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THE LAST WINTER OF REST AND GRACE FOR SAN FRANCISCO'S HOMELESS DEAD
For the past 16 years in a row, on the day when the night darkness is the longest of the year, San Franciscans have gathered in front of City Hall for a candlelit ceremony memorializing each homeless San Franciscan who died in the previous year.
THE LAST WINTER OF REST AND GRACE FOR SAN FRANCISCO'S HOMELESS DEAD
by JOSH BRANDON
For the past 16 years in a row, on the day when the night darkness is the longest of the year, San Franciscans have gathered in front of City Hall for a candlelit ceremony memorializing each homeless San Franciscan who died in the previous year. It has been the longest such memorial service in any city anywhere in the United States.
But on this first Winter Solstice of the new Millennium, this act of rememberance will have been sadly different. No names of our city's homeless dead will be provided by San Francisco's Department of Public Health for this simple, yet significant, act of public compassion for our most vulnerable and unfortunate citizens.
These dead have become the first collateral damage in our City's public health response to the first war of the 21st Century.
And Reverend Glenda Hope -- who has coordinated and participated in this somber event since it began with 16 names in 1985 and has seen it now grow to over 150 names for the past five years -- is angry.
She has been told that SF-DPH will not determine these names because its staff is too busy developing a public health response to a threatened bio-terrorism attack. She has also been told that the DPH bureaucracy is more geared to publish its reports in the spring and summer, which better suits its funding cycle.
She doesn't buy it.
"I don't doubt at all that we need a public health response to bio-terrorism> I don't doubt it at all. We simply are not very prepared," she said. "But we have an ongoing terror on and off our streets."
"The point of the [DPH] study," she continued, "Is to know how, where, when and why homeless people die so we can have a better response that prevents more deaths. This rises to a new level [of lack of concern]. This is not an if, this is happening now. These are God's children dying on our streets, and now they have been relegated to a different and lower status than before."
"September 11th is being used as an excuse to do some things -- such as oil drilling in the Arctic wilderness, giving the rich a tax break, and ending some civil rights -- and as an excuse NOT to do others," she concluded.
When asked how one can balance the importance of protecting the lives of the living with finding the names of homeless people who have already died, Rev. Hope gave a concrete example.
"About three years ago," she said, "A formerly homeless woman named Francine was a last-minute substitute for the person who strikes the bell once after each name is read aloud. She cried every time that bell was hit. I asked her if she was all right, and she told me this: 'Every time I hit that bell, I felt pain and had to cry. My greatest fear when I was on the streets was not dying -- it was that nobody would find me if I did die, and, if they did, nobody would care'."
Medical Examiner records of death are public records that can be obtained under the guidelines of California's Public Records Act. Charles Newman, administrator for the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office, made the names of 2001's homeless deaths available for the memorial service once he learned of the problem.
75 homeless San Franciscans were found died in obviously homeless circumstances in 2001. In past years, these easily-determined deaths accounted for about 40-45% of all homeless deaths. This is because many homeless people die in hotels as either visitors or during short-term respites from the streets. That is why DPH reviews all the past year's death records in order to determine which decedents were legal tenants and which were seeking some brief relief from homelessness.
The list of 75 names took less than a hour to be compiled.
At least those homeless San Franciscans will have a bell struck in their memory, their names will be uttered in front of others who also cared whether they lived or died. And, in the coming months, whenever a bell peals from a church, the living might pause to think of those remaining nameless homeless souls, in their long winter of rest and grace.
by JOSH BRANDON
For the past 16 years in a row, on the day when the night darkness is the longest of the year, San Franciscans have gathered in front of City Hall for a candlelit ceremony memorializing each homeless San Franciscan who died in the previous year. It has been the longest such memorial service in any city anywhere in the United States.
But on this first Winter Solstice of the new Millennium, this act of rememberance will have been sadly different. No names of our city's homeless dead will be provided by San Francisco's Department of Public Health for this simple, yet significant, act of public compassion for our most vulnerable and unfortunate citizens.
These dead have become the first collateral damage in our City's public health response to the first war of the 21st Century.
And Reverend Glenda Hope -- who has coordinated and participated in this somber event since it began with 16 names in 1985 and has seen it now grow to over 150 names for the past five years -- is angry.
She has been told that SF-DPH will not determine these names because its staff is too busy developing a public health response to a threatened bio-terrorism attack. She has also been told that the DPH bureaucracy is more geared to publish its reports in the spring and summer, which better suits its funding cycle.
She doesn't buy it.
