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Homelessness and Housing

Prop 33 for Rent Control is An Essential Step in Rebuilding California

Californians have an opportunity in Tuesday’s election to pass a ballot measure that will address the high cost of housing, which is one of the top grievances among the state’s voters. Proposition 33 will allow cities and counties to implement rent control ordinances.

Oakland Unhoused Bike to Sacramento

For the third year, a group of former Wood Street encampment residents bicycled some 80 miles from Oakland to Sacramento in a show of solidarity with unhoused Californians.

The Growing Crisis: 100,000 Seniors Homeless in America

Republished from Invisible People More Than 100,000 Seniors Are Unhoused on Any Given Night Thanks to Failing Safety Nets and a Lack of Housing Solutions. A...

Stop California’s Proposition 36

Using fear and misinformation to manipulate California voters, the Yes on 36 campaign is based on lies: claiming crime is increasing when it is down; claiming 36 will get more people into drug treatment, when it will DECREASE funding, forcing people who want treatment to prison instead; providing zero dollars for housing and millions for prisons and jails.

“I Have Become a Social Justice Warrior”

I’m Crystal President of Sacramento Homeless Union, on the Board of the California Homeless Union Statewide Council, and an Executive Board member of the...

Stop Towing Our Homes!

Hundreds of people who live in their RVs and other vehicles, many of them families, reject an attempt by the. mayor of San Francisco to criminalize them and force them into homelessness.

Tents Protest at Berkeley’s Old City Hall

Where Do We Go protest of new Berkeley anti-homeless legislation, anti-encampment orders from Governor Gavin Newsom, and now Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.

Oakland Destroys Houseless Community of Over 100 People

Press Conference, Speak Out and Prayer Ceremony, Monday September 24, 23rd Street and Northgate, Oakland, CA organized by formerly homeless, advocates and caregivers for the unhoused.  

Wood Street Commons Solidarity Bike Ride to Sacramento

Wood Street Commons — with their motto of “Homeless Helping Homeless” — is a group of unhoused people from West Oakland, who work in solidarity with homeless communities in other cities.

Some Faces of Camp Resolution, Lives and a Community Under Attack

In August, the city of Sacramento made good on their threats to break up Camp Resolution, a self-sustaining RV community that had endured for 17 months. A majority of its residents were women, over 55, many disabled. Hear their stories.

Just in Time for Back to School: Homelessness Creation for Families

Shelter program in Ohio ousts 70 kids, about 22 families; one vote could have made a difference.

Sweeps Kill! The City of Sacramento is Complicit in Homeless Deaths

Sweeps kill! As history repeats itself the city and county of Sacramento are going to allow a sweep at Camp Resolution, home to many unhoused people who live there and care for one another.

Heat Wave

A poem on the heatwave in Las Vegas.

Poor People’s Army: Protest of the Poor at the Democratic National Convention

The Poor People’s Army, a national group of poor and homeless people with a history of staging nonviolent protests, faces pressure from Chicago officials to stay away from DNC.

‘The Problem Is, There’s No Place for Anyone to Go’

States are using their budgetary power to punish communities that don’t push people off the street, including places that have more unhoused people than shelter beds, and to arrest people who don’t have a safe space to go to.

Where Do We Go, Gavin Newsom? Wood Street Commons Demands Public Land be Used for Public Good

The Wood Street Commons, a community of unhoused residents in West Oakland, is calling for immediate action to address the State’s homelessness crisis.

Aggressive Sweeps Loom in San Francisco after Grants Pass

San Francisco begins brutal sweeps against people on the streets and their belongings, whether housing is available or not; a city with some of the highest rents in the nation.

Take Action: Email Blast to Demand North Gateway Parcel be Used for Housing

Wood Street Commons community in Oakland is struggling to ensure housing as a human right in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling and the governor's order criminalizing homelesssness.

Homelessness Ruling May Further Endanger Domestic Violence Survivors

57 percent of unhoused women report domestic violence as their immediate cause of homelessness. The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold an Oregon law could further limit their options

Sacramento Homeless Union’s Projects of Survival

Climate change and extreme weather is a real thing. This is evidenced by the fact that extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent and more intense.

U.S. Supreme Court’s Criminalization of Homeless Met with Universal Disgust

A movement is growing against the latest “legalized” atrocity on the most vulnerable, in governments, among advocates, ordinary people, and most importantly, by organized and individual homeless people. As said in the homeless movement, “We only get what we are organized to take!”

Supreme Court Rules Arresting, Citing People for Not Having Shelter is Constitutional

Criminalizing the homeless for sleeping in public spaces when having no other option does not violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause of U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, according to new ruling.

Homeless in Las Vegas: No Reprieve from the Heat

If you are among the growing number of the Las Vegas homeless there is little to no reprieve from the heat.

Corporate Landlords’ Profits Soar as Tenants Drown in Rent Hikes and Fees

Through-the-roof rent hikes based on greed—not need—have kept many Americans from getting ahead,’ said one advocate at Accountable.US.

