Story Archives

by HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK

HONOLULU (AP) _ Police opened a homicide investigation Saturday after the death of a homeless man found injured in Waikiki.

The 48-year-old man was discovered shortly after 6 a.m. in an alley near Seaside Avenue by firefighters responding to a small rubbish fire, police said.

Firefighters found the man lying unconscious about five feet from the fire, which burned his wheelchair. The man died a short time later at The Queen's Medical Center.

The man had head and facial wounds, and police said he appeared to have been beaten.

The man was well-known to Waikiki beat officers, who believe he may have been sleeping in the alley.

by HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK

NEW YORK (AP) _ A class action lawsuit has ended in victory for 198 formerly homeless people who won back wages of $816,000 from two powerful business improvement districts.

The plaintiffs won the money from the Grand Central Partnership and the 34th Street Partnership in 1998 but received no funds because of an appeal. A settlement this month cleared the way for the plaintiffs to receive the money at last.

Tommy Washington, who was to collect money owed him for more than 1,000 hours of work, told The New York Times, ``It has nothing to do with the money. It's the principle.'' He added, ``They were dragging this on, because they figured, addicts, people in and out of the prison system, sick people _ how many were going to be around to collect?''

Officials with the two business districts said in a statement Tuesday that they were ``gratified that this matter has been brought to an amicable resolution.''

The homeless people performed jobs like security and cleaning for the business districts for $1 an hour and promises of a path out of homelessness. They filed a class action lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in 1998 that the business improvement districts had violated minimum wage laws, had used the cheap labor of so-called trainees to undercut competitors and had contributed the resulting profits to hefty executive salaries.

Corporate lawyers from Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton assisted advocates from the Coalition for the Homeless and the Urban Justice Center in the case.

``To be on the side of the angels and then end up getting what people deserve is very, very satisfying,'' said Jennifer Kroman, 30, an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb. ``Reaching the settlement was one of the most joyful moments of my career.''

The coalition was to distribute the money at a celebration Wednesday evening.

AP-ES-10-25-00 1102EDT
Received Id AP1002991754CA49 on Oct 26 2000 21:23

by Ka Ponda and Tiny

My eyes fixed on the acrylic blood of the fallen martyr. The WPA mural on the back wall of the ILWU union hall depicted a policeman wielding a deadly billy club as the common people held placards in protest of human and civil rights' violations by government. The huge image provided a fitting backdrop for the site of the ratification of a Plan for Action to End Homelessness in San Francisco.

My eyes veered from the painting to focus on the verbal tempest caused by the first speaker. Paul Boden, the director of the Coalition on Homelessness, an organization working to alleviate poverty, was discussing a revolutionary plan conceived and drafted by members of his organization. The plan, titled, "A Plan for Action to End Homelessness in San Francisco," was compiled by homeless and poor people of San Francisco to end homelessness in San Francisco and throughout the country.

I peered throughout the huge auditorium of the standing-room-only crowd as the significance of the event suddenly overwhelmed me. In this room, on the 27th day of October, 1999, the Homeless People's Congress would be officially formed. Their commitment to human and civil rights rivaled that of the martyr in the painting which depicted the infamous "Bloody Thursday" of the 1920's

Paul further discussed how his organization compiled data taken from over 250 homeless people at 26 different meetings taking place throughout San Francisco proper during the months of June, July and August of 1999. After his summary of how the document was put together, Paul asked the Homeless People's Congress to disperse into four committees to make recommendations and provide solutions to facilitate the Plan. The Homeless People's Congress separated out into the Committee on Human and Civil Rights; Committee on Housing, Committee on Economic Justice; and the Committee on Health Care.

I, a victim of civil rights abuses in San Francisco, sat on the Committee on Human and Civil Rights, to ascertain how they intended to implement the 13 action steps outlined under Civil and Human Rights in the Plan of Action. Judy Appel, a Civil Rights attorney, presided over the forum. Each action step was read and interpreted from legal, economic and social perspectives. Once everyone had a clear understanding of each of the action steps, a vote was taken to prioritize the steps.

In the afternoon, the four committees reported back to the assembly their recommendations and discoveries. For the Committee on Health Care an encouraging report was given. The report advocated the use of litigation, strategically, led by homeless people to ban laws that criminalized the homeless. It further stated that Quality of Life issues should be addressed in a humane manner, as homeless people are residents of San Francisco, and that the public should be educated on issues through the Street Sheet and by doing advocacy work within neighborhoods.

