Issue 24 by San Francisco Public Press

independent

nonprofit

in depth

A SEA CHANGE:

ETHNIC MEDIA FAREWELL: After

Citing longterm risk of severe flooding from melting glaciers, state officials may require cities to begin planning for inevitable sea rise. | 11

nearly 50 years, journalism legend Sandy Close shutters New America Media and Pacific News Service. | 8

TECH-COMPANY TOWN: Will Google swallow up Mountain View? | 10 $1.00

SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG

SPRING 2018 • ISSUE 24

IMMIGRATION: Trump ending protected status

FIGHTING STAY TO

Legally in U.S. for years, thousands face deportation

Rehousing Programs Send Most Out of City Fates of hundreds of families unclear after rent help ends By Rob Waters // Public Press

San Francisco initiative to help homeless families find affordable apartments and assist them in paying the rent is sending most of them out of the city because of the high cost of housing. The families are moving to Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo and, increasingly, to the edges of the Bay Area and beyond, such as Stockton or Sacramento. The multimilliondollar subsidy program, called Rapid Rehousing, has helped hundreds of families regain their footing after an eviction, SOLVING job loss or other crisis HOMELESSNESS left them homeless, and for many families it has worked: They stabilize and remain housed after their rent assistance runs out. But one year after their subsidies end, some families end up homeless again, and the whereabouts of hundreds of other families are unknown because they lose contact with their service providers. As a result, it is difficult to gauge the long-term success of the program, a Public Press review of data has found. The number of families leaving the city through the program has been rising steadily over the past decade, from 45 percent in 2006 to 87 percent in 2016, according to an internal report prepared for San Francisco’s Human Services Agency that tracked 1,708 families. For 2017, the agency put the figure at 88 percent. “This trend raises new questions about the efficacy and costs of the Rapid Rehousing model in San Francisco,” the report’s author wrote, in part because the emergency and family shelters where many families return after their subsidies end are “amongst the most expensive interventions.” For families, relocating out of the city frays social ties and makes it harder for people to keep jobs, get child care and stay in their new homes, according to the report and officials of nonprofit agencies interviewed by the Public Press. Agency leaders REHOUSE continued on Page 4

INSIDE ONE SYSTEM: New computer platform for Photos by Anna Vignet // Public Press By Roberto Lovato // Public Press

rom her office in the Mission District, Yanira Arias organizes immigrant communities throughout the United States, winning some campaigns, losing others. Through it all, she has known the day would come when she would be organizing to hold onto the life she has created in San Francisco. With the U.S. government’s blessing, she has been able to stay here since fleeing El Salvador after a series of deadly earthquakes in early 2001. That day has arrived for Arias and more than 195,000 other Salvadoran immigrants and tens of thousands from the region who were granted temporary permission to live, work, raise families and buy homes after being driven from their homelands by natural disasters, civil war and gang violence. They are the latest immigrants whose fortunes have changed for the worse under President Donald Trump. In January, the administration announced that Salvadorans, as Nicaraguans and Haitians learned for themselves weeks earlier, would lose

437,000

Temporary Protected Status holders in U.S.

55,000

TPS holders in California

INSIDE: Demographic and economic snapshots. | 6-7

Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, forcing them to plan their departure from the country or become fully legal by early 2019. Their predicament is shared by the so-called DREAMers, children brought into the country illegally who are fighting to remain since the president ended DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Without intervention by Congress, Arias and the others benefiting from TPS — which San Francisco activists helped birth in 1990 — face three choices that offer radically different futures: try to “adjust” their status through the immigration system to become permanent

the homeless sets priorities for housing. | 4

IN CONSTANT MOTION: Mother seeks residents, return to homelands ravaged by poverty and violence, or join the millions of undocumented migrants already threatened with deportation. Advocates are turning to the courts for help. “They’re getting ready to criminalize me,” said Arias, the national campaign manager in the Bay Area office of the immigrant-advocacy group Alianza Americas. “I’ve seen what they put people through in those awful detention centers. I have started imagining myself in those horrible places, because the fact is, that could be me. I may face a prolonged detention like so many others, but I will do whatever I can to avoid that.” The effect of ending legal protection will be enormous for the Salvadorans and more than 120,000 Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Haitians who also have lost or may soon lose their legal status. But it extends beyond their personal upheaval, research shows: • In California, which has the most TPS recipients, the estimated 49,000 Salvadorans and 6,000 Hondurans TPS continued on Page 6

Immigrants, their families and activists rallied at the San Francisco Federal Building on Jan. 5, days before the Department of Homeland Security ended Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans. Nicaraguans and Haitians were dealt the same hand late last year. Hondurans, who were granted a brief extension, will learn their fate this summer.

affordable, stable housing for her family. | 3

TEAMWORK: School districts and nonprofits

provide resources for homeless children. | 5

SOLVING HOMELESSNESS: Community

engages at Public Press workshop. | 12

Noel Rivera, top center, originally from El Salvador, showed his support along with his son, Alan, and his daughter, Zaira. TPS holders Rina Valle, left, who was born in El Salvador and now lives in Hayward, and Jose Ramos, a native of Honduras, fear they will lose their jobs and be deported because of Trump’s actions.

Photo by Garrick Wong // Public Press

Facilitator Priya Kothari moderates a workshop discussion about obstacles to connecting homeless people with loved ones.

2 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018

OUR MEMBERS DONORS WHO CONTRIBUTED BETWEEN $35 AND $5,000 IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS MEDIA REFORMER AND PUBLISHER MEMBERS: The Cindy and Eric Arbanovella Fund • Patricia Bovan Campbell • Megan and David Cohn • Suzanne and Mark Colodny • Donald M. Davis • Katherine Hodge and Jake Donham • Kari Gray • Institute for Justice and Journalism • Derek Kerr • Lila LaHood • Elizabeth Pontikes and Michael LaHood • Jonathan Logan • Patricia and Rowland Rebele • Laurie Schecter • Peter Scheer • Corey Stoll • Judith and Stephen Stoll Family Fund EDITOR MEMBERS: Lee Azus • Norman Clevenger • Richard and Sarah Hardy • Oliver Hickman • Don H. • Louise Yarnall and Tom Honig • Jerry Cain and Scott James • Mack Lundstrom • Nate Parsons • Ann King Somerville and Zach Stewart COLUMNIST MEMBERS: Laurie Barkin • Emily Beaver • Umbreen Bhatti and Kaizar Campwala • Jennifer Leonard and David Cay Johnston • Lydia Chavez • Theresa and Lloyd Colombini • Richard DeLeon • Yukari and Edward Franzwa • Vanessa and Matt Ginzton • Neal Gorenflo • Lawrence Groo • Anthony King • Carol Savary and George Koster • Marquita Bedway and Alger LaHood • Jennifer Loomis • Christin Evans and Praveen Madan • Mary and John Morreale • Leslie Guevarra and Richard Pestorich • Jack Rosenthal • Beth Rubenstein • Margaret Swink and Rob Saliba • Michael Schaps • Karen Schulkin • Yves Averous and Marc Smolowitz • Tracy Grubbs and Richard Taylor • Teresa Welborn and Glen Van Lehn • Olga Zilberbourg BEAT REPORTER MEMBERS: Anonymous • Jen Anderson • Barbara and Richard Asche • Peter Barnes • Berit Baumberger • Jaina Bee • Keri Bourzac • Jean and Bruce Brugmann • Anna Budayr • Nancy Cesena • Martin Chai • Richard Champion • Timothy Covington • Jennifer Cray • Kevin Davis • Phyllis Deets • Judy and Thomas Dunworth • Liz Enochs • Moritz Fliedner •Matthew Francis • Julia Gallyot • Joseph Gerharz • Birgitte and Art Gilliland • Ted Glasser • Marge Harburg • Carlin Holden • Marguerite Hutchinson • Amy and Adnan Iftekhar • Vivian and Paul Imperiale • Ambika Kandasamy • Patrick Kennedy • Dorothy Kidd • Jenni Klose • Joshua Koltun • Dr. Matthew Kuchta • Mary Anne LaHood • Rosa Lara-Fernandez • Michael Larsen • Marie Libeson • Robert Lowrey • Andy Lynch • Daphne Magnawa • Vee Mahoney • Kevin McKean • John McManus • Michael Melez • Sara and Mark Meltzer • Geri Migielicz • Holly Million • Herbert F. Mintz II • Carmen Monedero • Miranda Morris • Sara and John O’Neill • Kelly Fortune and David Pascal • Jill Patton • Patrick Reilly, Esq. • Julie Rioux and Stephen Revilak • Rhoda Goldman Plaza • Maria Rivero • Kristina Rizga • Barbara Robben • Doniece Sandoval • Reiko Ando and Eric Schoenman • Jane Shabaker • Stephen Silha • Suzanne Skees • Ellen Spertus • P-R Stark • Denise Stavis Levine • Ivy Marsh and Frank Stoll • Diane Tate • Tina Chiu and Jonathan Toma • Kimberly Christensen and Richard Tsai • Joe Vassallo • Laura Wenus • Jamie Whitaker • JoAnn Yates • Scott Zimmermann CUB REPORTER MEMBERS: Anonymous • Holly Allen • Katia Asche and Matt Rocker • Joel Aufrecht • Cristina Azocar • Gina Baleria • Jake Barlow • Barbara and James Barnard • Shinwha Whang and Leon Barnard • Sue Barnett and Jason Winshell • Danna Basson • Nancy Battey • Rita Beamish • Louis Bryan • Lisa Burger • Raymond Buscemi • Lyndal Cairns • Camille Campbell • Pete Carey • Justin Chen • Darren Choi • Linda Christenson • Bradley Cleveland • Kathleen Coll • DONATE NOW Clarice Corell • Jonté Craighead Online: sfpublicpress. • Denise D’Anne • org/membership Catherine De Heer Mail: San Francisco • Sam Dennison • Public Press, 44 Page Empower Together St., Suite 504, San Consulting • Alexia Francisco, CA 94102 Aubault and Joe Call: 415-495-7377 Eskenazi • Richard Everhart • Elisabeth Fraser • Dr. Sanford Gallanter • Gregor Gentschev • Lawrence Goldzband • Deborah Gordon • Catherine Hagan • Elyce Haut • Amanda Hickman and Noah Budnick • Frank Holland • Maryann Hrichak • Amy Huang • Terry Huwe • Karina Ioffee • Fran Johns • Jaime Lockwood and Jeffrey Johnson • Jeffrey Johnson • Kleyton Jones • Paul Kagawa • Joshua Kalven • Yukari Kane • Jordan Klein • Richard Knee • Tatiana Kyriakides • Gina Lagomarsino • Theresa LaMay • Tom Lee • Alexis Leifheit • Jean Lindgren • Harold Looby • Donna and Marty Mackowski • Sasha Magee • Ellen Manchester • Eduardo Martinez • Viki Maxwell • Janet Monaghan and Brian McKeever • Luisa Mockler • Laura Moorhead • Mabel Ng • Terry Norbury • Henry Norr • Cherilyn Oshiro • Kylie Owen • Jennifer and Jerome Perarnaud • Yvonne Pingue • Michael Poplardo • Jason Prado • Elizabeth Rapp • William Robb • Karen Rodgers • Glenn Rogers • Debra Derickson and Leslie Rosenbaum • Seth Rosenfeld • Elisabeth Rubinfien • San Francisco Public Library • Dinah Sanders • Rahmin Sarabi • Eric Schaefer • Lisa Schiff • Elizabeth Schiller • Elena Schmid • Felisa Preskill and Zachary Scholz • Laura and Michael Scott • Henrike Siemen • Ryan Singel • Jackson Solway • Susan Stark • John Swartley • Paul Switzer • Anthony Ta • Ruth Tam • Lisa Tehrani • Mona Tekchandani • Jason Tester • Emre Titizer • Sarah Tribble • John Upton • Giselle Velazquez • Claire Veuthey • Francesca Vietor • David Watterson • Jerad Weiner • Rina Weisman • Selma Wilson • Bruce Wolfe • Yao Yue NEWSIE MEMBERS: Anonymous • Samuel Agdamag • Gina and Tyler Alioto • Justin Allen • Jean Amos • Michele Anderson • Sarah Asch • Joyce Ashizawa-Yee • Laila Winner and Saurabh Asthana • Mark Backman • Justin Balenzuela • Stella Barton • Marcia Basalla • Ellyn Beale • John Beebe • Charles Belov • Arrigo Benedetti • Zachary Benjamin • Claudia Robbins and Martin Bennett • Garrett Bergthold • Jonathan Berkeley • Christopher Berry • Monica Bhagwan • Jean Bogiages • Victoria Brill • Larry Bush • Cedric Cabansag • Dr. & Mrs. Florencio Cabrera • Peter Caldwell • Judith Calson • Chris Carlsson • Natalie Champion • Nick Chapman • HyunJu Chappell • Alison Cohen • Audrey Cole • Brian Collentine • Cameron Conaway • Molly and Daniel Cooper • Jennelle Crothers • James Custer • Catherine Degraw • Jon Diamond • John Diehl • Erin Diehm • Emily Dugdale • Rishika Dugyala • Carlee Duncan • Andrea Dunlap • Twila Ehmcke • Scott Ellsworth • Adam Elman • Alice Estrup • Aron Faegre • Ted Fay • Jane Felice • Lawrence Ferlinghetti • Sara Fewer • Julienne Fisher • Lesley Foster • Monte Francis • Christian Gainsley • Lisa Galli • Francisca Gilmore • Judy Goddess • Cole Goins • Jonathan Goldman • Juan Gonzales • Francine Goodwin • Nato Green • David Greene • Eugene Gregor • Andrew Gunther • Joe Havel • Christopher Heriot • Liz Oliner and Burt Herman • Barry Hermanson • Patrick Hillas • Christopher Ho • Brant Houston • Vanessa Hua • Oliver Iberien • Louis Jaffe • Marie Jobling • Guy Johnson • Linda Jue • Joel Kamisher • Hannah Kaplan • Diane Keaton • Michael Keough • Omar Khan • Laurel Kilgour • Hye-Jin Kim • Paul Kleyman • Angela Knotts • Stuart Kohler • Paul Konasewich • Alfie Kulzick • Deborah Kwan • Joanne Ladolcetta • Tom Lawless • Catherine Lee • Linda Linn • Joanne Liou • Ronnie Lovler • Paul Lufkin • Pam Luk • Susannah Luthi • Karen Macklin • Amanda Halpin and David Marin • Wendy Marlatt • Mary Marsh • Edward Mason • Nina Rose Mayer • Marianne McCarthy • Robert McClure • Mechanics’ Institute • Ann and Pete Mercurio• Daniel Merer • Andrea Carla Michaels • Nadia Mishkin • Natasha Morris • Prashanth Mundkur • William Murdoch • Dawn Nakano • Emanuela Neagu • Mary Nicholson • Cornelius Nilmeier • Genevieve Nowicki • Marianne Oest • Helena Ong • Katrina Peirce • Fran Petris • Ruth and Allan Pleaner • Megan Prelinger • Adam Raskin • Allyson and Edward Ritger • Geoffrey Rollins • Beth Rosales • Tristan Schnetzler • Bill Schwalb • Adam Schweigert • Eleanor Selfridge-Field • Preeti Sethi • Kai Seymour • Jeff Shaw • Rebecca Skinner • Mary Snyder • Hitesh Soneji • Kevin Stark • Watani Stiner • Brad Straw • Anne Suskind • Peter Sussman • Julie Trachtenberg • Frances and Ben Trefny • Lawrence Uricchio • Peter Vahle • Anna Vignet • Eileen Wampole • Andrew Ward • Clare Watsky • Tom & Denese Willey • Troy Williams • Jay Wilson • Josh Wilson • Michael Winter • Joseph Wirt • Sue Yerou