Camp Resolution Wins Lawsuit Against City of Sacramento

Camp Resolution, the self-governing encampment for unhoused Sacramento residents, received a notice on March 28 for its nearly one hundred members to vacate by...

Building the Revolutionary Housing Movement through Mutual Aid

June 14, 2024 Interview with General Dogon of the Los Angeles Community Action Network by Cathleen Williams, Homeward Street Journal General Dogon is an organizer at...

Soupstock-24: Celebration of 44 Years of Sharing Meals!

Food Not Bombs in Santa Cruz, CA celebrates 44 years of sharing free food where all are welcome.

We Can End Poverty When We Unite

Voices of the heroic efforts of those who suffer from and fight poverty, horrors of homelessness, heartless immigrant policies, and war.

Sweeping Decision: Will U.S. Supreme Court Criminalize Being Homeless?

The Supreme Court’s decision in the case out of southern Oregon, expected in June, will broadly impact how local governments write homelessness policy in the United States.

Homelessness: Is Supreme Court OK With Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

Florida homeless advocate discusses new anti-homeless laws in Florida, and elsewhere, criminalizing those who have to shelter, including upcoming Supreme Court rulings that could impact the nation.

‘Voices Fighting for Justice’

Sacramento, among many other towns and cities, turned out to protest on April 22, the day of the Supreme Court argument in the Grants Pass case.

‘We Will Not Disappear’

Actions are taking place in the following cities: San Francisco (Bay Area), CA; Los Angeles, CA; Sacramento, CA; Portland, OR; Medford, OR; Missoula, MT; Seattle, WA; Denver, CO

Wood Street Commons and Friends Month of Action for Housing as a Human Right

Our current society loses 295,000 people each year to poverty, which is more people than by homicide, gun violence, diabetes, or obesity but the corporate media does not talk about that.

Advocates Indict San Francisco’s Sweeps Policies Before U.S. Supreme Court

A coalition of current and former San Francisco officials and civic organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in advance of...

Stop Criminalizing the Homeless For Being Homeless

Sacramento homeless and supporters rally at the state capitol in anticipation of a case before the U.S Supreme Cout that could criminalize sleeping outside even when cities have no beds or housing for people.

Oakland’s Wood Street Community Reflects on Year Since City’s Eviction

Displaced residents of the Wood Street community, dismantled by the City of Oakland, will kick off a month of action of April 10.

‘Take Back What is Rightfully Owed!’

Home is a place where we go ….A destination. That destination does not need to be physical …. home is a space. Home is a place with family ….community support strength and the ability to feel secure in your fight where you stand.

“We Don’t Have Anywhere Else to Go”

San Francisco is banning overnight parking on Bernal Heights Blvd., endangering homes of RV dwellers. Residents are protesting their impending eviction.

LA is Failing its Unhoused Residents

A family remains homeless due to a paperwork issue Read the open letter they wrote to Los Angeles housing authorities.

Backpack With Wings: A Beautiful Story of Today

We went to the bank and had a twenty dollar bill. I had the weirdest feeling that I was being led to somebody specific....

Over 68,000 Good Reasons to Vote for Bring Chicago Home 

In 2023, 68,440 Chicagoans experienced houselessness, lived on the streets, in shelters, or doubled-up. Bring Chicago Home was born out of the growing need to address the crisis in a real and meaningful way where people get housed and stay housed

International Women’s Day Spotlight: Jennie Welles aka Red

Jennie is a fighter who has lived a hard life! She spent her whole life in broken systems meant to keep people down! She...

‘Fixing’ Family Homelessness

The systemic causes of family homelessness are not the families’ fault— it’s mainly a lack of affordable housing, economic problems, and our nation’s relentless punishing of families.

No on Proposition 1 Say Homeless and Health Care Advocates

Prop 1 Would gut local mental health services and further criminalize the unhoused. The following is an excerpt from a voting guide prepared by Kris Rehl, a writer and organizer with LA Street Care, and was lightly edited for length.

Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution: Vote No on Homeless-Bashing Measures

San Francisco’s centrally located Tenderloin area is about 25 blocks flanked by Union Square and Civic Center areas. The mayor’s reelection campaign aims to please the billionaire donors by punishing the thousands of unhoused living in this area and across the city, rather than provide people with housing.

Supreme Court Will Examine Grants Pass Homelessness Case

The Supreme Court will decide whether it should be illegal to arrest and cite unhoused people for unauthorized lodging without offering immediate available shelter.

Invisible: Black and Homeless in San Francisco

To most people, I’m invisible. Just another nameless Black man blending into the urban background. People avoid making eye contact as they walk past me on the sidewalk.

Pastor Charged for Opening Church to Homeless in Freezing Weather

Pastor in Bryan, Ohio, pleaded not guilty to charges he broke zoning codes when he gave shelter to people who might otherwise have frozen to death.

Chicago OEMC for Climate Change Disasters Allows Residents to Freeze 

Dozens of unhoused, disoriented, disabled Chicago residents will die. Hundreds will get frostbite and/or hypothermia. The city must open warming senters 24/7.

