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"content": "\u003cp>After an Urban Alchemy community ambassador was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058277/sf-district-attorney-to-charge-man-suspected-of-killing-urban-alchemy-employee-with-shotgun-blast\">fatally shot on the job\u003c/a> last month, San Francisco lawmakers on Tuesday rallied behind the nonprofit, whose future role in the city has been in question in recent months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City leaders joined about 100 members of the Tenderloin community on the steps of City Hall to pay tribute to Joey Alexander, who was shot just a few hundred feet away in front of the city’s main library after asking a man to stop using drugs on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They paid tribute to Alexander’s life and service, as well as to the mission of the nonprofit, which has contracted with the city since 2018 to patrol and clean up some of its roughest downtown streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot deliver on safe and clean streets in the Tenderloin without Urban Alchemy, full stop,” said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and other city supervisors also praised the ambassadors’ ability to connect with Tenderloin residents, aid in school children’s safe passage through the neighborhood and drive reductions in crime and drug use on the streets they patrol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059031\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059031\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at a rally on the steps of City Hall in San Francisco on Oct. 7, 2025, following the death of Urban Alchemy practitioner Joey Alexander. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jenkins said that she was moved looking out at the throng of Urban Alchemy ambassadors gathered for the event, wearing their identifiable black and yellow branded vests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[I see] a beautiful representation — of mostly Black men — in front of me with those vests on, working, contributing, giving back to our city,” she said, noting that the nonprofit’s employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, including Alexander, can have a major impact on reducing recidivism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day, ambassadors [from] Urban Alchemy work alongside San Francisco police officers, our neighborhood street teams and service providers, helping connect people in crisis to care, supporting first responders and ensuring that our neighborhoods are welcoming places for everyone,” Lurie said. “That work, your work, is so important.”[aside postID=news_12058277 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-01-KQED-2000x1429.jpg']Whether Urban Alchemy’s ambassador work with the city — which currently extends through the end of the year — will continue in its current capacity, though, is somewhat uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The role of the nonprofit has expanded to include operating safe RV parking sites and homeless shelters in recent years, but its ambassador contract could be impacted by changes to the city’s larger approach to street safety work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Ambassador%20Program%20Report%202023.pdf\">Department of Emergency Management report\u003c/a> showed that there were at least 34 different ambassador programs, run by seven nonprofits and even more “community benefit districts,” which were awarded grants by twelve government agencies to operate across the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie spokesperson Charles Lutvak said that strategically, it makes more sense to have one department overseeing all of the work around street conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is phasing out its own Community Ambassador Program through the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs in 2027, and the Mayor’s office has consolidated all street ambassador contracts under DEM, which will decide which organizations win future bids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059035\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059035\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A jacket with the Urban Alchemy logo is seen during a rally outside San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://sfcitypartner.sfgov.org/pages/Events-BS3/event-details.aspx?Page=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL&Action=U&AUC_ID=0000011141&AUC_ROUND=1&AUC_VERSION=2&BIDDER_ID=0000000001&BIDDER_LOC=1&BIDDER_SETID=SHARE&BIDDER_TYPE=B&BUSINESS_UNIT=SFGOV&PAGE=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL&&PAGE=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL&PAGE=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL\">issued a request for proposals\u003c/a> for contractors to run a “Community Safety Ambassador Program,” which it said would provide “ongoing deployment of a specialized and highly trained community safety ambassador program” along 12 corridors, including the Tenderloin and Civic Center areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restructuring comes after the city controller’s office placed Urban Alchemy under review over financial issues, and after the nonprofit lost a key contract to staff Bay Area Rapid Transit bathrooms and elevators in the city with its ambassadors. Separately, Supervisor Connie Chan called for an audit of its previous overspending last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the outpouring of support for the organization — and \u003ca href=\"https://urban-alchemy.us/mayor-london-breed-stanford-researchers-and-urban-alchemyannounce-52-decrease-in-crime-rates-in-ambassador-served-areas/\">data\u003c/a> that shows an overall 50% reduction in crime and 80% reduction in drug-related crime where it operates — was a “loud and clear” indicator of its impact, Mahmood said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re urging the mayor’s office to include Urban Alchemy as part of the long-term plan,” he said. “We still don’t know the long-term details of what’s going to happen in years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have seen the data of how they impact this neighborhood, and so we’re going to fight like hell to ensure that our communities still continue to feel safe,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot deliver on safe and clean streets in the Tenderloin without Urban Alchemy, full stop,” said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and other city supervisors also praised the ambassadors’ ability to connect with Tenderloin residents, aid in school children’s safe passage through the neighborhood and drive reductions in crime and drug use on the streets they patrol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059031\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059031\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at a rally on the steps of City Hall in San Francisco on Oct. 7, 2025, following the death of Urban Alchemy practitioner Joey Alexander. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jenkins said that she was moved looking out at the throng of Urban Alchemy ambassadors gathered for the event, wearing their identifiable black and yellow branded vests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[I see] a beautiful representation — of mostly Black men — in front of me with those vests on, working, contributing, giving back to our city,” she said, noting that the nonprofit’s employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, including Alexander, can have a major impact on reducing recidivism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day, ambassadors [from] Urban Alchemy work alongside San Francisco police officers, our neighborhood street teams and service providers, helping connect people in crisis to care, supporting first responders and ensuring that our neighborhoods are welcoming places for everyone,” Lurie said. “That work, your work, is so important.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Whether Urban Alchemy’s ambassador work with the city — which currently extends through the end of the year — will continue in its current capacity, though, is somewhat uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The role of the nonprofit has expanded to include operating safe RV parking sites and homeless shelters in recent years, but its ambassador contract could be impacted by changes to the city’s larger approach to street safety work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Ambassador%20Program%20Report%202023.pdf\">Department of Emergency Management report\u003c/a> showed that there were at least 34 different ambassador programs, run by seven nonprofits and even more “community benefit districts,” which were awarded grants by twelve government agencies to operate across the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie spokesperson Charles Lutvak said that strategically, it makes more sense to have one department overseeing all of the work around street conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is phasing out its own Community Ambassador Program through the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs in 2027, and the Mayor’s office has consolidated all street ambassador contracts under DEM, which will decide which organizations win future bids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059035\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059035\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007_Urban-Alchemy-Rally_-18_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A jacket with the Urban Alchemy logo is seen during a rally outside San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://sfcitypartner.sfgov.org/pages/Events-BS3/event-details.aspx?Page=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL&Action=U&AUC_ID=0000011141&AUC_ROUND=1&AUC_VERSION=2&BIDDER_ID=0000000001&BIDDER_LOC=1&BIDDER_SETID=SHARE&BIDDER_TYPE=B&BUSINESS_UNIT=SFGOV&PAGE=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL&&PAGE=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL&PAGE=AUC_RESP_INQ_DTL\">issued a request for proposals\u003c/a> for contractors to run a “Community Safety Ambassador Program,” which it said would provide “ongoing deployment of a specialized and highly trained community safety ambassador program” along 12 corridors, including the Tenderloin and Civic Center areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restructuring comes after the city controller’s office placed Urban Alchemy under review over financial issues, and after the nonprofit lost a key contract to staff Bay Area Rapid Transit bathrooms and elevators in the city with its ambassadors. Separately, Supervisor Connie Chan called for an audit of its previous overspending last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the outpouring of support for the organization — and \u003ca href=\"https://urban-alchemy.us/mayor-london-breed-stanford-researchers-and-urban-alchemyannounce-52-decrease-in-crime-rates-in-ambassador-served-areas/\">data\u003c/a> that shows an overall 50% reduction in crime and 80% reduction in drug-related crime where it operates — was a “loud and clear” indicator of its impact, Mahmood said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re urging the mayor’s office to include Urban Alchemy as part of the long-term plan,” he said. “We still don’t know the long-term details of what’s going to happen in years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have seen the data of how they impact this neighborhood, and so we’re going to fight like hell to ensure that our communities still continue to feel safe,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The man accused of fatally shooting an Urban Alchemy street ambassador outside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s main library last week has been charged with murder, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edmund Bowen, 42, is accused of shooting Joey Alexander, 60, with a shotgun at close range after Alexander asked him not to use drugs in public. Alexander, who had worked for more than two years as an ambassador for the nonprofit contracted by the city to help improve safety and cleanliness on downtown streets, died Tuesday of his injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Urban Alchemy ambassadors work every day to provide safe passage for [the Tenderloin’s students], to make sure that families feel that there is somebody looking out for them as they move about this community,” Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/video/1718055?taid=68df37894406150001618cbb&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter\">told reporters on Thursday\u003c/a>. “To have one of those ambassadors who has come back into the community after once serving time in prison and now coming back to give back to the community, be hurt and be tragically killed in this way, of course, is very disheartening and alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexander was manning his usual post outside San Francisco’s main library on Larkin Street just before 5 p.m. Friday when he approached Bowen, who was allegedly using drugs on the street, according to the nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Alexander asked him not to, Bowen pulled a shotgun out of his bag, said “F— Urban Alchemy” and shot Alexander, an Urban Alchemy spokesperson said. According to the district attorney’s office, Bowen was standing about 20 feet from Alexander when he fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bowen was arrested shortly after the shooting and has remained in custody since. He also faces an assault charge after another nearby worker said they were injured by shrapnel from his shotgun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058454\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1499px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058454\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1499\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED.jpg 1499w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED-1151x1536.jpg 1151w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1499px) 100vw, 1499px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colleagues said Joey Alexander, left, was a beloved coworker and friend. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Urban Alchemy)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alexander was rushed to the hospital, where doctors treated him for multiple days before he died Tuesday, according to Jess Montejano, a spokesperson for the nonprofit. He is at least the third Urban Alchemy employee to be shot on the job. Montejano said he believes Alexander is the first to die from related injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mr. Alexander was a beloved member of our team, and it’s a devastating loss,” Montejano said. “[He] was an exceptional employee, … loved his job, loved giving back and serving the community and doing his work. [He was] just beloved among everyone that worked with him and that knew him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many Urban Alchemy employees, Alexander had lived through some of the same challenging experiences — like homelessness, addiction and incarceration — as the people he aimed to serve, Montejano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/prison-found-new-life-s-f-came-shotgun-blast-21078628.php\">\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Alexander had previously spent 23 years in prison. An Oakland resident, Alexander worked for Urban Alchemy as a “street practitioner” for more than two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our entire team really shares a higher purpose of giving back to the community and serving these vulnerable populations because many of them share that same experience that these people in crisis are going through themselves,” Montejano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many street practitioners can connect with people and manage crises situations based on their own life experience, Montejano said the employees, who do not have law enforcement training, are sometimes put in dangerous situations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our practitioners serve some of the most tough neighborhoods impacted by addiction, poverty, homelessness and crime in San Francisco,” he said. “They are trained with their lived experience … to bring more peace, safety and cleanliness on the streets. It’s an unfortunate reality that, yes, we do experience hate and sometimes violence in the line of work that we do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenkins said Thursday that the shooting raises concerns about these workers’ safety, and she said the city should ensure police are in a position to “serve as a buffer” to protect them.[aside postID=news_12058145 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20231128-Muni-002-JY_qed.jpg']However, she said, the nonprofit’s model for patrolling the neighborhood is worthwhile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are people who make [Tenderloin residents] feel safer,” Jenkins said. “And what we do know is that we are over 500 [police] officers short, and so we have to do something as a city to supplement the shortage in police staffing who can also help us maintain our street conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shooting comes at an inflection point for Urban Alchemy, once heralded for its breakthrough community-centered approach to tackling homelessness and drug use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco first contracted with a predecessor of the nonprofit, Hunters Point Family, then \u003ca href=\"https://urban-alchemy.us/who-we-are/our-people/dr-lena-miller/\">led by Urban Alchemy’s Executive Director\u003c/a>, Dr. Lena Miller, in 2014. At the time, it was tasked with operating and cleaning public toilets throughout the city overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since its founding in 2018, Urban Alchemy’s responsibilities have steadily mounted, from stationing practitioners during daytime hours downtown to dissuade public drug use and clean up streets to operating \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.archive.sf.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Consent-Item-11.1-UA-Safe-Parking-@-Candlestick.pdf\">safe RV parking sites\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5363341&GUID=0F3A493D-A9D0-4090-AED9-B465E2D61842\">homeless shelters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization has expanded to nine cities in six states, and received \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odRmLmrPEz8\">praise from former Mayor London Breed\u003c/a> and community activists in the Tenderloin. A 2024 \u003ca href=\"https://urban-alchemy.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Stanford-Data-Press-Release.pdf\">Stanford University study\u003c/a> found that when its practitioners are present on street corners, crime dropped significantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also struggled to live up to its lofty mission in recent years. Friday’s tragic incident comes as the nonprofit has faced backlash for overspending, management struggles and employee misconduct allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, Urban Alchemy lost contracts with Bay Area Rapid Transit to provide bathroom and elevator attendants at San Francisco stations and in August, the city placed it on a nonprofit “watch list,” citing serious fiscal or programmatic concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036369\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dormitory at the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center at the corner of Embarcadero and Beale Street in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2020. San Francisco plans to expand a program pairing shelter beds at the Adante Hotel on Geary Street in Lower Nob Hill with access to addiction treatment, to intervene in the city’s drug crisis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In September, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/urban-alchemy-gave-800k-in-bump-to-shelter-staff-21055295.php\">\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/em>reported\u003c/a> that the organization gave staff pay raises that overspent its contract to operate a shelter in Lower Nob Hill by about $800,000, despite warnings not to by city analysts. The nonprofit disputed the claim, saying it requested $800,000 in budget increases after being asked to run a larger operation but overspent by only $336,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of last month, Austin, Texas, opted not to renew contracts with the company to operate emergency centers after finding it misrepresented client exit data,\u003ca href=\"https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/city-end-contracts-urban-alchemy-three-years-21051321.php\"> according to the \u003cem>Austin American-Statesman.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the city controller in Los Angeles, another of Urban Alchemy’s outposts, launched an investigation into the organization after a video circulated of an employee spraying water toward an unhoused person as they scrambled to collect their things on a sidewalk in the Skid Row neighborhood, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-23/after-worker-sprays-water-near-unhoused-person-l-a-city-controller-launches-investigation?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">\u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reported. Urban Alchemy denounced the incident at the time and said that it had fired the involved employee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last February, a man who had lived at a homeless encampment in Sausalito managed by Urban Alchemy \u003ca href=\"https://wraphome.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Filed-Scan-Arthur-Bruce-v-Urban-Alchemy-et-al.pdf\">filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> alleging that an employee assaulted him after raising concerns that the nonprofit’s staff had engaged in dealing methamphetamine and sexually exploited unhoused residents. Urban Alchemy said it is seeking to have the suit dismissed and noted the court has already dismissed multiple of the initial complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montejano said the nonprofit’s “community-based” safety models are proven and data-driven. He said he doesn’t expect Alexander’s death to mean any change in the way it operates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re doubling down on the mission and the model, and we’re making sure that Mr. Alexander’s death isn’t in vain,” he told KQED. “We always train our employees to be safe; we are not the police. But we’re going to continue to work on our mission, our model that we know is effective, and providing safety, cleanliness and connections to care and support, and housing in some instances, for the communities that we serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The man accused of fatally shooting an Urban Alchemy street ambassador outside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s main library last week has been charged with murder, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edmund Bowen, 42, is accused of shooting Joey Alexander, 60, with a shotgun at close range after Alexander asked him not to use drugs in public. Alexander, who had worked for more than two years as an ambassador for the nonprofit contracted by the city to help improve safety and cleanliness on downtown streets, died Tuesday of his injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Urban Alchemy ambassadors work every day to provide safe passage for [the Tenderloin’s students], to make sure that families feel that there is somebody looking out for them as they move about this community,” Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/video/1718055?taid=68df37894406150001618cbb&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter\">told reporters on Thursday\u003c/a>. “To have one of those ambassadors who has come back into the community after once serving time in prison and now coming back to give back to the community, be hurt and be tragically killed in this way, of course, is very disheartening and alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexander was manning his usual post outside San Francisco’s main library on Larkin Street just before 5 p.m. Friday when he approached Bowen, who was allegedly using drugs on the street, according to the nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Alexander asked him not to, Bowen pulled a shotgun out of his bag, said “F— Urban Alchemy” and shot Alexander, an Urban Alchemy spokesperson said. According to the district attorney’s office, Bowen was standing about 20 feet from Alexander when he fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bowen was arrested shortly after the shooting and has remained in custody since. He also faces an assault charge after another nearby worker said they were injured by shrapnel from his shotgun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058454\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1499px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058454\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1499\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED.jpg 1499w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/URBAN-ALCHEMY-02-KQED-1151x1536.jpg 1151w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1499px) 100vw, 1499px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colleagues said Joey Alexander, left, was a beloved coworker and friend. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Urban Alchemy)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alexander was rushed to the hospital, where doctors treated him for multiple days before he died Tuesday, according to Jess Montejano, a spokesperson for the nonprofit. He is at least the third Urban Alchemy employee to be shot on the job. Montejano said he believes Alexander is the first to die from related injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mr. Alexander was a beloved member of our team, and it’s a devastating loss,” Montejano said. “[He] was an exceptional employee, … loved his job, loved giving back and serving the community and doing his work. [He was] just beloved among everyone that worked with him and that knew him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many Urban Alchemy employees, Alexander had lived through some of the same challenging experiences — like homelessness, addiction and incarceration — as the people he aimed to serve, Montejano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/prison-found-new-life-s-f-came-shotgun-blast-21078628.php\">\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Alexander had previously spent 23 years in prison. An Oakland resident, Alexander worked for Urban Alchemy as a “street practitioner” for more than two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our entire team really shares a higher purpose of giving back to the community and serving these vulnerable populations because many of them share that same experience that these people in crisis are going through themselves,” Montejano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many street practitioners can connect with people and manage crises situations based on their own life experience, Montejano said the employees, who do not have law enforcement training, are sometimes put in dangerous situations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our practitioners serve some of the most tough neighborhoods impacted by addiction, poverty, homelessness and crime in San Francisco,” he said. “They are trained with their lived experience … to bring more peace, safety and cleanliness on the streets. It’s an unfortunate reality that, yes, we do experience hate and sometimes violence in the line of work that we do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenkins said Thursday that the shooting raises concerns about these workers’ safety, and she said the city should ensure police are in a position to “serve as a buffer” to protect them.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>However, she said, the nonprofit’s model for patrolling the neighborhood is worthwhile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are people who make [Tenderloin residents] feel safer,” Jenkins said. “And what we do know is that we are over 500 [police] officers short, and so we have to do something as a city to supplement the shortage in police staffing who can also help us maintain our street conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shooting comes at an inflection point for Urban Alchemy, once heralded for its breakthrough community-centered approach to tackling homelessness and drug use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco first contracted with a predecessor of the nonprofit, Hunters Point Family, then \u003ca href=\"https://urban-alchemy.us/who-we-are/our-people/dr-lena-miller/\">led by Urban Alchemy’s Executive Director\u003c/a>, Dr. Lena Miller, in 2014. At the time, it was tasked with operating and cleaning public toilets throughout the city overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since its founding in 2018, Urban Alchemy’s responsibilities have steadily mounted, from stationing practitioners during daytime hours downtown to dissuade public drug use and clean up streets to operating \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.archive.sf.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Consent-Item-11.1-UA-Safe-Parking-@-Candlestick.pdf\">safe RV parking sites\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5363341&GUID=0F3A493D-A9D0-4090-AED9-B465E2D61842\">homeless shelters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization has expanded to nine cities in six states, and received \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odRmLmrPEz8\">praise from former Mayor London Breed\u003c/a> and community activists in the Tenderloin. A 2024 \u003ca href=\"https://urban-alchemy.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Stanford-Data-Press-Release.pdf\">Stanford University study\u003c/a> found that when its practitioners are present on street corners, crime dropped significantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also struggled to live up to its lofty mission in recent years. Friday’s tragic incident comes as the nonprofit has faced backlash for overspending, management struggles and employee misconduct allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, Urban Alchemy lost contracts with Bay Area Rapid Transit to provide bathroom and elevator attendants at San Francisco stations and in August, the city placed it on a nonprofit “watch list,” citing serious fiscal or programmatic concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036369\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/019_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7872_qed-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dormitory at the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center at the corner of Embarcadero and Beale Street in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2020. San Francisco plans to expand a program pairing shelter beds at the Adante Hotel on Geary Street in Lower Nob Hill with access to addiction treatment, to intervene in the city’s drug crisis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In September, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/urban-alchemy-gave-800k-in-bump-to-shelter-staff-21055295.php\">\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/em>reported\u003c/a> that the organization gave staff pay raises that overspent its contract to operate a shelter in Lower Nob Hill by about $800,000, despite warnings not to by city analysts. The nonprofit disputed the claim, saying it requested $800,000 in budget increases after being asked to run a larger operation but overspent by only $336,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of last month, Austin, Texas, opted not to renew contracts with the company to operate emergency centers after finding it misrepresented client exit data,\u003ca href=\"https://www.statesman.com/news/local/article/city-end-contracts-urban-alchemy-three-years-21051321.php\"> according to the \u003cem>Austin American-Statesman.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the city controller in Los Angeles, another of Urban Alchemy’s outposts, launched an investigation into the organization after a video circulated of an employee spraying water toward an unhoused person as they scrambled to collect their things on a sidewalk in the Skid Row neighborhood, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-23/after-worker-sprays-water-near-unhoused-person-l-a-city-controller-launches-investigation?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">\u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reported. Urban Alchemy denounced the incident at the time and said that it had fired the involved employee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last February, a man who had lived at a homeless encampment in Sausalito managed by Urban Alchemy \u003ca href=\"https://wraphome.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Filed-Scan-Arthur-Bruce-v-Urban-Alchemy-et-al.pdf\">filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> alleging that an employee assaulted him after raising concerns that the nonprofit’s staff had engaged in dealing methamphetamine and sexually exploited unhoused residents. Urban Alchemy said it is seeking to have the suit dismissed and noted the court has already dismissed multiple of the initial complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montejano said the nonprofit’s “community-based” safety models are proven and data-driven. He said he doesn’t expect Alexander’s death to mean any change in the way it operates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re doubling down on the mission and the model, and we’re making sure that Mr. Alexander’s death isn’t in vain,” he told KQED. “We always train our employees to be safe; we are not the police. But we’re going to continue to work on our mission, our model that we know is effective, and providing safety, cleanliness and connections to care and support, and housing in some instances, for the communities that we serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sonoma-county\">Sonoma County’s\u003c/a> homeless population fell 23%, according to a recently released \u003ca href=\"https://sonomacounty.gov/Main%20County%20Site/Health%20and%20Human%20Services/Health%20Services/Documents/Homelessness%20Services/Homeless%20Data/2025-PIT-Count-Report.pdf\">report\u003c/a> detailing a count conducted in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, the number of people experiencing homelessness decreased by about 570 people compared with last year’s numbers. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905886/the-point-in-time-count-is-meant-to-be-a-snapshot-of-unhoused-populations-how-clear-is-that-picture\">point-in-time survey\u003c/a> offers an imperfect snapshot of homelessness in a particular area and includes people living in shelters and on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Gause, a manager for the county’s Ending Homelessness program, said it’s one of the lowest counts his office has seen in recent years. He attributed the progress to an increase in the number of beds Sonoma County offers, including about 400 in permanent supportive housing facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think adding the beds — both in permanent housing [and] rapid rehousing — was a big first step,” he said. “We also did see significant decreases in veterans and transitional age youth 18 to 24.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/09/ca-homelessness-funding-population/\">California counties\u003c/a> have reported declines in homelessness rates this year, including Contra Costa, Riverside and Kings counties. In August, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/18/reporting-shows-reduced-homelessness-in-communities-throughout-california/\">praised\u003c/a> the progress, saying it reflected success in getting people out of encampments — a goal his administration has pushed over the past year following a Supreme Court ruling expanding cities’ ability to fine and jail people living outside even if no shelter is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But officials across the state are worried they won’t be able to sustain the gains in the face of federal and state cuts. In late July, the Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding programs that prioritize permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The previous month, Newsom signed a budget with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12045673/newsom-slashes-funding-for-homelessness-in-state-budget-leaving-cities-scrambling\">no new funding\u003c/a> for one of the state’s largest homelessness services programs.[aside postID=news_12055688 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250911_SPAREROOM_GH-10-KQED-1.jpg']“The reductions that we’re seeing in Sonoma County prove that progress is possible,” said Edie Irons, a spokesperson with Bay Area nonprofit All Home. “It’s encouraging, but it’s also ironic to see these positive results, even as a lot of the funding that made it possible is now under threat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County officials said there is still progress to be made. The count found increases in two groups: people experiencing chronic homelessness and families. The survey counted 124 more chronically unhoused people and about 20 more families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gause said providers in the county saw more families trying to access shelters, particularly among immigrant groups. Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said she and her colleagues have not made much progress reducing the number of families struggling to find permanent, affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to really struggle with affordability in Sonoma County,” she said. “I think that folks are fighting this battle on all fronts and we don’t have enough of a safety net to keep folks housed while they struggle with these challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For people who are experiencing chronic homelessness, Hopkins said that group is sometimes called “service-resistent” because they may not want to accept help or the conditions tied to it. Many, she said, “have had experiences in their life that causes them to lose trust in the system,” requiring service providers to take extra care and time to regain that trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among counties reporting declines, Contra Costa County saw one of the steepest drops at 26%. Christy Saxton, director of the county’s Health, Housing and Homeless Services department, credited the county’s 34% increase in beds, both for interim and permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is all a direct correlation of being able to increase not only beds, but access and other resources for people who are either unhoused or marginally housed,” she said. “With potential funding cuts coming up, we’re deeply concerned [with] how we maintain that level of progress, knowing that the funding is likely going away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sonoma-county\">Sonoma County’s\u003c/a> homeless population fell 23%, according to a recently released \u003ca href=\"https://sonomacounty.gov/Main%20County%20Site/Health%20and%20Human%20Services/Health%20Services/Documents/Homelessness%20Services/Homeless%20Data/2025-PIT-Count-Report.pdf\">report\u003c/a> detailing a count conducted in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, the number of people experiencing homelessness decreased by about 570 people compared with last year’s numbers. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905886/the-point-in-time-count-is-meant-to-be-a-snapshot-of-unhoused-populations-how-clear-is-that-picture\">point-in-time survey\u003c/a> offers an imperfect snapshot of homelessness in a particular area and includes people living in shelters and on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Gause, a manager for the county’s Ending Homelessness program, said it’s one of the lowest counts his office has seen in recent years. He attributed the progress to an increase in the number of beds Sonoma County offers, including about 400 in permanent supportive housing facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think adding the beds — both in permanent housing [and] rapid rehousing — was a big first step,” he said. “We also did see significant decreases in veterans and transitional age youth 18 to 24.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The reductions that we’re seeing in Sonoma County prove that progress is possible,” said Edie Irons, a spokesperson with Bay Area nonprofit All Home. “It’s encouraging, but it’s also ironic to see these positive results, even as a lot of the funding that made it possible is now under threat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County officials said there is still progress to be made. The count found increases in two groups: people experiencing chronic homelessness and families. The survey counted 124 more chronically unhoused people and about 20 more families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gause said providers in the county saw more families trying to access shelters, particularly among immigrant groups. Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said she and her colleagues have not made much progress reducing the number of families struggling to find permanent, affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to really struggle with affordability in Sonoma County,” she said. “I think that folks are fighting this battle on all fronts and we don’t have enough of a safety net to keep folks housed while they struggle with these challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For people who are experiencing chronic homelessness, Hopkins said that group is sometimes called “service-resistent” because they may not want to accept help or the conditions tied to it. Many, she said, “have had experiences in their life that causes them to lose trust in the system,” requiring service providers to take extra care and time to regain that trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among counties reporting declines, Contra Costa County saw one of the steepest drops at 26%. Christy Saxton, director of the county’s Health, Housing and Homeless Services department, credited the county’s 34% increase in beds, both for interim and permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is all a direct correlation of being able to increase not only beds, but access and other resources for people who are either unhoused or marginally housed,” she said. “With potential funding cuts coming up, we’re deeply concerned [with] how we maintain that level of progress, knowing that the funding is likely going away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-SinglePost-__SinglePost__mpost_Title\">\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re bringing you an excerpt from the first episode of a new podcast called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://snapjudgment.org/a-tiny-plot/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Tiny Plot\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, from our friends at KQED’s Snap Studios. About one third of our nation’s homeless population is here in California – with close to 6,000 people on the streets each night in Oakland alone. Producer Shaina Shealy spent more than a year following a group of unhoused people at Union Point Park in Oakland as they fought for a radical idea: their own encampment where they could set their own rules. If their idea worked, the people of Union Point believed they could create a model that would help other homeless people across the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-SinglePost-__SinglePost__mpost_Title\">\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re bringing you an excerpt from the first episode of a new podcast called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://snapjudgment.org/a-tiny-plot/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Tiny Plot\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, from our friends at KQED’s Snap Studios. About one third of our nation’s homeless population is here in California – with close to 6,000 people on the streets each night in Oakland alone. Producer Shaina Shealy spent more than a year following a group of unhoused people at Union Point Park in Oakland as they fought for a radical idea: their own encampment where they could set their own rules. If their idea worked, the people of Union Point believed they could create a model that would help other homeless people across the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, September 10, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For two decades, the nation’s solution to homelessness has been pretty straightforward: get people into housing. This approach is known as Housing First, and in California it’s even written into state law. But this summer, President Trump signed an executive order reversing this policy, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054270/trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">turning a California mandate into a liability.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Garnet Fire east of Fresno has burned more than 56,000 acres, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfire-sequoia-trees-burned-sierra-forest-93687ec9d3c431b30887c1bc9c58dc36\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has reached the McKinley Grove of Giant Sequoias.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A San Diego law firm \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/09/09/san-diego-class-action-suit-says-ice-courthouse-arrests-are-illegal\">filed a class action lawsuit\u003c/a> against Immigration and Customs Enforcement – arguing that federal agents are breaking the law when they arrest asylum seekers at immigration court.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054270/trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california\">\u003cstrong>Trump’s ‘Tectonic Shift’ on Homelessness Is Sending Shockwaves Across California\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s homelessness policy has prioritized getting people into permanent housing with as few barriers as possible. This approach, known as Housing First, has shaped the federal response to homelessness for two decades, and California doubled down in 2016 by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=8255.\">requiring state-funded programs\u003c/a> to follow its principles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Trump administration is trying to scrap it. In late July, the president \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding Housing First programs, calling them a failure and turning a California mandate into a liability. The order is the culmination of a backlash that’s been brewing for years — both in California and across the country — as the number of people on the streets keeps ticking up even as the spending on homelessness grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate over Housing First hinges on a clash over both causes and solutions. Is homelessness the result of rampant drug use and untreated mental illness, or of deeper structural forces like sky-high rents, poverty and racism? Should housing be used as a reward for sobriety and treatment, or provided first, as the foundation for recovery? And, perhaps more fundamentally, should housing be a human right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the federal pullback will mean in California isn’t clear. Local officials are awaiting guidance on whether and how they’ll be able to tap federal dollars. Jonathan Russell, who runs homelessness services for Alameda County, called it a “tectonic shift” that has left local agencies caught between contradictory policies. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"Page-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfire-sequoia-trees-burned-sierra-forest-93687ec9d3c431b30887c1bc9c58dc36\">\u003cstrong>Grove Of Giant Sequoia Trees Threatened By Wildfire\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A lightning-sparked wildfire in California’s Sierra National Forest burned Tuesday through a grove of giant sequoias and set some of the ancient towering trees on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildland firefighters with tree-climbing experience were being sent in to put out the fire burning in the canopies of the beloved trees, said Jay Tracy, a spokesperson for the \u003cspan class=\"LinkEnhancement\">\u003ca class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-oregon-wildfires-44a8bb7661dc9f275a01c76ada552a92\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">Garnet Fire ablaze\u003c/a>\u003c/span> in Fresno County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To protect the majestic trees, some estimated to be 3,000 years old, fire crews laid sprinkler lines to increase ground moisture, wrapped the trunks with fire-resistant foil blankets, raked flammable material away from trees and patrolled the area looking for hotspots, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Garnet Fire, which started on Aug. 24, reached the southeast side of the 100-acre McKinley Grove sometime Sunday night or Monday morning. It’s burned 85 square miles of grass, chaparral and timber in a remote area known for camping and hiking about 60 miles east of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArticlePage-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/09/09/san-diego-class-action-suit-says-ice-courthouse-arrests-are-illegal\">San Diego Class-Action Suit Says ICE Courthouse Arrests Are Illegal\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.singletonschreiber.com/newsroom/pressreleases/singleton-schreiber-files-class-action-to-stop-ice-courthouse-arrests-of-asylum-seekers-in-san-diego\">San Diego law firm filed a class action lawsuit late last week\u003c/a> asking a federal judge to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting asylum seekers at immigration court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re asking the judge to declare that the agency’s behavior is unlawful,” said Kimberly Hutchison, a civil rights lawyer with locally based Singleton Schreiber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firm filed the suit on behalf of two asylum seekers who were \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/06/12/ice-courthouse-arrests-part-of-trump-administration-strategy-to-speed-up-deportations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>arrested at San Diego’s immigration court earlier this year\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. The class action argues that courthouse arrests violate the constitutional rights of asylum seekers and delegitimize the integrity of the legal process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither of the two asylum seekers identified in the lawsuit have a criminal record. They also regularly attended all their immigration court hearings, Hutchison said. “These are the quintessential people that can be trusted to remain out in the community,” she added. ICE did not respond to questions from KPBS about the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, September 10, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For two decades, the nation’s solution to homelessness has been pretty straightforward: get people into housing. This approach is known as Housing First, and in California it’s even written into state law. But this summer, President Trump signed an executive order reversing this policy, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054270/trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">turning a California mandate into a liability.