A Legacy of Criminalizing Transience and Homelessness

By Sara Bloomberg : sfpublicpress – excerpt

In the mid-19th century, California lawmakers enacted the state’s first anti-vagrancy measrues to rid city streets of people who were homeless or indigent. This timeline highlights some key years, laws and policies in  San Francisco… (more)

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Starting with the 1850″Act for the Government and Protection of Indians” targeting Native Americans in California, the state has gone up and down in its efforts to finance poverty poverty programs. Those efforts often follow the money out of Washington. As that dries up, the state funds are being cut, the safety net is disappearing.

San Francisco’s efforts to “protect the public” from the effects of the poverty on the streets has been just as ineffective as the federal and state attempts to hide it. Hiding the poverty is not the answer. We need to demand a new plan to combat homelessness.

It is time to quit worrying about how to protect the public from the homeless and do something to keep people housed. We need to demand a system that protects vulnerable residents from evictions, not more ways to hide the homeless.

Would you rather spend money on sidewalks, bike paths and parks or housing vouchers for vulnerable elderly and disabled people? Tell City Hal and tell your state representatives.