Memorial Held for Unhoused People Who Died in Santa Cruz Streets

A memorial was held for those who died in Santa Cruz streets unhoused, the most expensive rental market in the country. Hear voices of both sadness and hope.

No More Death On Our Streets!

Homeless and supporters stand together on this winter solstice night mourning the unhoused who have died on our streets. The memorial reminds us of the cruel reality that some of us are unhoused, living outside. Their voices must be at the forefront of the fight to end homelessness.

Wood Street End-of-Year Letter 2023!

Wood Street End-of-Year Letter 2023! Wood Street Commons Season’s Greetings Wood Street Allies, Friends, and Family, It’s hard to believe that we are quickly approaching the end...

Los Angeles Unhoused Become Targets

Los Angeles CA — Last week in Los Angeles three homeless people were shot on the streets.

Bring Chicago Home

Chicago voters will decide whether to increase the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) on home sales of over $1 million, creating a dedicated source of funding for preventing and ending homelessness in Chicago.

CARE Court in California: A Primer

CA Senate Bill 1338 created a mental health court. A court-appointed conservator would make health care decisions and control one’s medication and treatment — at an involuntary stay in a psychiatric facility. Could this be the housing promised by Governor Newsom?

What if they got it all wrong? asks Homeless Union leader

Sacramento California has 22,000 unhoused people on the streets. This is the reality people live and die in. Sacramento Homeless Union leader asks, “Can we create a place we can all thrive and be healthy together?”

Florida Activists Face charges For Sharing Food With Houseless Community

Three West Palm Beach activist face criminal charges for sharing food with houseless community members.

‘The Greatest Lesson I’ve Learned Out Here’

An Interview with ‘Freeway’, Former Wood Street Commons Resident

Viewpoints of the Long Unhoused

Viewpoints of the long unhoused (A suite of poems by an unhoused poet and artist)

Conquering Being Homeless

Student writes about her experiece in foster care and homelessness, how how she felt like she was surviving, not living!

Education and Real Estate: A Match Made in Heaven? Or Hell?

Education and real estate may seem like separate topics, but are instead inextricably linked for many reasons.

Red Cross Denies Help to Homeless Families Caught in Florida Motel Fire

The Red Cross refused to help homeless families burnt out of the hotel they stayed at, which caused them to lose everything, because the motel was not a permanent residence.

Basic Needs Above Corporate Greed

There's far more empty homes or apartments than people experiencing homelessness. We are the many. Together we can get what we need.

Being Houseless in the Bay Area

Young homeless person in Oakland, California tells the story of the cause of homelessness, being homeless and solutions the cities can undertake to help homeless youth.

Homeless to Homefull

Editor's Note: This article was contributed from the Laney College Chapter, Poor People's Campaign Being homeless at the end of my high school senior year...

Homeless Woman’s Death in Modesto: An Ongoing Story

It has now been over a month since the gruesome incident that caused the death of Christine Chavez, a houseless woman, and there are more questions than answers at this point.

A Letter to Fellow Poor People: You Didn’t Start This, But You Will Fix It. Stay Strong!

People fighting for housing and survival want a massive, powerful unity to achieve decent housing for all versus corporate investment property owners.

Coalition on Homelessness et al v. San Francisco: One Week, Two Court Dates

San Francisco lost its appeal challenging an injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing penal codes such as the ban on sleeping on the streets, as the City has continued to violate unhoused residents’ rights, destroying their property while clearing camps on the streets.

The Rise of Private Cops: How Not to Tackle Homelessness

Like many cities with a serious housing problem, Portland is increasingly relying on private security to “clean up” the human debris of capitalism.

The Impact of Homelessness in Sacramento

Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, grew up in Sacramento. Formerly homeless herself, she brings insight into the homeless and housing crisis, urging us to come together and discuss plans to end homelessness by ensuring everybody has a chance to be heard and work together for a solution.

Family Members Demand Answers in Gruesome Death of Unhoused Woman

The deceased woman’s family and people who saw her shortly before she died claim she was sleeping in dry grass prior to being run over by a large tractor pulling a powerful mower. The father is asking for an investigation.

The CARE Court: A Primer

A court-appointed conservator would make financial and health care decisions and control a patient’s medication and treatment. Where is the housing promised by Gov. Newsom when he announced his CARE Court plan?

Jail is Not a Cure! Housing and Real Justice Is

San Francisco is concentrating homeless arrests in areas where lots of people live on the streets. However, a new study by UCSF, found the leading cause of homelessness was overwhelmingly the crushingly high rents and unaffordable housing, and lack of meaningful help getting rehoused once housing is lost, despite millions of dollars spent on “homeless services” (mainly shelters and policing).

‘Comin’ In From The Cold’

Friends offer warm remembrances of Joey Pace who died of fentanyl poisoning. Joey, a Special Forces veteran, was a years-long volunteer for Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs. The community had been reeling from recent deaths. And a total of 90 unhoused died in Santa Cruz in 2022.

‘If We Don’t Fight Back!’

