Story Archives 2003

by Joe B.

On Thursday, Oct. 31, 2002.

I’ve lived in San Francisco nearly a decade or more Halloween or Day Of The Dead celebrations were not on my top ten list.

I was houseless and on G. A.[General Assistance and later work-fare].

Plus I’m basically a homebody with a messy room.

A younger friend accused me of doing so because she might even though illness made her think otherwise.

Just because I want to go this Castro thing now does not mean its because of her.

I wanted to go because I never experienced it before.

After work I rush home take a nap before take a shower then left with mint candy from Supervisor Chris Daly ‘s campaign of last night (they are left in my small refrigerator freezer to stay fresh).

I was going to eat them as snacks but decided instead to hand them out to children trick or treating.

By 8:58 I’m clean, dressed in a white Beverly Hills Polo shirt, [I didn't know that busty woman owned so much stuff!

You know the one with the polo player on the horse?

A lazy eyed rich guy is my disguise plus mints and tape recorder if I am to write about this night.

The night sizzled, people walk, drive, on busses towards the Castro District conversely coming from the opposite direction are streams of people going toward Market Street.

Traffic, people stop, voices of cheer and leers make their sounds mostly a younger crowd are walking steady upwards as others were heading up to Castro.

"There are video camera’s filming" a young black women says talking her group friends.

The crowds increases on the way there is live music of funk and singing by known or unknown artists.

I’m glad I have endurance it works for me now.

At the bar / café called The Mint, I gave three mint candies away because I cannot find children the two young girls and guy thanked me as I moved on up to Castro.

As the migration continued it begins to be more dense as the crowd and I passed Safeway.

I saw port potties which is a lode in case of urination.

Quickly I go up the hill to Castro and States to watch the multitudes below.

There is lots of "Oh, My God" from other people as well as myself when looking back down the hill in the gaping mouth of undulating bodies some who began celebration early.

Costumes are inventive, genius, and full of fun I just worried about death walking around in plain sight without a costume.

A few rowdy people, arguments of pissed off girl and boy friends with cops and new vans also near the bottom or riding up the hill.

Some grounded fireworks and by twelve I start down the hill.

In an apartment complex a young women display their upper body parts and on street level I get a cheap thrill from a young miss dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

Decked out in the famous classic white dress scene in "The Seven Year Itch '1955, a stepping over a subway grate as an updraft blows her dress up. This scene turned her into a star and icon. (Thank You, Hollywood.Com).

This Marilyn is petite proudly showing her breasts for the crowd saying.

"Want to see real breasts I have real tits."

She’s one proud and pretty woman.

While I entered the crowed again for a bathroom break one realizes that in a crowd your still warm.

The streets are jammed packed as I trudge back to Market Street.

Mounted police, helicopters, cycle cops, NBC 11, KRON, and 5 with satellites up to view the part atmosphere.

I’m down the hill, walking trough crowds, almost getting hit by two cars coming at from two opposite directions on Van Ness trying to an alternate room home.

All I can say of this night is the Castro Halloween Party is an Absolutely Fabulous Event.

The next time if I’m here I’ll have a date and a video camera.

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by Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin/ Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities, DAMO

No, this is not a game of hide-n-seek! It’s a real life of MTV’s show, Big Brother, where the hidden video camera is on us catching all of our dirty deeds that Big Brother have been trying to sweep away. However the catch 22 is that only Big Brother has the right to use this camera. Big Brother has passed down these video cameras down to its royal family member’s i.e. the mainstream media, police departments and corporate America etc.

The video camera that caught the beating of Rodney King, unlocked one the closets of Big Brother loyal family member. More important this video set off a new tool for the average person to gain control, justice and to help balance the one-sided scale of the US Justice System. Big Brother has learned and also using this new avenue to implement their programs, to sway public opinion, to sweep certain people out of existence and to win elections. However lately the public’s video cameras have been confiscated, is illegal, viewed as obstructing justice and seen as stepping on the right to privacy. Is there privacy on the streets, in prison and for people with mental illness? When Big Brother teams up with one of his family members, it is almost impossible to fight back. Right here in the Bay Area we have witness this tag-team approach time and time again.

