Every night for the past two months, Geneva Carter, her mother and her three young children have spent the night on the floor of an office in an emergency homeless shelter in the Mission. They wake at 6 a.m., roll up the mats they slept on and spend the day trying to find a permanent place to live.
“It’s emotional,” said Carter, 21, who is unemployed and cannot afford to pay rent. “I get overwhelmed to where I can’t think.” Read More
The political fight that erupted over San Francisco’s Care Not Cash homeless program has ended after its would-be reformers backed down following a compromise that will change The City’s shelter system.
Details of the compromise were released Thursday in a statement from Mayor Ed Lee, who thanked supervisors Jane Kim, Ross Mirkarimi and Eric Mar for withdrawing their proposed reform measure from the November ballot. Read More
Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting was one of the first mayoral candidates to lash out at a progressive ballot measure that would change the way Care Not Cash benefits are dispersed when it comes to homeless-shelter beds. Read More
Losing candidates, nonprofit leaders and other political figures are lining up for a chance to serve on an influential task force that could change the political bent of San Francisco’s supervisorial districts.Today, Elections Commission Director John Arntz is expected to officially announce that The City’s 11 supervisorial districts will need to be redrawn based on the results of the 2010 census. Read More
The City’s controversial sit-lie ordinance remains unenforced, but the Police Department hopes to finish training for officers and unveil a public education campaign in the next “couple of weeks,” interim police Chief Jeff Godown said Sunday.The ordinance, which makes it illegal to sit or lie on public sidewalks, with certain exceptions, between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily, was approved by 54 percent of voters in November. Read More
Proponents of San Francisco’s controversial sit-lie ordinance say the law is already deterring aggressive panhandlers in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, even though police haven’t started enforcing it.
The Civil Sidewalks law went into effect Dec. 17 but won’t be enforced until mid-February, when the department completes its training and community outreach, police said. The law makes it illegal to sit or lie on a public sidewalk in The City between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Read More
Merchants at San Francisco’s Ferry Building say they have noticed an increase in homeless in the area — some of whom have been troublesome for business — since the demolition of the Transbay Terminal.
At a meeting Thursday afternoon, the building’s head of security told merchants that multiple stay-away orders have been filed recently for transients who have been bothering customers. Read More
Advocates for the homeless will gather tonight to remember friends, family members and strangers who died while living on the streets this year. "In any society, it's important to honor people who are deceased," said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness. "And people without a place to call home are not often memorialized in any way." Read More