In addition to the 18 action steps under Economic Justice in the Plan of Action, the Committee on Economic Justice also proposed ideas to facilitate the action steps. The first of which was no discrimination against anyone for lack of phone or mail. The committee also proposed, among many other things, the support of a living wage bill in San Francisco that will allow working families and individuals to be self-sufficient.

The Committee on Housing report was reported by Lisa Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine. They outlined the issues of homeless latino communities represented by Housing Not Borders, the abuses of all tenants by landlords and developers and voted to attempt a class action suit against the Housing and Urban Development, developers and/or landlords who are systematically evicting poor residents of San Francisco.

The painting had faded into temporary obscurity, as the ceremonious ratification of the Plan of Action was executed. For a moment, life truly imitated art, except this time maybe it would be a bloodless coup......

by PNN staff

Introduction

San Francisco has failed to solve the problem of homelessness. While the number of homeless individuals and families in San Francisco and across the U.S. has continued to rise at an alarming rate,we have witnessed an alarming increase in police-based responses to the presence of homeless people in public spaces. But homelessness is an economic issue, not a nuisance issue.

There has been precious little public discussion of the reality that homelessness, like most other social problems, can, in fact, be alleviated. The Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco submits the following Plan For Action to all concerned residents of the City and County of San Francisco, and urge all who are concerned about the homeless problem to take action for change.

Guiding Principles

• We must ensure that homeless people can actively participate in the development and implementation of programs and policies that directly or indirectly impact homeless people.

Conclusion

In a City which is rapidly losing affordable housing, the above steps should be viewed as comprehensive, if minimal, steps toward proactively addressing homelessness. So long as public discourse on the problem of homelessness remains mired in "Quality of Life" rhetoric, and is not explicitly linked to the lack of affordable housing, subsidized health care, economic equity, and civil rights for the City's indigent residents, the problem will continue to grow.

Although the vision we present will not be a simple one to bring to fruition, it is an essential one. It is has been said that so long as one person is hungry, none can eat in peace. It is in the spirit of this truth that we must not accept that people are sleeping on the streets in San Francisco. With hard work, we can end homelessness once and for all.

We urge all people concerned about the future of San Francisco to earnestly evaluate this Plan. And then to Act upon it..

Derechos Civiles y Humanos

• Los derechos civiles y humanos de todas personas deben ser respetados, independientemente de su raza, genero, orientaciÛn sexual, edad, incapacidad, o estado economico. Las personas no deben ser perjudicados por estar forzados a vivir en la calle y en los refugios.

by J.R. Johnson and Tiny

Lola Mckay’s body lies at rest now after a long battle against eviction. On Sunday Oct. 29th, 2000, The protest crowd against evictions, of nearly 50 people, in a way presented a requiem to honor Ms. Mckay.

It all started in January of 1999. Not the beginning of someone’s life. But the slow, vicious journey to someone’s untimely death. The death of an elder in our community. A death by eviction.

In January of last year, 83 year old Lola McKay was served an Ellis act eviction from her home of 40 years by a real estate speculator associated with Vanguard Properties.

After a life frought with crisis and tragedy which left Lola with no living kin, she had only hoped to live the rest of her life in her own home. Now she faced eviction and homelessness. She decided to fight.

With legal representation from Raquel Fox at the Tenderloin Housing Committee and the organizing efforts of the Tenants Union, a rally was planned at the courthouse at 100 McAllister where her court hearing would take place. This would be the first and last time that Lola Mckay would appear in public. They lost in court , and rather than face a lengthy, strenous battle that she might not win Lola and her attorney accepted a settlement offer. Twelve more months in her home. Twelve more months to live...I think that’s how she saw it. In March of this year Lola Mckay died in her sleep...of natural causes they say....

The postscript of this story is the live eulogy to Lola - and the thousands of tenants like her who are being evicted from their residences ....

