Where's my stuff; The Epilogue

pstrongProposed Legislation which would have given houseless San Franciscans 24 hour notice before their belongings were seized was not passed by the "progressive" SF Board of Supervisors/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/544/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Laurie McElroy/PoorNewsNetwork/p pI slept on the street for two more months than I had to in the winter of 1996, as some of the worst storms and most violent flooding in ten years rolled over the SF bay area. The (Department of Public Works) garbage men took my California identification that November so I could not rent a room even when I had the money, because of Duh Mayor’s enlightened policy of confiscating and trashing homeless peoples’ belongings./p pMy friends and advocates at the Coalition On Homelessness (COH) have spent upwards of five years lobbying City Hall for a change in the so - called “homeless laws” that would make 24 hour (at least) warnings a mandatory prerequisite to seizing and throwing away the belongings of people in my situation. This year the COH finally persuaded the new, “progressive” Board of Supervisors to toss around the idea of amending pertinent sections of the SF Public Works Code to include provisions for notice, and storage of removed property, but after five weeks of Rules Committee meetings and endless re - referrals, it appears the Board has not just fumbled but completely dropped the legislative ball in a morass of interminable delays./p pOn October 21st, I attended a Supervisors’ meeting, the sixth such meeting to raise the issue of legislating a guarantee that homeless citizens receive a 24 hour warning before Department of Public Works employees seize their belongings. Mayor Slick Willie set the tone for a recall vote by hypocritically bemoaning the economic “situation” in which San Francisco (downtown) finds itself, since his artificially induced dot - com boom has petered to a bust. Board president and author of the legislation Tom Ammiano, sent up a glaring red flag with an intro to the discussion that rang more like a funeral eulogy... “No matter how the vote goes,” he intoned ominously,” I really hope the dialogue continues.” A tightfaced woman in the audience, whom I recognized as from the COH, laughed./p pMy stomach entered freefall with that brittle chuckle./p p“This legislation is promoting a way of life that encourages people to leave their bags on the street, “said Supervisor Hall, miraculously deadpan. “It’s not helping anyone...” The “ -I care about helping” part was clearly implied in his sneer and casual demeanor. Hall also expressed his concern that the item made no apparent address to the underlying problems that make homelessness happen. Supe Gavin Newsom came out against the amendments on the floor, saying it will make shopping cart collection more difficult., which gave me a good idea of where he put property rights on his list of priorities. Later, he slung me a soundbyte, saying “I appreciate the intent, it was a noble effort, but I had to vote no on this because of what I saw as the unintended consequences, the hidden costs... I feel the money would be better spent on dealing with the root causes of homelessness.” /p pSaid Supe Matt Gonzales, in response to Newsome and Hall, “It’s great we’re suddenly so interested in having this dialogue on solving homelessness...” He continued, “When we criticise this legislation, we’re criticising the eyesore the posessions ( of the homeless ) represent.” Supervisor Chris Daly urged all present to revisit Continuum of Care, the official City and County of SF homeless policy. “This is existing legislation that has all the solutions to these questions we’re asking, if only it’s implemented... we must hold the Mayor accountable!”/p pThe vote split 7 to 4 in favor of rescindsion, which abruptly halted my stomach plunge *splat!* on the flat granite of disappointment. But I walked out of the conference hall with a held - high air and a set to my jaw. The best of all our stuff is what we have inside, because that’s what we resist with. They won’t ever get that. /p piThe Civil Rights Workgroup of The Coalition on Homelessness is planning an action in response in November to this decision. The Workgroup is having planning meetings for this action every Wednesday in November at 4:30 pm at 468 Turk St in SF. For more information please call them at (415) 346-3740br / /i/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p