FROM THE EDITORS

Enriching Civic Life on the Page and in Person We are proud to be part of a community filled with people who care about the less fortunate, and who eagerly contribute time and energy to learning about social policy challenges and jointly seek solutions. More than 200 people attended our allday conference — Solving Homelessness: A Community Workshop — on Jan. 25 to brainstorm, analyze and assess proposed ideas for helping vulnerable residents retain housing or reconnect with supportive family, as well as ideas for creating more temporary and permanent housing for people who are currently homeless. You can find a story about the event on page 12. SOLVING Our sincerHOMELESSNESS est thanks to our panelists, presenters and community participants, and to our sponsors — the San Francisco Foundation, Renaissance Journalism (with funding from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation), Tipping Point Community and the Impact Hub San Francisco — whose support made this event possible. We were impressed by the thoughtful,

Photo by Daphne Magnawa // Public Press

high-level discussions and passion that participants contributed to the morning panels and afternoon workshops. We are working on ways to extend these conversations, engage new participants and serve the community through additional coordinated events. What is the role of the San Francisco Public Press in all of this? Our editorial work is driven by in-depth reporting, public document requests and robust data analysis. Our primary goal is to provide news and analysis about important local issues that help people to make decisions for themselves, their families and communities. For all of this, we see journalism as the starting point. Part of our mission statement is to “enrich civic life in San Francisco,” and

we do that by bringing people together to engage in conversations about important issues. As a local news organization, we are in the same place as our readers and can meet them face to face. We are also documenting and broadcasting events, and recording them for later viewing. This conference, the largest event we’ve hosted to date, was inspired by our 2014 Hack the Housing Crisis conference and by our ongoing Public Press Live event series, which launched in 2016. There is more to come — we’ll offer weekday and weekend events, some daytime and some after work, to accommodate various schedules. Why expend the effort of organizing workshops, conferences and other live events? Because we believe this is the best way to extend the usefulness of our reporting and to hear directly from community members about issues important to them. Now more than ever, people are seeking trustworthy sources for news and information. If you have ideas for future public events or can offer space or sponsorship, please contact us at info@sfpublicpress. org or 415-495-7377. Thank you for your support. Lila LaHood Publisher

SAN FRANCISCO

PUBLIC PRESS INDEPENDENT NONPROFIT IN DEPTH The mission of the San Francisco Public Press is to enrich the civic life of San Francisco by delivering public-interest journalism through print and interactive media not supported by advertising. 44 Page St., Suite 504 San Francisco, CA 94102 415-495-7377 info@sfpublicpress.org Spring 2018 • Issue 24 (Vol. 9, No. 1) Published Feb. 14, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Patricia M. Bovan Campbell Kaizar Campwala David Cohn Liz Enochs Neal Gorenflo Kari Gray Lila LaHood Holly Million Peter Scheer Michael Stoll

Michael Stoll Executive Editor

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Michael Stoll

PUBLISHER Lila LaHood

DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY

SAFE HARBOR

Daphne Magnawa

Crossword Puzzle by Michael Wiesenberg and Andrea Carla Michaels

ACROSS 1. ___ New Guinea 6. Present time, for short 10. Whack 13. NASA booster 14. “Class dismissed” sound 15. Numbskull 16. Observation post 18. 55-Across competitor 19. Blackhearted 20. Turning point? 21. NCAA basketball powerhouse 22. International accord 24. Telecom giant 25. What’s thrown away 31. Ice cream drink 35. Wearing the pants, so to speak 36. Sprinter’s assignment 37. Knights’ companions 39. “The Color of Money” game 40. Conquered 42. “Heavens to ___!” 43. Pioneers leader 46. “Sexy Beast” star Kingsley 47. Unstable 52. Deserve 55. Picker-upper? 57. Anderson of “WKRP” 58. Corporate V.I.P. 59. Protection from shore erosion and a clue to the circled letters in 16A, 25A and 43A 61. AAA freebies 62. Cowardly resident of Oz 63. Repeated statement in

SENIOR EDITOR

BreakWater5 Michael Wiesenberg and Andrea Carla Michaels 3 4 1 5 6 2 Windows ads ACROSS 64.___ Modern music genre 1. New Guinea 13 14 65.Present Oodles time, for short 6. 66.Whack “The Prince of Tides” 10. 16 17 co-star 13. NASA booster 19 20 14. "Class dismissed" sound 15. Numbskull DOWN 23 22 16.1.Observation post Handled clumsily 18.2.55-Across competitor Desert bloomer 25 19.3.Blackhearted It meant little to Andre 20. Turning point? Gide 31 32 33 34 21.4.NCAA basketball “That’s enough!” 37 38 36 5.powerhouse “That feels good!” 22. International accord 6. 360 and One are two 41 40 24. Telecom giant of them 25. What's thrown away 7. Caterwaul 43 31. Ice cream drink 8. Out of the wind, at sea 35. Wearing the pants, so 46 9.to Digital speakcamera type, for short 36. Sprinter's assignment 52 53 54 55 10.Knights' Drifter companions 37. 11."The Idyllic spotof Money" game 59 58 39. Color 12.Conquered Frazzled 40. 62 61 15."Heavens All-purpose fix-it roll 42. to ___!" 17.Pioneers See ya, in Soho 43. leader 65 64 21."Sexy HomeBeast" to thestar Osmonds 46. Kingsley 47. Unstable 23. Its capital is © 4-20-17 52. Deserve Yellowknife: Abbr. 55. Picker-upper? 24. Gremlins and Hornets of 8. Out of the wind, at sea 57. Anderson of "WKRP" old autodom 9. “Nuts!” Digital camera type, 37. 58. V.I.P. 26.Corporate Life partner? for short 38. Simon & Garfunkel’s 59. from shore 10. “IDrifter 27.Protection 180 degrees from WSW ___ Rock” 11. Idyllic spottechnology 28.erosion Horse’s and gaita clue to the 41. Computer circled letters in 16A, 25A 12. website Frazzled 29. They can be stroked and 43A 15. All-purpose ﬁx-it roll or bruised 42. “Man, it’s cold!” 61. AAA freebies 17. See ya, inand Soho 30. Depend (on) 44. Beyoncé George 62. Cowardly resident of Oz 21. Bush, Homefor totwo the Osmonds 31. Run smoothly 63. Repeated statement in 23. Its capital isEstrada 32. Soft rock? 45. “CHiPs” star Windows ads Yellowknife: Abbr. 33. Force on Earth, for short 48. 1836 battle site, with “the” 64. Modern music genre 24. Gremlins and Hornets of 34.Oodles Richard Simmons’ forte 49. Demolish, like a car 65. old autodom 66. "The Prince of Tides" 26. Life partner? co-star 27. 180 degrees from WSW 28. Horse's gait DOWN 29. They can be stroked 1. Handled clumsily or bruised 2. Desert bloomer 30. Depend (on) 3. It meant little to Andre Gide 31. Run smoothly 4. "That's enough!" 32. Soft rock? 5. "That feels good!" 33. Force on Earth, for short 6. 360 and One are two 34. Richard Simmons' forte of them 7. Caterwaul

Michael Winter

The San Francisco Foundation is an incubator for community investment, original ideas and passionate leadership in the Bay Area. One of the nation’s largest community foundations in grantmaking and assets, it has been the primary funder of the Public Press since 2009. sff.org

The Fund for Investigative Journalism supports investigative reporting projects around the world. fij.org

The Institute for Nonprofit News consists of 120 nonprofit, nonpartisan news organizations conducting investigative reporting in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. inn.org

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Noah Arroyo

COPY CHIEF

Sherman Turntine

DIRECTOR OF DESIGN

HyunJu Chappell // Magna Citizen Studio

24 26

PARTNERSHIP EDITOR

Michele Anderson

WEB EDITOR

John Angelico

WRITERS

42 44

David Boyer (The Intersection) Joe Eskenazi Carolyn Jones (EdSource) Roberto Lovato Kevin Stark Rob Waters Daniel J. Willis (EdSource)

45 48

47 56

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORTERS craigslist Charitable Fund provides millions of dollars each year in grants to hundreds of partner organizations addressing four broad areas of interest: environment and transportation; education, rights, justice and reason; non-violence, veterans and peace; and journalism, open source and the Internet. craigslist.org/about/charitable

COPY EDITORS

Richard Knee • Dean Takehara

PHOTOGRAPHERS

SOLUTION on Page 10

37. "Nuts!" 50. 38.Awkward Simon & Garfunkel's "I ___ Rock" sorceress 51. “Odyssey” 41.Angelina’s Computerleg technology 52. or websiteCat Grumpy 42.School "Man, test it's cold!" 53. 44.Bank Beyoncé George Bush, 54. take and back, in a way for two 55. Peter, Paul and Mary, e.g. 45.Countless "CHiPs" star Estrada 56. years 48. 1836 battle site, with "the" 59. Sandwich order, briefly 49. Demolish, like a car 60. Hit the jackpot 50. Awkward 51. "Odyssey" sorceress 52. Angelina's leg or Grumpy Cat 53. School test 54. Bank take back, in a way 55. Peter, Paul and Mary, e.g. 56. Countless years 59. Sandwich order, brieﬂy 60. Hit the jackpot

Allen Majors Eric Kayne (California Health Care Foundation) Iris Schneider (EdSource) Anna Vignet Garrick Wong Alison Yin (EdSource)

GRAPHIC ARTIST Reid Brown

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTOR Andrea Carla Michaels

BUSINESS, OPERATIONS & WEB PRODUCTION

Stacy Bond • Amanda Hickman Aaron Kingon • George Koster Bill Schwalb

PARTNERS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE EdSource

EdSource works to engage Californians on key education challenges with the goal of enhancing learning success. edsource.org

KALW Radio’s “Crosscurrents”

The Reva and David Logan Foundation Supports social justice, scholarship, the arts and investigative journalism. Dedicated to lasting support for the founders’ powerful and eclectic mix of grants. loganfdn.org

A daily radio news magazine exploring context, culture and connection from around the Bay Area. KALW Radio 91.7 FM. kalw.org/programs/crosscurrents

PARTNERS HIGHLIGHTED IN ‘SHORT TAKES’ CALmatters • Earth Island Journal Fair Warning • Grist KQED News • Mission Local

California Humanities promotes the humanities in California in order to help create a state of open mind, and aims to inspire Californians to learn more, dig deeper and start conversations that matter among our dramatically diverse people. calhum.org

News Match is a national campaign to encourage grassroots support for nonprofit news organizations. The 2017 matching fund was established with $1 million grants from Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. newsmatch.org

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. knightfoundation.org

The Strong Foundation for Environmental Values makes grants to efforts that instill an ecological ethic in the individual and in our communities, and which encourage grassroots environmental action based on such an ethic. strongfoundationgrants.org

OTHER PUBLIC MEDIA & CIVIC PARTNERS AlterNet Bay Nature California Health Report The Center for Investigative Reporting Center for Public Integrity Commonwealth Club of California El Tecolote KALW Radio's "City Visions" KALW Radio's "Philosophy Talk" KALW Radio's "Your Call" KPFA Radio KQED Radio's "Forum" National Radio Project Public Policy Institute of California Richmond Confidential Richmond Pulse San Francisco Neighborhood Newspaper Association Shareable World Affairs Council

WHERE TO BUY THE NEWSPAPER SAN FRANCISCO

34 Trinity Arts & News, 34 Trinity Place Aardvark Books, 227 Church St. Adobe Books, 3130 24th St. Alexander Book Company, 50 Second St. Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St. Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St. Book Passage, San Francisco, 1 Ferry Building, #42 Books Inc., Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Ave. Books Inc., Marina, 2251 Chestnut St. The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St. Borderlands Cafe, 870 Valencia St.

Browser Books, 2195 Fillmore St. Christopher's Books, 1400 18th St. Church Street Groceteria, 300 Church St. City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Ave. Dog Eared Books, 489 Castro St. Dog Eared Books, 900 Valencia St. Farley's, 1315 18th St. Faye's Video, 3614 18th St. Fog City News, 455 Market St., Suite 125 The Grand Newsstand, 40 Market St. Green Apple Books, 506 Clement St. Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave.

The Green Arcade, 1680 Market St. Heath Newsstand, 2900 18th St. Juicy News SF, 2181 Union St. Mollie Stone's|Pacific Heights, 2435 California St. Nick's Newsstand, 1A Sansome St. Pirate Store at 826 Valencia, 826 Valencia St. San Francisco Public Press, 44 Page St., Suite 504 Smoke Signals, 2223 Polk St. West Portal Daily, 36 West Portal Ave.

EAST BAY

De Lauer's Super Newsstand, 1310 Broadway, Oakland

De Lauer's Super Newsstand, 1412 Park St., Alameda Diesel, A Book Store, 5433 College Ave., Oakland Farley's East, 33 Grand Ave., Oakland Issues, 20 Glen Ave., Oakland Pegasus Books, Rockridge, 5560 College Ave., Oakland Pegasus Books, Solano, 1855 Solano Ave., Berkeley

PENINSULA

Compass Books, SFO Terminals 2 & 3 Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park Mac's Smoke Shop, 534 Emerson St., Palo Alto

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | 3

By Rob Waters // Public Press

ictoria Ortiz still remembers a tall white boy she went to school with in the third grade, nearly two decades ago, at John Swett Alternative Elementary School, which she and many kids from the Tenderloin attended. His name was Vincent, and he was homeless. “I think about him a lot now,” said Ortiz, as she pushed her 2-year-old son, Jason Jr., or JJ, in a stroller along Mission Street. “People would make fun of him because he didn’t have things like all the other kids. He was a good kid. It makes me sad, because now my son’s in that situation too.” Ortiz, 27, was born in the Tenderloin and spent most of her childhood moving with her mother, four brothers and father, when he was around, from one San Francisco neighborhood to another — Hunters Point, the Mission, the Fillmore, the SOLVING Tenderloin. Today, HOMELESSNESS after two years of living and working in the East Bay, Ortiz is staying with her son and his father — along with 43 others — at the Hamilton Families shelter on Golden Gate Avenue and trying desperately to navigate the city’s rapidly changing system for helping homeless families. By the latest count, she is one of 3,406 parents and minor children in San Francisco who are without their own housing in a city where the median monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment is over $3,000. Since Ortiz left her job as a customer service associate for Staples a year ago to care for JJ, the family is living on half that amount — the take-home pay of her partner, Jason. Ortiz said she isn’t looking for longterm handouts. “I’ve worked since I was 16 years old,” she said. “I know how to work for my money. I’m not saying I want the government to pay for my living. But right now I’m in a position where I do need help.”

ONE FAMILY’S

PATH TO HOMELESSNESS Mother is determined to find stable housing for her partner, young son

LIVING AT HAMILTON SHELTER When they ran out of money, they left the Vallejo motel and moved back to their friend’s RV. Finally, they got into the Hamilton Families shelter on Golden Gate Avenue. Like all families, they were allowed to stay for 60 days, but then had to leave — with the chance to return in a week by calling in again. On their way out, they were given hotel vouchers worth $65 a night. “Where are you supposed to stay for $65 a night in San Francisco?” Ortiz asked incredulously. They spent the next four nights in their friend’s RV, then used a week’s worth of vouchers to pay for a hotel room for three nights. When the week ended, they got another 60 days at Hamilton, where they remain. For Ortiz and her family, life is constant motion and tension. Jason leaves the shelter at 5:45 a.m. to catch the bus to his job at Golden Gate Park by 6:30. Ortiz wakes JJ up, then pushes him almost a mile to a block in the Western Addition neighborhood where there are no parking meters and she can park her car each night. It’s next to a city park, giving JJ a chance to play. She spends much of her time going to an endless series of appointments with case managers and social workers and filling out applications for housing. Every afternoon, she picks Jason up from his job. Finding a bathroom is another complication that forces Ortiz to plan her days and routes with precision. She and JJ may go to McDonald’s or Starbucks and buy something cheap so they can use the toilet. If they go to the Mission District, they can stop at the U-Haul center on Bryant Street, where they store their belongings.