Homeless Poet Linda Stevens presents her poetry, saying "I'm too old to go back to work, I don't have benefits . . . why don't cities have a help system? What can we do to get this world to wake up and help the unhoused? If we don't fight back, we're all going to die!"

Why is Hunger Growing When There’s Plenty of Food?

Food is a human right. Yet over 34 million Americans — and those numbers are growing every day — are hungry, including 1 in 8 children. Why is anyone, let alone children, going hungry when there’s plenty of food in supermarkets across the country? And why are people who share food with hungry people being ticketed and fined?

Unhoused Peralta Community College Students Need Housing Now!

Housing insecurities affect about 83% of Peralta Community College Students. About 14% of students nationwide self-report experiencing homelessness in the past year. Students are asked to speak out at the Peralta Board of Trustee Meeting June 27.

No Sleeping in Sin City

Las Vegas buses have security guards to make sure people don't fall asleep on busses, which are sometimes the only place the homeless can shut their eyes without worrying about being robbed or harmed.

Forty Years of Homelessness

After 40 years, the system is still doing exactly what it was designed to do: manage and minimize the presence of homeless people. It was NEVER intended to address homelessness in any real way.

Justice for Homeless Artist Jordan Neely

Black homeless street artist Jordan Neely, 30, walking through a NYC subway car saying he was hungry and thirsty, was held in a choke hold until his death. Widespread protests finally resulted in manslaughter charges being brought against his perpetrator.

Homeless Families Prep for Nightmare ‘Vacation’ Time

As summer rolls around, one group of motel-dwellers will feel the heat the most — families and individuals who’ve lost housing. Motels/hotels welcome tourists in summer, so they want to get rid of the “riff-raff”. . .

Wood Street Commons Final Stand

View photo essay by the renowned photo journalist David Bacon of the unhoused people who live in the Wood Street community in Oakland, CA. They have been facing the city’s earth movers with metal jaws destroying the homes and belongings of the residents.

Wood Street Camp: State Violence Does Not Solve Homelessness

Residents say it has been a tense week with heavy police presence at the Wood Street Commons community in Oakland, CA where the City is destroying a long-standing camp of the unhoused violently, without respect for residents rights, lives or property.

No More Homeless Deaths!

SAN JOSE, CA– On Friday, April 21 at 11:30 am, Students Against Sweeps will hold a press conference discuss the City’s plans to address homelessness, and human rights issue. 

Oakland’s Unhoused: Wood Street Commons Refuses to Give Up

OAKLAND, CA - On Monday, April 10, the police of Oakland, along with clean-up crew were at 1707 Wood Street to start evicting residents of Wood Street Commons.

Camp Resolution Claims Victory!

On April 1, Camp Resolution, a self-run community of tents and vehicle dwellings of about 50 people on a fenced city-owned lot in Sacramento CA, celebrated a victory.

City of Oakland Evicts Unhoused of Wood Street Commons

The City of Oakland , CA has begun demolishing the Wood Street Commons encampment of the unhoused, the City's largest camp. The residents wow to continue their fight for housing

Homeless in Santa Cruz: ‘The Solution is Housing’

Alicia Kuhl, president of the Santa Cruz Union of the Homeless, describes how she and her three children became homeless in the past, and how the homeless are stigmatized by false narratives put out by public officials and others.

A Special Kind of Cruelty

City of Santa Cruz refuses requests to open empty public buildings for 24 hours a day during deadly storms. The city also threatened to arrest a group sharing meals next to a city garage, leaving people to eat outside in the downpour.

Wood Street Unhoused Seek Solidarity to Stop Oakland’s Eviction

Residents of Wood Street Commons in Oakland, CA ask public to help stop City’s eviction of the mutual aid community they built. Creating community helps solve homelessness.

Homeless Camps: Self-governance as Resistance

In Sacramento, Oakland, in cities across the West Coast and in other places, unhoused residents have banded together and built self-governing settlements. Their struggle also shows how the broader community supports these encampments as a common project.

L.A. Skid Row Organizer: ‘We’re Educating About Unconstitutional Laws’

General Dogon, homeless organizer in Los Angeles' 'Skid Row' community, reports on efforts to oppose LA's city-wide ordinance 41.18, which makes 20 percent of the city off-limits to the homeless.

Judge Delays Evictions of Unhoused Residents at Oakland’s Wood Street Camp

The Wood Street Commons celebrates a small victory and continues the fight for the rights of all unhoused!

An Unhoused Double Amputee’s Story

RICHMOND, CA. — Everyday life is a struggle for the residents of Camperland, the informal gathering of 35 households living in RVs, trailers and...

‘SURPRISE: You are Under Criminal Investigation for Buying Hotel Rooms for the Homeless’

The co-founder of Food not Bombs writes about his recent arrest for providing food to the hungry during the California storms and new charges related to his effort to house people during the Pandemic.

‘We Are People, We Are Human, We Have Rights’

Roy Sterling Trout, based in Tucson, AZ tells his story of being homeless for most of his adult life, for 29 years. He advocates for the homeless, and produces podcasts that give a voice to the unhoused.