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Garnet Fire east of Fresno has burned more than 56,000 acres, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfire-sequoia-trees-burned-sierra-forest-93687ec9d3c431b30887c1bc9c58dc36\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has reached the McKinley Grove of Giant Sequoias.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A San Diego law firm \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/09/09/san-diego-class-action-suit-says-ice-courthouse-arrests-are-illegal\">filed a class action lawsuit\u003c/a> against Immigration and Customs Enforcement – arguing that federal agents are breaking the law when they arrest asylum seekers at immigration court.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054270/trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california\">\u003cstrong>Trump’s ‘Tectonic Shift’ on Homelessness Is Sending Shockwaves Across California\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s homelessness policy has prioritized getting people into permanent housing with as few barriers as possible. This approach, known as Housing First, has shaped the federal response to homelessness for two decades, and California doubled down in 2016 by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=8255.\">requiring state-funded programs\u003c/a> to follow its principles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Trump administration is trying to scrap it. In late July, the president \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding Housing First programs, calling them a failure and turning a California mandate into a liability. The order is the culmination of a backlash that’s been brewing for years — both in California and across the country — as the number of people on the streets keeps ticking up even as the spending on homelessness grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate over Housing First hinges on a clash over both causes and solutions. Is homelessness the result of rampant drug use and untreated mental illness, or of deeper structural forces like sky-high rents, poverty and racism? Should housing be used as a reward for sobriety and treatment, or provided first, as the foundation for recovery? And, perhaps more fundamentally, should housing be a human right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the federal pullback will mean in California isn’t clear. Local officials are awaiting guidance on whether and how they’ll be able to tap federal dollars. Jonathan Russell, who runs homelessness services for Alameda County, called it a “tectonic shift” that has left local agencies caught between contradictory policies. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"Page-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfire-sequoia-trees-burned-sierra-forest-93687ec9d3c431b30887c1bc9c58dc36\">\u003cstrong>Grove Of Giant Sequoia Trees Threatened By Wildfire\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A lightning-sparked wildfire in California’s Sierra National Forest burned Tuesday through a grove of giant sequoias and set some of the ancient towering trees on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildland firefighters with tree-climbing experience were being sent in to put out the fire burning in the canopies of the beloved trees, said Jay Tracy, a spokesperson for the \u003cspan class=\"LinkEnhancement\">\u003ca class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-oregon-wildfires-44a8bb7661dc9f275a01c76ada552a92\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">Garnet Fire ablaze\u003c/a>\u003c/span> in Fresno County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To protect the majestic trees, some estimated to be 3,000 years old, fire crews laid sprinkler lines to increase ground moisture, wrapped the trunks with fire-resistant foil blankets, raked flammable material away from trees and patrolled the area looking for hotspots, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Garnet Fire, which started on Aug. 24, reached the southeast side of the 100-acre McKinley Grove sometime Sunday night or Monday morning. It’s burned 85 square miles of grass, chaparral and timber in a remote area known for camping and hiking about 60 miles east of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArticlePage-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/09/09/san-diego-class-action-suit-says-ice-courthouse-arrests-are-illegal\">San Diego Class-Action Suit Says ICE Courthouse Arrests Are Illegal\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.singletonschreiber.com/newsroom/pressreleases/singleton-schreiber-files-class-action-to-stop-ice-courthouse-arrests-of-asylum-seekers-in-san-diego\">San Diego law firm filed a class action lawsuit late last week\u003c/a> asking a federal judge to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting asylum seekers at immigration court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re asking the judge to declare that the agency’s behavior is unlawful,” said Kimberly Hutchison, a civil rights lawyer with locally based Singleton Schreiber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firm filed the suit on behalf of two asylum seekers who were \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/06/12/ice-courthouse-arrests-part-of-trump-administration-strategy-to-speed-up-deportations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>arrested at San Diego’s immigration court earlier this year\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. The class action argues that courthouse arrests violate the constitutional rights of asylum seekers and delegitimize the integrity of the legal process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither of the two asylum seekers identified in the lawsuit have a criminal record. They also regularly attended all their immigration court hearings, Hutchison said. “These are the quintessential people that can be trusted to remain out in the community,” she added. ICE did not respond to questions from KPBS about the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Wearing a fistful of army rings, Bill Wade pulled his green beret from a shelf crammed with military memorabilia. As he held it in his hands, he read the U.S. Army Special Forces motto on the patch: De Oppresso Liber, in his words, “Hero of the Oppressed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s time in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vietnam\">Vietnam\u003c/a> is a source of pride, but more than half a century later, the 74-year-old still carries its scars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a teenager, the army provided him with an escape from an abusive foster father. Later, it gave him structure and purpose. But his 12 years of service also left him with PTSD, a shattered jaw that still aches and a jar of his own teeth, which fell out over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For over a decade, Wade lived in his truck, doing stints as a bouncer and renting rooms when he could. “It was a weird life,” he said, “a terrible life back then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, six years ago, he landed a small studio apartment in Fremont that he shares with his cat, Libby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a place to live hasn’t relieved his pain, physical or emotional, but it’s put him in a better place to tend those wounds. “Now I have a place to come home to,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s path from years of instability to this small sanctuary reflects the philosophy guiding California’s homelessness policy, which prioritizes getting people into permanent housing with as few barriers as possible. Or, as Alex Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness puts it, “The very simple idea that the immediate solution to someone being homeless is a home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053757\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053757\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, shows his dog tags at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This approach, known as Housing First, has shaped the federal response to homelessness for two decades, and California doubled down in 2016 by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=8255.\">requiring state-funded programs\u003c/a> to follow its principles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Trump administration is trying to scrap it. In late July, the president \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding Housing First programs, calling them a failure and turning a California mandate into a liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order is the culmination of a backlash that’s been brewing for years — both in California and across the country — as the number of people on the streets keeps ticking up even as the spending on homelessness grows.[aside postID=news_12049734 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/241203-FresnoCampingBan-25-BL_qed.jpg']The debate over Housing First hinges on a clash over both causes and solutions. Is homelessness the result of rampant drug use and untreated mental illness, or of deeper structural forces like sky-high rents, poverty and racism? Should housing be used as a reward for sobriety and treatment, or provided first, as the foundation for recovery? And, perhaps more fundamentally, should housing be a human right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Paul Webster, a California-based fellow with the Cicero Institute, the Texas-based think tank leading the ideological charge against Housing First. “We have to balance the provision of housing with some kind of way to help people get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the federal pullback will mean in California isn’t clear. Local officials are awaiting guidance on whether and how they’ll be able to tap federal dollars. Jonathan Russell, who runs homelessness services for Alameda County, where Wade lives, called it a “tectonic shift” that has left local agencies caught between contradictory policies. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the county’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CPD/documents/CoC/CoC-2024-CA_Press.pdf\">main federal homelessness-related grant\u003c/a> totaled $56 million, and nearly 80% of that went to permanent housing. If that funding doesn’t come through this year and he can’t find a way to make it up, Russell said, as many as 1,400 people in Alameda County alone could lose their rental assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Million-dollar Murray\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wade spent years in and out of homelessness before a fellow vet suggested he turn to the VA for help. He started seeing a psychiatrist and secured a housing voucher through a federal program that specializes in helping homeless veterans. But he still hadn’t found an apartment that would accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed after a lucky encounter with a DMV worker. He was applying for a new driver’s license with a veteran designation when the woman behind the counter asked for his address. “I don’t live nowhere,” he recalls telling her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of William Wade, his ex-wife, and their now deceased child sits on a shelf in Wade’s Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. William Wade is a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her son happened to be a veteran who’d been in the same position, and she connected Wade with staff at an apartment building in Fremont for people exiting homelessness. Within weeks, Wade said he was able to move into his own studio there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was fantastic,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When proponents of Housing First point to the approach’s success, they often highlight the very program that helped Wade get into housing. Launched in 2008 under the George W. Bush Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, offers participants housing vouchers with few strings attached.