‘EXTREMELY STRESSFUL’ TIMES

MOVING FROM PLACE TO PLACE The family’s path to homelessness began more than two years ago when Ortiz was 7 months pregnant. She had moved to the East Bay, was working at a Staples store in El Cerrito, and paying rent to a housemate in El Sobrante. Unbeknown to her, the roommate stopped paying rent, and the whole household was evicted. They crashed with a friend in San Pablo, then stayed a year with Ortiz’s mother in her small subsidized apartment in a Tenderloin housing complex, until family tensions grew too great. They then roamed some more, couchsurfing at the homes of friends or staying in a friend’s RV parked near San Francisco General Hospital. On a few occasions, they’ve had to sleep in their car, a 2001 Honda. Ortiz said she tries to avoid that option because “if the police drive by and see us in the car, they’re going to come question us and possibly take my son away.”

— they weren’t considered a top priority for shelter, compared with other families who were living on the streets or sleeping in cars.

Photo by Rob Waters // Public Press

Victoria Ortiz, 27, worries about the long-term effects that living in a homeless shelter might have on her 2-year-old son, Jason Jr., who is not speaking yet.

The RV provided more privacy, but also plenty of drawbacks — no running water, toilet or refrigerator. And because they don’t want to be seen going in or out of the RV, Ortiz said, “we have to wait until it’s super-late to go in, and then leave super-early so people don’t call the police on us.” For five weeks during the summer, they stayed at a cheap motel in Vallejo. Ortiz spent much of her time calling Hamilton Families, operator of a Tenderloin family shelter, and setting daily

alarms to remind her to call precisely at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to check on availability. “I’d call, hang up and call again — pretty much like how you would call a radio station to win tickets,” she said. “And they’re like, ‘No, there’s no beds.’” She also visited Compass Family Services, the San Francisco agency designated as the hub for coordinating services for homeless families. Staff there told her that because her family had a place to live — the Vallejo motel

One morning Ortiz had to carry JJ because the stroller was broken. That aggravated her back pain, which was caused by a recent car accident. “Being a homeless mom with a child is extremely stressful,” she said. She said she was working harder to keep her family afloat than she did during the five years she worked at Staples stores in El Cerrito and San Francisco, pulling 12-hour shifts until three weeks before JJ was born. She went back to work three months later when her maternity leave ended, but found the separation from her son unbearable. “I’d work all these hours, and when I’d come home he was sleeping,” she said. “I was feeling depressed, like a bad mom because I wasn’t there for my son.” Jason, who watched him while Ortiz worked, offered to find a job so she could stay home with JJ. He landed a minimum-wage maintenance position with the city’s Recreation and Park Department. It provides health benefits for the family, and after six months he’ll get a raise, Ortiz said. But landing the job also cost them. The family had been getting $800 a month from CalWORKs, the state welfare program, but Jason’s take-home

pay of $1,500 made them ineligible and the grant ended. Monthly expenses are constant worries for Ortiz. Car insurance costs $180, and gas is $200. Their storage unit is $150 and their mobile phones are $80. Add another $80 for diapers and wipes and $75 for laundry, and their monthly budget — not counting food or clothes — comes to $765. Because they’re not paying rent, they’re saving a little bit to put toward housing in the future. But the stresses of shelter life take a toll on everyone. Sometimes, Ortiz said, parents yell at or beat their children. Some residents tie up the bathrooms for hours at a time; Ortiz thinks they’re using drugs. “It’s crazy in there,” she said. Ortiz worries about the effects on her son. He’s 2 years old and not speaking yet, which could signal a stress-related developmental delay. She grew up with an alcoholic father who regularly beat her and her siblings, and is determined to see that the same things don’t happen to her child.

“I’ve worked since I was 16 years old. I know how to work for my money. I’m not saying I want the government to pay for my living. But right now I’m in a position where I do need help.” — Victoria Ortiz, resident of Hamilton Families shelter in San Francisco “I’ve seen a 2-year-old girl beaten with a belt — bap, bap, bap — at like 7 in the morning, 10 times,” Ortiz said. “The little girl is crying. And within less than two seconds, the mom is like, ‘I love you, I love you.’ Me personally, I think if you hit a child that hard so they’re crying bloody murder and two seconds later you tell them ‘I love you,’ they’re going to grow up and be in a domestic-violence relationship.” She doesn’t intervene with other families because she thinks it won’t be productive, but she recently worked with advocates from the Coalition on Homelessness to express her concerns to the Hamilton staff. They listened, she said, and are making a stronger effort to monitor conditions and the behavior of families. “They stepped up to the plate,” she said. “Things did change and now people are more calm.” For now, Ortiz is focusing on getting her family out of the shelter and into housing. But she hasn’t lost sight of her own goals. With all the chaos in her family growing up, she barely completed ninth grade. Now she’s determined to get her GED — she said she passed the first two parts with flying colors — and enroll in community college to develop a career in human services. “After going through this homeless situation I’m in with my son and his father, I would love to be a case manager to help other families,” she said. “I want to make a difference.”

#SleepOut Shines Light on Homeless in S.F.

On Nov. 16, the Coalition on Homelessness hosted a #SleepOut demonstration in San Francisco near the cable car turnaround at Powell Street to protest the systematic citywide crackdown on tent encampments. Dozens of homeless people and other city residents took part in the overnight protest on the cold and rainy night. The event featured an outdoor movie and a performance by the San Francisco-based Brass Liberation Orchestra band, plus free food and drinks. Hairstylists with the San Francisco Institute of Esthetics and Cosmetology provided free haircuts for those in need. Photos by Garrick Wong // Public Press

4 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | 5

A Unified Tech Platform to Help Homeless But many may not meet strict guidelines By Rob Waters // Public Press

an Francisco has begun rolling out a new technology platform that officials say will better help the homeless population by giving priority for shelter and housing to those with the greatest need. But by formalizing who has priority — and who doesn’t — the system also functions as a form of rationing of the city’s scarce affordable housing. The new approach, known as coordinated entry, aims to replace a disjointed and cumbersome system that has forced people to visit programs scattered around the city, repeating their stories over and over to get help. It creates a standardized process for conducting intakes and evaluating needs, and designates two sites to handle the intake process for all families. The new $4.9 million Online Navigation and Entry System merges 15 databases into one that tracks all people served by the city’s homelessness programs. Implementation began in June with families, and the city aims to expand to single adults by this summer and youth by the fall. That would fulfill a mandate outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2013 for cities receiving federal grants to address homelessness. Several other localities, including Santa Clara County, Los Angeles and Seattle, have deployed similar systems for several years. The coordinated approach will enable

Local service providers and advocates generally support the concept, largely because the process of seeking shelter and housing from multiple organizations has been haphazard. “Coordinated entry is a step in the right direction,” said Lenine Umali, director of external affairs and policy for Compass Family Services. “Prior to this, the system wasn’t working. Families had to tell their stories and relive their traumas over

Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing

a perverse incentive for families to stay on the street. We don’t have enough housing or shelter, and this is basically a system to figure out who among all the people desperate for a place to live gets to be the lucky ticket winners into housing.”

the city to break through the backlog of families cycling in and out of shelters, transitional housing and their cars as they wait months to get into housing, said Jeff Kositsky, director of the city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “We’re moving towards a system in which we can see everybody who’s in the system, what their needs are, and prioritize people,” he said. For example, families living on the street, experiencing domestic violence or staying at shelters that provide only sleeping mats on the floor are deemed higher priority and get first crack at moving to a better shelter or supportive housing. To gain access to services, families must first approach either of two official access points, one run by Catholic Charities in the Bayview neighborhood, the other run by Compass Family Services on Market Street.

NEW ENTRY SYSTEM PRAISED

“We’re moving towards a system in which we can see everybody who’s in the system, what their needs are, and prioritize people.” — Jeff Kositsky, director of the city’s

TIGHT QUARTERS FOR FAMILY

Photo by Rob Waters // Public Press

Dempsey Jackson, Amy Hampton, their 5-year-old son and their dog live in a small room at the Knox hotel. They have been unable to secure better housing through the ONE System. and over again” each time they went to a different service provider, she said. “Now, they tell their story once. It’s locked in and everyone has access.” The initial rollout of the ONE System, developed by Las Vegas-based Bitfocus, was hampered by software problems and confusion about which families are deemed a top priority. Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on

Homelessness, said some families are being excluded from getting moved into shelter or supportive housing. Families who have squeezed into the apartments of friends or family members or scrape together enough money to temporarily pay for a hotel room are considered low priority and are unlikely to get housed. “They are prioritizing families who are on the street,” Friedenbach said. “That creates

The new system may keep Amy Hampton, Dempsey Jackson and their 5-year-old son stuck in the small room they’ve been sharing for almost three years at the Knox residential hotel on Sixth Street. They have no kitchen and share a bathroom with other tenants down the hall. Mouse droppings litter the floor behind their small refrigerator. “We have bedbugs, roaches, mice,” said Hampton, 38. “It’s not a place to raise a kid.” Both parents have struggled with addiction, and each has been clean for more than five years. Hampton has a full-time job as a janitor, earning minimum wage, and Jackson gets $900 a month in Social Security disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical complications. Between them, they take home about $2,500 a month and pay $700 in rent. Before moving into the Knox, they were living separately at different transitional programs. Then caseworkers at Hamilton Families approved them for a rent subsidy and they searched, unsuccessfully, for an apartment. ONE SYSTEM continued on Page 5

ONE SYSTEM from Page 4

“We never got a call back,” Jackson said. “No one wanted to rent to us.” After three months, the subsidy expired without ever being used. Their son is in kindergarten at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School and is having a hard time in school and at home. “He doesn’t have his own room or area, and there’s no room to play with his toys,” Hampton said. The cramped quarters make for a lot of tension, “with everybody in everybody else’s business.” Even worse, “he’s got bug bites, and we all wake up every night from the bugs and the mice,” Jackson said. “He acts up in school, and the teacher admitted to giving up on him.” Jackson went to the school and met with his teacher and a social worker. Both expressed concern, and the social worker wrote a referral to the Hamilton program, encouraging it to help the family get housed.

SYSTEM’S CATCH-22 “Family is currently living in SRO with bedbugs, mice and cockroaches,” the school social worker said in her referral. “The child ... is having trouble at school when others get too close to him.” She urged Hamilton to help the family obtain better housing for the sake of his “social and emotional development.” Jackson took the note to Hamilton, but workers there told him that because of the

new system, he needed to go to Compass, the agency designated in the new coordinated entry system as the official downtown access point for homeless families. Under the new scheme, Hamilton no longer takes direct referrals. But at Compass, his luck was no better. Jackson was told that even though they are staying in a single room, under the city’s new guidelines they are still officially considered homeless. However, because they have a place to stay, the Hampton-Jackson family is not considered a priority for other shelter or housing programs, which go first to families living on the street or in cars, or those experiencing domestic violence or other high-priority needs. Now, Jackson said, he doesn’t know what to do. The options all seem bad: They can remain in their cramped hotel room and watch their son continue to suffer, or move into a tent on the street for a week so they qualify as high priority under the system. Umali, from Compass Family Services, confirmed that the city’s guidelines don’t give priority to families living in a residential hotel. She said in an email that she hoped the family would return to Compass “to see if they qualify for other housing opportunities.” But she also added a note of resignation: “Given the housing situation in San Francisco,” she wrote, “this option also takes time and is not guaranteed.” Indeed, after hearing of Umali’s invitation, Jackson returned to Compass. But once again, he was told the agency couldn’t help him because his family is considered sheltered.

NEW MODEL OLD MODEL

Diagrams by city staff show how the homelessness department intends to streamline the delivery of social services. UNDER THE OLD MODEL, many service providers operated independently, and prospective clients had to figure out which one to visit in order to get the right type of help. UNDER THE NEW MODEL, which the city is gradually rolling out, when someone interacts with a service provider, staff input his or her information into a unified database called the ONE System. This process is also called Coordinated Entry. Service providers can later refer to the database to get a robust picture of that person’s history. Then, during the “Assess” and “Problem Solving” stages, staff evaluate whether the person can avoid or leave the streets, by means of legal or eviction-prevention services, a bus ticket out of the city to friends or family, or other programs. When these approaches would be ineffective, staff can refer the person to the city’s various housing programs:

• Temporary shelter: This category includes the city’s conventional shelter system, where people can stay during nights for reservations lasting three months, as well as navigation centers, where tenants have 24-hour access to facilities and can generally stay for up to two months. • Rapid Rehousing program: Participants receive social services and rent subsidies that help them depart the streets for market-rate housing. • Permanent supportive housing: Subsidized dwellings, often in single-room occupancy hotels, where medical and social services can be available on site. This is primarily for chronically homeless people with illnesses, disabilities or other major obstacles to obtaining conventional housing. • Housing ladder program: Residents of permanent supportive housing depart those homes — making way for newcomers — and in exchange they receive temporary rent subsidies to help them afford other housing.