The sun was glistening on a carmel colored door in the middle of a four unit flat. 55 Alvarado street. This was Lola Mckays home. An open house was planned for today. Her unit would be sold for 1/2 a million dollars as a “new” and improved unit. In the middle of the carmel door was the only ray of hope for this reporter; OPEN HOUSE CANCELED

“What do we want? - to stop evictions..When do we want it? Now!!!” As I studied the small white cancellation notice scotch-taped to the glistening front door, protestors marched in front of the building in a rally organized by The San Franciso Tenants Union and Housing Rights Committee to protest the selling of Ms. Mckays unit as million dollar condo. They canceled the open house because of the protest. Some part of Lola’s misery would be vindicated.

“Twenty apartments per week are being sold empty- with no record of eviction on file” Ted Gullickson from the Tenants Union explained, “the Ellis Act has too many restrictions, so most landlords try to avoid actually filing them and send out notices to evict or inform the tenants about their plans to evict and then the tenants respond by leaving. We track all the vacant apartments sold each month and who is actually selling them, we will continue to protect these illegal sales...” He took a breath.. “Lola Mckay was a very healthy woman and she would have lived for several more years, this eviction killed her ..there’s no doubt about that.

by Tiny

The tall shade trees swept down, almost touching the tops of cars and sides of houses, the street was short, lined with clapboard houses with an occasional apartment building looking out of place. I never liked this street when I lived here because I never felt like I belonged. From the first day my mother and I moved in, we were told by the landlord that he wanted to get more for this place - I nodded in agreement, like I understood, like I agreed, empathized in fact, about his plight as a short changed apartment owner, getting a bad lot in life - but as we spoke, I tried desperately to cover the terror in my eyes with a cheerful glaze of excitement at all he'd done for the place and how much I admired his efforts. I tried to keep my voice light and extract all possible traces of the screams and tears that proceeded that one Wednesday afternoon in July when we begged that apartment owner for a chance.

We had looked at over thirty places and found absolutely nothing, we had called apartment after apartment but if we did find something we were summarily rejected because of an eviction on our credit record for a previous place we had that had attempted to fight . No, he could not know how much we needed that place and who we really were….

Yesterday I was there again, two years on that street, on 36th street, near Telegraph in Oakland. My body shook with the lingering terror of that day and the days to follow - the second eviction, the second fight, the threats of violence from the landlord, the never ending danger. But it wasn't mine alone anymore….

"I lived in this apartment for 11 years, I was a good tenant “ Oakland resident Ron Curry was talking to me on the sidewalk outside of one of those bright white clapboard houses on 36th street, he continued, “ I raised three children as a single parent in that house, my son asked the realtor why they were evicting us, she said the landlord wanted to paint the place and raise the rent – they evicted all five families - and now when I look for an apartment, there are six people in line trying to get the same place- or I am turned down due to this eviction which appears on my record” As he spoke – members of JustCause Oakland stood near – holding signs about eviction and profit.

“People are being evicted from their houses for no reason at all- this is the only city in the Bay Area that allows tenants to be evicted for no reason” a spokesperson for Just Cause Oakland –was outlining the current situation for Oakland renters.

“What if you can’t find a place-will you give up and leave the Bay Area?” I nervously asked Mr. Curry, hoping the answer would be no

“I’m not giving up – I am going to fight- and I am not leaving the Bay Area”
I nodded, slivers of the last ten years of my life - eviction on top of Oakland eviction circled above the trees and through the wood panels and landed on that narrow messy street in the form of resistance- we could fight and we would. That’s why my mother and I are still alive – because we never stopped fighting – and we didn’t leave!

To get involved in the resistance against the eviction of low income people, communities of color and elders in Oakland call Just Cause at (510) 464-1011 or email them at: justcauseoaklnd@yahoo.com

by Dee

BY HANDS, THE CAT. AND DEE.

During a Just Cause Eviction meeting, I, Hands, had the misfortune of
meeting a Puppy... A Shameless Puppy.

This pup felt so comfortable in his surroundings that he exposed all
his parts to anyone looking his way. Iwanted to scratch him and teach
him a lesson. For this shameless behavior, he got the most attention from
everyone in the room; way more than me, I might add.

Not only was he shameless; he was happy about his indecent behavior,
and everything else as well.

Happy to be on the couch, happy to be in the room, happy to be alive.

The night I had to see him was the first night he was in this place,
the place where they had the eviction meeting.

One of the occupants had bought him from a guy pushing a shopping cart.