The Poor Bear the Brunt of California’s Storms

California’s 172,000 Homeless face two storms: natural disaster and govt Indifference Yet enough vacant housing exists in SF and LA to house all of California's unhoused.

Happy now, DA Wamp?

Hundreds of people became houseless as sheriffs with guns drawn knocked on each room in a hotel complex, telling occupants they had four hours to get out, per the District Attorney Coty Wamp.

Homeless in the California Storms: We are in a State of Emergency!

While homeless communities in Sacramento try to shelter themselves during the catastrophic storms, police sweep camps, even taking people's RVs.

‘We Need Thunder’ to Stop Final Destruction of Our Homes

Jared DeFigh, a former resident of the Wood Street encampment in Oakland, CA discusses his current life at one of the city’s Tuff Shed [tiny homes community.] He also makes a proposal to save what is left of the city’s destruction of Wood Street encampment.

Christmas in a Tent: How Do We Give Up on Anyone?

The writer speaks to a mother outside her tent about the meaning of the season of giving and sharing, and meditates on our need for each other, now and all year.

Freezing to Death in Silicon Valley

A sweep of a camp in San Jose, CA proceeded after several unhoused people had already died due to the weather. Supporters tried to keep people warm with tents/tarps/blankets, but now they are in a nearby "no re-encampment zone", and in danger of losing those few belongings when they get swept from there as well.

Some 800 People Evicted From Hotel in TN Left Houseless

Approximately 800 people including 75 or so school-age kids have been evicted, left houseless, from a hotel outside Chatanooga in 4-hour shuffle out of their rooms. People are wondering if developers are after the property.

Attack and Resistance of the Unhoused in Sacramento

Sacramento voters, misinformed and misled, passed an ordinance to outlaw being unhoused and living outside, doing nothing to address housing needs. The dwellers are resisting. Meanwhile giant corporations and the war industry receives lavish subsidies with public funds.

Brutality and Grace as Tent Community is Destroyed

As the dreaded forklift moved in, crushing tents and campers' belongings at the Benchlands, a lone woman sets up a food service station for houseless people.

Across US, Citizen Action Puts Housing Crisis on the Ballot

Absent from coverage despite its priority for many voters is housing. Yet half of Americans struggle with housing. Real estate industry groups spent over $187 million nationally during this election cycle.

Kansas City Tenants Win Ballot Victory for Affordable Housing

Following weeks of organizing by KC Tenants Power, Kansas City voters passed a voter resolution authorizing a $50 million bond for deeply affordable housing. The bond is the largest commitment to housing in the City’s history.

Community Occupies Hospital Lot for 11 Days to Stop Luxury Housing Development 

Chicago Uptown community holds 11-day protest for affordable housing—and for no more the luxury high-rises.

Homeless in Sacramento and Oakland Fight Together for Housing

Oakland and Sacramento unhoused people occupy a lot in Sacramento, calling on state officials to support the rights of unhoused people to permanent housing.

Santa Cruz Dismantles Benchlands Camp: Hundreds of Homeless Forced Out

People at the Benchlands camp in Santa Cruz, CA, speak about what they face now that their encampment is being dismantled by the city.

The United States Is Now an Un-Developing Country

In a shock to many Americans, the U.S. ranks 41st in the United Nations’ latest annual ranking of nations, which includes the absence of poverty and hunger, good health and education, gender equality, clean air and water, and reduced inequality.

What Will Keep Our Children Safe?

On August 9th Martha Escudero addressed a crowd of city residents preparing to enter the Los Angeles City Council to protest a law, LAMC 4118, that would expand areas in the city to 20% of city land where sitting, sleeping, or lying is a crime.

It’s Not a Crime to be Homeless Say Sacramento Protesters

Sacramento CA. Today on September 10, 2022 a protest was held at the intersection of Land Park and Broadway. An original protest was initiated by...

We are homeless but not helpless!

The message must be delivered loudly to the Biden/Harris Administration that disabled people are in jeopardy due to leftover Trump policies and must be addressed.

This Could Happen to Anyone

Jazmine, a young massage therapist is homeless, living in a large encampment after she became gravely ill and couldn't work. She tells her story, warning that it could happen to anyone.

Oakland Homeless Win Settlement

Plaintiffs argued that the city should stop evictions and build permanent housing for anyone regardless of income. They say the settlement is a compromise in a system that does not protect their interests; the fight continues.

Enough

PreambleNo one should go unhomed.There is plenty.If we work toward balance,There is enough.Balance does not occur without struggle.If you were ever a child who...

GO TO NOWHERE LAND?

Hear voices of homeless campers in Santa Cruz about their planned evictions, alongside the City’s misuse of $14 million in funds that were to help the homeless.

Los Angeles homeless protest expansion of unjust law

Hear testimony from rally at Los Angeles City Hall, as the city council approves an expansion of L.A. Municipal Code 41.18, which prohibits sitting, sleeping or lying on the sidewalk, which means greater criminalization of poor people.

The City of Santa Cruz Plans Eviction of Hundreds of Houseless People

Santa Cruz, CA, plans to evict the Benchlands Camp of hundreds of unhoused people. Even when provided with millions of dollars from the state and federal governments, the city, in one of the wealthiest places on Earth, can't even offer dignified housing for people in need.