People with mental illness, their families, and advocates put up a good fight for almost four years to get read of the notion and eagerness of passing and implementing Force Treatment on people with mental illness. Although the public put up a good fight, the tag-team approach, media and political leaders, used their cameras to shape the public’s view about people with mental illness and helped to passed bill, AB1422 this year, 2002. For almost five years local mainstream media has chipped away at the image of people with mental illness and many times videotaping them against their will or in secrecy. A couple of years ago San Francisco Chronicle reporters followed a Black woman with mental illness home to her studio. They wanted to come into her room to interview her but she refused so they stayed in the hallway and took pictures of her against her will. When the opinion has swayed than some politicians and legislators swoops in with their propositions and laws that advocates have fought against. That is how this tag team approach works.

This tag-team is really important during election time as we saw in San Francisco with Gavin Newson’s Proposition N, Care not Cash, and how his money reached the Chronicle and all other mainstream media outlets limiting avenues to get the message from other sectors around this issue. During this last election, KPIX news reporters followed around people who were homeless and had mental illness but took their comments and actions out of context by putting words in their mouths. Also the reporters followed them back to their sleeping sites, showing illegal drugs all helping the campaign for Care Not Cash to shape public opinion and ultimate goal to get Prostitution N pass at the ballot.

Thanks for this new so-called war on terrorism there has been a roll back on privacy for certain people. Because of this new “war” certain people don’t have a right to privacy. For example, Uncle Sam can bud into a visit between lawyers and their clients in prison by video and audio recording. Now Uncle Sam wants high school student’s records for their arm forces and they are blackmailing the schools to do it by threatening to cut off their federal money if they don’t hand over student’s records.

Although Big Brother and his family members are using their cameras, our video cameras are taken away or we end up doing time because we obstruct justice? Recently there have been cases where the public has tried to use video cameras to turn the lens on the crimes of Big Brother. Remember the Donovan Jackson case of police brutality where Mitchell Crooks was arrested and his video was confiscated in Inglewood, LA? Almost the same story happened at Thurshgood Marshall School in San Francisco where a teacher was arrested and his video camera he used to record the over reactionary and brutality of police officers towards students was taken away and was booked for questioning. In both cases people have been stripped of their rights and cameras.

We have all seen COPS and America Most Wanted on television, where everything is on camera. Well now the evening news have picked up on this new wave of riding with police to catch “news worthy stories”. This has been recently used in San Francisco and Oakland. In both cities the mainstream television news-reporters has carpooled with police to catch drug users, prostitution and other urban nightly activities. Another common trait in all the cases above are the people and communities that are getting video taped and are witnessing their right to privacy disappearing are communities and people of color. They two communities that the tag team, police and media, focused their news cameras on were the Mission districts in San Francisco and West Oakland during the month of November, 2002. How funny there were no cameras on in the Mirna district where recently two off duty police officer got into a fight outside of a neighborhood bar.

And it is not only in the political, media and police’s arenas that we’ve seen the public video cameras being snatched away. Even in the Halls of Academia, students have tried to use video cameras to balance the power between administration and students. For example recently at St. Marys’ College in Oakland, students have and are trying to get some notice and reaction from the administration about the increasing rates of rap on campus. After many fail tactics a student decided to take her video camera in an open forum on this issue but was stop from entering because of her video camera. In all the above cases the individuals’ video camera were taken away and the individual were written up on charges although it was clear that they just wanted to help their victims.

How can we take back our cameras and get mainstream media and US Justice System to take on our videos of injustice? Remember you hold all the cards especially if Big Brother and his family members are threatening and blackmailing you or offering money for that tape. Make them do right in reporting and handing down justice but if they don’t then tell your side in progressive media outlets, advocacy organizations and in the political arena especially during elections. If no one wants to listen, then have a community viewing of the tape at your home. Unfortunately many times Big Brother can silence us by incarceration, money or changing public opinion about the incident. In this situation team up with other advocates and organizations etc. who have power in numbers and can take your issue to the next level respectfully.

We must keep our cameras on especially now as our rights, social programs and benefits disappear. The iron fist of Big Brother and his monopoly on mainstream media has helped create a violent environment. The most serious, fundamental and altering changes to the system has helped increase crimes are handed down by the swift pen of Big Brother at the ballot and in our legislative branch. His ink that wrote proposition N, destroyed the welfare system, has brought us into war and now produced legislation that will target our youth by allowing the arm forces to view their high school records to see who can be the best he/she can is the ultimate violence. Big Brother’s black ink has already and will continue to turn into red blood that is now flowing on our streets causing it to rise into an emergency flood alter. The question is who will turn the video camera on the ones who are really to blame for crimes, homelessness, war, brutality and our slushy economy?