"I don't doubt at all that we need a public health response to bio-terrorism> I don't doubt it at all. We simply are not very prepared," she said. "But we have an ongoing terror on and off our streets."
"The point of the [DPH] study," she continued, "Is to know how, where, when and why homeless people die so we can have a better response that prevents more deaths. This rises to a new level [of lack of concern]. This is not an if, this is happening now. These are God's children dying on our streets, and now they have been relegated to a different and lower status than before."
"September 11th is being used as an excuse to do some things -- such as oil drilling in the Arctic wilderness, giving the rich a tax break, and ending some civil rights -- and as an excuse NOT to do others," she concluded.
When asked how one can balance the importance of protecting the lives of the living with finding the names of homeless people who have already died, Rev. Hope gave a concrete example.
"About three years ago," she said, "A formerly homeless woman named Francine was a last-minute substitute for the person who strikes the bell once after each name is read aloud. She cried every time that bell was hit. I asked her if she was all right, and she told me this: 'Every time I hit that bell, I felt pain and had to cry. My greatest fear when I was on the streets was not dying -- it was that nobody would find me if I did die, and, if they did, nobody would care'."
Medical Examiner records of death are public records that can be obtained under the guidelines of California's Public Records Act. Charles Newman, administrator for the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office, made the names of 2001's homeless deaths available for the memorial service once he learned of the problem.
75 homeless San Franciscans were found died in obviously homeless circumstances in 2001. In past years, these easily-determined deaths accounted for about 40-45% of all homeless deaths. This is because many homeless people die in hotels as either visitors or during short-term respites from the streets. That is why DPH reviews all the past year's death records in order to determine which decedents were legal tenants and which were seeking some brief relief from homelessness.
The list of 75 names took less than a hour to be compiled.
At least those homeless San Franciscans will have a bell struck in their memory, their names will be uttered in front of others who also cared whether they lived or died. And, in the coming months, whenever a bell peals from a church, the living might pause to think of those remaining nameless homeless souls, in their long winter of rest and grace.
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Release the names of those who should never have died on the streets of San Francisco. Let there be some ceremony where their names are heard and some blessings sent their way - this is how it ought to be done. I know the City has too much on its mind - it cannot count ballots, it has too many inept higher managers on its pay roll - let those who are in charge - release this list of those departed as soon as possible. The least we can do is read their names, remember them, and bid them adieu.
protect the greediest, hunt down the poorest, and allow the situation to worsen on a daily basis. This mess cannot be allowed to nourish another corrupt generation of bureaucrats to shine the shoes of the rich.
I do believe a significant portion of San Fransicans (of all classes actually) would like to see some type of compassionate solution(s). However activists never take any of their concerns seriously such as obnoxious insane drug/alcohol influenced behavior; the conflict over public space like parks, libraries and public restrooms; the fear people might feel for their kids or elderly parents, people pissing/shitting on the street etc. Some activists actually argue that public parks should be turned into homeless campgrounds (as if that is a solution). What do you think working class people when given that as an answer? One of these days a Guilani style solution will arrive to the homeless situation in the Bay Area. Im truly afraid the solution will be cops and prisons.
I'll stop here. Hopefully I'll get some responses.
Second, let's also understand that activists are not allowed to work without interference: developers, cops, the city, landlords, etc are all working against them with usually more money, but not as many community resources.
The problems you mention impact the homeless far more than they impact you. These problems are perpetuated by asinine city policies, lack of balance between developer lobby and activist "lobby" ...etc
The only way you would be able to lodge a criticism is if these activists groups actually impacted public policy in this city, which more often than not, they dont. Many times this city has blatantly broken the law, while the Planning Commission looks the other way.
And for the record I am a working person and I'd be all in favor of sanitary, sustainable "villages" where rent is free. This pathological devotion to landlord/tenant property is sadistic.
I would suggest that if you want to actually implement some of your humane ideas (like Sweden and Canada's relatively humane policies) you obviously need broad support. Something homeless activists, I would argue have lost or have never had.
Believe it or not in real material ways im a supporter of homeless activism.
Up until the day we offer our solutions to this "problem," we’re disregarded as charity cases, clients, or "public eyesores" out to disrupt San Francisco’s "quality-of-life." As soon as we organize ourselves in order to bring forward real solutions to HOMELESSNESS (not "the homeless problem") you label us as "activists." The Coalition refuses casually writing off an entire socio-economic class of human beings (homeless people); and therefore will not treat any other segment of society with the same callous disregard.
COH is NOT an exclusive organization. All our work group meetings and our weekly shelter outreaches are published in the STREET SHEET in advance on a monthly basis, and all Coalition meetings are open to everyone.
