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SACRAMENTO, CA — 2020 has taught us many lessons. For years, people have been saying that most of us are one paycheck away, one medical bill away, one life emergency away, one natural disaster or crisis away from homelessness. What Covid-19 has also shown us is that, along with every other mistreatment of our homeless, we continue to be excluded, ignored, and unprotected, with criminalization and police sweeps of our unhoused who are trying to shelter in place. For years we have asked for infrastructure in our encampments. We have fought for housing. Project Room Key has shown that we could take hotels and house folks, that we could place porta potties in encampments and bring mutual aid to those who need it the most. Our government has the capacity to get everybody off of the streets if they truly wanted to.
Here in Sacramento we are seeing CDC violations and violations of a lawsuit we won to stop police sweeps. Our goal for 2021 is to put a stop to the cruel and unusual punishment of unhoused folks. Our goal is to stop sweeps and fight for housing now, for no more death on the streets. We are a national Union of the Homeless, made up of the unhoused, poor and advocates, and those sick and tired of being sick and tired! You may be able to lock a few of us up, but you can’t lock up an entire movement. When we say ‘whose streets?’ and then respond ‘our streets!’ it is because it is our streets. Built by us, paid for by us, utilized by us. Many of us have died on those streets as well!
The time has come for another civil rights movement. There are more of us than them. Stand up, fighting back. Organize organize organize! Remember — we only get what we are organized to take!
Crystal Sanchez is with the Sacramento Homeless Union.