By Leroy Moore Jr.
Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities, DAMO
Sfdamo@Yahoo.com

by Joe B.

There is suppose to be a part 2 and 3 "About Women, And Power.

I already did honor women for putting up with men in all our sometime clueless glory and the ultimate trump of creating life within them.

While men destroy and can only try extending life a bit longer.

An Open Letter To Women In Prison.

Wrote more stuff in anger, intelligence, and just because wondering aloud.

At the end I ask for women of color behind bars to also send letters if they wanted(Don’t think I’ll get one letter)but if it helps out a few brother’s maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do.

If it Allah’s will, who am I to ask comely fairer sex also imprisoned from free skies to be written to and write.

I really have no proper gage as how a woman’s reaction will be.

My voice should be fashioned out the utmost respect for single or married mother’s, young teen girls.

Young and mature women too many going, have gone through so much, too young, that life is bare, raw, ruthless, at times precious and cheap.

Please send to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by TJ Johnston/PNN Community Journalist

To prevent further fatalities of San Francisco's unhoused, Supervisor Gavin Newsom came up with Care Not Cash, a brainstorm based on Rudy Guliani's NYC agenda. That is, leave less money for booze and substitute the rest for shelter and services.

If we are to believe Newsom, the majority of homeless deaths can be attributed to substance abuse (though the City can make no such claim and the correlation of death by intoxication can be easily refuted). Despite the vocal opposition from the poor community and their allies, the measure and message of the Marina's favorite son resonated with 59 per cent of the electorate.

With the passage of Care Not Cash and his handy re-election to the Board of Supervisors, Newsom emerged as a likely heir apparent in next year's mayoral contest. But before we tout this man as Willie Brown's successor (and he would have to face declared candidates Tom Ammiano, Angela Alioto and Tony Hall before ascending), let's explore the humble origins of this civil servant. I found an illuminating anecdote on channel2000.com.

When they were in their early twenties, Newsom and college chum Bill Getty walked into a wine shop. The clerk made a judgment call and based on their baseball caps and sneakers, he directed them to the beer coolers. Newsom and Getty, respectively the sons of a judge and a philanthropist, agreed they suffered age discrimination. Having been profiled as California frat-boys too often, the pair opened up Plump Jack, a shop catering to young oenophiles in the Marina. "The primary reason we started Plump Jack," recalls Newsom, "was that we were sick and tired of the snobbery surrounding the business."

Getty cites the advertising campaigns targeted to drinkers who come of (legal) age as an impediment. "Every new 21-year old is greeted with open arms by trillion dollar advertising campaigns for the apathetic consumption of hard alcohol or drinking light beer with the Swedish bikini team. And yet the one form of alcohol consumption that has proven medical attributes is shrouded in this nonsensical snobbery."

The key to serving this clientele, they found, is cheap wine. Their business, which has since expanded to other wineries and restaurants, has a large selection of below-$10 vintages. Their website also touts a monthly wine club (like Frasier and Niles'!) and free delivery.

So began Newsom's rise. One day, he was just another Joe denied access to his Merlot, a college boy who begged his father to install a tanning booth is his dorm, one who bore the cross of being a handsome white guy. Somehow he surmounted the adversities privilege bring and parlayed it into additional privilege. His tale evokes Gandhi or Rosa Parks, but only with more capital investment.

I invite my fellow low-income connoisseurs to share a Cabernet (Australian vintage, priced at $7.99) and toast Gavin Newsom his victories. There's a special this month: meet me at Plump Jack after you cash that check.

by By Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

Maria Velmoral, a single mother of two looks nervously and excitedly down the corner of a busy San Francisco street. She, along with about 42 other people, mostly from the East Coast are on the Kensington Welfare Rights Union ‘2002 New Freedom Bus Tour’ A Economic Human Rights For All! Campaign. Just getting in from Salt Lake City, Utah at 6.00 in the morning, Maria walks up the stairs of POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) to have breakfast with her comrades. "I believe everybody’s entitled to health care and a safe place to live and affordable, she explained to me while having coffee. Maria whose always worked all her life and has never been on welfare is thrilled about the bus tour, but warns, "I can go home right now, and not have a home."