First Tennesseean Arrested For ‘The Crime’ of Felony Camping

A 32-year-old homeless woman in Knoxville was arrested and charged under Tennessee's new felony law that criminalizes homelessness. Photo/hardknoxwire.com

Moms4Housing Hosts Oakland Mayoral Forum

Hear from #OakMayor candidates on their plans to address #homelessness and the housing affordability crisis. Sponsored by Moms4Housing

Proposed Law Threatens L.A. CalTrans Tenants’ Right to Buy Their Homes

The right of Los Angeles Cal Trans Tenants’ to secure their housing and buy their homes is threatened by a New Law

‘The Walking Man:’ Beloved Homeless Man Set on Fire

Beloved homeless man in Chicago was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire while sleeping.

Help us or leave us alone

These two stories are by women writing about homelessness and our society, reprinted from Facebook posts with the author’s permission.

Homeless Demand harm reduction, not incarceration!

End game – to incarcerate the unhoused who have experienced the violence of being stigmatized for mental health and substance use, both of which are results of state-inflicted violence on poor communities of color.

Rebuild the Chicago Public Health System with the Public

Joy Bunton, a public health activist, shares her testimony from a rally held by The People’s Response Network to COVID on April 24, 2022, at a COVID vaccination in Chicago’s Little Village.

Unhoused: It’s Like a War, a Fight to Survive

Residents of a tent community near the Los Angeles harbor mourn the death, and celebrate the brave life, of one of their own — one of an increasing number of lives lost to the city's streets this past year.

3rd and Peralta Streets co-governed homeless encampment in Oakland, CA

A resident-run community of small homes, with heat and light, on 'beautiful' grounds, is being planned by grassroots organizers in Oakland, CA, as a model of autonomy and stability.

Support for unhoused people at Sacramento City Council meets resistance from multimillionaires

A Sacramento resolution to suspend the towing of people's vehicle homes — unless 'alternative shelter' is offered — is seen as toothless by advocates who want the underlying causes of homelessness addressed, and by others as an excuse to demonize their houseless neighbors.

Dismazed and Driven: My Look at Family Homelessness in America

In her book, Dismazed and Driven: My Look at Family Homelessness in America, Diane Nilan hit the road in 2005 to chronicle stories of family homelessness with a focus on children.

Organizing collectively to stop Chicago evictions

The People’s Tribune’s Bob Lee interviewed Antonio Gutierrez, one of the cofounders of Chicago’s Autonomous Tenants Union (ATU) and a tenant ...

Homeless people not in need of a cell to get well

Members of the Council and my fellow citizens, in the spirit of the ancient Greek forums of old, when men of reason, logic, and a sense of civic duty gathered to bear witness to ...

‘I’m embedded in the homeless condition of humanity in America’

No place is safe to sleep in Vegas. If you're not gambling, you have no business being here . . .  I've been thrown outa casinos, buses, laundromats—but to jail for sleeping in a hospital waiting room?

Families living in storage units

Fiesta Flea Market is classified as a commercial vending establishment for sellers. The site includes almost 100 storage units which are used as living quarters as well as for sellers in a Texas community ...

What does “community” mean?

To some people, "the community" means "the people who live here" and to others it means "the people who pay to live here." To me, a community is not a group of people ...

Demand for housing is demand for new world

In Berkeley, CA, a plan to put homeless people into a camp that resembles a refugee or prison camp, with fence and guard shack, has outraged the homeless and ...

Homeless in Silicon Valley

I first ended up homeless when I had to move out of an elderly man's house who allowed me to live there in exchange for ten hours of work a week. I was a ...

The real plight of the homeless told by homeless

Housing is not a reality. How many years do you have to wait? So, until then, you are a target. No stability at all. Keep your gear close. They are coming for you. No ...

California homeless hit by floods

Amanda Fukamoto was displaced from her encampment when San Jose’s Coyote Creek flooded in February. Along with hundreds of other homeless people ...

“Golden Years” Nightmare

Last year, I moved into one of three buildings for low-and fixed-income seniors, owned and operated at that time by Presbyterian Homes* (a non-profit company ...

Housing for all

Housing insecurity is at an all-time high. Gentrification in our major cities is spreading a cloud of doom over once stable communities. Small homeowners can’t afford the ...

Politically protected gentrification in Chicago

One-year ago, gentrification developer, Brehon Capital LLC, Paul Callero and Scott Holloway, purchased a 12-unit building at 1606-10 N. Harding Ave. in Chicago’s Humboldt ...

Poor Tour of the homeless: We have a right to exist!

Recently, ‘First They Came for the Homeless’ was approached by Dan McMullen, Berkeley City Commissioner for the Disabled People's Outdoor Project. Berkeley's one-stop ...

Homeless in Los Angeles: Welcome to Garcettiville

Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles has instituted Project H.O.P.E, a thinly veiled attack on the homeless population of Los Angeles, the largest in the country. Masquerading ...