Apparently the little pup had been riding around on this guy’s shopping
cart for some time, and I guess that’s why he would easily fall asleep
in odd places.

The occupant that bought him felt very proud of himself because
he had "saved this poor pup from a hellish existence riding around on
a shopping cart", he said. And everyone at the meeting was happy as well
that this happy pup was saved from such a dire existence.

Of course, I could see this pup’s future: loved and admired by all.
Hand-fed delicious morsels from the plates of the occupants. Bathed in
special soaps and perfumes.

I wasn’t envious. I had my own happy life to go back to. And I thought
maybe this pup would learn some manners from these people that saved him
from his shopping cart owner, and not have to shamelessly expose himself
all night in front of everyone again.

So, being curious as I am, I listened to the conversation the next day
of the gals I live with. I found out that the occupant who had saved this
pup from the horrible existence of a shopping cart home had taken the
pup to the pound. The occupant decided the pup would be lonely when the
occupant went to work.

Besides, it would just be too much trouble to care for the pup; therefore,
he said he would do the humane thing and take the pup to the pound, and
maybe someone would adopt him; and if not, he’d be put out of his
misery by the pound.

What luck, for this shameless pup to be rescued by such a caring person
as this occupant. Just think what a terrible life it could’ve been
for this pup; to ride around, alive and cared for, in a shopping cart,
for the rest of his life.

by HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Shelter, Britain's best-known charity for the
homeless, hit out on Monday at a government drive against begging.

A publicity campaign asks Good Samaritans not to hand out their spare
change to the estimated 1,600 people who sleep rough on British streets
every night.

The government's Change a Life campaign says people who want to help should
instead volunteer at their local soup kitchen, or give money to the
charities that help those forced to make their bed in a cardboard box.

Shelter said the campaign could make life worse for beggars.

``However carefully communicated, this initiative could increase the stigma
of homelessness and make life even worse for people who are already subject
to high levels of abuse and violence,'' Shelter Director Chris Holmes said
in a statement.

The government's Rough Sleepers Unit, set up to get people off the streets,
courted controversy by suggesting that giving money to beggars only fuelled
drug and alcohol addiction.

The unit's chief, Louise Casey, last year dubbed handouts to beggars as
``misplaced goodwill.''

But her unit said on Monday Change a Life was not an anti-begging campaign.

``Few human beings can walk past their fellow man in the street and not be
moved by a desire to help.

``This campaign is part of a government's responsibility to inform the
public of the best ways they can help make a real difference. It is not an
anti-begging campaign.''

Government figures show that some 1,600 people sleep on the streets every
night. Shelter says the figure is probably higher.

Social policy experts last week attacked the campaign ahead of Monday's
launch, British newspaper the Independent reported.

The experts said in an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair that the
advertising campaign was ``potentially harmful'' and could force people
into crime and prostitution.

Shelter said the best way to fight begging was to look at why people were
on the streets and to find alternatives.

``The priority must be to find alternatives for those on the streets,
whether homeless or not,'' Holmes said.

by Frank Curreri

People living on the streets of Salt Lake City are not yet clamoring to get
into homeless shelters despite the week's snow and subfreezing
temperatures.

Up to 6 inches of snow fell in the Salt Lake Valley on Thursday and
temperatures reached a chilling low of 28 degrees early Friday morning,
according to the National Weather Service. But of the 2,000 to 3,000
homeless people in the Salt Lake area, only about 555 sought beds at
shelters, said Pamela Atkinson, vice president of Mission Services, a local
group that helps impoverished people.

That left at least 320 beds unclaimed at shelters in Salt Lake City and
Midvale.

Atkinson said she had expected more homeless people to flock to the
shelters, but "a lot of the men just told me they were going to continue to
camp out because they like their freedom."

Many have stayed away so they could arrive early to stand in line at a
temporary job placement agency, Atkinson said. Lines sometimes begin
forming around 5 a.m., and those in the front often stand a better chance
of getting work. Several agencies have handed out warm clothing, blankets
and sleeping bags to many homeless people who are braving the cold, she
said.

However, Atkinson said many homeless men who skipped the shelter have told
her that if it gets much colder, they may come in.

A more intense cold front and significant snowfall could engulf the Wasatch
Front by Tuesday or Wednesday, bringing temperatures in the mid-teens, the
National Weather Service reported.