The 2002 New Freedom Bus Tour kicked off in Philadelphia, PA on November 10, 2000 and will tour 25 different cities that have high amounts of poverty and homelessness, meeting up along the way with several other community based organizations such as Womens’ Economic Agenda Project (WEAP), POOR Magazine, and POWER And according to the press release…The tour is traversing the nation, calling for Economic Human Rights for all; including the rights to housing, food, clothing, education, and with a special emphasis on the Right to Health Care.

Galen Tyler, Lead Organizer of the bus tour is jazzed about opening peoples minds about poverty, homelessness, health issues and other concerns dealing with poor folks. "(The tour) is linking up with different members of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign throughout the country to document these economic human rights violations," he said to me as a sudden whisk of the Bay Area air sent a chill throughout his body. "The recent downsizing of hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the country and the increasing amount of people who are going without adequate healthcare as well as having any type of healthcare and to link with different groups to try and build on this movement to end poverty."

Earlier this month, San Francisco voters passed Proposition N or the Care Not Cash initiative. This allows the city to cut GA payments of roughly $390 a month to $59 a month. This is a racist law which will go into effect July 1, 2003. Quite frankly, we needed a bus like the New Freedom Bus to help spread our message of the hatred and lies the proposition conjured up.

"We have a voice and it’s going to be heard, and we’re trying to tell people to come out and support us and support themselves, because they need to know their human rights and take charge!" Mrs. Morales another passenger on the tour bus told me. "We need to awaken the people that are homeless, those who have health issues, those that are jobless, those that are working poor to come out and speak up for themselves. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem."

Before going off to Oakland to protest the closing of a pain clinic at Summit Hospital with WEAP, Reo English a resident of Philadelphia and bus tour member explained to me, "It’s like a reality tour, because of a lot of people are in my situation of being homeless." She wants to see an end to all this capitalism and classism and just get what’s equally hers and others of need.

This New Freedom Bus tour now in it’s 2nd year travelling the country, consisting of nearly one hundred organizations of poor and homeless families, working and unemployed families, are all struggling to build a movement to end poverty, is good work. These people of all ages are doing important work and somehow I wished I was on the bus tour with them. It’s too bad they couldn’t pick up eager people like myself along their journey. Good luck to them and I hope they return soon. The bus tour ends in New York City on December 10 – just in time for Human Rights Day.

by Staff Writer

Deep within the monsoon rainforest of China, lives a
young boy named Shiao Hu, meaning little tiger, and
his parents in the midst of dense and lush trees and
vegetation entangled with webs of vines climbing up
and hanging off every branch and limb. The sweet
fragrance of exotic flowers permeate through the air,
as their aroma is released by the sweltering heat of
humidity. The sun’s powerful rays are barely able to
penetrate the thick foliage of the rainforest, making
it dark and mysterious as sounds of wild animals echo
from every direction.

Shiao Hu hears the cries of prey being captured. His
heart begins beating faster and harder against his
chest, almost dropping the wood he had gathered for
fire. When suddenly he hears a rustling from behind.
His head slowly turns in fear of it being a hungry
tiger, as his frail body paralyzes with terror.
Then from behind a tree, a small kitten leaps out in
front of Shiao Hu, who took a deep breath of relief as
the kitten greets him with a tiny “meow”. The kitten
was white with orange stripes and had white paws with
tiny pink pads under each toe. She was wet, cold,
shaking, scared, and hungry. Shiao Hu named her Mimi
and took her home with him even though his parents
would be against it because they barely had enough
food to feed themselves, let alone a cat. Sure
enough, his parents firmly deny him the permission to
keep the cat. But eventually, they give in to Shiao
Hu’s persistent persuasion of having a cat to catch
the mice that infested the little amount of food they
had.

Shiao Hu took Mimi everywhere he went and nurtured
her with care, as they grew closer to each other as
friends. One day, Shiao Hu decides to buy a simple
painting brush and a small bottle of ink because he
has always wanted to try to paint, but could never
afford the supplies until he was finally able to save
up enough money. He eagerly lays out the paper and
soaks the brush in water to soften the bristles before
gently dipping the brush into the black ink.
He paints a few strokes, but to his disappointment
they turn out nothing like the beautiful bamboo leaves
he envisioned in his mind. Mimi looks on while
sitting on the table. She gently nudges Shiao Hu with
her soft forehead on his cheek to reassure and
encourage him. Then, she walks towards the bottle of
ink and dips her tail with just enough ink. Shiao Hu
is confused but observes with curiosity and amazement,
as Mimi begins to paint with smooth and steady
strokes. Mimi finishes with the last drop of ink to
complete the painting of the fish.

