Story Archives 2008

by Bruce Allison/PNN

Around 8:00 am on a cool San Francisco morning, I walked into the Kaiser Hospital and met James Chionsini, a member of Health Care Action Team. We sat in the lobby and began speaking with Lionel Stanford, a formerly homeless senior from Honduras.

We were at the hospital for a meeting with the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California on the issue of hospital dumping of homeless and low-income patients into shelters and onto the streets in the City. State law requires that a meeting be held in order to address "homeless patient dumping" and we were there to make sure our voices were included in the report that would be sent to the state government. After the first meeting was closed off to service providers and advocates The Health Care Action Team (HAT) and the Coalition on Homelessness had protested and demanded another open meeting be held.

While we were talking in the lobby, the President of the Hospital Council arrived. I followed him closely, as he was acting suspicious. At the last minute, he changed the location of the meeting to a new place saying the first would be too small. He did not post signs about the change as required. Instead he posted notice of a change of an agenda item.

Then I yelled down from the mezzanine level to James where the meeting had been moved to, and he quickly posted signs.

With the help of James' last-minute signs, all people including, members of the Homeless Coalition, the chairperson of the Mayor's Disability Council, Anna Lolis and her service dog Henry, Lionel, the Head of HANK homeless outreach team, Buster's Place drop-in shelter Director Hank Williams, and all the hospital officials were finally able to find the meeting.

The President of the Hospital Council started the meeting. First the council wanted to know about homeless patient dumping happening in San Francisco and beyond. Being a poverty and disability scholar myself, I know all about the nightmare of hellthcare in this country for poor people and am extremely familiar with the illegal hospital dumping that's been occurring.

Since I was born, the City has gone from having 14 hospitals down to 7 while the population of San Francisco has not decreased. The issue of patient dumping is clearly connected to these hospital closures because there are simply not enough facilities to support the need. Hospitals are kicking out homeless patients and dumping them on the street with I.V.s still sticking out of their arms.

I told the council that out-of-City hospitals are also dumping to the shelters in San Francisco, mainly the Sheeton medical center, in order to side step the law and say they are not dumping in their own county. Then Hank Wilson brought up the fact that people from hospitals are dumped constantly at Buster's Place.

After listening to the presented information, the council adjourned the meeting and closed by saying that a record will be release next year after all the hospitals in the State have reported their problems to be looked at by the State Assembly.

There will also be another hearing on Thursday, December 6th at San Francisco's City Hall #263. All community members are urged to show up and testify to let the state government know about the problems with patient dumping in San Francisco.

Please stay tuned for a follow up report by poverty scholar and PNN columnist Bruce Allison.

by Joseph Bolden

Noel Niches

It’s a Sunny,brisk weather in San Francisco, I’ve just come from C.H. P.’s [Community Housing Partnership] Enterprises Launch.

After years of vocational job training and retention skills they found the so-called public & private business sector had major conniption fits over patchy,sketchy missing spaces in employee’s work his/her-stories.

I know from personal experience if you’ve lost, were fired,voluntarily left the for force,or through a nervous breakdown drifted for months or years…

That’s what’s they want to know about the missing parts.

Whether ex convicts who’ve paid in time for their crimes,traveled a bit,or was in college, university or undergraduate school it’s a pesky thing most employer’s like to know.

Sometimes many of us cannot or refuse to reveal personal facts because most likely its the very thing used against us to become gainfully employed!

C.H.P. filled positions with people trained who had doors constantly civil or not closed in their faces.

November 5th a few people were being hired that when it began.

November 29th makes it official publicly.

Meanwhile I’m working in one of these places but thinking of transferring after a time haven’t decided when yet.

Christmas music plays on a radio station,I’ve been invited to one Christmas party and have a guest or two in mind.

The radio show I’ve not been on in so many months I feel I should get back on before the year is out.

My own little business is slowly starting all that’s needed is help with uploading my image to another web site.

Still haven’t set up my own site because my pc is connected to phone lines
(I know,that’s easy get some orange box to get connected.)