Source: Five-Year Strategic Framework, San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, October 2017

Most Homeless Families Housed Outside of S.F. deposits. But the catch — and one with profound implications for the composition of the city’s population — is that the vast are anguished about the growing exodus of majority of the housing is outside the city. so many families, yet see no other options. Sending people out of San Francisco “We’re chasing our families out,” said Lehas become a key part of the city’s effort nine Umali, director of external affairs and to address homelessness. The city began policy for Compass Family Services, the offering Rapid Rehousing subsidies in 2006 lead intake agency for homeless families under former Mayor Gavin Newsom, who in San Francisco. “We rip them out of their in 2005 also initiated the Homeward Bound home and send them to other cities where program that provides homeless people they have no connections and no history one-way bus tickets to join family members and no services. or friends elsewhere. About 850 homeless “We know this is a symptom of displacepeople leave the city each year through ment and wealth inequality, and those are Homeward Bound, which also accounts for things we fight against. But you can only the most common exit from the city’s navido so much.” gation centers, the Public Press reported in The precise number of families who resummer 2017. turn to homelessness after their subsidies These initiatives leave homelessness expire is unclear, partly because the status advocates fearing that San Francisco’s of so many of the families is unknown. The pledge to end family homelessness by 2021 May 2017 report was prepared by Marta is predicated primarily on large numbers of Galan, a University of California, Berkeley, low-income families simply leaving the city. graduate student who interned with the “In our desperation to house homeless Human Services Agency. She found that families, we are losing the city’s lifeblood — one year after rental assistance stopped, our diversity, our neighbors, our talent, our the status of more than 60 percent of famifriends and our family members,” lies was unknown. Galan based said Jennifer Friedenbach, execuher findings on data from Comtive director of the Coalition on pass and Hamilton Families, the Homelessness. “San Francisco nonprofit agencies that provide must invest fully in housing that subsidies to most of the city’s keeps impoverished families in homeless families. our city. We have done some of Jeff Kositsky, director of the that, but we need to do a whole lot city Department of Homelessmore.” ness and Supportive Housing, SOLVING Kositsky said the city is trying Hamilton’s former chief executive HOMELESSNESS to address the crisis for families and a proponent of data-driven in the most humane and rational solutions, faulted the methodology way possible — by working to get them of Galan’s report and called it “misleadoff the streets and into housing as fast as ing.” He did, however, acknowledge that possible. she had “uncovered some theories worth “Is it better for a kid to be homeless for testing.” His office forwarded data to the two years, struggling and bouncing bePublic Press that claimed a roughly 90 tween shelters, or to get quickly housed percent success rate for the program, but somewhere else in the region where real esthat ignored the large numbers of families tate prices are more affordable?” he asked whose status was unknown after their rent in an interview at his Mission Street office. subsidies expired. “One reason we don’t make enough progGalan did not respond to several requests ress addressing homelessness is because to discuss her research. people want to engage in magical thinking San Francisco, with one of the highest nathat we’re going to be able to build enough tional rates of homelessness, is in the midst housing for all the people who are earning of a major restructuring of its programs, below 35 percent of area median income,” which Kositsky is driving. Under former Kositsky said. “That’s just an unrealistic Mayor Ed Lee, who died in December, the expectation.” In 2017, a Bay Area family city announced an ambitious plan to end of three at that income threshold made family homelessness by the end of 2021. $31,150, according to data from the mayor’s The city is rolling out a data-driven “cooroffice. dinated entry system” that aims to create Under the banner of “housing first,” a unified database of all people assisted by Kositsky’s department devotes about twothe city’s homeless services system, startthirds of its $239 million annual budget ing with families. The Online Navigation to rent subsidies, housing counselors and and Entry System aims to immediately get providing 7,403 long-term supportive houshomeless families into shelter or housing ing units in the city to people who need and does away with waiting lists for famiservices beyond rental assistance — 710 of lies defined as high need: those sleeping on them earmarked for homeless families. By the streets or in their cars. 2022, the city plans to add 1,367 supportive A cornerstone of the city’s plan is the housing units, including 527 for families. Rapid Rehousing initiative that provides In 2015, and again in 2017, the city’s bisubsidies to move families into rental housennial Point-in-Time count found about 600 ing. The concept emerged from local profamily members to be homeless on a single grams in Los Angeles; Hennepin County, night, nearly all of them in emergency shelMinnesota; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, ters. But because many families come and and went national with funding from the go, data from the city’s new online navigaObama administration’s 2009 stimulus tion system showed that for a three-month package. These programs aim to provide period ending Nov. 21, the city’s homerental assistance to people shortly after less services had housed or assisted 3,406 they become homeless, on the theory that unique family members. the longer they remain unhoused, the Kositsky said that if he can show solid harder it is to keep them from becoming results in reducing the number of homeless chronically homeless. people on the street, San Francisco resiIn the San Francisco effort, carried out by dents and political leaders might be more Compass and Hamilton, housing specialists willing to invest in new affordable, subsihunt for vacancies and cultivate relationdized housing in the city for homeless and ships with landlords. Families get rent low-income families. subsidies averaging, in the case of HamilGalan’s report looked at a decade’s worth ton, $1,400 a month, as well as help with

WHERE FAMILIES WENT TO LIVE / 2006-2016 Of 1,708 homeless families studied in San Francisco, the majority were resettled in the East Bay and beyond, with one family sent all the way to Bakersfield. Vallejo/122

San Francisco/617

Fairfield/28 San Leandro/28 San Pablo/28

Bay Point/31 Daily City/39 Antioch/53

Oakland/453

Elsewhere Richmond/110 Sacramento/44

REHOUSE from Page 1

PLACEMENT PATTERNS BY PROGRAM

REHOUSE from Page 4

To find affordable rents, families are increasingly going farther out. FAMILIES RELOCATED 207-373

72-206

FAMILIES RELOCATED 35-71

15-34

Hamilton First Avenues

Sacramento

NAPA

Fairfield

SOLA N O

12-19

4-11

NAPA SON OM A 101

Vallejo

Antioch CONTRA COSTA S A N JOA QUIN Oakland

Sacramento

San Francisco

Modesto

Fairfield

SACRAMENTO

SOLA N O

Hamilton Feb. 2006 First Avenues March 2017

Antioch

Jan. 2007 Dec. 2016

Oct. 2014 CalWORKs Jan. 2017 Housing Support Program

SON OM A

San Jose

FAMILIES SERVED

SANTA CLARA

223

Vallejo

San Francisco

1-3

Sacramento

Fairfield SOLA N O

SACRAMENTO 5

Antioch CONTRA COSTA S A N JOA QUIN Oakland

Modesto

580

STA N ISLA US

San Jose

STA N ISLA US

SANTA CLARA

OUT-OF-COUNTY PLACEMENTS

MILLIONS SPENT ON S.F. RAPID REHOUSING

PERCENTAGE SENT OUTSIDE S.F. 100%

CalWORKs Housing Support Program

90%

Compass SF HOME

70%

Hamilton First Avenues

80% 60% 50% 40% 30%

20% 10%

0% FY ’10-’11 ’11-’12 ’12-’13 ’13 -’14 ’14-’15 ’15-’16

Source: Marta Galan, prepared for San Francisco Human Services Agency, May 2017

of data for the Hamilton First Avenues program and Compass-SFHOME and found that one year after rent subsidies ended, 28 percent of the families that left San Francisco and 43 percent who stayed here were considered to be stably housed. Between 1 percent and 6 percent of those tracked were known to be unstable while the status of the rest of the families, a majority of the total, was unknown. Kositsky and his staff offered conflicting figures. An email from spokesman Randolph Quezada put it succinctly: “We find 88% outside of SF and 93% within SF were stably housed. RRH (Rapid Rehousing) programs work.” But those figures ignore the large number of unknowns. Indeed, these dueling analyses make completely opposite assumptions: Galan’s metric for stably housed families is a percentage of all families in the program, including those whose status is unknown. The city calculates the stably housed as a percentage of only those whose status is known, leaving the unknowns out of the equation even though they represent at least half of the families served. After the city pushed back against Galan’s findings, the Public Press requested data from both Compass and Hamilton. Both reported not knowing the status of large numbers of families one year after their subsidies ended: Compass couldn’t reach or didn’t know the status of twothirds of the families and Hamilton had no data on about one-third. Galan also examined a smaller, statefunded rent-subsidy program offered to

4-10

A LA M EDA

PROGRAM BUDGETS

939

546

11-18

Stockton

Modesto

Compass SF HOME

NAPA

101

CONTRA COSTA S A N JOA QUIN Oakland 580

STA N ISLA US

PROGRAMS SUBSIDIZING RENT FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES

19-30

CalWORKs Housing Support Program

A LA M EDA

SANTA CLARA

DATES

31-50

Stockton

ALA M EDA

San Jose

1-3

Stockton

580

PROGRAM

20-31

FAMILIES RELOCATED

Compass SF HOME

SACRAMENTO

101

San Francisco

32-193

SONOMA

Vallejo

1-14

City Loses Track Of Many After One-Year Rent Subsidies Expire

recipients of CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for low-income families. Since its start in 2014, she found, CalWORKs has provided rent subsidies to 223 families. Of 113 tracked, 91 were placed outside San Francisco. Of those, 49 returned to San Francisco after their subsidies expired and 37 became homeless or lived in unstable housing. The other five families were unaccounted for. Caseworkers from the three rent-subsidy programs interviewed by Galan identified numerous problems facing families that left San Francisco. Many could no longer see their doctors. Some had run-ins with their new landlords, making it hard to get housing references. Others fell off waiting lists for public housing. She also randomly contacted eight CalWORKs families who moved out of San Francisco to ask about their experiences. Seven of the eight had returned to the city and to “insecure housing situations” after their subsidies ended. Two of the families told her that despite problems with the program, it made their lives better. “I would not be where I am today if it had not been for this program,” a member of one family told her. Another said the family’s caseworker had been “phenomenal.” Four of the families felt the program set them back, Galan reported. One complained that it ended abruptly and as a result, “I lost my housing, my job, my child care and my aide all at the same time.” Another said, “The program helped me get on my feet, then pulled the rug from under

’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 Graphic by Reid Brown // Public Press

me. It caused me to go backwards in all of my progress.” Trent Rhorer, director of the city Human Services Agency, also had issues with Galan’s report. He said some conclusions about the CalWORKs subsidy program were based on too small a sample but added, “I believe 100 percent that her data is valid and accurate.” The thrust of the report — that most families are being housed out-of-county, jeopardizing their ability to maintain housing and employment — was echoed in interviews with agency leaders. Most families moving out of the city have longstanding connections here that are being severed, causing them to leave behind “churches, synagogues, community connections, child care and families to watch kids,” said Devra Edelman, Hamilton Families’ director of programs. These considerations trigger difficult conversations with agency counselors, she said. “Our housing service specialists, they pull their hair out quite a bit,” Edelman said. “They have to explain to families, ‘If you’re going to exit homelessness and stabilize back into housing, it’s most likely you won’t find housing you can afford in San Francisco. You’ve been here all your lives and now the only place I can find for you is in Stockton.’ And the families are like, ‘Where’s Stockton?’ It’s tough for both the family and the staff.” Since people get paid more to work in San Francisco than outside the city, they end REHOUSE continued on Page 5

up grappling with a difficult calculation, Edelman said: “What’s the balance between getting paid less in Fairfield and more in San Francisco?” The farther they move, the greater their challenges and the more likely they are to return, homeless, to the city after their subsidies run out, she said. Kositsky said families are opting to leave the city, as people with varying incomes do all the time. “I don’t consider it displacement,” he said. “I don’t have any problem with it at all.” San Francisco has created more permanent supportive housing for homeless people per capita than any other U.S. city, Kositsky said, “but we can’t build all of the social housing in the Bay Area that’s needed. I wish we could.” “In my heart, I want there to be a universal housing subsidy for all people making below 35 percent of area median income,” Kositsky said. “But until we have that, we’ve got to do this rationing. The downside of living in a capitalist economy that doesn’t produce enough housing for poor people is that you have to ration.” Tomiquia Moss, who replaced Kositsky as chief executive officer of Hamilton Families in July 2016, is concerned about the toll relocation is having on homeless families and on her staff. “We stabilize you, get you into shelter and counseling services, get your kid in school, help you think about budget,” Moss said. “Families start feeling OK. They start looking forward. Then a family rehouses outside of the county, and that process starts all over again. People get destabilized because they have to relocate.” Hamilton is taking steps to bolster families who move outside the city by tracking them for two years and setting up a textmessaging system to stay in closer touch with them after they leave the rent program. The agency is also contracting with Urban Institute and UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare to conduct focus groups and interviews with relocating families. Still, seeing few other options, Hamilton and the city have doubled down on the Rapid Rehousing approach. Hamilton has almost completed an effort to raise $30 million for its Heading Home campaign, which supports its rent subsidy and housing assistance programs, Moss said. Salesforce contributed $10 million, the city of San Francisco committed $7.5 million, and Airbnb and the San Francisco Giants are jointly kicking in $350,000. Other Bay Area cities also are confronting the need to relocate homeless families to more affordable cities. A rehousing program in Berkeley is placing 97 percent of homeless people outside that city. Galan’s report recommends that Bay Area cities address the problem regionally, and Moss and Rhorer said they were talking with colleagues in other counties about sharing social workers, satellite offices and case management services. “This is on the minds of the entire Bay Area,” Rhorer said. In the meantime, Moss said, it’s better to help families with children find homes outside the city than to leave them sleeping in cars or homeless. “I don’t like the reality,” she said, “but I want to put as many choices as possible in front of these families.” An expanded version of this article can be found at sfpr.es/i24-rehouse.

Photo by Iris Schneider // EdSource

In addition to the homeless shelter, Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco provides medical and behavioral services, street outreach and a drop-in center.

Schools Provide Services for Homeless Kids By Carolyn Jones and Daniel J. Willis // EdSource

he San Francisco Bay Area, with its Teslas, tech startups and $3,700 onebedroom rents, is one of the most affluent regions in the country, but also home to nearly 15,000 homeless children. Most of the students are in the urban areas, but they also live in the wealthy enclaves. They’re in Menlo Park, they’re in the San Ramon Valley, and they’re even in Ross in Marin County, where the median household income tops $200,000. And they’re most certainly undercounted: parents report to schools whether their family is homeless, and they have plenty of reasons not to admit to it: fear of deportation, fear of the government taking their children away, and shame. According to the Department of Education, “homeless” means living in a car, motel, campsite, shelter, on the street or doubled up with other families due to financial hardship. In the Bay Area, most of those children are doubled up with other families, although in San Francisco hundreds live on the streets or in shelters. The Bay Area has 420 school districts, charter schools and county offices of education in its nine counties, spread over 6,900 square miles from Cloverdale to Gilroy. But almost none have a higher percentage of homeless children than the Ravenswood City Elementary School District in East Palo Alto. The Ravenswood district is less than three miles from Stanford University, yet has one of the highest percentages of homeless students in the state. More than 37 percent of the district’s 3,076 students are homeless, and of those, 96 percent live

“doubled up” with other families, sharing a home or apartment or even a garage. Nearly 88 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and 64 percent are English learners. The district receives some federal grant money to help these children, but “that’s just a drop in the bucket. A Band-Aid,” said Superintendent Gloria HernandezGoff. “Paying for these services ends up being a huge encroachment into the general fund. But we do it because kids can’t learn if they’re hungry, if they’re tired, if they’re distracted or worried. Our schools need to be a safe place where families know their children are cared for.” The district also gets extra funding under the state’s Local Control Funding Formula, which steers money to schools to serve high-needs students, including those who are homeless, low-income, English learners or in foster care. Ravenswood provides three meals a day, plus snacks, to all students regardless of whether they’re homeless and arranges for a food bank to give regular, two-week supplies of groceries to parents. The district also provides free uniforms for students, washers and dryers on campus, full-time counselors at every school, and arranges for families to get free showers at the local YMCA. A nearby Catholic church lets families sleep overnight in the parking lot. Perhaps the biggest expense, Hernandez-Goff said, is transportation. Children who bounce between homeless shelters are legally entitled to free transportation to school, so the district will send buses, taxis or even Uber to deliver the children to school every day. “It’s expensive, but we patch things together,” she said.

In Ravenswood, most of the homeless families are Latin American immigrants living with other immigrant families. But according to state data, about half of San Francisco’s 1,984 homeless students live on their own: teenage runaways escaping abusive homes or violence elsewhere. No one knows exactly where these students live in San Francisco, but 300 a night sleep at the Larkin Street Youth Services shelter. Hundreds of others sleep in parks or under freeways, on friends’ couches, or trade sex for a place to sleep, according to Larkin Street’s executive director, Sherilyn Adams.

Nonprofits team up with Bay Area school districts to help homeless youth population Amazingly, some find a way to get to school every day. “A lot of these kids are not visibly homeless, and they often don’t want you to know they’re homeless,” Adams said. “Adolescence is a time of blending in, not standing out. So these kids face a lot of shame, a lot of isolation. Trying to do schoolwork while figuring out where they’re going to sleep every night — they have a lot on their plate.” In addition to the shelter, Larkin Street provides medical and behavioral services, street outreach and a drop-in center. Another nonprofit, Hamilton Families, contracts with San Francisco Unified to provide after-school tutoring and activities, bus passes and other services to more than 800 children annually in the city.