Then to his surprise, the fish begins to move on the
paper and come to life, as it jumps off the paper onto
the table. Shiao Hu is in utter disbelief and shock.
But at the same time, he is filled with joy as he
holds Mimi tightly in his arms because this was the
first time he didn’t have to worry about having enough
to eat.

However, people began finding out about Mimi’s
painting powers somehow, including the Emperor who
sends his soldiers out to bring Shiao Hu and Mimi to
his palace. The Emperor commands Mimi to paint gold
coins and expensive gems. She obeyed his demands, but
the painting did not come to life like the fish. The
lifeless painting infuriates the Emperor, who
wrongfully accuses Shaio Hu of fabrication. The
Emperor felt embarrassed that a mere cat brought shame
to his pride. So out of anger and vengeance, he
sentenced Shiao Hu to the death penalty.
However, Mimi proposes a deal with the Emperor. She
asks the Emperor to spare Shiao Hu and to take her
life instead. The Emperor is not satisfied and
demands once again for Mimi to bring a painting of
gold coins to life. But this time, the Emperor
threatened the lives of both Shiao Hu and his parents
if the painting failed to transform. Mimi agrees to
his terms and begins painting. When the painting is
complete, the table is covered with so many gold coins
and precious jewels that they are falling to the
ground.

The Emperor then spitefully orders for Mimi to be
sentenced to death, as he begins counting his money
with greed. But as soon as Mimi is killed, the gold
coins begin to disappear despite the Emperor’s attempt
to tenaciously hold onto them. While the Emperor was
distracted by his loss, Shiao Hu quickly escapes
without being noticed.

Shiao Hu returns home safely but is filled with grief
for his friend Mimi, who sacrificed her life for him.
He tries to find relief from the pain in his heart by
making another attempt to paint. This time, his hand
felt steady as the ink flowed onto the paper from the
brush. When he finished, there was a sweet bowl of
fruit on top of the painting he had just completed
because it had come to life!

Shiao Hu knew that Mimi was with him in his heart,
even though she wasn’t there physically. But she will
be remembered through the living paintings that
provide the daily needs of Shiao Hu and his parents.

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN Community Journalist and Poverty Scholar

I wrote the following letter to the editor of the S. F. Examiner after reading an article called "Change--not spare change" by Bruce Bellingham on 11-22-02.

The article disturbed me not only as a person who has experienced poverty, homelessness, and a former addict. Its content was underlying with Newsom as Saint and political promotional statement in his behalf, while talking about how people need to have a "change of heart "and stop putting the "blame" on Gavin (even before Prop N will prove itself to be his political bane). I urge you readers of POOR to read this article. With all its gobbledygook I believe that it still tries to place "blame" on the poor/homeless for their poverty... and once again in true Examiner fashion tries very overtly to have people believe that almost all of our cities homeless are addicts.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR S.F. EXAMINER
IN RE TO: "CHANGE--NOT SPARE CHANGE" BY BRUCE BELLINGHAM

I am having a very hard time trying to ingest the misinformation, bias, and the promotion-job for Gavin Newsom in his pursuit for the Mayoral throne, in today's article by Bruce Bellingham "Change--not spare change."

Trying to paint Mr. Newsom in the light of a martyr--and compare him to John F. Kennedy--for social change is repugnant and extremely misleading. Alas the poor hotel, restaurant, and big business owners, ---boo hoo -- which he is a part of, are losing big bucks? I mean: are you trying to have your readers believe that people's suffering, poverty, and lives are less valid than those who have jobs, homes, healthcare, and more than a living wage?

"I do know this. To feed an addiction is to kill. We might as well offer rat poison to the addict. I know some might think that is a good idea. But it could be your daughter." Bruce Bellingham 'Change--not spare change' S. F. Examiner 11-22-02

If you wanted to get real... Mr. Newsom sells drugs that people abuse. Yes that being alcohol. In essence, he feeds the addiction of many and by your article that makes him a "killer." Perhaps society thinks it is okay. More than likely the people who can afford to eat and drink at his cafe's, winery, and wine stores all named "Plump Jack" in San Francisco, Squaw Valley, and Napa (not to mention the "Matrix" a bar in the Fillmore) can go to their houses to sleep it off unnoticed in the sanctity of their homes where they aren't under the scrutiny of the public eye... or maybe they'll just run over a homeless person, or someone who just "could be your daughter" on the way to their next drink.

