic costs of Criminalization: The cost of arresting, processing and jailing homeless people is substantially higher than the cost of securing permanent low-income housing, living wage incomes, affordable child care, education and health care on demand.

"If the City had a job program, (Not GA, where you sweep streets.) If you want to work, I got a job for you. I got a place for you to stay. I am ready, willing, and able to work!"

Jeff asserts, "I won't stay in City shelters cause of Crack heads, thieves, lice. They don't clean them The Mayor says they spend millions on the Homeless. They ain't spending nothing on us."

Paul Boden's steps to eliminate homelessness;

Allow anybody inside a domicile to stay. 2. Eliminate the shell game of transitional housing. 3. Get a true picture of the housing unit shortage. 4. Redirect subsidy money, paid disproportionately to the wealthy, distributing it fairly among all income groups. 5. With that money, create housing units for the poor. 6. Close down shelters. Given an option of a decent, humane place to live or sleep in a shelter, people will take a place to live.