Hunger strikers speak out against police murders

On April 21, five individuals known as ‘The Frisco Five’ began a hunger strike at the Mission Police Station in San Francisco. They were protesting the string of police ...

Homelessness and the new world we could have

This society is dying right before our eyes. Capitalism has advanced to the stage where human labor is becoming obsolete. The micro-chip processor, introduced into ...

“We have the right to rest,” says homeless woman

I got a chance to do something last month that made me want to tell everyone about it. There was a bill brought forth to a Senate committee, SB 876, the ...

Hundreds of homeless forced from encampment in Eureka

I need to break people’s hearts. I need to share with them the cruel horror of the marsh. It is the coldest, windiest, wettest place around here and yet this is where ...

The People’s Tribune brings solutions and vision. Help get it out in the homeless communities!

  The People’s Tribune devotes much of its coverage to homelessness, its cause, the solution and a vision of the new society where every single person...

The Magnificent Mile

Sign says:
Homeless. Need haircut.
Job. Train pass.
Sign says:
Homeless. Need food.
Medicine. Lost everything.

New book about homelessness: Dispatches from the War Zone

Independent journalist Mike Rhodes has been involved in homeless issues in Fresno, California since 2002. His tenacity as an investigative reporter has ...

Cooperative spirit key to ending homelessness

Despite massive rollout efforts, Covered California (ACA and Medicaid Expansion), have not yet proved the long-term healthcare solution for the ...

God lives in a tent

These days, you don’t have to look far to find tents. Tent cities have popped up across the country—the homes of the displaced and the homeless. ...

Homeless assert their right to life

Tent cities are popping up everywhere. Uncaring city governments tear them down as they go up. Homelessness illustrates the decay of an economic system ...

“There’s a remedy for homelessness”

Throughout history, there have been those that have plenty, and those that have nothing. When those with nothing have suffered enough, they ...

Sweeps in San Francisco aim to force homeless out

Okay let's just be honest about what is going on in this city . . . This city does not care about homeless people—all the men, women, and children ...

Defending homeless defends us all

  Homelessness is on the rise in America. In Los Angeles, 15,000 become homeless monthly. No longer relegated to primarily urban centers, the homeless population...

cold rain

cold rain
here you come again
and my friends' shoes not dry
from the last one

The homeless stand up for their rights

Here's a true story I want to tell you. It all started on September 25, 2015. Merced, California was having a Homeless Connect event. A lot of us ...

Victory for the Homeless

On December 15, 2015, after 18 months of struggle, the homeless in Santa Clara County won written commitments from the San Jose ...

Homeless leader speaks on homeless realities

During police sweeps you have a few minutes to save your belongings if you are lucky. Cities have no intention of preserving or keeping it for you. The intention is to purposely ...

Homeless occupy city halls: resistance is rising

Last night, Dec. 20, 2015, I spent what can only be called the night from Hell [at the homeless protest in front of Sacramento City Hall]. Even with a tarp over and under ...

revolt and Gargoyles weep

revolt
as necessary as food
it is the riffraff
the slaves the freed
into poverty

do you remember when

do you remember when
they called a blanket
and a piece of cardboard
a structure?

Foreclosure: symptom of a dying society

  For most of us, home ownership is the epitome of the American dream. In a 2015 Wells Fargo survey, 65% felt that homeownership is...

The Birth of an Activist



It is not a choice made, this birth. It is the direct result of the implantation of injustices, fertilized by greed and unconcern, that impregnates certain ...

Homeless protesters create ‘Liberty City’

For two weeks a group of homeless have occupied City Hall in protest of the new anti-homeless laws. We protest for equal rights, equal protection, and ...

Tens of thousands affected by displacement in Silicon Valley

Tenants and members of the homeless community protested early in the morning outside the hearing of the California Senate Committee on Transportation and ...

The new homeless are families, veterans, and children

Hi everyone. I'm Rick and I live in Clearwater Florida. Homelessness is not necessarily what you think or what you've been led to believe. I was your classic middle class ...

Attacks on the homeless threaten all of us

  An overwhelming majority of the American people want to see the problem of homelessness solved. They consider it insane that people continue to die...

“I was born and raised and work in Oakland. Now I can’t afford to live here!”

Such testimony was heard repeatedly at the Oakland-wide Anti-Displacement Forum, “Speak Out to Stay Put”, held on October 17. Over 400 people joined together ...

“Tasers equal torture!”

Members of the public recently lined up to testify before the Berkeley City Council at a hearing on the Berkeley Police Department’s desire to acquire tasers as ...

Rest in power, Pirate Mike!

Michael Clift [‘Pirate Mike’], homeless veteran, member of Veterans for Peace and founding member of OccupySF, was struck and killed October 30 on a Texas highway ...

“It’s going to take all of us homeless to make a stand”

When does a homeless person become unhuman? When the community treats them like they're less than nothing, has them run off everywhere they sit, ...

“Exodus from the Jungle”: the shame of Silicon Valley

On October 2, members of H.O.M.E.L.E.S.S., Affordable Housing Network, Silicon Valley DeBug, Western Regional Advocacy Project, San Jose State ...

