When your roof is the sky
and your light bulb is the moon
It’s the police flashlights who steal your room …
—excerpt from “when the roof is your sky” by Tiny
“The park is closed, you have 15 minutes to remove your belongings and vacate the premises or you will be arrested… Actually now you have 14 minutes.”
This statement was made by one of the over 54 heavily armed San Francisco Police officers, Department of Public Works workers, and park rangers who arrived at 2am on the third night of the Sweeps-Free Sanctuary Community at Yelamu SF City Hall and announced to over 35 peacefully sleeping houseless community members. If we didn’t vacate the “park” within 15 minutes we would be arrested.
“Get away from me,” said one houseless, neuro-divergent relative to an army of cops who loomed over the entrance to her tent. A terrifying, triggering sweep ensued with advancing armies, causing terror and trauma in all of our houseless hearts.
That said, these brutal acts of war on the poor are nothing that we don’t face every single day in all of these settler towns perpetrating the lie of public. So as brutal as it was we were all prepared, and ready and thanks to the housed solidarity relatives who were with us from the beginning of this powerful move, no one lost their belongings, no one was arrested and no one was physically harmed.
“I don’t know where I’m going now, I hope to find a doorway I can hide in,” Theresa, a disabled elder who had packed all of her belongings in a granny cart that was provided by radical redistributors (aka mutual aid workers), shakily walked down Polk Street at 2:30 am leaving the violent scene.
Before she left, she turned to me and added, “But we made a difference, they heard us, we were seen, and I’m so thankful for these last three days and nights because it reminded me something else is possible. Please don’t stop fighting for sanctuary,” she concluded and gave me a hug.
In San Francisco at the end of this brutal night, everyone was removed to nowhere in the dark, cold night, as we always are, including gravely disabled residents who were lied to about shelter beds being available when none were.
Before the violent state-sponsored destruction the sweeps-free sanctuary, which was not a protest encampment, but rather a lateral move by already houseless people who are in prayerful defiance of the ongoing war on the poor, was, like all of our self-determined poor/houseless peoples led communities, was absolutely beautiful. The houseless residents received healthy, daily meals, clean and warm clothes, medicine, support, writing workshops, planning circles, and inspiration that something else besides endless violence, removal and terror was possible. Mutual aid groups from all across the Bay supported this beautiful, prayerful, poor, and houseless peoples led sanctuary.
Day One:
On Tuesday, Dec. 17, in response to increasingly violent and relentless sweeps of houseless residents of California, houseless and formerly houseless sweeps survivors, along with housed allies and spiritual leaders, launched several “sweeps-free sanctuary communities” at City Halls and other public land sites in Yelamu (San Francisco), Huchiun (Oakland), Yocut (Fresno), Tovaangar (Los Angeles) and Sogorea Te (Vallejo) and Chief Sia’hl (Seattle).
Us houseless/formerly houseless organizers from POOR Magazine and Wood Street Commons planned this five-day action for many reasons, not the least of which is we are dying on the streets from these violent policies of daily and sometimes hourly sweeps of humans as if we are trash, implemented with more brutal force since Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling came down. As many as six people a day are dying in Tovaangar (LA) and the number is similar in the Bay.
Conversely, there are thousands of vacant and hoarded buildings across Turtle Island that could be transformed into actual healing housing solutions. Solutions like Homefulness, which already exists in Oakland and houses 22 houseless family in rent-free, healing, forever housing (and is in process to come to LA, SF and Seattle, not to mention a second site in Oakland.) Solutions like what Wood Street Commons has spent months designing with renowned architect Mike Pyatok, which would include housing, healing, and education for houseless residents of West Oakland.
Third, we as pan-indigenous, Black/Brown/disabled and poor white houseless settlers cannot talk about homelessness, housing and land without talking about the fact that we exist on Turtle Island on stolen indigenous land. That there already is a powerful LandBack and Black Land return movement happening now across the US, which we absolutely stand with and support.
And finally, we did this to challenge and resist the settler lie of public space. Not only is Turtle Island stolen indigenous land, especially the so-called “Parks” which were another tool of genocide and removal of First Peoples, but because the so-called public land is clearly not for all of the public, particularly the poor and houseless public. US public land is loaded with an inherent race, class, and ableist bias. If you look “homeless” or act “homeless” or some other vague arbitrary category, and dare to sit down, rest, sleep on even convene, you are subject to removal and incarceration.
Huchiun (Oakland)
“You can’t stay here.” On Day One in Huchiun, the Oakland city manager threatened our sanctuary with immediate removal, although we were peacefully set up on supposedly public land.
He absentmindedly and dismissively cited “illegal lodging” and other arcane codes that criminalize sleeping while houseless in the so-called public.
“Before colonization there wasn’t even a concept of homelessness,” said Talking chief/spokesperson of the confederated villages of Lisjan/Ohlone and co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust and Family Elders Council member of Homefulness.