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants put about a third of their income toward rent, and the rest is covered by the voucher. Case managers help connect the veterans with optional services like health care, mental health treatment and substance use counseling.[aside postID=news_12051236 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250626-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg']The program is credited with helping contribute to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.va.gov/137562/veteran-homelessness-reaches-record-low-2023/\">55% drop in homelessness\u003c/a> among veterans nationwide since 2010, even as overall homelessness \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">climbed over 20%\u003c/a> during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the story of another veteran that first brought Housing First into the mainstream. Murray Barr was an ex-marine who drank himself to death on the streets of Reno, Nevada. In a 2006 \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/million-dollar-murray\">\u003cem>New Yorker \u003c/em>article\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>Malcolm Gladwell used Barr’s repeated ER visits and rehab stays to illustrate the high cost of homelessness and to make the case for a more economical approach: permanent supportive housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, journalists, politicians and nonprofits seized on the “Million-Dollar Murray” narrative, galvanizing support for the Housing First strategy with its cost-saving logic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gladwell first heard Barr’s story not from a liberal academic or housing advocate, but from Philip Mangano, who Bush appointed to lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2002.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His idea was radical: Take the most difficult cases, the nation’s Murray Barrs, and hand them the keys to an apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Mangano ushered in the era of Housing First, the typical approach to getting people off the streets was intuitive, not guided by research, according to University of Southern California professor Benjamin Henwood, who studies homelessness policy. In hindsight, it can be seen as a “treatment first” or “housing readiness” strategy that operated like a reward system, providing housing to those who could meet a series of requirements as they graduated from shelter to temporary to more permanent placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A laundry room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Folks had to prove all along the way … that they were ready for housing,” said Vivian Wan, the CEO of Abode Services, which operates the building where Wade lives. “If they did well and followed all the rules and were good tenants in transitional housing, then they got the golden ticket to permanent supportive housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success required staying sober, getting mental healthcare, drug treatment, making curfew or meeting with a case manager. As a result, chronically unhoused people with substance use or mental health issues often flunked out of programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, people started experimenting with a different approach that prioritized housing. New York City-based psychologist Sam Tsemberis was the first to rigorously study the model and coin the term: Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early ’90s, Tsemberis launched a program that targeted people who’d failed out of previous programs and placed them in apartments with no requirement to get clean or enter treatment and no time limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These were typically very significantly impaired people,” Wan said. “Folks who were really very vulnerable had acute mental health needs across the board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five years, \u003ca href=\"https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.51.4.487\">88% of the participants were still housed\u003c/a>, compared to 47% of residents in the city’s residential treatment system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research showed promising results, too. “The people who you gave housing to actually stayed in that housing, and they stopped going to the emergency room, and they stopped getting arrested, whereas the other folks continue to cycle through all these other institutions,” Henwood said. “That’s what got the attention of the Bush Administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intent, Mangano told Gladwell, was to invest in solutions “that actually end homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Evolution and backlash\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over time, as Housing First became the country’s homelessness policy north star, the term evolved into a catch-all, blurring what it actually entails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sort of lost a bit of its meaning along the way,” Henwood said. “And I think part of that made it an easy target for where we are today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, there are now \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">some 400,000 units\u003c/a> of permanent supportive housing nationwide, up 32% in the \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2014.pdf\">last decade\u003c/a>. In California, the number rose 73% to \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">around 79,000\u003c/a>. While some programs hew to Tsemberis’ model, with its clear set of standards, many more employ the approach loosely. Today, it’s shorthand for simply providing housing with few preconditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Laguna Commons supportive housing stands on 41152 Fremont Blvd., in Fremont, on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And as permanent supportive housing has become the primary tool for ending homelessness, critics see its limitations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Wade imagines he’ll live in his studio apartment for the rest of his life, the evidence shows permanent supportive housing doesn’t work for everybody. About one in five people will struggle to keep their apartments, Henwood said, noting it’s difficult to predict who that will be. People with serious mental health or drug issues might stay housed, while others who appear stable get evicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that while certain Housing First programs might be successful, the results don’t often hold up at scale. “At the city level, the evidence was never very compelling,” he said. “That’s a big problem because when the public was told, ‘We know how to end homelessness,’ they were really thinking about at the city level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his view, Housing First has promised too much and delivered too little, making it ripe for attacks. “This is a problem that the advocates created because they were so grandiose in their claims about what Housing First was going to do,” he said.[aside postID=news_12039730 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080924-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEP-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg']By the late 2010s, right-leaning think tanks like his were waging an ideological war on Housing First. They’ve argued the model is ineffective and doesn’t address what they believe are often the root causes of homelessness — drug addiction and mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those arguments have now found purchase at the highest levels of government. The Cicero Institute pushed many of the ideas in President Trump’s recent executive order, including banning public camping, predicating housing on treatment and forcibly institutionalizing people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The spigot’s been supporting this housing-centric approach,” Cicero’s Webster said of the billions in federal money invested. “And what are the results that we’ve seen? We’ve seen homelessness go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defenders of Housing First liken that logic to handing out too few life jackets and then, when those without jackets drown, blaming the devices. The problem isn’t too much spending in their view, but too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area alone, the nonprofit All Home \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991834/slashing-bay-area-homelessness-would-cost-9-5-billion-report-says\">estimates it would cost $9.5 billion\u003c/a> over five years on top of current spending to cut homelessness by just three-quarters. And despite the expansion of permanent supportive housing, they point to a system dogged by scarcity. In California, where more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">187,000 people experience homelessness\u003c/a> on any given night, people can wait years for a spot to open. In the meantime, their condition deteriorates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bike room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We know the longer folks are outside and the longer folks don’t have stable housing, the more their needs can get more complex, more difficult to overcome,” Russell said. And research shows that Housing First programs aren’t good at addressing those complex needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those whose needs are less complex, Housing First may indeed get them off the street, but the “Million-Dollar Murray” cost-savings argument breaks down. Research finds that it only holds up for the small subset of unhoused people who cycle between emergency rooms and jails. But for many others who don’t fit that criterion, it may not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t hold true once you’re working with families who live in their cars and don’t go to ERs and don’t use all these other emergency services,” Henwood said. “If you give them an apartment and a social worker or a mental health worker, that just costs money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer, Russell and Henwood say, is not to throw out Housing First, but to expand the types of offerings that are available to better meet people’s needs. “The real need is actually to diversify the housing types across the continuum,” Russell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that point, Eide and Webster agree. They argue that some people might need more mental health support than housing providers can offer. Others might need sober living facilities so they don’t relapse. And still others might not need much more than a temporary roof over their heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rethinking housing first in California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Beneath all these arguments is a more fundamental disagreement about the nature of housing in this country. For Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, solving homelessness means asking big questions that get at the true cause: “Are we doing enough to house poor people in this country? Is our housing market working for the poorest people?” And blaming Housing First is a distraction from the answer — in his view, a resounding no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an idea echoed on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pathwayshousingfirst.org/\">homepage\u003c/a> for Tsemberis’s preeminent Housing First training program, which declares, “Housing is a Human Right.” To critics like Webster, such statements are evidence that the model isn’t just a failed policy but a Trojan Horse for socialism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053759\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A community space for children at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The ultimate choice is, do we want to have a conversation about restructuring our entire housing system, such that housing is no longer considered a commodity but a public good?” Webster said. “I’m not interested in that conversation; I don’t think this executive order is interested in the conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said he has no reason to believe the recent executive order will impact the HUD-VASH program that Wade is in. “Past administrations may have labeled HUD-VASH as a ‘Housing First’ program,” he said in a statement, “but we don’t view it that way.