Los Angeles: Homeless Capital of the Nation.

Homeless residents all over Los Angeles woke up on June 16 to the realization that their possessions, if left on the street for more than 24 hours, could be ...

Housing crisis reflects dying system

  The city of Detroit recently announced it will begin foreclosure on nearly 30,000 tax delinquent homes. It is believed that 100,000 people could be...

HUD “learns” about Detroit’s foreclosure and water crisis

After months and months of DAILY emails from Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), on September 8, the Department of Housing and Urban ...

Homeless man beaten to death by jailers

Friends, families, and supporters of inmates incarcerated in the Santa Clara County Jail here rallied on September 4 to protest the brutal murder of ...

Tenant uprising in Silicon Valley

People in San Jose, California and elsewhere in the Silicon Valley area have erupted in a surge of organizing activity around skyrocketing rents and ...

Housing is a human right

“Human bodies need sleep—Humans need a place to sleep!” read the sign in front of a Tent City in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Hot dogs off ...

Thousands of tax foreclosures devastate Detroit

By Geo Errol Jennings, President, Russell Woods Neighborhood Association Please understand why coming together is important! The NAACP is not doing it. The churches are...

Help get the People’s Tribune out to the homeless!

Help get the People’s Tribune out to homeless organizations and places where the homeless gather! Homelessness is a stark example of the degeneration of an...

Abundance of food while people starve

If you had to make a choice between buying food or paying your bills, what choice would you make? This is the dilemma millions of Americans ...

From racial division to class unity

There is an old saying, “a hungry belly has no color.” This is the reality the ruling class fears. While starving the workers it no longer needs ...

Grassroots movement of homeless is forming

A statewide grass roots movement of homeless people, formerly homeless, and their supporters is forming in Florida to resist those who ...

Let us put humanity first! says formerly homeless woman

I have been homeless for the past three years, just moving out of homelessness recently. I’m here to talk to you about my personal experiences ...

Letter to the Editor: Police killing of pregnant Mom

“Thank you for your story on Jeanetta Riley [pictured above]. I knew Jeanetta. She had a good heart and did not deserve to go out like this. ...

Homeless in fight for their survival

In New York City they might find temporary housing—New York has beds for about 60% of its 50,000 homeless residents, lodging many in filthy ...

Help get the People’s Tribune out to the homeless!

Homelessness is a stark example of the degeneration of an economic system based on the private property of a billionaire owning class. Automation is replacing workers ...

Housing is a cure for homelessness

In a movie to be released this September, “99 Homes,” real estate shark Rick Carver relays this message to an evicted suburban homeowner: “America ...

Homeless pregnant Mom killed by police

Jeanetta Riley, a pregnant homeless mother of three who suffered from emotional difficulties, was killed by police as she waved a knife ...

Welcome to the new Jim Crow

Families across this country celebrated Mother's Day, however, there are mothers who will not have praises uttered to them ...

“System designed with children’s interests at the bottom,” says homeless Mom

On January 3, 2015, my family parked the camper van we have been living in near “Slab City” in Niland, California. Slab City is ...

Renters fight for their rights

Silicon Valley recently made headlines as the third worst place for renters in the country. Only 21% of families here can afford to buy ...

Solution to housing crisis

The suffering in Silicon Valley’s housing crisis is not an aberration or temporary dysfunction. It is the predictable result of a dying system ...

Protect the right to rest

Every day one of the largest concentrations of police power anywhere in the world descends on a small part of downtown Los ...

True transformation never “closes its doors”

In an article written to illustrate the ridiculously rapid and uncontrollable rising rental rates in Mountain View, CA, a writer ...

Help get the People’s Tribune out to homeless organizations and places where the homeless gather!

Every day one of the largest concentrations of police power anywhere in the world descends on a small part of downtown Los ...

500 Homeowners Storm Department of Justice

I was one of the many homeowners, now an x-homeowner, who has battled with Bank of America and Fannie Mae since 2005 when the housing market began to crash ...

Corporations determine if a tenant is “guilty” of a crime, Cabrini Green

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Title 24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Section§966.4 Lease requirements, Part (l)(5)(iii) Eviction for criminal Activity ...

Cabrini Green evictions

 March 6, 2013 marks the 156th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared that...

Houstonians Protest Racist Slumlord

 HOUSTON—For almost a year, Martina Grifaldo and Monica Rodriguez, President and Vice President respectively of Alianza Mexicana, an organization formed by Mexican origin residents...

CABRINI EVICTIONS: Know Your Rights

CHICAGO—If you receive an eviction notice from the CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) or one of its private management firms, you must know your rights....

Claiming Rights of Homeless People

Truth Commission documents Economic Human Rights Violations  CHATTANOOGA, TN—Over 150 people attended the December 10 Truth Commission at the public library in downtown Chattanooga, TN. ...

Urinating While Homeless — Los Angeles Cracks Down on Poverty

 It started in the early hours of an April morning, when the Los Angeles Police Department decided to make a sweep of the intersection...