But folks,to be smurfing [talking on the phone while on the internet simultaneously] will place me in the multicolor light speed of technology which I refuse to do!

No Friggin’ multi tasking for me {My apologies if I’ve offend any of my readers with what I’m about to say below}
[All my clothes are off,no watch,socks,in gritty equalized,give to get situations.]

Because concentrating on her,I want no distractions except slow rhythmic music.
The Slower The Better.

That will cost me readers or I’ll get a few serious invites on email or myspace pages either way I’ve told my truth and the devil is shamed.

My two niches may just keep me more mellow and alive.

First is House Sitting.

Second is Massage Therapist.

Curiously in either professions one has to be honest,have personal integrity.

A spotless reputation for placing others at ease so people have no fears.

That professionalism is a gold-platinum standard.

If I can do these two - job/career it would be ever so rewarding and relaxing to finally do two well paying professions where leisure,time,patience,is appreciated and not seen as wasted productivity.

I would’ve loved to have been an air courier escorting diamonds, cadavers around the world, or an anonymous…
Ok,here I go again now I understand why I needed 3 females editing my work.
Lets resume.

Let’s say body parts in those skin flick commercials you see before the feature films begins or at the end.
[It’s what I thought of to get off the streets and be paid doing it pun intended.]

But it was not to be so do with what you’ve got.

I’ve been thinking about a book lately when I met Mr. R. Gaule,former owner of "Soups" a nice,cozy,diner I use to frequent and where this stories origin begins.

I wanted to ask only two questions of him but may become more.

There have been errors, mishaps,misadventures,and mistakes in judgements made so what perfection is boredom all neat,clean,and waiting to die it just doesn’t know when.

May everyone find their niche or small pocket in life that works for them and not worry about other opinions.

Just live their lives however long or short they want and do what works for them and be at long last peace within their own souls.

Again for those not use to my writings I do apologize for anyone feeling offened in what I've honestly written.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"Unfortunately, as of today Thursday September 27th, 2007 we have just received notice from the General Services Contracting Department, that our final day of service will be Friday September 28th, 2007. We sincerely apologize for the sudden and unexpected notice..."

This "special notice letter" from the American Building Service was an interoffice memorandum unexpectedly firing eighteen S.E.I.U. Local janitorial employees with less than 24-hours of notice right before the holiday season.

On the evening of November 20th at POOR Magazine's Community Newsroom, Andrew Solis from Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U) Local 87 told the poverty scholars and staff at POOR about the evils of a new kind of employment gentrification: "being semi-bought, sold, told, and literally left out in the cold."

"When the new San Francisco Federal Building, located on 7th St was built here in San Francisco we were the first to clean it up. On September 27th, 2007, we were given less than a 24 hour notice of termination from these positions!" Solis explained, as we listened intently.

On the following day, of September 28, 2007, the employment of eighteen janitors from the SEIU Local 87 Union ceased to exist, without any reasonable explanations for their terminations and with less than 24-hour notice. The Union workers had been cleaning the new San Francisco Federal Building for its grand opening when they were notified of their termination.

The American Building Services (A.B.S), a janitorial service contractor, contracted the janitors for the work at the federal building. A.B.S has also contracted employees at other federal buildings, including one located at 50 Union Plaza, and the Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Services at 630 Sansome Street.

A non-union company based out of San Diego, California, called Exemplar Enterprises suddenly seized the janitors' contract at the federal building from the A.B.S. This company has no office or business license in the Bay Area. Its project manager, known thus far as only Daniela, the company's attorneys, Lewis & Rocca and its president, Martha Lutt, have refused to answer any inquiries into what seem to be illegal practices.

According to sources requesting anonymity, it is a possibility that Exemplar Enterprises President, Martha Lutt, is also an employee of General Services Administration (GSA), potentially causing a serious conflict of interest.

The 18 families of the 18 pink slipped janitors have now been deprived of a holiday season, courtesy of the U.S Federal Government of AmeriKKKa. A.B.S employed by the Government Service Agency, was ordered to wipe the ink off of the union contracts meant for many workers already struggling to provide for their families here in San Francisco.