PAUL BODEN
CHANCE MARTIN
Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco
Regardless last Sunday's the Chronicle had a major front page piece on importing the New York or Guilani solution to homelessness here in SF. I feel a little prophetic about this (check my earlier posts here). I think the activists have failed -- a significant portion of San Francisco is against the homeless activists (but hey they're all "yuppies" or "right wingers" right!).
The next mayor of SF will probably run on anti-homeless type platform and the activists will roll out their weak agruements on how Golden Gate Park should be a tent city. Paul Boden should retire. Some new leadership is needed.
PS Shirley Dean, the mayor of Berkeley, ran twice on scapegoating the homeless and won. The left needs get its head out of its ass to whats coming up.
You know what Fascism is? I bet you think you do so try out my definition first. Fascism, in Italy and Germany, was the amazing public relations success of getting working class people fired up to support a war on their own class. At the same time, capitalism had been failing because workers were pitted against bosses and workers began winning.
But Fascism was a propaganda masterpiece: it took anti-worker laws and regulations, and made workers fanatically in favor of them for all kinds of sick disgusting reasons: the Jews are evil, lazy and want your money, the Gypsies are homeless and less than you, etc
But you know, Fascism ultimately was aimed to make rich people richer, and to use regular working people as the "shock troops", pitting one group against another.
I agree with a lot of what you say or the sentiment you are expressing. Much of the Left has a really piss-poor middle-of-the-road way of looking at this and so their message to you sounds silly.
The facts are that a war against poor people will only turn San Francisco into a rich-persons-only city. You can see this already happening. Much of New York City under Giuliani has become this. I can see the day when only the most rich people live on the peninsula, and the people who work in their restaurants and work as maids in their homes must commute on BART from the east bay. You can see it happening already.
When the city is run by corrupt mafia developers and corrupt mafia politicians, how did the attention ever get on some poor people who dont have a place to stay at night?
coalition on homelessness seems to me to be an essential organization, whether or not it is a "service" is another story.
And just remember, everytime you support murder or shootings by the police or harrassment or increasing powers which are supposedly aimed at "homeless" people, ask yourself where it is all leading and what you will do in the worst economy of 20 years with little to no jobs left.
I don't see how these organizations can be seen as a part of the homeless problem. If there where no food kitchens a lot of people here would be dying on the streets and without proper shelter many would have little to no income, Jeez cmon, How is a person suppose to get his life together! So then what is the problem that could drive so much fear into the hearts and eyes of the compassionate? Maybe it's the vast amount of mentally ill people shitting on the streets or the tough minded hooligans ready to get what they want when they need it. Well frankly I see little of this. A lot of people with no where else to go is what I see & I see a horde of torn souls spilling into the blind alleys.Toss in a coupe of young travelers and now you have a new years party . Yes maybe there are a bunch of drunks and druggies running out there on the loose, but few are serious threats, not to adults but maybe to children. A lot of people would not want their kids to bring home a bum after school, or waste their tax money on cops at the playground.
The real world has no new space for change, we can feed the old and change the new, but the problem will always sat the same
With all the wealthy people wanting to live in the area I am often confused. So much that I can't see a problem
after all the whole world is full of need.
What is the problem? I don't know
Thank You for the free internet at the S.F. Haight Branch.
Next!
I'm going to argue that the homeless activists have failed to gain any broad working class support. The activists have focused on letting the homeless live out their lives on the streets. This "homeless rights" type position is ultimately untenable. Whether i support this position or not is irrelevant--ITS A LOSER. And we are about get a not so compassionate Guiliani-style solution.
One example: when the police crackeddown on some of the drug-dealing, heroin use and people camping in Golden Gate Park 2-3 years back the COH, Food Not Bombs and the usual crew protested how the homeless were being picked on. Instead of just admitting the situation was indeed out of control-- and try to push for some real solutions (like housing, addiction and mental heath services)---- there message to the public was-- leave the homeless alone- keep the status quo. The 95% percent of SF who knew the situation was indeed out of control were of course all anti-homeless yuppies and issues like needles in the park were not that big of a deal anyway.
I hope we can use this forum to assess and reassess the direction of various movements. The movement to end homelessness has been heading in the wrong direction for years and thats why Guiliani is coming to SF.
To anarchist: while I appreciate your thoughtful response-- America isnt fascist. Divide and conquer strategies can work in any type of class society. And yes working people have been successfully divided on the issue by powers that be. Its up to us all to turn that situation around. Some reassessment is in order.