“We have relocated to the parking lot of the Greyhound bus station and are holding space,” said John Janosko, formerly houseless resident leader of Wood Street Commons. The Greyhound bus station is one of thousands of empty buildings in Oakland where many houseless peoples are already sleeping. This lot could be a perfect location for the Wood Street Community Housing Project.
In addition to the powerful communities in the Bay, there were solidarity actions from settler towns like LA, Vallejo Seattle, Novato and Fresno, all of which not only have no real solutions led by poor and houseless people but have implemented new laws since Grant Pass that criminalize our houseless bodies even more.
Tovaangar (LA)
“Yesterday we gathered at the site of a former city-run shelter that has since been abandoned and locked up by barbed wire fences where a year ago, our community on Aetna Street was violently displaced,” said a statement from Aetna Street Solidarity. “On these vacant, so-called “public” lands we rebuilt our sanctuary community on Aetna Street,” Aetna Street Solidarity from LA
Occupied Duwamish land (Seattle) :
We had 30-40 houseless warriors and housed allies on the steps of “Seattle” City Hall. There was music, food, hot drinks, safer drug use kits, clothes, blankets, sleeping bags. We had speakers from Nickelsville, International League of Peoples Struggle, vehicle residents and WHEELs Women in Black held a moment of silence for our stolen relatives.
Yocut lands aka so-called Fresno
Yesterday we met at City Hall lawn. We had prayer then we had four speakers one regarding the housing elements and lack of units we had the attorney speak on the data of the arrest the criminalization and also the current trials that are in the courts due to the arrest for being unhoused.
Day 4 & 5 Yelamu & Huchiun
“Housekeys Not Handcuffs… Sanctuary Not Sweeps”… a powerful chant rose from a crowd of more than100 people who marched from a SF City Hall to the site of a privately owned location on MamaEarth, the Civic Center Inn, one of so many hoarded and unused locations across the Bay Area which could be transformed into the San Francisco location for Homefulness. It has intact rooms and doors and windows and plumbing and electrical and only would need a minimal amount of work to bring it up to habitable shape.
“Together we are Better…” Junebug Kealoha, formerly houseless community health worker, advocate, poet and longtime POOR Magazine SF organizer and cultural worker spoke as our group arrived at the Civic Center Inn.
We houseless organizers (none of whom can risk arrest, due to our current states of poverty and at-risk lives) had already decided we would prayerfully and peacefully enter the building while one of our solidarity family members from revolutionary legal Sustainable Economies Law Center had reached out to the hotel’s owners—only to find out that they are asking the insanely large amount of $9 million, but talked with the owners agent and asked permission for our peaceful and temporary entry, so we could pray and vision this solution.
“I am a longtime San Francisco resident and I was evicted from my home, now I can barely get a night’s sleep on these streets,” an elder named John spoke to me at the radical redistribution table outside the hotel, while we distributed healthy hot food, sleeping bags, and tents to the surrounding houseless residents.
“We are human, we are not trash…” said Lisa Wheeler, an indigenous houseless povertyskola with POOR Magazine Yelamu from the balcony of the Civic Center Inn as we stood on this Ohlone land and prayed to Mamafest Homefulness here.
“These sweeps are killing us, we are swept to nowhere everyday, people are so tired, we don’t know where to go,” said Marquis Ausby, formerly houseless organizer and advocate with POOR Magazine and the City Hope Community Center in San Francisco
Huchiun /Oakland
“We are here providing medicine, love and care, people are already here, this building would be the perfect location for Wood Street Community, we are already here,” concluded Monique French, one of the organizers with Wood Street Commons and POOR Magazine.
“This is the just the beginning….” said Andrea Henson, lawyer and advocate as she spoke to us at the Greyhound parking lot for the final day. Andrea is with Where Do We Go, and supported us all the way through with her words and presence. Other beautiful organizations that supported us included Self-Help Hunger Program, Punks with Lunch, The Poor Peoples Campaign, RVtv, Aetna Street Solidarity, We Are Not Invisible, Stop the Sweeps Seattle, League of Revolutionaries,Mixed Collective and Western Regional Advocacy Project.
Homefulness in Huchiun that currently houses 22 houseless families would not have been possible without the radically redistributed dollars of folks with race and class privilege who attended PeopleSkool. Wood Street Commons and Homefulness#2 Huchiun, SF, LA, and Seattle will also not be possible without radically redistributed dollars or occupied land. To learn more about PeopleSkool which happens twice a year and the next session is on zoom on January 25/26 go to poormagazine.org/education. To support the efforts of all of us houseless people trying to buy and then UnSell Mama Earth so we can create our own homeless peoples solutions to homelessness from Huchiun to Tovaangar to Yelamu email poormag@gmail.com Huchiun (Oakland). Sanctuary at the Greyhound Bus Station Parking lot on San Pablo near West Grant remains intact and needs your help to stay open and support the community: Tents, Tarps, Sleeping bags, flashlights warm clothes—or just stop by to say hello. Yelamu (SF) will begin POOR Magazine’s Street Newsrooms at the Civic Center Inn in January so stay tuned to @poormagazine.