The fired janitorial employees have many questions, all of which have been left unanswered. Why has Exemplar Enterprises been able to immediately obtain this janitorial contract from A.B.S.? Why was this particular non-unionized company exempt from having to comply with the Displaced Workers Protection Act?

The "special notice" provided by the A.B.S. has given no such information and has thus left its employees confused and in the dark about the abrupt loss of their jobs.

All that is currently known about this mysterious situation are the following facts. On February 10, A.B.S started their new contracted company with 4 out of 17 janitors. A.B.S was unaware of the new contract, so G.S.A decided to give Exemplar the contract. Exemplar proposed a contract that paid employees one dollar less than the Union workers, and reduced the amount of employees from eighteen to eight. They took over the contract, without the Union workers knowing that there was another contract proposed.

The Union employees that were fired were led to believe by federal managers that they would receive employment, by Exemplar Enterprises. It was requested that all the Union workers fill out a two-page application for employment, but employment was not extended to any of them. They were notified of their rejection for employment, in a letter signed the company's president, Martha Lutt. The only conditions for employment by Exemplar for the S.E.I.U Local 87 union members, was for them to sever all their ties to the union, itself.

The Union workers were primarily immigrant workers with families, of low-income status, and of color and are now fighting for the return of their jobs. The employees have been picketing outside the new federal building for two months, since October 1st, 2007. Since their protests, The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (I.C.E) have also arrived using tormenting tactics and deportation threats.

The new Exemplar employees have been overworked, even prompting Exemplar itself to recruit individuals in the vicinity, including workers from the Best Western Hotel, on Seventh St out of sheer desperation. Employees of the federal building have constantly complained of improper custodial work, by the new employees.

San Francisco Board of Supervisor, Chris Daly's office is writing a proposal asking other fellow Board of Supervisor members, to support the janitors' struggle. This might happen as early as next week, and many are hoping this will pass. Andrew Solis has contacted Mayor Gavin Newsom, asking for his support individually, in addition to the support of the entire Board of Supervisors.

"I think it's horrendous how these companies think they can sit back and play with people's lives. With the unions standing in solidarity, that's the only way we can fight them," said Teresita Cruz, Vice President of S.E.I.U.

Exemplar sounds more like "exempt from any and all liabilities."

Please join POOR Magazine on Thursday, December 13th at 12:00 noon for a protest at the Federal Building on 7th street between Market and Mission in honor of the workers and demand their employment back.

by Newsbrief posted by PNN Staff

Pasadena, CA- This Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 3:00pm, a Federal Appeals Court in Pasadena, California will hear oral arguments in a precedent-setting legal battle to prevent Religious Freedom violations, environmental destruction and public health dangers associated with the use of treated sewage effluent for snowmaking in proposed ski area development on Arizona's San Francisco Peaks.

Tribal dignitaries and spiritual leaders as well as environmental groups will gather at the Pasadena Courthouse to attend proceedings in the case that will determine the fate of American Indian religious freedoms and challenge the Federal Government's lack of responsibility to protect public health.

The Tribes, Environmental groups and religious leaders are unified in multiple lawsuits against the US Forest Service, which leases the public land to the private ski business and has approved the proposed development. The San Francisco Peaks are recognized internationally as a sacred site. The Peaks are a unique ecological island and are held holy by more than 13 Native American Nations.

On October 17th, 2007 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona ski resort the opportunity to challenge a previous unanimous decision by the court, which had blocked the ski area owner's proposed development and treated sewage snowmaking on the sacred Peaks.

To signify the importance of this precedent-setting case, a coalition of tribal representatives, environmental groups, local community based organizations and concerned citizens will march from All Saints Church in Pasadena to the courthouse at 1:00pm.
A prayer vigil will be held outside the courthouse during the proceedings.

The Chairman of the Hopi Tribe, Chairman of the Yavapai Apache Tribe, the Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council and other dignitaries, as well as representatives of Environmental Justice Groups, including the Sierra Club and Flagstaff Activist Network will be present at the courthouse and are scheduled to speak at a press conference following the proceedings.

For more information visit: www.savethepeaks.org.