So...what about the people who abuse substances who have homes? Are they believed to be better than homeless addicts are? What is the message you are trying to convey? Substance Abuse is a worldwide plague that has no class discrimination. To belie that homelessness is caused by addiction is not correct. Homelessness is caused by different degrees of numerous problems. Yes, there are addicts who are homeless, just as there are far more who practice their addiction indoors and unseen..

Once again your paper states that " the homeless might go somewhere else if they can't get the money here" and the statement that "most of the poverty and homelessness is caused by addiction" are deeply wrong. It is only a small piece of a monolithic puzzle. People do not choose where to live in poverty. It is not that simple. You give the impression that homeless people will always gravitate to wherever it is easier, where they can get a free ride. Have you considered how much crime is going to go up when these people's benefits are almost entirely cut off? Desperation will motivate one to do things that they normally would not.

I agree that it would be nice if people would have a "change of heart." that people become aware of real issues such as poverty, healthcare, mental health, discrimination, and the hate of the people, who mainstream society considers different from themselves, would be a start. I also agree with Bruce Bellingham when he says that people shouldn't place blame... Please stop blaming the poor for their poverty.

If the money spent on the advertising for Prop N alone would have been funneled into the community for housing, more adequate shelters, or vocational programs of some sort:: wouldn't that have been a "change of heart?" Instead, you continue to put articles in your paper that short-change the poor and homeless. I ask you, is this the kind of "change" your paper is speaking of?

Thank-you,

Valerie Schwartz Community Journalist @

by Dee

Remember when I was called the Red Whore by my Hungarian boyfriend. He
said because of the way I looked when i was wearing my very long red dyed hair and my extremely short skirts – and that i must be a whore to go around looking like that – and the color of my hair was red hence "the red whore" title –

I met him outside a club in LA that catered to Eastern European and some third and fourth world folks. I became attracted to him because he whistled so loud at me when i was running from the club to my car.
The whole time i knew him he would think of insulting names for people – for example, my aunt had a high forehead so he called her Bumper forehead. A friend of mine had a small overbite and he described her as being able to bite a spider out of the corner.

He was extremely jealous and possessive – not like american men i knew. Maybe i wanted to know what it felt like to feel submissive.. Men were the boss where he came from and he said if a woman got "fresh" she needed to be slapped and all his friends with names like Pishquota and Lotsy passionately agreed. He also said he came to this country to be a criminal – crime was better and easier here, he said.

He would spend hours insisting that i had cheated on him and saying that if he found out what he already knew i would get slapped. He loved opera and would create operatic scenes with arguments in which i was always wrong and supposed to beg his forgiveness and promise to always be faithful.

After a while i became tired of the drama and the threats about slapping me – very likely he did too. One day i got "fresh" and said a sarcastic comment to him and he got all red faced and stomped over to where i was standing – i was alot taller than him. He had his hand perched way above his head cause this time i was really going to get it – of course, i never wanted to be slapped only to pretend i was part of the opera fantasy also.

He hovered under me ready to teach me a lesson for being "fresh" – rather than looking afraid i glared at him and said enough of this drama, don’t you dare threaten me, put your hand down and go sit down and tie your shoes. Much to my surprise he walked away, sat down and tied his shoes, with quite and embarrassed look as he did it.

That was it – no more threats – no more jealousy, no more drama – and i wish i could say we lived happily ever after.

by Alexandra Cuff/PNN

My feet seemed to trail behind the rest of my body as I walked up the bike lane on Polk Street this past
Wednesday. The November afternoon was overwhelmingly dull and Polk was a series of black and white still
photos. Bright colorless days suggested nostalgia of…something but I wasn’t able to place it. I turned
onto Grove Street and walked up toward the imposing figure of a building where I spotted a couple dozen or
so bobbing signs. I approached the gathering of people, which filled the ramp leading up to the federal
building - which is always more welcoming with a group of protesters outside.

…get up, get down, there’s a housing crisis in this town…get up, get down

Wednesday, November 20th celebrated the North American Day of Housing. People in cities from San Francisco
to D.C. are demanding an end to HUD Secretary Mel Martinez’s obstruction of the National Affordable
Housing Trust Fund. Here in SF, in a courageous act of direct resistance, a sit-in took place outside the
HUD office on the 9th floor of the Federal Building. The six who put themselves on the line so that our
voice could be heard, were arrested for trespassing federal property – they were cited and released within
two hours. They were demanding a teleconference with Mel Martinez who told Congress not to fund housing
because it is a "local problem."

