Coalition On Homelessness

This year, we made significant progress in advocating for changes to the citys homeless housing access system. We fought for additional housing and prevention investments from the city. We protected over $60 million from being taken away from youth and family homeless housing. Through our budget campaigns, we successfully secured support for additional shelter beds, hotel rooms for domestic violence survivors, pregnant women, youth and families, housing subsidies, and food, and property acquisitions. We also gained more treatment beds and investment in homelessness prevention to keep at-risk individuals housed and got additional behavioral health services in shelters and supportive housing. Prop C dollars acquired over 1,000 housing units, and 3,000 rental subsidies were made available, leading to a dramatic increase in housing placements and a reduction in homelessness. Overall our efforts have led to over 5,000 people being housed since 2020.

This year, we continued publishing the Street Sheet newspaper twice a month, featuring stories, artwork, and poetry primarily contributed by unhoused individuals, who are paid for their work. The newspaper supports around 100 vendors who rely on sales as a source of income, keeping 100% of the proceeds for themselves.

This year, we successfully advocated for the installation of three additional water stations accessible to unhoused individuals. We also advocated for additional bathrooms for unhoused people. We also won a lawsuit preventing impoverished people from losing their vehicles when they are unable to pay for tickets. Additionally, we monitored human rights violations affecting unhoused individuals and continued pushing for reforms to make the citys homeless street response more effective and humane.

This year, we strengthened our partnership with CCDC on the SRO Family Project, collaborating to support low-income families living in single-room occupancy (SRO) housing. Together, we organized several events aimed at providing resources, community support, and educational opportunities to help these families thrive.