What: Appeals court hearing in precedent-setting legal battle against U.S. Forest Service. There will be a march, prayer vigil and rally before court proceedings, and a press conference with legal council, tribal leaders and environmental groups to follow.

Who: Coalition of Tribal Dignitaries and religious leaders, including the Chairman of the Hopi Tribe, Chairman of the Yavapai Apache Tribe, the Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, as well as Environmental Justice Groups, including the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Flagstaff Activist Network.

When: Legal arguments to be heard on December 11th, 2007

12:30pm - 2 mile march starting from All Saints Church going down Colorado Blvd. towards the U.S. Court of Appeals.

1:40pm - March arrives at the U.S. Court of Appeals, vigil outside of courthouse.

3:00pm - Court proceedings begin.

5:00pm - Press conference outside of courthouse.

Where: U.S. Court of Appeals located at 125 S. Grand Ave. in Pasadena, CA.
March begins at All Saints Church located at 132 N. Euclid Ave. in Pasadena, CA.

Why: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted the U.S. Forest Service and an Arizona ski resort the opportunity to challenge a previous unanimous decision by the court, which had blocked development. The ruling had been hailed as a victory for Religious Freedom, Environmental Justice & Human Rights.

by Bruce Allison/PNN

Two weeks ago at the general meeting of the board of supervisors, a special proposition was discussed to change the curfew hours at Golden Gate Park from sun-up to sun-down, to 8pm to 8am. I attended the meeting because they were taking public comments and, as a poverty scholar, I wanted to respond to this discriminatory legislation.

The General Director of Golden Gate Park spoke and gave a slide-show presentation with the purpose of showing how the homeless community is altering the park by digging holes for sleeping and stealing furniture from the recycling center at the edge of the park. He was attempting to make a case in support of the increased curfew hours.

The proposed curfew change would give the homeless outreach team more time to catch people sleeping in the park. The outreach team is supposed to help by taking people to shelters, but it rarely ever does and most of the time people are simply taken to shelters that are already over capacity.

Many of the people on the streets are seniors like me and have no place to go thanks to care not cash. These are the people that have nowhere else to go except places like Golden Gate Park.

Most seniors and people with disabilities need a quiet place to sleep out of the cold, yet this is rarely provided by the City’s shelters. Compared to sleeping on the streets, the park is quiet and houseless people are not harassed by pedestrians and others while they are trying to sleep. Until the City can provide adequate housing for these seniors, the park is unfortunately their only option.

The outreach team is called when a park ranger or police officer sees someone with a sleeping bag, or “illegally lodging.� Illegal lodging was enacted in the 1800s to stop claim jumping in the gold rush. Now it is used for torturing poor homeless people who cannot find a decent place to sleep.

The slide presentation was so biased that when ever they showed a park worker you could not see his face. But when a houseless person was shown in the park, his or her face was openly shown.

After the slide show, the managing director of the park, said, “These people [homeless people], bring in furniture and barbeque equipment into the park because they do not want to enter the housing community.�

Trent Raw, the Department of Human Services Director, said, that “ [homeless people] are a burden on the city’s budget for the park.� The outreach team’s solution is to pick up people sleeping in the park and take them to the “available� shelters.

During the thirty-minute presentation I felt angry. Everyone in the room was being misled and everything presented was biased toward houseless people and presented in support of the park’s authority.

During the public comment time, I spoke, along with about fifty other people. We were each were allotted three minutes. I spoke to the problem of care not cash people taking all the beds and about how there are only two beds set aside for seniors and people with disabilities.

After I spoke a formerly houseless woman spoke. She said police in San Francisco attacked her and it was this incident that “straightened her out.� Her solution she said was to “gas everyone in the park� who doesn’t belong there to straighten them out. Listening to her speak, I realized that this woman has a bad mental illness known as the Helsinki syndrome, which makes her bond and sympathizes with her capturers.

More and more, the houseless community in San Francisco is beginning to agree with and pardon its captors, the wardens, police officers and city officials that are oppressing us. We have to remember that these people are the reason we are struggling to survive and being forced to sleep outside in a city that is our home. Until there is adequate housing for low and no-income folks in this City, people will be sleeping Golden Gate Park, one of the last and now endangered refuges.

by Brother Y?