The National Housing Trust Fund proposes to produce, rehabilitate, and preserve 1,500,000 units of housing
by 2010. The Trust Fund would allocate at least 75% of funds to those with incomes under 30% of the area
median. Within that, 30% of total Trust Fund dollars would be used for housing that is affordable to
households that earn less than $10,701 a year - equivalent to a year of full time minimum wage earnings.
The remaining funds would be used for low income households with incomes up to 80% of the area median. All
of these funds are restricted to housing production, preservation, or rehabilitation in low income
neighborhoods.

The increase of homeless and poor folk including families, youth, seniors and mentally and physically
disabled persons is directly related to the decline of HUD and low income housing in the past 25 years.
Welfare reform, specifically the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act that was passed with TANF in
1998, prohibits immigrants from receiving public housing and reserves 60% of all project-based housing for
households making between 30% and 80% of the median income. Full time workers at minimum wage make between
10% and 13% of the area median income. According to SF DHS and the National Low Income Housing Coalition
in 2000, you would have to earn $28.06 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. With
families timing off of TANF and entering the workforce where wages have been decreasing for the past 30
years, the housing crisis should be seen for what it is – a national emergency. Now imagine these
conditions without the help of General Assistance which has just been slashed to $59 a month with the
passing of the heart-warming Care Not Cash/Proposition N.

While the six brave folk sat up on the 9th floor waiting confrontation from Martinez, a score of us stood
close together outside speaking and singing about our personal experiences and the punitive approach
current policy has toward poverty and homelessness. George Jones talked about the 450 families living in
SROs – single room occupancies. SROs which are sometimes as small at 5x5 feet and are intended for a
single person, are known to house families with up to 7 people. Anita, a seemingly shy recent immigrant
came up and spoke passionately about how fortunate she was to be in an SRO because of all the people she
sees on the street and in the shelters…because she is housed, she can do what she wants in life…go to
college. The Po’ Poets of POOR Magazine rolled up and we heard spoken word resistance from Dharma and
Charles.

Randal, COH volunteer, who is "formerly homeless – yet technically still homeless" because he’s not yet
stayed 30 days in an SRO, doesn’t consider an SRO to be housing: "I think of housing with a kitchen,
bathroom, a place I can have friends over." (Getting kicked out hotels just before you reach a 30-day stay
is common practice referred to as "musical chairs," which ensures tenants will not be eligible for
protection under the Rental Code.) Randal went on: "I did not go to college to be homeless, poor, to
pretend not to see things I see." James Sherman, of COH, has been homeless for 8 years. He spent, "100
years in the military and 200 years raising kids. Homelessness is not fun." He spoke about the "homeless
anger, police anger, public anger, and political anger" you experience when you are on the street. He
pointed out that folks on SSI, SSD, and seniors have all earned the right to a house. "Not everyone knows
how to get it but everyone deserves it."

Wednesday’s proactive response to our ongoing housing emergency was organized by Right to a Roof, a
housing workgroup of the Coalition on Homelessness, which organizes around federal housing programs,
budget cuts, and their impact on the housing crisis in San Francisco. Their advocacy for the creation and
preservation of affordable housing includes advocacy for cooperative housing in the City’s housing
strategy. They are a founding organization in the SF Land Trust Collaborative which is working to
establish a network of local community land trusts set up in the Haight Ashbury, Bay View/Hunter's Point,
Mission, Excelsior, Tenderloin, and South of Market with the goal of having at least one functioning
community land trust established by the end of the year.

In addition to the strain put on the poor from welfare reform, federal housing budget cuts, and an absence
of living wage jobs, our access to consistent, affordable housing is hindered by contracts that HUD has
entered into with private landlords. In these cases, our tax dollars cover the cost of renovating units
that landlords are committed to rent to Section 8 tenants. The catch is that the contracts expire! After
which the lord of the land (!) will naturally rent out the units at market rate or above market rate
rents. This further lowers the number of low-cost units available to an increasingly low and no income
population. With a functioning community land trust, affordable housing can exist independent of the
for-profit market.
As persons employed at the federal building left work that evening, many averted their eyes to our signs.
"Housing: Build it, Preserve it, Take it back!"