In the East Bay, Oakland Unified saw its number of homeless students shoot up from 400 in 2014-15 to 635 in 2015-16 to 901 in 2016-17, largely due to the escalating cost of housing, said Trish Anderson, the district’s homeless coordinator. “Those numbers are real,” she said. “Rents are too high, and people are losing their homes.” Oakland Unified provides a one-stop shop of services for its homeless families, including food, referrals to shelters and help enrolling in Medi-Cal. The district also provides immediate enrollment to homeless students, waiving much of the paperwork, and bus service to school. In Marin County, San Rafael City Schools go to great lengths to identify homeless children and train teachers to accommodate them. In 2016-17, the district reported 625 homeless children at its eight elementary schools, one of the highest rates in the state. Like elsewhere in California, lack of affordable housing is the primary cause for the high homeless rate in the area. The median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Rafael is $3,080, almost three times the national average. “We definitely have affordable housing issues. Unfortunately, that’s not something officials are moving very quickly on,” said Julia Neff, accountability coordinator for San Rafael City Schools. “But it’s the school district’s responsibility to meet these students where they are. We do what we can.” EdSource is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that researches and publishes news about education in California.

6 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | 7

SEEKING SHELTER FAR AND WIDE The United States currently provides Temporary Protected Status to around 437,000 foreign nationals from 10 countries who fled natural disasters or armed conflicts. Individuals from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti make up more than 90 percent of those with TPS. SPAIN UNITED STATES

TURKEY

FLORIDA

Gulf of Mexico

SYRIA

HAITI

CUBA

HONDURAS

ALGERIA

MEXICO

LIBYA

NICARAGUA

MALI

EL SALVADOR

NIGER

NEPAL

SAUDI ARABIA

INDIA

SUDAN YEMEN

NIGERIA

*SIERRA S LEONE

COLOMBIA OLOMBIA A

CHAD

CHINA

PAKISTAN

EGYPT

Caribbean Sea

See inset map

IRAN AFGHANISTAN

*LIBERIA *LIBE

Atlantic Ocean l

ETHIOPIA

SOUTH SUDAN

SOMALIA Indian Ocean

BRAZIL

COUNTRY

MUST HAVE ARRIVED BEFORE

ORIGINAL EXPIRATION DATE

CURRENT EXPIRATION DATE

El Salvador

Feb. 13, 2001

March 9, 2018

Sept. 9, 2019

Honduras

Dec. 30, 1998

Jan. 5, 2018

July 5, 2018

Haiti

Jan. 12, 2011

July 22, 2017

July 22, 2019

Nepal

June 24, 2015

June 24, 2018

Unchanged

Syria

Aug. 1, 2016

March 31, 2018

Unchanged

Nicaragua

Dec. 30, 1998

Jan. 5, 2018

Jan. 5, 2019

Sudan

Jan. 9, 2013

Sept. 3, 2018

Nov. 2, 2018

Yemen

Jan. 4, 2017

Sept. 3, 2018

Unchanged

1,000

Somalia

May 1, 2012

March 17, 2017

Sept. 17, 2018

250

South Sudan

Jan. 25, 2016

Nov. 2, 2017

May 2, 2019

EXPECTED RE-REGISTRANTS (AS OF OCTOBER 2017)

195,000 57,000 46,000 8,950 5,800 2,550 1,040

* TPS for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone expired in May 2017, but certain Liberians maintain relief under an administrative mechanism known as Deferred Enforced Departure.

TPS POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS (AS OF OCTOBER 2017) TOTAL POPULATION

SALVADORAN

HONDURAN

HAITIAN

195,000

57,000

46,000

ESTIMATED TPS POPULATION IN U.S. LABOR FORCE: TOP 5 INDUSTRIES FOR EACH COUNTRY (AGES 16 AND OLDER)

HOUSEHOLDS Number of households

135,400

43,400

27,100

Median household income

$50,000

$40,000

$45,000

83%

76%

81%

192,700

53,500

27,000

Number of households with a mortgage

45,500

9,500

6,200

Percent of households with a mortgage

34%

22%

23%

39,300

13,400

15,100

Percent age 15 or under at arrival

20%

23%

30%

Percent in the U.S. 20 years or more

51%

63%

16%

Percent who are age 25 and over

97%

98%

78%

Percent at or above the poverty level Number of U.S.-born children Photo by Anna Vignet // Public Press

Outside the Federal Building in San Francisco in January, Carmen Guardado and others protested ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, Hondurans and Salvadorans like her. She currently lives and works in Oakland.

Photo by Garrick Wong // Public Press

Salvadorans like Yanira Arias lost Temporary Protected Status and may face deportation.

EL SALVADOR / 171,100 IN LABOR FORCE Construction 36,900 Restaurants and other food services 22,400 Landscaping services 11,700

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Age 15 or under at arrival TPS from Page 1

with temporary status contribute more than $2.7 billion to the state’s economy. About a third are homeowners. • Replacing trained workers could cost businesses an estimated $673 million nationwide. Construction and service industries would be most affected. • Central America and Haiti would be hit hard economically, because they depend heavily on the billions of dollars immigrants send home. Remittances account for 17 percent of the economies of El Salvador and Honduras. • Gang activity is predicted to increase in the United States and Latin America, including extortion, human smuggling, sex and drug trafficking, and document forgery. Security would further deteriorate in El Salvador and Honduras, where thousands of members of the notorious MS-13 and 18th Street gangs terrorize and control local populations. To immigration opponents, none of that matters. “It’s time for those who have benefited from their TPS status to return home,” said Dave Ray, communications director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in Washington, D.C. “The ‘T’ in TPS stands for ‘temporary.’ TPS was established to allow citizens of countries affected by some unforeseen event and were legally in the U.S. to remain here temporarily — until the triggering incident had passed. “In each and every case under consideration the immediate crises have long since passed and, for the most part, the home countries are no worse off today than they were before the triggering event,” added Ray, whose organization works to end illegal immigration and sharply restrict legal immigration. His group does not have a centrist reputation in the immigration debate. It has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and several immigrant-rights groups. The federation found itself out of favor in Washington during the Obama era, but now several former employees have landed key government immigration jobs, including former executive director Julie Kirchner, who was appointed ombudsman of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

IMMIGRATION: Trump ending protected status

UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR TPS HOLDERS

“Recovery from the earthquakes has been slow and encumbered by subsequent natural disasters and environmental challenges, including hurricanes and tropical storms, heavy rains and flooding, volcanic and seismic activity, an ongoing coffee rust epidemic, and a prolonged regional drought that is impacting food security,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said when it extended protections from September 2016 to this March. “The regional drought currently affecting El Salvador has made the country the driest it has been in 35 years. The drought is projected to cause more than $400 million in losses from corn, beans, coffee, sugar cane, livestock, and vegetables, resulting in subsistence farmers facing malnutrition and pressure to

migrate.” Arias, Alianza Americas and other advocates are looking to Congress to help them stay and are lobbying heavily. “Given the actions President Trump has already taken, the only path forwards will be a legislative solution to protect TPS holders from the President’s extreme, enforcement-only, deportation agenda,” U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, the top House Democrat on immigration, said in an email to the Public Press. Legislators from both parties have introduced four bills proposing more permanent legal solutions. All offer a way for qualifying TPS recipients to convert their status. But they differ greatly in terms of the countries targeted, level of priority,

CONDITIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA The November decision by the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for 2,500 Nicaraguans who arrived following Hurricane Mitch in 1999 elicited fear and anger among the largest groups of TPS holders — Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians. Soon after, the Department of Homeland Security announced that TPS was also ending for 59,000 Haitians. The agency postponed a decision on Hondurans until June to collect more information about conditions in the Central American nation, which was battered by hurricanes in the late 1990s and has struggled to recover. They and Salvadorans — the first and largest group granted protection following civil war in the 1980s — are pessimistic about their futures and question the rationale behind the administration’s recent decisions, which were based on the Department of Homeland Security’s finding that the countries had “made considerable progress.” But that conclusion was opposite that of the Obama administration 18 months earlier.

requirements beneficiaries must meet and time it would take to legalize.

LAWMAKERS TAKE THE INITIATIVE Two bills have attracted attention. Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, the state with the largest concentration of Haitians, led a group of four Republicans and eight Democrats to introduce the Extending Status Protection for Eligible Refugees with Established Residency Act of 2017. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, a Democrat from New York, which also has a large Haitian population, introduced the American Promise Act of 2017. It is favored by many Central American and Haitian advocates because, they say, it includes recipients of both DACA and TPS who come from several countries. Other bills target specific countries and provide another temporary extension, not a permanent solution. In their search for a solution, Haitian and other groups have organized protests, vigils and rallies, held informational events for TPS holders and visited Capitol Hill. Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, and other advocates see a small but important victory in the administration’s decision to delay deportation proceedings until July 22, 2019, instead of this spring. Alianza Americas and other organizations have written the Department of Homeland Security and members of Congress with their concerns about the dire consequences that ending TPS would have in terms of undermining security, governance and economic stability in the countries TPS recipients come from. During a nationwide web seminar after the administration’s announcement, Bastien told participants working with Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians that Haiti “still suffers food shortages, decrepit infrastructure and other calamities worsened by past and recent disasters.” TPS holders who are deported or decide to migrate home also face greater danger. San Francisco has a homicide rate of 6.5 per 100,000 residents, but it’s 59 per 100,000 in Honduras and 81 per 100,000 in El Salvador, among the highest in the world. Trump has vowed to eradicate MS-13, which formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s and today has about 60,000 U.S. members. It has expanded into Latin America and claims an estimated 10,000 members, many deported from the United States. The Obama administration designated MS-13 a “transnational criminal organization,” a first for a U.S. street gang.

STATING THEIR CASE IN COURT

Photo by Allen Majors // Public Press

Supporters of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status held a round-the-clock, 22-day vigil outside the White House in August and September.

Besides lobbying Congress, activists are going to court to try to stall or overturn the administration’s actions, much the same as the initial efforts to block Trump’s travel ban targeting several Muslims nations. (The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a modified ban in early December while challenges work their way through lower courts.) The San Francisco-based efforts have delivered proponents one court victory. An August ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that a person granted TPS status would count as a legal entry into the United States. That means TPS holders in California, Nevada and Washington state who are 21 or older and are “immediate relatives” (children or spouses) of U.S. citizens may have family members apply for an adjustment of

Francisco, the first major hub of organizing for that community, in 1980. It was in full swing by 1983, when their efforts led 89 members of Congress to sign a letter requesting that the State Department and the U.S. attorney general grant “extended voluntary departure” to Salvadorans fleeing the war.

SALVADORAN AND HONDURAN TPS HOLDERS IN CALIFORNIA California has roughly 55,000 people with Temporary Protected Status, with most coming from El Salvador. Many came after earthquakes in 2001. DATA AS OF OCTOBER 2017

SANCTUARY CITIES AID REFUGEES

TPS HOLDERS IN CALIFORNIA Salvadoran Honduran

49,100 5,900

AMERICAN-BORN CHILDREN OF TPS HOLDERS Salvadoran Honduran

50,300 4,400

WORKERS WHO ARE TPS HOLDERS Salvadoran Honduran

39,400

Photo by Todd Frantom // U.S. Navy

On Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands. Others were displaced, losing access to food and water.

5,100

STATE GDP LOST WITHOUT TPS HOLDERS Salvadoran Honduran

$2.4 BILLION $307.3 MILLION

OCCUPATIONS OF TPS HOLDERS Salvadoran 14.5% Accommodation and food services Construction 14% 11.9% Administrative and support and waste management services Honduran 21% Construction 12.9% Other services, except public administration 12.1% Manufacturing

22 YEARS 23 YEARS

Source: Center for American Progress Graphic by Reid Brown // Public Press

status that eventually leads to permanent residence. California has 55,000 TPS holders, with the biggest concentrations of Salvadorans and other Central Americans in the Los Angeles area, according to U.S. Census Bureau-based research by the Center for Migration Studies. But the Citizenship and Immigration Services could not provide detailed local data or say how many TPS holders have secured full legal status to stay. “We don’t have a business need to know how many people from a particular city have been granted TPS,” said Sharon Rummery, a public affairs officer in San Francisco. The Central American Resource Center is advising the TPS community about its options. Executive Director Lariza Dugan-Cuadra said that thousands of TPS recipients have changed their legal status over several years. She estimated that San Francisco has been home to 10,000 to 15,000 TPS recipients. Since 1996, she said, her Mission District office has processed an average of 600 TPS renewals every 18 months. The numbers have decreased steadily, in part because many adjusted TPS continued on Page 7

U.S. Geological Survey

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck El Salvador on Jan. 13, 2001, caused a major landslide, swallowing up homes. More than 900 people were killed.

TPS from Page 6

their status through citizenship, residency, spousal petitions and other methods. The current TPS crisis is only the most recent episode in a saga that for some has kept them in the limbo of temporary status for decades. The demands of Arias, Martien and others trace their roots to the 1980s, when hundreds of thousands Guatemalans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans fled civil wars, death squads and other civil catastrophes. The majority of the more than 1 million migrants seeking refuge came to California, primarily Los Angeles and San Francisco — the latter arguably the primary center of political advocacy for Central American refugees in those days. Those seeking political asylum met almost constant rejection by the Reagan administration — 98 percent of Guatemalan asylum claims and 97 percent of Salvadoran asylum claims. The administration politicized the process by rejecting people fleeing rightist U.S. allies while giving preferential treatment to Nicaraguan nationals fleeing the leftist Sandinista government. The organizing leading to TPS began shortly after Salvadorans arrived in San

One TPS recipient seeking legal and political alternatives is Mariano Guzman, a 55-year-old garbage collector, father of eight and an organizer who came here from Honduras nearly 20 years ago. In November, he and more than 100 others crowded into St. Anthony’s church in the Mission District for an event hosted by the Bay Area Coalition to Save TPS, a network of organizations that includes the African Advocacy Network, RENASE and the Nicaragua Center for Community Action. “I don’t want to return to Honduras, for two reasons,” Guzman said. “First, because my family is here and depends on me, especially my youngest, who’s only 8 and I haven’t yet told what’s happening. The second reason is that I’ve been critical of the government from here in the United States and I’m concerned that the government will try to kill me like it killed Berta Caceres and other activists.” Caceres, an indigenous leader and environmental campaigner, was shot dead in her home in 2016. Guzman hears echoes of the 1980s, when he was arrested, tortured and beaten by security forces who suspected him of working with Salvadoran guerrillas near the Honduran border. After a friend in the military helped win his release, Guzman came to the United States to start a new life, but one that still has traces of the old. “I’ve been ‘temporary’ since I came here after Hurricane Mitch in 1999,” he said. “That’s more than 18 years of not knowing what will happen to me and my family. I’m neither completely here, nor completely there, but in between — and so are my kids. One way or another, this will end and I’m working for it to end happily, with me and my family still living in a country we love.”

