From poverty tows to Palestine: The violence of settler colonial evictions across Mama Earth
May 24, 2021
Poverty tows are parking violations, which are unethical detriments to houseless folks who rely on the shelter of their vehicles. Between this and the lack of adequate housing options, means of survival are limited. Shelters on Merlin Street, under the I-80 overpass in San Francisco, were cleared – swept away – on May 17, 2021. – Photo: POOR Magazine
by Tiny Lisa Gray-Garcia
“If they tow my van, I will die. I have nowhere else to go,” reported POOR Magazine’s RoofLESS radio reporter Charles M., 68, a lifelong San Francisco resident. Charles is houseless, landless, disabled and lives in his van.
More Policing Is Not the Solution to Anti-Asian Violence
Oakland Deputy Police Chief Chris Bolton looks at a street vendor while visiting businesses around Chinatown in Oakland, California, on February 16, 2021.
Stephen Lam / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
By
Asian Americans are crying out against an escalation of anti-Asian attacks in San Francisco, San Jose, New York, and all across the United States. In light of the scant media coverage, Asian American celebrities like Daniel Dae Kim, Daniel Wu, and cast members from the blockbuster film
Crazy Rich Asians have taken to social media to raise awareness of Asian elders who have been brutalized and killed. While calling out anti-Asian racism and violence is vital, the violence that Asian Americans experience is deeper than just hateful attitudes or interpersonal racial bias, it is also a story of state violence, including police-perpetrated violence– a truth that has received even less public attention.
Amid Spike In COVID Cases Among Homeless, Supervisors Extend Hotel Room Program
San Francisco will continue ushering people off the streets and into shelter-in-place hotel rooms for at least two months, after the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an extension of a program that would have expired in just two more weeks.
The city is quietly experiencing a scary spike in COVID-19 cases among the unhoused population. According to city data cited by the Chronicle, 43 unsheltered people have contracted coronavirus thus far in December. That compares to 43 in the entire month of November, up from a mere six new cases recorded in October. And this outbreak comes amidst the winding down of the hotel program that has kept people sheltered, and roughly 500 people would have been booted from those hotels December 31.