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asked whether HUD-VASH has begun or would begin requiring treatment as a condition of enrollment in the program, which Trump’s executive order explicitly demands, Kasperowicz declined to respond.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, efforts to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA10/id/2729557\">enshrine housing as a human right\u003c/a> into the state constitution and build social housing \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB309\">haven’t gotten\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB387\">much traction\u003c/a>. But policymakers are reconsidering their approach to homelessness, including Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom and many local leaders have already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">leaned into enforcement\u003c/a>, backing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">encampment clearings\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12007175/care-court-was-supposed-to-help-those-hardest-to-treat-heres-how-its-going\">expanded\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963961/newsom-signs-law-expanding-conservatorships-for-those-experiencing-severe-mental-illness-substance-abuse\">conservatorships\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eide, of the Manhattan Institute, sees the state’s shift as part of a larger national turn away from Housing First. “A lot of people, whether they want to say they’re aligned with the president or not, are moving in the same general direction as a lot of the ideas in this executive order,” he said, referring to Trump’s call for tougher enforcement and more treatment mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco is among the Democrats pressing for changes. “Where California’s approach to Housing First has fallen short is that it’s been in some ways inflexible in recognizing that some people do need options,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB255\">introduced a bill\u003c/a> that would allow state funding to be used for drug-free recovery housing. He said California’s 2016 Housing First law was written to prevent providers from imposing conditions like drug tests just to get a bed for the night. But in practice, he argued, it has blocked funding for residents who actually want drug-free environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, right now, we force everyone into environments where drug use is explicitly allowed,” Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever its pitfalls, Wade is proof of what Housing First can do: keep someone with deep wounds housed and connected to care. Advocates warn discarding the model could unravel that fragile progress for thousands like him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053758\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, pets his cat Libby as he looks out the window at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When he was living in his truck, Wade was fighting a deep depression. He was divorced, and his only child had died in her 20s of a brain tumor. “Throughout those years, I was contemplating suicide and got pretty close,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Wade volunteers as a security guard for a nearby church, and he’s made a couple of friends in the building. Still, he struggles. “Sometimes I get down and out,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing has not swept away his depression, but he’s less alone. His VA case worker regularly calls to check up on him and make sure he’s seeing his doctor and taking medication. He’s enrolled in an anger management class and goes on group outings to the movies or to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his favorite field trip, they visited stables, and Wade met a horse named Country Candy. He beamed as he recounted brushing her chest. “We had a ball,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California’s embrace of Housing First principles has become a liability after the president directed federal agencies to stop funding that approach to homelessness.",
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"title": "Trump’s ‘Tectonic Shift’ on Homelessness Is Sending Shockwaves Across California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Wearing a fistful of army rings, Bill Wade pulled his green beret from a shelf crammed with military memorabilia. As he held it in his hands, he read the U.S. Army Special Forces motto on the patch: De Oppresso Liber, in his words, “Hero of the Oppressed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s time in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vietnam\">Vietnam\u003c/a> is a source of pride, but more than half a century later, the 74-year-old still carries its scars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a teenager, the army provided him with an escape from an abusive foster father. Later, it gave him structure and purpose. But his 12 years of service also left him with PTSD, a shattered jaw that still aches and a jar of his own teeth, which fell out over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For over a decade, Wade lived in his truck, doing stints as a bouncer and renting rooms when he could. “It was a weird life,” he said, “a terrible life back then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, six years ago, he landed a small studio apartment in Fremont that he shares with his cat, Libby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a place to live hasn’t relieved his pain, physical or emotional, but it’s put him in a better place to tend those wounds. “Now I have a place to come home to,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s path from years of instability to this small sanctuary reflects the philosophy guiding California’s homelessness policy, which prioritizes getting people into permanent housing with as few barriers as possible. Or, as Alex Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness puts it, “The very simple idea that the immediate solution to someone being homeless is a home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053757\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053757\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, shows his dog tags at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This approach, known as Housing First, has shaped the federal response to homelessness for two decades, and California doubled down in 2016 by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=8255.\">requiring state-funded programs\u003c/a> to follow its principles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Trump administration is trying to scrap it. In late July, the president \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding Housing First programs, calling them a failure and turning a California mandate into a liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order is the culmination of a backlash that’s been brewing for years — both in California and across the country — as the number of people on the streets keeps ticking up even as the spending on homelessness grows.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The debate over Housing First hinges on a clash over both causes and solutions. Is homelessness the result of rampant drug use and untreated mental illness, or of deeper structural forces like sky-high rents, poverty and racism? Should housing be used as a reward for sobriety and treatment, or provided first, as the foundation for recovery? And, perhaps more fundamentally, should housing be a human right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Paul Webster, a California-based fellow with the Cicero Institute, the Texas-based think tank leading the ideological charge against Housing First. “We have to balance the provision of housing with some kind of way to help people get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the federal pullback will mean in California isn’t clear. Local officials are awaiting guidance on whether and how they’ll be able to tap federal dollars. Jonathan Russell, who runs homelessness services for Alameda County, where Wade lives, called it a “tectonic shift” that has left local agencies caught between contradictory policies. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the county’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CPD/documents/CoC/CoC-2024-CA_Press.pdf\">main federal homelessness-related grant\u003c/a> totaled $56 million, and nearly 80% of that went to permanent housing. If that funding doesn’t come through this year and he can’t find a way to make it up, Russell said, as many as 1,400 people in Alameda County alone could lose their rental assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Million-dollar Murray\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wade spent years in and out of homelessness before a fellow vet suggested he turn to the VA for help. He started seeing a psychiatrist and secured a housing voucher through a federal program that specializes in helping homeless veterans. But he still hadn’t found an apartment that would accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed after a lucky encounter with a DMV worker. He was applying for a new driver’s license with a veteran designation when the woman behind the counter asked for his address. “I don’t live nowhere,” he recalls telling her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of William Wade, his ex-wife, and their now deceased child sits on a shelf in Wade’s Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. William Wade is a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her son happened to be a veteran who’d been in the same position, and she connected Wade with staff at an apartment building in Fremont for people exiting homelessness. Within weeks, Wade said he was able to move into his own studio there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was fantastic,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When proponents of Housing First point to the approach’s success, they often highlight the very program that helped Wade get into housing. Launched in 2008 under the George W. Bush Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, offers participants housing vouchers with few strings attached.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants put about a third of their income toward rent, and the rest is covered by the voucher. Case managers help connect the veterans with optional services like health care, mental health treatment and substance use counseling.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The program is credited with helping contribute to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.va.gov/137562/veteran-homelessness-reaches-record-low-2023/\">55% drop in homelessness\u003c/a> among veterans nationwide since 2010, even as overall homelessness \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">climbed over 20%\u003c/a> during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the story of another veteran that first brought Housing First into the mainstream. Murray Barr was an ex-marine who drank himself to death on the streets of Reno, Nevada. In a 2006 \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/million-dollar-murray\">\u003cem>New Yorker \u003c/em>article\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>Malcolm Gladwell used Barr’s repeated ER visits and rehab stays to illustrate the high cost of homelessness and to make the case for a more economical approach: permanent supportive housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, journalists, politicians and nonprofits seized on the “Million-Dollar Murray” narrative, galvanizing support for the Housing First strategy with its cost-saving logic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gladwell first heard Barr’s story not from a liberal academic or housing advocate, but from Philip Mangano, who Bush appointed to lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2002.