Traveler accommodations 7,900

Grocery stores 6,100

HONDURAS / 48,500 TOTAL Construction 13,700

ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH (AGE 5+) Percent who speak at least a little English

85%

96%

Percent who speak English well, very well, or only English

48%

44%

75%

Percent completed high school or more

37%

38%

71%

Percent with some college or a degree

13%

12%

37%

88%

85%

81%

10%

17%

56%

40%

57%

Child day care services 3,900

Restaurants and other food services 3,300

Percent unemployed Percent of labor force self-employed

Grocery stores 2,400 Other 25,800

Elementary and secondary schools 1,900

HEALTH INSURANCE Percent with health insurance

Hospitals 800

HAITI / 38,600 TOTAL Restaurants and other food services 6,700

LABOR FORCE (AGE 16+) Percent in the labor force

Other 23,100

Landscaping services 3,700

EDUCATION (AGE 18+)

Construction 1,000

Hospitals 800

A COSTLY GOODBYE Ending Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians is projected to cost the U.S. billions over the next decade. (DATA AS OF APRIL 2017)

COST OF DEPORTATION Salvadoran Honduran Haitian

TPS HOLDERS

COST PER DEPORTATION

186,403 70,281 46,558

$10,070 $10,070 $10,070

DEPORTATION COSTS

$1.88 BILLION $708 MILLION $469 MILLION

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT CONTRIBUTION

FEAR OF RETURNING TO HONDURAS

AVERAGE TIME CALIFORNIA TPS HOLDERS HAVE LIVED IN THE U.S. Salvadoran Honduran

The Central American Resource Center and other groups were also the first to secure “sanctuary city” status in San Francisco and Los Angeles to protect refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala from being handed over to immigration authorities by local police, hospitals and other municipal agencies. Federal courts in San Francisco ruled favorably in asylum lawsuits brought by advocates. Together, these and other efforts resulted in Congress granting the first TPS to Salvadorans in 1990. The program was later extended to other groups. “We’re very fortunate to be in San Francisco,” Dugan-Cuadra said, “because this city has consistently affirmed that we are a sanctuary city, which means all the city institutions — school districts, hospitals and the police — must act in accordance with sanctuary provisions prohibiting collaboration with ICE,” referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It also includes making legal resources available to get screened. It gives people at least some peace of mind that they’re not in Texas, Florida or other states where ICE agents are waiting for people outside church, in hospitals or at the schools where people pick up their children.”

Other 86,100

POPULATION WITH PRE-TAX WAGES OR SALARY INCOME

AVERAGE ANNUAL WAGE

128,790 46,020 15,257

$24,429 $23,759 $18,338

Salvadoran Honduran Haitian

ANNUAL GDP CONTRIBUTION

$3.15 BILLION $1.09 BILLION $280 MILLION

SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE CONTRIBUTION POPULATION WITH PRE-TAX WAGES OR SALARY INCOME

CONTRIBUTION PER YEAR/ SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

128,790 46,020 15,257

$3,737 $3,635 $2,806

Salvadoran Honduran Haitian

10-YEAR CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

$4.81 BILLION $1.67 BILLION $428 MILLION

LIVING COAST TO COAST Most immigrants with Temporary Protected Status live in major metropolitan areas. Almost half of all Salvadorans live in California and Texas, with concentrations in New York, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. (DATA AS OF OCTOBER 2017)

Boston

Washington, D.C. Los Angeles

New York

Dallas

Atlanta

Washington, D.C.

New York

Los Angeles

Orlando

SALVADORANS

Houston

METROPOLITAN AREAS

Washington Los Angeles New York Houston Dallas

Miami

HAITIANS METROPOLITAN AREAS

32,359 30,415 23,168 16,991 7,749

Graphics by Reid Brown // Public Press

Miami New York Boston Orlando Atlanta

Houston

Miami

METROPOLITAN AREAS

16,287 9,402 4,302 3,081 992

HONDURANS New York Miami Houston Washington Los Angeles

8,818 7,467 6,060 5,538 3,901

Sources: Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Congressional Research Center

8 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018

Close Put Her Stamp On Media

Eric Kayne/California Health Care Foundation

Under Sandy Close, Pacific News Service practiced “journalism from the inside out” by bringing people from many cultures into the newsroom. The news service and its successor, New America Media, closed on Nov. 30.

By Rob Waters // Public Press

hen Sandy Close recruited a young African-American rapper to her news organization, Pacific News Service, his first assignment was to write about Cantopop, popular music that swept Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities in the 1980s and ’90s. She also asked a 16-year-old Afghan refugee to hang out with Salvadoran immigrants in San Francisco’s Dolores Park and write about why they joined gangs. Close has made it her life’s work to find and amplify unique voices from different ethnic communities, especially those of the young. She’s especially fascinated by the complexity of relationships between people of different cultures. For 48 years, Pacific News Service practiced “journalism from the inside out” by bringing people from many cultures into the newsroom. They debated the issues of the day in lively editorial meetings and then wrote about them in news features and essays that circulated to more than 100 newspapers. On Nov. 30, Close shuttered the news service and its successor, New America Media, a multimedia ethnic news agency and coalition of ethnic media organizations founded in San Francisco in 1996. Their legacies will live on through the work of dozens of

Ethnic-news advocate inspired many at now-closed New America Media professional journalists who got their start with Close, and through the continued vitality of youth-run media organizations she helped spawn. Youth Radio, an Oakland-based production syndicate, trains reporters and brings their work to public radio listeners across the country. Youth-run publications Silicon Valley De-Bug and the Richmond Pulse, operating in print and as multimedia websites, cover their communities through the eyes and words of young people. The Beat Within gives voice to 5,000 incarcerated youths in juvenile halls across California. The demise of Pacific News Service was due in part to its own success. As New America Media, it had grown greatly in recent years, bringing some 3,000 ethnic publications into its orbit by hosting forums and briefings on critical issues, conducting trainings and acting as a clearinghouse for shared news articles. At its peak, in 2012, New America Media had 90 employees in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. By the end, after losing several large grants, it was down to 15, all of whom have found new positions. “If I’d been smarter on the financial management, maybe we could have avoided closing,” Close said in November, sitting

in the organization’s San Francisco offices on Ninth Street, amid rows of empty desks and boxes ready to be packed.

RECEIVED ‘GENIUS’ AWARD Close was a genius, though, at fostering intellectual ferment and creative tension by bringing together people from disparate backgrounds and challenging them to think deeply and write clearly. In 1995 she received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellowship and used the $500,000 grant to fund a documentary on a Berkeley journalist and poet who was confined to an iron lung. “Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien” won an Academy Award in 1997. Close came to the news service a few years after her husband, Franz Schurmann, a sociologist and historian at UC Berkeley, and Orville Schell, a journalist and China scholar, founded the service in 1969 to produce deeper reporting on the war in Vietnam. By then, she’d served as Hong Kong editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review and co-founded a newspaper in Oakland, The Flatlands, which focused on poverty, displacement and police brutality.

After the United States withdrew its military from Southeast Asia in 1975, Close turned her attention to the wars in Central America and to the ways that immigration was changing communities across California and the country. She soon began recruiting young people, starting a Youth Voices page in the old Hearst-run San Francisco Examiner, and later a standalone publication called YO! — Youth Outlook. At the time, crack cocaine was ravaging inner cities and young black men were being labeled as predators. “I wanted kids who had that stigma to realize they could also have a voice,” Close said.

MENTORING A GENERATION In those days, Charles Jones sold drugs on Market Street and composed rap poetry. In 1995, a friend of his, a fellow dealer and writer, brought Jones to a news meeting. He sat in, then came to a few more. One day, he passed a gathering that turned out to be the funeral of a friend who’d been murdered. He attended the service and then went to the office. Close encouraged him to write about his feelings. His first article, “Eulogy for a lost friend,” was published in YO! and newspapers nationwide, including the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2012, Jones wrote another story about the murder of a young man titled “Mourning a Hustler Who Was Also a Saint.” This

time, it was about his brother. For Jones, having his writing be both validated and challenged by Close and other women in positions of authority at the news service was transformative. “It changed me,” he said. “It bettered me as a person, not just a writer. I gained respect for women, gay people, transgender people.” Today, Fariba Nawa, who interviewed gang members as a teenager in Dolores Park many years ago, is a widely published correspondent based in Istanbul. She lauds Close for her unwavering support and tough editing. “The people Sandy supported and advised are still producing the kind of work she taught us to produce,” she said. “I have this inner voice in my head: ‘Would Sandy like this? Would Sandy approve?’” As the end came to the organization she’d spent much of her life running, Close worked hard to make sure that people still working for her found new jobs and that the projects she’d helped launch would continue through other organizations. She’s also pleased that the hundreds of ethnic media organizations she worked with are looking for new ways to collaborate. “People don’t want to be in a silo, they don’t want to be fragmented,” she said. Among ethnic media, “there’s a hunger to be at the table, to be visible to the general public and to be visible with each other. That hunger has inspired me for a very long time.”

Student Suspension, Expulsion Rates Fall but Racial Disparities Remain By Carolyn Jones // EdSource

chool suspensions and expulsions in California public schools have dropped dramatically among all racial and ethnic groups over five years, but a significant gap remains for African-American students, according to new state data. In the 2016-17 school year, the suspension rate of African-American students in California public schools was 9.8 percent. Still, that rate was significantly lower than it was in 2011-12, when the rate for African-American students was 13.7 percent. The rate is calculated by dividing the total enrollment of students in a particular subgroup by the number of students suspended in that subgroup. By contrast, the suspension rates were 3.7 percent for Latino students, 3.2 percent for white students, and 1.1 percent for Asian students. The data, released by the California Department of Education, show a dramatic drop in suspensions and expulsions overall, reflecting a major push by the state along with advocates to encourage schools to find alternative ways of dealing with school discipline and behavior problems. Suspensions dropped 46 percent — from 709,702 to 381,845 — between 2011-12 and 2016-17, while expulsions fell 42 percent, from 9,758 to 5,657. Overall, 3.6 percent of California’s students were suspended in 2016-17, down from 3.7 percent two years ago and down from 5.7 percent in 2011-12. “This new information demonstrates that efforts by educators all over the state to find better ways to engage students in learning and address behavior problems

are paying off in the form of greatly reduced suspensions and expulsions, and that translates into more students in class,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. “The bottom line is that students have to be in class to learn, to succeed, to develop their potential, and to fulfill their dreams.” The data include information on California’s over 10,000 public schools, including charters. Among African-American students, suspensions dropped 49 percent and expulsions were down by 40 percent. Suspensions for willful defiance — defined by state law as disrupting school activities or otherwise defying school staff — dropped 79 percent among African-Americans. A 2014 state law prohibits schools from suspending students for willful defiance in the K-3 grades, but several school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified and San Francisco Unified, have prohibited its use altogether. “Generally, the positive trends are continuing and that’s great news,” said Brian Lee, state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a division of Council for a Strong America, a bipartisan nonprofit that advocates for crime reduction policies. “But we’re still seeing significant disparities among racial groups.” Ruth Cusick, senior staff attorney at Public Counsel, a public interest law firm that works on school discipline issues, described the racial disparities as troubling. According to state data, African-Americans compose 5.8 percent of total student enrollments, but 15.5 percent of all students suspended.

Photo by Alison Yin // EdSource

The drop in suspensions and expulsions reflects efforts to find alternative ways of dealing with discipline problems.

“We know that suspensions for vague Education Code violations — like disruption and willful defiance — contribute to racial disproportionality,” she said. “These types of suspensions are subjective in nature and can be arbitrarily enforced, and their elimination is an important step towards ensuring that every student in California has a chance to learn, regardless of what they look like or where they live.” Torlakson attributed the suspension and expulsion declines to a host of state initiatives over the past five years intended to improve school climate and reduce the amount of time students miss school for disciplinary reasons. Students who are suspended tend to fall behind academically, are less likely to

graduate and are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system, costing California taxpayers billions of dollars in reduced economic productivity and criminal justice and social costs, according to a 2017 report by The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Legislators, the California Department of Education, Gov. Jerry Brown, nonprofits and district leaders have been trying to address the issue on multiple fronts. According to Torlakson and Lee, the state’s recent efforts to lower school suspension and expulsion have included the following: • Promoting restorative justice and positive behavior programs as alternative discipline measures. More than $65 million from the Legislature and Proposition 47, a 2014 criminal justice reform law, have gone toward these programs. • Incorporating social-emotional learning into school curriculum, emphasizing social skills, respect and compassion among students. • Requiring districts to address suspensions and expulsions in their Local Control Funding Formula, and holding districts accountable by reporting their rates on the California School Dashboard. • Conducting trainings in restorative justice at districts around the state. • Banning expulsions and suspensions for willful defiance in kindergarten through third grade. Senate Bill 607, which did not make it through the Legislature last year, would have expanded the ban through 12th grade. Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association, said he was pleased

with the new data and that it shows restorative justice practices are working. But not all districts are using these alternative discipline techniques, which leaves teachers to deal with disruptive students without the support of alternative discipline programs. “Fewer suspensions and expulsions are always good news. Students can’t learn if they’re not in school,” he said. “When done properly, restorative justice and positive behavioral intervention strategies actually do work.” Restorative justice means that pupils who’ve committed a campus infraction, like stealing a classmate’s backpack, meet with the victim and others, such as peers or school staff, to work out a resolution. According to the California Education Code, students can be suspended for physical assault, bringing weapons on campus, using or selling drugs or alcohol, stealing, bullying, sexual assault, vandalism and other infractions. Minor violations include smoking cigarettes, swearing and defying a teacher. According to a survey by the California Teachers Association released in April, nearly 9 out of 10 teachers surveyed said they need more training and the support of school psychologists and counselors if they are to successfully retreat from “zero tolerance” discipline practices, in which even minor infractions may result in a student being suspended for a day or more. Louis Freedberg contributed to this report. EdSource is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that researches and publishes news about education in California.

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | 9

SHORT TAKES

PARTNERS IN THIS ISSUE E A R T H I S L A N D J O U R N A L • C A L M A T T E R S • G R I S T

FA I R WA R N I N G • M I S S I O N L O C A L

F OL L OW THE WE B L I NKS TO R EA D FULL VERSION S OF A LL STORIES

ENVIRONMENT

POLITICS

Costly Special Elections In Wake of Sex Scandals The sexual harassment scandal that roiled the state Capitol recently has cost two state lawmakers their jobs. Their resignations mean more work, and unanticipated costs, for local governments that must hold special elections to fill the vacancies. The price tag is large: Tens of millions of dollars for polling places, voter guides — all the machinery of an election must be cranked up. Election officials have tried to get the state to cover the cost of unexpected special elections, but their efforts have failed. Also, these oddly timed elections do not inspire voter interest, and turnout can be as low as 8 percent of registered voters. Added Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation: “There had been a law in place in the past that would have reimbursed counties for special election costs, but it sunset.” KQED News, sfpr.es/i24-kqed-harass

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Officer-Involved Shooting Probes Drag On in S.F.

Creative Commons image by Steve Martarano // U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Below: Creative Commons image by Flickr user Suzie’s Farm

Currently, roughly one-third of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water, above, is delivered to the San Francisco Bay Area, while slightly less is diverted to Southern California. Central Valley farms and those further south, like in the Tijuana River Valley in San Diego, right, and water districts will benefit from the $17 billion state water diversion project.

WaterFix Project Gets Green Light Funding has been approved for WaterFix, a $17 billion state water diversion project. When completed, the project’s tunnels would move water from the SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta to pumping stations south, supplying Central Valley farms and Southern California water districts — some 25 million people and 3 million acres of irrigated farmland. Construction is expected to take 10 years. The controversial project is the latest battle over finite water resources

in an increasingly thirsty state. It has inspired the creation of unique alliances between Delta farmers and conservationists, and pitted Northern California communities against those farther south. It has also thrust the Delta into the center of a far-reaching debate about water use in the Golden State and has left many wondering about the future of this region. Earth Island Journal, sfpr.es/i24-earthisland-delta

Creative Commons image by Flickr user Dean Hochman

Small gas-powered machines, such as those found in leaf blowers and lawn mowers, now rival cars as a source of smog-forming pollution.