In this past election, I wrote myself in for District Attorney. Not because I actually want to be the D.A. but rather in protest of the present D.A., Kamala Harris. On my way to the voting booth to write my name in the open space left for other candidates, I noticed a billboard advertisement by the San Francisco Food Bank, which stated "Because no one should have to choose between food and medicine." In spite of the valiant effort by the food bank and its many volunteers many people still have to choose between food and medicine or breaking the law, which is exactly how my own saga began.

On September 1, 2006 I was arrested and held for 6 weeks without proper medical care. Of the four people who sat on a cold cement block waiting to be transferred to 850 Bryant St. from the park police station in Golden Gate Park, three of us were Black males and the fourth was a White male. On the next business day the White male was allowed to be released on his own recognizance almost immediately. The rest of us sat in jail waiting for a sympathetic judge.

For the other two it took a few days but they were eventually released. I was not so fortunate. It did not matter to the first two of three judges that I saw in subsequent visits to the court room that I take over five different medications a day, nor that I am a veteran of The United States military service. In fact one of them asked me what ship I was stationed on presumably so he could catch me in a lie because when I told him I was stationed on the U.S.S. Caloosahatchee I could swear I heard him mumble "Okay that didn't work." Eventually I was transferred along with several other inmates to "B" pod where we had a little more freedom of movement.

But they continued to make mistakes with my medication, and I didn't get my diabetic snack that I requested immediately until the weekend before I got out. I wasn't allowed to make any phone calls until I got to "B" pod about two weeks later. My good friend John Caldera was the only person whose number I had in memory and so I called him practically every day. John was gracious enough to put money on the books for me nearly every week, and I truly believe that had he not my health would have deteriorated drastically.

The meager portions were made up of mostly carbohydrates. As a testament to how few calories were contained in each meal one of the few times that my blood sugar was high was after I binged on 7 king size Snickers bars just about every other time it was low normal or low.

While incarcerated I began to notice a trend, that trend being every single young white male who came in custody was out within three days. The only exceptions being those with medical or mental health holds. Every single young black or Latino male was transferred to San Bruno within several days.

Almost all of the Asian American inmates were immigrants with poor or very limited English. One was back within a week after posting bail and I am convinced that it was only due to his poor English and the same lazy racist cop who happened to see him in the same neighborhood that he previously arrested him in.

What I found to be completely appalling is that the deputies who appeared to be the cruelest and most brutal were those who apparently migrated from Latin American countries or Asia. Of these brutes the one who stands out the most in my mind is a deputy Le. I made a point of remembering his name because I vowed that I would do everything in my power to bring him to justice one day. The thing that stuck in my mind the most was his particular way of dealing with one of the inmates I befriended when I was first transferred to "B" pod. The inmates name is Steve Green A.K.A. M.C. Creamy

In our first conversation Creamy told me of how he had been both victim and perpetrator of violence and he dreamed of one day being part of a campaign to stop the violence. Creamy has all of the classic symptoms of posttraumatic stress syndrome [p.t.s.d.] as well as several permanent physical injuries. One evening Creamy was in an unauthorized area of the pod when deputy Le noticed he immediately demanded Creamy to go to one of the lockdown cells. Prior to this incident he had constantly been getting into trouble I believe mainly due to his p.t.s.d. and perhaps other mental or emotional problems. I believe that these issues direly need to be addressed in the justice system.

Green refused to comply and subsequently Le attempted to subdue him by ordering him to place his hands behind his back presumably to handcuff him. Again Green refused to comply so Le grabbed his arms and jacked them up behind his back without bending but rather straight up as if they were some sort of handle that needed to be yanked in an upward position. This apparently agitated one of his permanent injuries, because at that point I heard him scream like a banshee. Through the subsequent struggle Le finally managed to get the handcuffs on him and began to push him backwards as if he were a wheelbarrow. Again I heard him scream one of the most agonizing screams I have ever heard in my life. Le managed to get Green into one of the holding cells.