Without recognition of and advocacy for housing as a basic human right, homelessness will continue to
result from local, state, and federal public policy. The housing crisis does not only affect those born
into poverty. I grew up middle class in a predominantly white neighborhood on Long Island. My parents lost
their home in 1998 but they are not homeless today. They had a safety net – a safety net not provided by
government assistance but by a more natural system called community. My mother, father, and 2 younger
brothers moved into the three bedroom house of their best friends. During this time, with support
extending beyond my immediate family, my father was able to seek treatment for alcohol addiction. Living
communally, the addiction could no longer be hidden and my mother was given the emotional support to
continue to work and care for herself and my brothers while living displaced and no doubt feeling ashamed
– society dictates that poverty and homelessness are shameful states.

Most folk, especially those living in cities – where space and resources are extremely limited (except for
a small wealthy percentage) and for immigrants – who do not always have family in town – do not have this
safety net my parents were fortunate to have. We, as a community, are responsible for the role that my
parents’ friends played during our housing crisis. The role does not necessarily have to be taking
houseless families into your home (I can’t see that happening in such an individuated culture) nor should
it necessarily mean voting to pour money into shelters or transitional housing. Housing, not a mat on a
shelter floor, is a basic human right.

We need to ensure that a family’s needs and the consequent natural support of a caring community dictate
the assistance that should be provided by our government. Until policy addresses the need for a radical
new federal affordable housing program for ALL in need, we need to work in our communities to educate,
organize, advocate, and as we say at Poor, "report and support" to ensure habitable housing within healthy
neighborhoods for everyone.

This gathering of resistance was just one of many steps to push for the passing of the National Affordable
Housing Trust Fund Legislation which was defeated by only one vote in November. It’s going to be
reintroduced in January. All conscious folk welcome to the next Right to a Roof planning meeting held on
Wednesday at 5pm at COH. For more information call 415-346-3740 x314.

To learn more about the SF Land Trust Collaborative, go to www.sflandtrust.org.

by Joe B.

About Power And Women Pt. 1

If most of you haven’t read my columns over the past 3 1/2 to 4 years other people will say either it’s a hoot, Hetero or Homophobic, misogynistic, against Lesbian’s and women in general or the guy writing is a rotten columnist with misspellings and errors in most if not all of his work.

I’m not anti any of the groups mentioned in fact like is the optimum word used to describe than love because too many women hide so much from me its really be difficult using love.

In my travels being P-whipped is what happened over and over after estrogen overpowered me it taught me to rage, laugh, hide, ignore, and embrace the fem part of myself.

I’ve suppressed it as women have hembra or Cooperation, the fem version of Machismo.
Conflict and cooperation.

Why is it males are cursed with conflict as our natural due while women are blessed?

What are women’s equivalent of female conflict? Is there such a thing?

I wish I didn’t get the significance of his search between him and Ntozake Shange's 1983 play "For Colored Girls Who
Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Isn’t Enuf,

The last act of the play was so true-to-life devastating for me to see that as with roots tears flowed more publicly in a theater than in high school.

I did not want to want to feel it that deeply, learn be open yes but it emotionally flooded over me.

It’s a great play on how Black Women have suffered at the hands Black Men but I also found that certain Movies, TV shows do it to me also.

Which is why I really avoid shows with all kinds of touchy feel stuff I still don’t know if anyone saw my emotional reaction probably not they were into to the play as I at the time.

Because of my own housing instability, lack of fashion sense, lazy eye which I am preparing to get fixed.

Its been difficult if near impossible to believe in any person be they straight/gay women, men, trans-sexual individuals.

Whatever bag people are in it seems we all have similar problems in that our friends, lovers, mates, spouses have secrets they feel must keep from and share with others who won’t judge them.

End of Pt 1


PS As much as I like hearing from 'Bro's doing, surviving
tomb time. Are there women.

I'll not say young girls because girls have always turned into women damn quick.

But I'd like to be written to so I can write them back.

I just don't know how to go about it.

Like brothers I'd write to all women but prefer rainbow women especially, I believe they have more of a need that's my take on it.

I'm so blind to how they to live through their days.

I won't pry and won't make and public private pains as I've done to myself and others.

That's it Men, Fem's
Live, Learn, Survive, Trive
and reproduce - some of us are Dying To Damn Young!!

People's Stay Alive, Strong.
Bye.

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