In San Francisco, officer-involved shootings are investigated, but chances are that such cases will remain open for years, according to a 2016 Department of Justice report. The report noted that only one officer-involved shooting case had been closed between 2013 and 2015. San Francisco police officers say their investigations take a long time because some investigations overlap. John Crew, an ACLU attorney and former head of the Northern California Police Practices Project, said that the Police Department unfairly hides behind laws and statutes, and that the problem is not legal but cultural. Yet he believes the culture of lack of openness and accountability is not entirely the fault of the Police Department. Mission Local, sfpr.es/i24-missionlocal-police

TRANSPORTATION

Muni Pivots on Upgrade Costs, Irking Supervisor

California Throttles Back Pollution From Small Engines

Developers, Environmentalists Finding Common Ground

California regulations curbing pollution from leaf blowers, lawn mowers and other small gas-powered machines took effect Jan. 1. These new rules represent continuing efforts by the state to cut emissions from small engines that now rival cars as a source of smog-forming pollution. Even though car engines have been retooled to reduce emissions, there has been no similar cleanup of small off-road engines, such as in lawn-and-garden equipment and generators. Therefore, those gas-powered machines could outpace car engines as polluters. For example, the California Air Resources Board says pollution from running a top-selling leaf blower for one hour matches the emissions from driving a 2016 Toyota Camry for 1,100 miles. Fair Warning, sfpr.es/i24-fairwarning-pollution

Environmentalists have a reputation for stopping bad things. But for housing, new-school environmentalists — such as state Sen. Scott Wiener — believe that it’s necessary to support things, too. To meet Scott Wiener California’s ambitious goals to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, regulators say the state must build dense, walkable neighborhoods that allow people to get rid of their cars. This approach spawned the YIMBY — Yes In My Back Yard — movement. The YIMBYs have begun demanding a building boom. Grist, sfpr.es/i24-grist-yimby

It was first reported that Muni’s $750,000 New Flyer diesel-electric hybrid buses lacked a rudimentary pollution control device. In an October closed-door meeting with Supervisor Aaron Peskin and his staff, Muni transit director John Haley pledged to upgrade the buses to the tune of about $1,200 per bus — a total of several hundred thousand dollars. It turns out, however, that Muni had already begun the upgrades, via Wi-Fi technology, and was doing it for free. Muni spokesman Paul Rose confirmed this information. Asked about the situation, Peskin said he was not pleased that “bullshit numbers” had been fed to his office by Muni management, which he called “incompetent.” Mission Local, sfpr.es/i24-missionlocal-muniupdate

Creative Commons image by Flickr user Dave R

HOUSING

CALmatters’ Readers Air Their Top Concerns Recently, CALmatters posed two questions to its readers: How bad is the state’s housing crisis, and how did it get so bad? It tried to cover all the bases — from affordable housing funding to Proposition 13 to why no one else in your apartment building cleans out the lint filter after using the communal dryer. But CALmatters couldn’t cover everything. There was a nagging question that CALmatters asked its readers: What did it miss? The upshot was: More than 130 questions were submitted by readers, from wonky to big picture. And some of them ended up being a little housing crisis FAQ. CALmatters, sfpr.es/i24-calmatters-housingQA

PERCENTAGE OF CA HOUSEHOLDS BURDENED BY HOUSING COSTS

African- Hispanic American

Pacific Islander

American Indian

White

Asian

Source: California Department of Housing and Community Development; analysis of 2009-2013 American Community Survey data via HUD CHAS Data Sets

Sky-High Housing Costs Add To State’s High Poverty Rate California is tops in the poverty rate department. If the cost of living is factored into the mix, the state has the highest rate of poverty in the United States. More than 20 percent of its residents are hurting for money, or nearly 8 million people, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures. The Census Bureau began releasing state-by-state results for its “supplemental poverty measure” in 2011 to improve upon the out-of-date and heavily criticized official poverty statistics. California has been the country’s poorest state under this measure since the alternative statistic was created (Mississippi is poorest under the old measure). CALmatters, sfpr.es/i24-calmatters-housing

CALIFORNIA, THE POVERTY OUTLIER Using an alternative measure of poverty that incorporates the state’s high cost of living, California has had a significantly higher poverty rate than the rest of the country since the early 1990s.

Graphic by CALmatters. Data source: “Poverty in the 50 States: Long-Term Trends and the Role of Social Policies,” Wimer et al., Columbia Population Research Center

10 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018

“I’m not advocating communities should have only one major employer. But having one very successful company is a lot better than the alternative.” — Kevin Duggan, former Mountain View city manager

Creative Commons image by Flickr user Anthony Quintano

Android statues greet visitors at Google’s Mountain View campus, where the tech giant has more than doubled its staff in the past 10 years. It is, by far, the single largest owner of land in the city.

By David Boyer // The Intersection

he tech industry has brought jobs and unprecedented prosperity to the Mountain View area. This once-small, sleepy agricultural town is now synonymous with progress, wealth and the future. But for people who have lived in Mountain View a long time, the changes are dramatic. “The only people who have been able to stay here are people who had a family home that they inherited,” said Joseph Coelho, a Silicon Valley resident who frequents Mountain View. “There’s a social-responsibility aspect if you destroy the town you live in. You might still be the biggest name in town, but you might be the biggest name for all the wrong reasons.” Google is the biggest name in town, accounting for 1 out of every 5 jobs there, and funding more than 10 percent of Mountain View’s total annual budget. But does that make it a company town? “I’m not sure whether this applies to Google, but one would be a diverse number of employers,” said Hardy Green, author of “The Company Town.” “You know they don’t want to just have all their eggs in one basket. You know, they don’t want to be so dependent on any one source of wealth.” There are other big-name companies in town, such as Microsoft, Samsung and Intuit. But Google has 10 times more employees in Mountain View than all of these other companies. That does not include the thousands of subcontractors who work on its campus. What may be more telling is the trajectory: Google has more than doubled its Mountain View staff in the last 10 years. It is, by far, the single largest owner of land, according to Mountain View’s annual financial report. How does a town end up in this situation — with one big employer? For that answer, head back to the year 2000. The first dotcom bubble is about to burst. Companies are folding, layoffs are accelerating, and there’s a sense of panic in Silicon Valley. Let’s say it is up to you to balance Mountain View’s books. That was a big part of Kevin Duggan’s job, the city manager from 1990 to 2011. When Google came to town in 1999, he was not worried about becoming too dependent on the oddly named startup. He was more focused on keeping the library open, his staff paid and the Fire Department funded.

Mountain View or Googleville? Tech giant’s growth may be making Silicon Valley city a company town

COST-OF-LIVING ISSUES “They’ve made some very specific investments. You know, some would say relatively minor,” Duggan said. “In fact, one of the challenges for Google is sometimes trying to get them to have more of a local focus, which I think they’ve gotten better on it in the last few years. So, no company is perfect. Google isn’t perfect. Um, is there more traffic because of their presence? Yeah. Have they had an impact on rents in town? Sure. “I’m not advocating communities should have only one major employer. But having one very successful company is a lot better than the alternative.” But why did Google choose Mountain View? Companies go where the resources are. “For Google, I think it is talent. There’s been a relocation of talent from all over the world into that area,” Green said.

COMPANY TOWN VERSION 2.0 Mountain View seems so different from the 20th century company towns. It is not industrial. There are not workers sweating in mines or over assembly lines. Google and the other big tech companies look like

pretty cushy places to work. “Many people hear the term company town and they immediately think of negative things. We think of the term company town as a kind of Big Brotherish place where the company controls everything. It’s almost like a prison camp,” Green said. “But there were some places — and don’t say it was half — but there were some places that were built to be paternalistic and nice places to live,” Green said. “So one of the main ones that always comes to mind is Hershey, Pa. There were libraries and schools. There were parks. But you are actually being kind of controlled by the company in many ways. And it would be a more sort of benign dictatorship.” That seems to be the model adopted by Google and other tech giants. In the last two decades, a kinder, gentler version of corporate control has emerged: Companies compete for talent with luxe campuses and by pampering employees with free organic meals, massages, transportation, haircuts, dance classes, dry cleaning and more. It is like a prison people choose to go to — with cozy nap pods and cold brew on tap. But what would tell us that all isn’t well?

PROPERTY TAX BOOM FOR CITY California is notorious for its cycles of boom and bust. If you’re managing a city, you say yes. A lot. To new buildings. To rezoning. To more jobs. You see your rainy day fund grow and grow. These days, Mountain View collects about $20 million in just property taxes from Google. The company also pays the city more than $10 million each year to rent the land under and around the Googleplex. This is more than 10 percent of Mountain View’s annual budget. “I think it’s probably in the ballpark of $8 million a year of revenue to the city each year from the lease income,” Duggan said. There are other ways Google contributes to Mountain View: Just its presence attracts other startups and companies to town. Google also donates millions each year to its hometown for things that residents really want. Better bike paths. Free community shuttles, to name a few. Still, Duggan is a realist about Google.

“One would be: Is there a two-tier structure developing where you have, you know, a group of engineers who are highly paid and bus drivers who are not so well paid?” Green said. “I’m not saying that I think this exists, I’m saying it’s something to watch out for.” There are two tiers at Google and at most other large tech companies. There are employees, then there are subcontractors. The subcontractors are paid far less, receive fewer perks and less-generous benefits. These disparities are not going unnoticed or unchallenged. Unions have successfully organized cafe workers at Facebook. Groups are forming to tackle what some are calling “occupational segregation.” Ben Field leads the South Bay’s AFL-CIO Labor Council, which co-founded Silicon Valley Rising, a grass-roots campaign advocating for higher wages and affordable housing for workers.

Creative Commons image by Flickr user Hugo Pardo Kuklinski

Google is the biggest name in Mountain View, accounting for 1 out of every 5 jobs and funding more than 10 percent of the city’s annual budget, financial reports show.

“What we’re seeing now is that the benefits of growth are not reaching everyone, those who drive for, serve and protect the Valley’s high-tech giants, which make billions of dollars in profits: Those families are barely getting by,” Field said. “What we need is to expand economic opportunities so that more people who work for a living can actually make a living.” These opportunities cannot come fast enough for contract workers like Google shuttle driver Roxanne. She is one of more than a hundred people in Mountain View living in RVs and trailers because they cannot afford an apartment within a couple of hours of their job. “And it’s getting worse. And they’re seeing seniors and kids and families — this is what they’re doing because of the rent situation,” Roxanne said. And that is another symptom of the company town, according to Green. “That’s true of a lot of these meatpacking towns in the Midwest,” Green said. “People can’t afford real houses so they’re living in trailers. So that’s a bad sign. “I guess another issue would be ‘Is there an independent press?’” Green said. For nine years, Dan DeBolt reported on Google’s impact on the city for the Mountain View Voice. “Covering Google is very difficult as a journalist,” DeBolt said. “They do not like to be open. For a long time I couldn’t figure out how many employees they had in Mountain View. For years, I couldn’t figure that out. It’s still very unclear. Twenty thousand … is the number … that I see still being reported in the news. And you know, it’s a weird thing to not be able to get basic information about things that deeply impact the city,” DeBolt said. “I think our city council probably really has a really hard time demanding everything that they could get from Google,” he added. “Like, for example, we need affordable housing built and we could, you know, say, well you can’t build any more offices unless you agree to fund this many affordable homes. And they have not been very aggressive at all.” Company town expert Green agrees that the city council’s greatest leverage is its power to decide what gets built and where. In 2015, Mountain View used this lever to contain the company’s growth in North Bayshore. The city awarded LinkedIn the right to develop a huge parcel next

to Google’s office complex and seriously downsized Google’s expansion plans. Several city council members, including Mike Kasperzak, seemed to be worried that the company was getting too big. “I personally think that economic diversity is important,” Kasperzak said. “I’ve lived through two corporations in Mountain View that were masters of the universe and are no longer with us. There’s no spells being cast, but you know, you just never know.”

POWER STRUGGLE OVER LAND A few months later, Google flexed its financial and strategic muscle to get what it wanted. It circumvented the will of the city council by engineering a huge land swap with LinkedIn. Now, Google effectively owns or leases almost every acre of developable land in the neighborhood. Google’s expansion over the last decadeplus has already had a profound effect on small businesses in the neighborhood. Some owners complain that the intense traffic deters customers. Others feel like it is hard to attract customers when most people in the neighborhood are Googlers with 24/7 access to free food and all those perks. Successful businesses risk being pushed out to make room for development. That is what happened at Overtime Fitness. The gym was forced to close, and the building was leveled to make space for a 200-room business hotel. As old businesses die, the local economy leans heavier on Google. What if the company disappears? A big enough catastrophe is hard to imagine. But Google has plans for its largest campus yet, in San Jose. Will it relocate, or just expand? Mountain View awaits the answer. The Intersection, a podcast produced with local public radio station KALW, examines change in the Bay Area. This season’s podcast focuses on Silicon Valley at one of the wealthiest addresses on the planet — Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. The intersection of Space Park Way and North Shoreline Boulevard is one of wealth, poverty, innovation and change — and it is poised to be completely transformed in the next decade. The podcast lineup is: Episode 1: Getting to Googletown; Episode 2: Life Before Google; Episode 3: Home Sweet Google; Episode 4: Homeless in Googleville; Episode 5: Mountain View or Googleville, upon which this story is based; and Episode 6: The Sea Also Rises in Googleville. Listen and subscribe: theintersection.fm

CROSSWORD PUZZLE SOLUTION FROM PAGE 2

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | 11

PIER 70 WATERFRONT AT RISK Redevelopment of the historic Pier 70 shipyard includes a waterfront terrace. Current sea rise projections do not account for accelerated Antarctic melt.

Source: Pier 70, A Forest City Project

State May Make Cities Plan for Rising Seas New guidance cites severe flood risk as glaciers melt faster By Kevin Stark // Public Press

alifornia officials are taking their first, tentative steps toward requiring cities to plan for severe sea level rise that scientists now say could conceivably elevate high tides by up to 22 feet by the middle of the next century. Such a deluge would overtake much of San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront, submerge huge swaths of West Oakland and Alameda, and inundate large portions of cities along the Peninsula and in the South Bay. As developers continue their scramble to build dozens of office complexes, housing developments and sports facilities bordering San Francisco Bay, a state-funded study recommends that local planners adopt a risk-averse approach to permitting developments such as hospitals and housing — facilities with low “adaptive capacity” — in areas that have even little chance of flooding in the coming decades. The Ocean Protection Council, part of the California Natural Resources Agency, has published a draft guidance document for coastal cities, endorsing the emerging consensus among climate scientists that accelerated ice melt in Antarctic glaciers means the oceans could rise far more rapidly than studies indicated even a few years ago. Previous studies found that comparatively conservative scenarios would have devastating effects, with the Pacific Institute estimating 4.6 feet of sea rise would cost the Bay Area $62 billion in property damage and endanger 270,000 people during floods. No one has begun to estimate the effects of much higher sea rise. That recent science was interpreted last year by a high-level group of scientists convened by Gov. Jerry Brown. The team examined the direct impact to California, and the council folded the recommendations into the new draft policy, updating a previous guidance that relied on a 2012 study by the National Research Council. Few other states have attempted to craft policy that incorporates the new data from Antarctica. The upper end of those projections suggests that sea levels could rise by more than 8 feet globally and as much as 10 feet in the Bay Area by 2100, not counting additional storm surge.