During the course of this incident myself and several other inmates protested to which he responded by saying everybody shut up and go back to your cells. We all continued protesting all the while. Then it became eerily quite as we all anticipated what came next. Several large deputies entered the pod led by the shift sergeant. From my cell I could not see what happened but again I heard more agonizing screaming.

Several days later Green returned to the pod bruised noticeably, quiet and apparently mentally depressed. Steve explained to several of us during a mealtime that he was stripped naked with his underwear ripped off of him like a rape victim and thrown in "The hole," basically a concrete closet with nothing in it but a hole in the ground to use as a toilet.

I and several other inmates wrote formal grievances regarding the incident and of course they took their sweet time in getting back to us. In fact I even had to write a grievance about not having my grievance answered. By the time my grievance was finally answered it was the weekend before I finally got o.r.'d which occurred on a Wednesday. I responded to the grievance in the appropriate space and got no response presumably because I was out of custody. I later found that I could submit grievances to a Lt. Kennedy at 25 Van Ness Avenue. Each time I went he was conveniently out of the office.

To this day no one has responded to my grievances and I've been out of jail for almost a year. As far as I'm concerned the fact that they did not reply to my accusations is proof enough that they acknowledge that my and many others' civil and human rights were violated.

Please stay tuned for Part II of Brother Y's journey in the criminal iNjustice system.

by Amanda Smiles/PNN

For some reason, it is nicer than I expected. The modest conference room facing the entrance of the Women's Building is lit a warm marigold yellow and crowded with mutters of buzzwords such as "needle exchange," "harm reduction," and "HIV prevention."

I seat myself toward the front and whisk my eyes through the eclectic groups of scruffy activists, high heeled social workers, suit and tie public health workers, purple haired outreach workers, and everything in between community members, noting the organizations on their name tags. Harm Reduction Coalition, Stop the Drug War.org, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Saint James Infirmary, and Homeless Youth Alliance, just to name a few. Yes, I think to myself, as a feeling of comfort snakes through my body, these are my people, here to discuss the next step in a human rights based public health policy: Safer Injection Facilities.

Safer Injection Facilities (or SIFs) are nothing new. The first facility was started in 1986 in Switzerland, which now is home to 12 additional facilities. There is a total of 65 SIFs around the world, largely concentrated in European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and soon Italy and Portugal. Australia hosts one SIF and North America has one, which opened in Vancouver in 2003.

Safer Injection Facilities are just that, a clean and sterile place where injection drug users can come to shoot their drugs without worrying about being hassled by the cops or being in the public eye. It gives people a place where they can take their time to shoot, doing it slowly and properly, reducing the risks of abscesses and HIV and Hepatitis C transmission.

Clean needles and sterile supplies are dispensed to clients; registered nurses are there to supervise all injections. Most importantly, however, if someone overdoses nurses respond immediately by performing rescue breathing, administering Narcan (the stuff that bring you back), or calling the paramedics. Although there have been many overdoses in SIFs to date no one has ever died from an overdose in an SIF.

As the noise settles and the symposium gets under way, my mind drifts back to the day I went to get my HIV test results. I used to be an injection drug user. Late one night, in desperation to get high I shared a needle with someone. I’m still not positive who it was. Also, we used to all share the same bloody tie and dirty spoon. Anyone who has gotten an HIV test after being at a real risk for contraction knows the agony of waiting for results. If not knowing if the consequence of one mistake can be more than a slap on the wrist. Thankfully, I am negative.

I think about my privilege of being a housed drug user. How that privilege gave me access to water from a tap opposed to water from toilets or puddles. That privilege guaranteed that the skin around the veins I shot into was clean, that when I shot I had enough light to see and hit my veins. That I was inside, out of the cold and rain, in private, where I didn’t have to rush. I could cook and filter my drugs properly, find my spot, and if I missed, I had enough time to try again. And still I put myself at risk. How would I of fared on the streets, without that privilege. Would my results of been the same?

