Homelessness
Stephanie, 57, lost her housing two years ago and was sleeping in a tent in the Tenderloin as of June. Like all the unhoused people photographed here, she was eventually relocated to a shelter-in-place hotel room. Close to half the residents of those hotel rooms are African American, according to an assessment by the city that only covered about half the hotel population.

Shelter-in-Place Hotel Wind-Down Plan Lacks Adequate Data, Strategy on Race

12.09.2020
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Though roughly three-fourths of the assessed residents of San Francisco’s shelter-in-place hotels are minorities, the city has no plan to assure that those people get safe landing spots in proportion to their race as it prepares to wind down the program.

Of particular concern for advocates is the priority list used to determine how to allocate housing to those experiencing homelessness. This system, called coordinated entry, does not take into account race when determining who is most in need of housing, despite the predominance of African Americans among hotel residents, service providers say.

Housing
Sarah Karlinsky. Courtesy of SPUR

To Address Housing Crisis, Expert Says, Consider Housing a Human Right

12.08.2020
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Rents may be falling, but the Bay Area is still unaffordable and has for years fallen short of its housing construction goals. The construction shortfall is particularly pronounced in subsidized housing. While the pandemic is changing the way people work and socialize and has resulted in economic downturn, acquiring land and building remain expensive. Sarah Karlinsky, senior advisor at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, a public policy think tank better known as SPUR, has published a report indicating that Bay Area municipalities should be constructing 45,000 units of housing per year.

Coronavirus
Lt. Cmdr. Michael Heimes checks on a patient connected to a ventilator at Baton Rouge General Mid City campus in April 2020

Nurse to COVID Risk-Takers: ‘If You Are Hospitalized, It Will Only Be You in That Room’

12.07.2020
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While the availability of personal protective equipment like N-95 masks has improved, a local nurse said nurses are feeling overwhelmed and would be better able to provide care with a bigger staff. For patients, she said, the experience of being hospitalized with COVID-19 is one of isolation. Even nurses limit their interactions with these patients to prevent getting infected, performing their tasks quickly.

Law & Justice
Some Mission District residents have been encouraged to put post-it notes in their windows to signify their interest in joining neighborhood meetings with police.

Police Pushing Amazon Surveillance Cameras for Mission District Residents

12.04.2020
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A new collaboration between residents and the San Francisco Police Department to address crime and homelessness may result in an increase in surveillance cameras — specifically, Amazon’s controversial Ring products.

The collaborations have emerged after residents reached out to Mission Station for assistance in managing tents, drug use and trash on their streets.

Homelessness
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Regional Homelessness Activism Group Turns 15

12.02.2020
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In 2005, a coalition of advocacy groups working on homelessness formed a coalition to collaborate across cities and states and advance national policy. They called it WRAP, the Western Regional Advocacy Project. Its director, Paul Boden, joined “Civic” to look back on 15 years of organizing and ensuring that people experiencing homelessness themselves inform research and policy.

News
COVID-19 hospitalizations in San Francisco have more than doubled in the past two weeks.

San Franciscans Told to Brace for Further Rollbacks as Hospitalizations Double in Days

12.01.2020
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“Our dangerous winter has arrived.” San Francisco Mayor London Breed warned as she told city residents that more rollbacks could come as early as Wednesday with the state and city preparing new orders to contain the worst surge yet in coronavirus infections.

“It’s not good,” she said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. “Cases are spiking. Hospitalizations are increasing quickly. Our infection rate is higher than it was at a point during the summer. And this isn’t just about San Francisco. It’s about our entire region, our state, our country. We’ve been worried for months, but now it’s real.”

Transportation
Two 6 Haight/Parnassus buses cross paths behind a 7 Haight/Noriega bus on Haight Street at Divisadero Street on April 6. Both routes were cut.

S.F. Transit Agency, Hit Hard by COVID-19, Carries on With Core Services, Construction

11.30.2020
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Public transportation has been transformed by the coronavirus pandemic. San Francisco’s Muni light rail system has been shut for months, and buses are running on core service lines only. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Director Jeffrey Tumlin and Director of Transit Julie Kirschbaum joined “Civic” to explain how Muni has adapted to the pandemic and some of the changes ahead.