SEA LEVEL RISE: Series update

S.F. OFFICIALS SKEPTICAL Jenn Eckerle, deputy director of the Ocean Protection Council and lead author of the state guidance document, said California must guide cities toward precautionary thinking. “We’re actually taking the number that the scientists have provided, and saying, ‘Listen, these are the places that are at risk,’” she said. “These are the numbers that you should be focused on. We’re actually providing this extra layer and level of guidance that no other state has done before.” San Francisco officials, while applauding the reference to cutting-edge science, expressed skepticism about the state’s readiness to help cities codify the predictions into local land-use policies. Chief among the critics is David Behar, climate program director of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Behar organized a working group to evaluate the new projections, issuing a statement that said state projections “do not provide sufficient guidance on how to use them in a planning, decision-making, or adaptation design context.” The debate in setting effective sea level rise policies across dozens of jurisdictions focuses on how to be fair when telling developers what kinds of land uses will be permitted. The state’s new guidance outlines a complex formula that assigns a probability of occurrence to a range of elevations to which local water levels could rise and the rate at which that might happen. The likelihoods of these different outcomes are based on a range of global carbon emissions scenarios. According to the guidance document, if emissions continue unabated, there is a 67 percent likelihood that bay waters will rise by at least 3.4 feet by 2100. Previous research had suggested 3 feet of sea level rise was most likely. Just a few inches of water can flood whole city blocks. There is a 1-in-200 chance that with high

Photo by Anna Vignet // Public Press

Scientists now say high tides could potentially rise up to 22 feet by 2150. Less severe floods could cost the Bay Area at least $62 billion in property damage and endanger 270,000 people. emissions, sea levels could rise by 13 feet in 2150. An even more extreme projection places the worst-case scenario for 2150 at 22 feet, though scientists did not have enough confidence in that projection to assign a probability. “While probabilistic projections are sought proactively by some, in many instances they are arriving on the desks of planners, engineers, and decision-makers who have little background in the methodologies used,” said the statement from Behar’s group, which was endorsed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Global Change Research Program and several climate researchers. They specifically critiqued the mathematical technique known as Bayesian statistics — relying on what is known today based on confirmed data to predict trends that are fundamentally uncertain. This approach “may lead decision-makers to be overconfident about their knowledge of the future,” the report said. “For example, lack of understanding of the true sensitivity of the numbers in the upper-half of the distribution to uncertainties and assumptions may lead to a failure to appropriately consider possible high-end futures,” especially extreme sea level rise after 2050. In a joint comment logged with the draft guidance, the Public Utilities Commission and the Port of San Francisco said they agree with the spirit of the guidance update but said the Bayesian probabilities were presented without explanation and would be “opaque to the vast majority of decisionmakers.”

a developer will have an explicit guidance saying, ‘This is how much sea level rise is in your area.’ It will make it easier for people to make well-informed decisions and ideally translate into less risk for homeowners and business owners.” Dahl said the new policy doesn’t go far enough in some areas. The guidance document does not mention the more frequent, if less severe, “sunshine flooding” — inundation from higher and more frequent tides — that the Bay Area could soon experience. In July, her group released a report that said the Bay Area would face these kinds of sunny-day flooding events as early as 2035. The Ocean Protection Council planned on adopting the guidance on Jan. 31, but after comments from San Francisco officials were received, adoption was pushed to March 14.

STRATEGIES FOR ADAPTATION The state’s new guidance includes a checklist cities can use to identify a range of sea level rise projections and evaluate risks of future flooding. The guidance asks that cities and developers collaborate on regional solutions, such as building wetlands and natural

An expanded version of this article can be found at sfpr.es/i24-searise. SEE ALSO: sfpublicpress.org/searise, sfpublicpress.org/searise/2015

level rise vary significantly, and the company outlined a plan to build up the land to protect against 1.3 feet of sea level rise with “a design that is adaptable to meet higher than anticipated values in the midterm, as well as for the long-term.” “What is clear is that the science of climate change and sea level rise is evolving, implying that it is prudent to develop community designs that can accommodate various levels of sea level rise over the planning horizon, rather than design to a specific report or estimate,” the document states. The new waterfront neighborhood could have up to 10,000 new homes. The risk is not only to new construction. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists research, the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge from Oakland to Treasure Island was not designed to be resilient if the bay rose by several feet. The new span opened in 2013, with an estimated life of 150 years. In a white paper, the researchers wrote that 3 feet of rise “will permanently flood the bridge’s eastern ramp” bayward from the toll booths.

WORKING WITH NATURE

$23 BILLION IN PROJECTS AFFECTED The new guidance will affect billions of dollars of real estate development, including the Golden State Warriors’ basketball arena, Mission Rock and the historic Pier 70. Since 2015, Bay Area builders have invested more than $22.8 billion into waterfront projects at less than 8 feet above high tide, an elevation that could see flooding from rising sea levels and storms by the end of the century, the Public Press reported in a spring 2017 cover story. Eckerle, of the Ocean Protection Council, said the state is already seeing the effects of sea level rise all along the coast. “Sea levels will continue to rise,” she said. “We’re trying to get people to think about planning for the future, and not just 30 years or 50 years, but way into the future.” Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the state predictions are “in line with where the sea level rise scientific community has moved in the last few years.” “This will affect people’s lives in a few different ways,” she said. “A policymaker or

MORE COVERAGE

The state’s Jenn Eckerle was the lead author of the study.

The SFPUC’s David Behar is skeptical about the approach.

infrastructure instead of concrete seawalls. It also recommends that cities consider allowing the most at-risk neighborhoods to be reclaimed by rising waters. Policies outlining flooding adaptation and design specifications differ from city to city, and the development plans of some of the Bay Area’s largest projects are evidence of that lack of consensus around the science and how to regulate waterfront land use. Some plans, like those detailed for the development of a 702-acre neighborhood around the massive Candlestick PointHunters Point Shipyard development zone, include surveys of years of scientific papers that describe future sea level rise ranging from half a foot to 4.6 feet by 2100 without detailing a long-term adaptation strategy. In its final environmental impact report issued in November 2017, developer Lennar Corp. wrote that the estimates of sea

In addition to presenting a synthesis of new scientific studies, the Ocean Protection Council’s guidance documents recommend approaches for addressing sea level rise that emphasize the use of wetlands and other natural barriers. “While hard structures provide temporary protection against the threat of sea level rise, they disrupt natural shoreline processes, accelerate long-term erosion, may increase wave and storm run-up, and can prevent coastal habitats from migrating inland, causing loss of beaches and other critical habitats that provide ecosystem benefits for both wildlife and people,” the report warned. Adrian Covert, vice president of public policy for the Bay Area Council, a business group, praised the focus on wetland restoration and said the new projections detailed by Brown’s scientific working group for the Bay Area should be “assumed to be true.” But he said he’s unconvinced by the notion of “managed retreat,” the idea that neighborhoods threatened by rising waters could be turned into parks or natural areas rather than protected by seawalls. “The report says that it should be considered as a possibility. No one would disagree

with that,” Covert said. “I’m skeptical. It doesn’t take a whole lot of infrastructure to make a managed retreat economically unfeasible. We’re not going to be relocating the city of San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada because of sea level rise. It’s going to require a defense. And the same is true with Silicon Valley. And the same is true with a lot of the East Bay, and a lot of portions around a lot of areas around the bay are going to need to be defended.” The guidance document asks cities to assess the risk of rising sea levels with online flooding prediction mapping tools developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, Our Coast, Our Future and other institutions. The Ocean Protection Council said these tools “are also helpful aids in communicating about sea-level rise across local, state, and regional communities and planning and decision-making venues.”

PIER 70 DEVELOPMENT The council also recommends developers consider how long buildings will be used. Mike Mielke, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s senior vice president of environment and energy, said the guidance document will be useful for local adaptation and restoration planners. “We’re understanding that we can’t continue to build right up to the bay water line,” he said. “The water line is going to rise, and it’s going to change over time. We have to think about how we are now going to respond to that threat and how we’re going to develop differently.” In October, San Francisco gave final approval to the redevelopment of a 28-acre former industrial site at Pier 70 that will include up to 2,150 homes, as well as 1.75 million square feet of stores, offices and light industry. The environmental review prepared by developer Forest City in August relied on the National Research Council’s now-outdated predictions for sea level rise of 3 feet by 2100. Those plans might have required changes had they been approved a month later. The approval process is evidence of the breakneck speed at which climate science is advancing and the difficulty local governments have in keeping up with waterfront building standards. After lower courts chipped away at the long-held interpretation of the California Environmental Quality Act, the state Supreme Court in 2015 overturned decades of land-use law by upholding lower court rulings that cities could no longer require developers to take into account the effects of climate change on their projects. The decision has unsettled public officials and planners, and critics say it will allow real estate interests to saddle taxpayers with a gigantic bill to defend against rising seas.

12 | SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG | SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS, SPRING 2018

Left: Jeff Kositsky, director of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, chats with a symposium attendee.

SOLVING HOMELESSNESS

Right: Amy Farah Weiss, second from left, joins a discussion about her “safe organized spaces” on public or private land as an alternative to street camps.

MORE COVERAGE •sfpublicpress.org/ homelessness/solutions •sfpublicpress.org/ homelessness/navigation Photos by Garrick Wong // Renaissance Journalism

Engaging the Community to Help the Homeless At Public Press event, potential solutions and personal stories By Joe Eskenazi // Public Press

n 20 years of homelessness in San Francisco, Moses Carbins has spent time in most of this city’s shelters. “Some days,” he said, “you wake up invisible. It becomes sort of like a pit. It’s just another day to die.” It was lost on no one in an audience of more than 200, however, that Carbins has lived — thanks to “empathy, compassion, a network of friends” — and has been housed now for four years. All hung on his every word as he spoke on a panel at “Solving Homelessness,” a community workshop presented by the Public Press on Jan. 25. The symposium, held at the Impact Hub in the Mission District, was an all-day gathering of advocates, architects, journalists, activists, service providers, innovators, city officials, policymakers and homeless men and women to brainstorm solutions to homelessness. But before you can solve a problem, you have to identify the problem. And when it comes to addressing homelessness, there’s a lot the general public could do well to know. Some of the most resonant words spoken during the symposium were also some of the first. On the day’s opening panel, Margot Kushel, a UCSF professor and doctor at San Francisco General Hospital, said that even the basic way we categorize homeless people is wrong and dehumanizing. “There is no such thing in my mind as a homeless person,” she said. “There are people who experience this.” Homelessness, in other words, is not an identity. It’s an experience — a phrase that resonated with Carbins in particular. And the doctor knows the culprit for this experience. “Look, I love medical conditions,” she said. “But homelessness is caused by a lack of affordable housing.” That statement hit home for Joe Wilson, the executive director of Hospitality House, who was himself homeless in the 1980s. There are ways to help homeless people in drips and drops — he has committed his life to this — but fully addressing the situation would require a remaking of society. The money to solve homelessness is there, he continued. It’s just not in the right hands. “Five corporations in San Francisco made almost $28 billion in profits last year,” he said. “That’s 100 times what we spend on homelessness in this city. Put another way, in three-and-a-half days, they make as much profit as we spend on homelessness.” The primary source of affordable housing for minorities is now incarceration, he continued. “This is unsustainable. We cannot have a society and culture that is sustainable given this obscene level of wealth inequity.” During a discussion with people experiencing homelessness, organized by Stories Behind the Fog, Shanna “Couper” Orona shared her journey from “living the life” in Diamond Heights to a tent encampment on Erie Alley. Today she’s living in a 10by-10 tiny home behind the Impact Hub. A retired firefighter who was injured in a blaze, she said she went from being the wife of an attorney, driving an Audi and “spending my money” to fixing bicycles on

Photo by Garrick Wong // Renaissance Journalism

During a group discussion of what people and businesses can do to help, Brendan (left), who is homeless, said he maintains spreadsheets tracking where food, showers and other resources are available, and shares the information with others seeking help. Andrea Carla Michaels partners with a pizzeria in Nob Hill to hand out slices to “my neighbors on the streets.” the sidewalk. There was a divorce. There was a spree of couch-surfing. There was that horrific moment when all the money was gone and she had nowhere to go and no idea what to do. “There is,” she said, “no manual for being homeless.” But nothing was as hurtful as the day a woman walked out into oncoming traffic rather than share the sidewalk with Orona. She offered a wry grin, but it was not funny: “It’s not like I’m going to bite you and give you homelessness. I am a strong, smart, educated woman. But that thing she did — that fucked with my head a little bit.” Asked what homeless people want, Orona made a simple request: A smile, a nod, a greeting. The sort of thing a person offers to another person. Next came a journalists’ roundtable moderated by Jon Funabiki, executive director of Renaissance Journalism. News organizations included the San Francisco Chronicle, public broadcasters KALW and KQED, El Tecolote, Solutions Journalism Network and the Public Press. The Chronicle’s Kevin Fagan, who has covered homelessness and poverty issues extensively since the 1990s, drew nods of agreement from his fellow panelists when he spoke of “compassion fatigue” among readers and editors alike. It’s on the writers, he said, to work around this. “People say nothing changes. But things do change,” he continued. “This is an ongoing problem. You have to find new ways to report on it. It’s reinventing the wheel, over and over.”

For information about the presentations, or for other resources related to the event, visit: sfpublicpress.org/homelessness/workshop2018

Photos by Noah Arroyo // Public Press

Shanna “Couper” Orona and Moses Carbins talked about their experiences living on the streets. Both recalled moments when they felt ostracized or ignored by society.

He also offered a personal declaration: “I like homeless people. They’re people! They’re more honest than most politicians.” Finally, it was time for the audience to break into groups to address what more could be done in this city to improve homeless people’s lives and end this experience

Community Innovation Champions

Community Innovation Energizers

Media Partners

Farrell, this city’s unforeseen mayor. Kositsky, for lack of better words, kept it real. When homeless activist and serial mayoral candidate Amy Farah Weiss asked him if he’d meet with her and a consortium of other groups within one week, he immediately answered no. “I’m not going to be forced into a meeting,” he said with a tight grin. “I will consider it.” If anyone felt that his department could build its way out of homelessness, he quickly dispelled that notion. “We would need to build 3,000 units per year, without fail. Once we had 30,000 units, then we could begin easing back and filling vacancies internally.” The cost? He estimated $750 million a year. The math is hard and it is dire. Kositsky, who previously headed service provider Hamilton Families, noted that although the city’s 2017 biennial count found about 7,000 homeless people, “the reality is that we’re serving about 20,000 people a year.” He added that it took placing 950 homeless veterans in housing to lower the total number of homeless veterans in the city by 200. But Kositsky didn’t intend to discourage the crowd. Quite the opposite. “Some of you have ideas outside the realm of what we’re able to do,” he said. “Raise your own money. You’ll get a lot of support from me and from City Hall if you can show that other people want to latch onto your ideas.” And, some parting advice: “As a guy who just started working for the government 18 months ago, I need to tell you: The government is not the solution to every problem.”

san francisco public press

to the sponsors of our 2018 Homelessness Solutions Symposium and Workshop!

a UCSF professor and doctor at San Francisco General Hospital

called homelessness. These groups ranged in size from three to more than a dozen. They focused on topics as far-ranging as how to build and license additional dwelling units; how to greenlight housing for the homeless in former shipping containers dropped into converted parking spaces; how to enact a universal basic income; and how to move forward with temporary villages of tiny houses on dormant construction sites, and more. On at least one of the panels, along with well-meaning volunteers and professionals, sat actual homeless people serving as experts in the field. The solutions these panelists presented at the conclusion of afternoon workshops ranged from the nebulous — “We talked about changing capitalism to compassion!” — to the nitty-gritty — “We pledged to solicit our local supervisors to support passing an emergency resolution using the FEMA guidelines of solutions for the homeless.” What comes of January’s gathering is yet to be determined. It may be something bigger or smaller than whatever solutions were posited by the participants. The gathering of groups of people who would, ordinarily, only sit next to one another in a jury room or on a bus, may yet spark collaborations or movements that have a lasting effect on this city and its denizens, housed or not. At the day’s end, Jeff Kositsky, the head of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, dropped by. His earlier scheduled appearance had been disrupted by unforeseen meetings with Mark

44 page st., suite 504 • san francisco, ca 94102

THANK YOU

“There is no such thing in my mind as a homeless person. There are people who experience this.” — Margot Kushel,