Thomas Kerr, of the University of British Columbia, is the first to speak. For the past three years Kerr and a group of researchers have been evaluating Vancouver's SIF, called Insite, from a non-biased and scientific point of view. The results of the evaluation are astounding.

The most frequent clients of the facility are homeless, public injectors, daily heroine users who are at the highest risk for HIV and overdose. Insite sees a total of 1600 injectors a month, between 700 and 1000 repeat and unique injectors a day. Since Insite has opened 70 percent of clients have reported being less likely to share syringes. Public drug use and discarded syringes and injection related litter has reduced with increase use of the facility. After the site opened Kerr and his team found an increase in detox use among Insite clients and higher rates of entry into methadone and other drug treatment facilities. Nurses have reported a decrease in the number of abscesses in the emergency room and, of course, no one who has overdosed at Insite has died.

Captain Niels Tangherlini, from the San Francisco Fire Department Outreach Team, speaks next. He shows us a map of San Francisco pinpointing where all the overdose calls have originated in last year. Almost all the dots are concentrated in the Tenderloin and Mission Districts, making it impossible to focus on any other area of the map. The room inflates with gasps of shock when Captain Tangherlini explains that last year EMS received 76,000 calls, over 12,000 of which were from overdoses. Alex Kral’s, from the Urban Health Study, statistics are just as shocking. Among heroine users surveyed, 48 percent have over overdosed. 33 percent have overdosed two or more times. 13 percent have overdosed in the last year. These statistics are only from overdose survivors.

Again my mind floats back to another time in my life, when my ex- boyfriend overdosed. We were still living together. I was asleep after begging him to watch his use. I'm told he stopped breathing right after he hit himself. Luckily the girl he was with hadn't shot up yet and was able to react quickly enough to call the paramedics. They came to our house, performed rescue breathing, and gave him a shot of Narcan. I woke up 5 minutes after the ambulance pulled away. It was the second time he ODed.

I went to the hospital to get him. The overdose was so bad that he was at risk of going back into a coma. He would have died if the paramedics hadn't come. If he had been on the street, alone in an ally or even with someone without a phone, he surely would have died. That’s the thing with dope, if you use long enough, everyone ODs. It’s only a matter of who your with that determines if you live or not.

Sarah Evans, the Program Coordinator of Insite, is the last I see speak. She looks like the type of woman you would be comfortable telling anything. Petite with a choppy bob and small tender eyes, she speaks in a voice that is self assured yet sympathetic. Mostly she speaks about the side of Insite that deals in treatment and counseling.

Along with using the space for safe injection and the "chill out room," Insite clients have the option of talking to peer counselors, who are former and active drug users, or clinical psychologists. Insite’s second floor is a detox center and the third floor is for those in recovery. Insite decided to start it’s own detox and recovery center so people could not only get into treatment more quickly and efficiently but also so they could get treatment services from people they knew in an environment they feel comfortable in.

As Evans continues she shows pictures of clients in treatment and tells their story, always optimistic, always caring beyond the boundaries of a job. This is the side of Insite I am most impressed with, the side that infuses humanity and compassion into public health. As I think back not only to my story, but to the story of all the injection drug users I know and talk to, I realize that what San Francisco needs most is not only a place where people can practice their drug use safely, but also a place where people can come fully as themselves, without secrets or stigma, and can finally be seen as humans, instead of pieces of trash littering the streets.

by Newsbrief posted by PNN Staff

Axis of Love SF was successful in an emergency response press conference held earlier this week. The press conference was held in response to the DEA's threat to shut down San Francisco’s safe access centers.

Axis of Love would like to recognize the hard work of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's legal aide Dan Bernal who worked overtime with giving guidance to patient advocates on how to successfully accomplish their goals.

Mr. Bernal secured the following statement from John Conyers Jr.- the House Judiciary Committee Chair in Washington DC.

CONYERS EXPRESSES CONCERN ABOUT DEA MEDICAL MARIJUANA THREATS

Washington DC- House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) released the following statement today about the reports that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is threatening private landlords for housing legal medical marijuana facilities:

"I am deeply concerned about recent reports that the Drug Enforcement Administration is threatening private landlords with asset forfeiture and possible imprisonment if they refuse to evict organizations legally dispensing medical marijuana to suffering patients. The Committee has already questioned the DEA about its efforts to undermine California state law on this subject, and we intend to sharply question this specific tactic as part of our oversight efforts."

Axis of Love SF patient advocates had the support of the following state and local officials:

Our heros

The office of State Senator Carole Migden

The office of Assemblyman Mark Leno

Supervisor Chris Daly

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi

Police Commissioner David Campos

by Joseph Bolden

Because I was tired, wanted to be home and z-out I say yes to the theater class.
As some of us dropped out for various reasons I stay [paying $81] enrollment fee.

Dang’it might as well take voice,piano,swimming at City College of San Francisco while doing this extended school thing over here.

Of all the people not wanting props on stage because of the mess up of a harrowing "Welfare Queen’s,SuperBaby-Mama props and diva drama I shouldn’t have even thought of props so it's only a pillow to beat on in my one intense scene.

During that time my work site is looking shakey.

S.F.’s Housing Authority section 8,time to be updated.

One woman,a good friend embarks on another milestone.

Another about to cross an ocean to visit other friends in New York City whom thought her deceased because of a near fatal accident.

A singer in a band already in N.Y.C.

Both of us emailing each other 21st century letters.

Just as 18th and 19th century peoples did when sea and sky were real gulfs of separation. Oh,they still are

Now,this new thing hatched within my fevered brow of actually living in spaces,places owned by others who are on vacation, at jobs, or on location at home or on international movie,tv,shoots(filming).

House Sitting!

Folks it takes time for me that since I’ve done this before it can be done again.

So in slow steps I ask folks and someone has done this before.

New phone,digital photo’s, business cards,error in cards,
remake cards.

Getting responses, emailing ‘em back.

Then to list, pick, which ones closest to me or take a chance by train, bus,car,or plain.

Nope,stay local which is San Francisco,Oakland, Berkeley,later it can be L.A.’s Hollywood Hills, Nevada, or
places near Sacramento.

Yep,dogs,cats,other pets if any but the main thing is for a time to work in comfortable surroundings.

When owners know the person(s) picked is reliable,rational, dependable,and does not mind caring for the owners most cherished family member their pet(s) its why

I can charge two thousand dollars per month with three month limit!

Some lady has said "I stay six months."Which is $12,000 DOLLARS!

It may not be in a one lump sum but half even less than half is a chunk-a-money!

It’s rare to find people willing to take care of a homeowners place let alone pets in the home they(pets) inhabit.

Believe Me,if I get a call to housesit in the City or across the bay that to me is a job to cherish even if there is washing some clothes, bathing and walking a few dogs or cats.

It beats risky security guard work, learning construction, or being a home health Aide packing and repacked medicated strips into areas of flesh about to turn necrotic or reversing necrotic skin process before its too late.

What would you rather do folks?

Even helping someone with disabilities while hurting them simultaneously or watching over a home and occasionally walking dogs, bathing cats,feeding fish, or cleaning?

So that’s been near end of the year happenings

How about your year end tidings,may better things be on your plate.

by Joseph Bolden

Hmmm,House Sitting Duties:

A Few Considerations.

Last time I wrote about a recent C.C.S.F.[City College of San Francisco]

The Theater part was great revealing my knack[some talent] for it.

Another conquered comfort zone,then rambled on about being a House Sitter,of taking care of homes and or pets while the homeowner is away.

Well,I read online about a housesit job somewhere
in California.

Where the sitter cooks. Pets are varied.

I"ll take care of pets, vacuum, no cooking or window’s for
me,so checking other ads to me.

I’m the ad works for someone it isn’t quite for me.

My first rule: Know your limits
Second: Stick to First.

Anyway,I’m only simplifying so homeowners know that I do not mind pets (most have better common sense than we supposedly superior humans).

All that other extra credit stuff cook,windows, cleaning out garages isn’t what I do just home and pets and not too elderly pets.

I Would not want to watch helplessly as a dear family pet departs without their guardian(s).

It should not be a stranger they see before dying but their guardian(s).