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His idea was radical: Take the most difficult cases, the nation’s Murray Barrs, and hand them the keys to an apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Mangano ushered in the era of Housing First, the typical approach to getting people off the streets was intuitive, not guided by research, according to University of Southern California professor Benjamin Henwood, who studies homelessness policy. In hindsight, it can be seen as a “treatment first” or “housing readiness” strategy that operated like a reward system, providing housing to those who could meet a series of requirements as they graduated from shelter to temporary to more permanent placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A laundry room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Folks had to prove all along the way … that they were ready for housing,” said Vivian Wan, the CEO of Abode Services, which operates the building where Wade lives. “If they did well and followed all the rules and were good tenants in transitional housing, then they got the golden ticket to permanent supportive housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success required staying sober, getting mental healthcare, drug treatment, making curfew or meeting with a case manager. As a result, chronically unhoused people with substance use or mental health issues often flunked out of programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, people started experimenting with a different approach that prioritized housing. New York City-based psychologist Sam Tsemberis was the first to rigorously study the model and coin the term: Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early ’90s, Tsemberis launched a program that targeted people who’d failed out of previous programs and placed them in apartments with no requirement to get clean or enter treatment and no time limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These were typically very significantly impaired people,” Wan said. “Folks who were really very vulnerable had acute mental health needs across the board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five years, \u003ca href=\"https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.51.4.487\">88% of the participants were still housed\u003c/a>, compared to 47% of residents in the city’s residential treatment system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research showed promising results, too. “The people who you gave housing to actually stayed in that housing, and they stopped going to the emergency room, and they stopped getting arrested, whereas the other folks continue to cycle through all these other institutions,” Henwood said. “That’s what got the attention of the Bush Administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intent, Mangano told Gladwell, was to invest in solutions “that actually end homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Evolution and backlash\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over time, as Housing First became the country’s homelessness policy north star, the term evolved into a catch-all, blurring what it actually entails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sort of lost a bit of its meaning along the way,” Henwood said. “And I think part of that made it an easy target for where we are today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, there are now \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">some 400,000 units\u003c/a> of permanent supportive housing nationwide, up 32% in the \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2014.pdf\">last decade\u003c/a>. In California, the number rose 73% to \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">around 79,000\u003c/a>. While some programs hew to Tsemberis’ model, with its clear set of standards, many more employ the approach loosely. Today, it’s shorthand for simply providing housing with few preconditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Laguna Commons supportive housing stands on 41152 Fremont Blvd., in Fremont, on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And as permanent supportive housing has become the primary tool for ending homelessness, critics see its limitations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Wade imagines he’ll live in his studio apartment for the rest of his life, the evidence shows permanent supportive housing doesn’t work for everybody. About one in five people will struggle to keep their apartments, Henwood said, noting it’s difficult to predict who that will be. People with serious mental health or drug issues might stay housed, while others who appear stable get evicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that while certain Housing First programs might be successful, the results don’t often hold up at scale. “At the city level, the evidence was never very compelling,” he said. “That’s a big problem because when the public was told, ‘We know how to end homelessness,’ they were really thinking about at the city level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his view, Housing First has promised too much and delivered too little, making it ripe for attacks. “This is a problem that the advocates created because they were so grandiose in their claims about what Housing First was going to do,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>By the late 2010s, right-leaning think tanks like his were waging an ideological war on Housing First. They’ve argued the model is ineffective and doesn’t address what they believe are often the root causes of homelessness — drug addiction and mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those arguments have now found purchase at the highest levels of government. The Cicero Institute pushed many of the ideas in President Trump’s recent executive order, including banning public camping, predicating housing on treatment and forcibly institutionalizing people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The spigot’s been supporting this housing-centric approach,” Cicero’s Webster said of the billions in federal money invested. “And what are the results that we’ve seen? We’ve seen homelessness go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defenders of Housing First liken that logic to handing out too few life jackets and then, when those without jackets drown, blaming the devices. The problem isn’t too much spending in their view, but too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area alone, the nonprofit All Home \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991834/slashing-bay-area-homelessness-would-cost-9-5-billion-report-says\">estimates it would cost $9.5 billion\u003c/a> over five years on top of current spending to cut homelessness by just three-quarters. And despite the expansion of permanent supportive housing, they point to a system dogged by scarcity. In California, where more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">187,000 people experience homelessness\u003c/a> on any given night, people can wait years for a spot to open. In the meantime, their condition deteriorates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bike room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We know the longer folks are outside and the longer folks don’t have stable housing, the more their needs can get more complex, more difficult to overcome,” Russell said. And research shows that Housing First programs aren’t good at addressing those complex needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those whose needs are less complex, Housing First may indeed get them off the street, but the “Million-Dollar Murray” cost-savings argument breaks down. Research finds that it only holds up for the small subset of unhoused people who cycle between emergency rooms and jails. But for many others who don’t fit that criterion, it may not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t hold true once you’re working with families who live in their cars and don’t go to ERs and don’t use all these other emergency services,” Henwood said. “If you give them an apartment and a social worker or a mental health worker, that just costs money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer, Russell and Henwood say, is not to throw out Housing First, but to expand the types of offerings that are available to better meet people’s needs. “The real need is actually to diversify the housing types across the continuum,” Russell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that point, Eide and Webster agree. They argue that some people might need more mental health support than housing providers can offer. Others might need sober living facilities so they don’t relapse. And still others might not need much more than a temporary roof over their heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rethinking housing first in California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Beneath all these arguments is a more fundamental disagreement about the nature of housing in this country. For Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, solving homelessness means asking big questions that get at the true cause: “Are we doing enough to house poor people in this country? Is our housing market working for the poorest people?” And blaming Housing First is a distraction from the answer — in his view, a resounding no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an idea echoed on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pathwayshousingfirst.org/\">homepage\u003c/a> for Tsemberis’s preeminent Housing First training program, which declares, “Housing is a Human Right.” To critics like Webster, such statements are evidence that the model isn’t just a failed policy but a Trojan Horse for socialism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053759\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A community space for children at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The ultimate choice is, do we want to have a conversation about restructuring our entire housing system, such that housing is no longer considered a commodity but a public good?” Webster said. “I’m not interested in that conversation; I don’t think this executive order is interested in the conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said he has no reason to believe the recent executive order will impact the HUD-VASH program that Wade is in. “Past administrations may have labeled HUD-VASH as a ‘Housing First’ program,” he said in a statement, “but we don’t view it that way.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asked whether HUD-VASH has begun or would begin requiring treatment as a condition of enrollment in the program, which Trump’s executive order explicitly demands, Kasperowicz declined to respond.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, efforts to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA10/id/2729557\">enshrine housing as a human right\u003c/a> into the state constitution and build social housing \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB309\">haven’t gotten\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB387\">much traction\u003c/a>. But policymakers are reconsidering their approach to homelessness, including Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom and many local leaders have already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">leaned into enforcement\u003c/a>, backing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">encampment clearings\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12007175/care-court-was-supposed-to-help-those-hardest-to-treat-heres-how-its-going\">expanded\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963961/newsom-signs-law-expanding-conservatorships-for-those-experiencing-severe-mental-illness-substance-abuse\">conservatorships\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eide, of the Manhattan Institute, sees the state’s shift as part of a larger national turn away from Housing First. “A lot of people, whether they want to say they’re aligned with the president or not, are moving in the same general direction as a lot of the ideas in this executive order,” he said, referring to Trump’s call for tougher enforcement and more treatment mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco is among the Democrats pressing for changes. “Where California’s approach to Housing First has fallen short is that it’s been in some ways inflexible in recognizing that some people do need options,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB255\">introduced a bill\u003c/a> that would allow state funding to be used for drug-free recovery housing. He said California’s 2016 Housing First law was written to prevent providers from imposing conditions like drug tests just to get a bed for the night. But in practice, he argued, it has blocked funding for residents who actually want drug-free environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, right now, we force everyone into environments where drug use is explicitly allowed,” Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever its pitfalls, Wade is proof of what Housing First can do: keep someone with deep wounds housed and connected to care. Advocates warn discarding the model could unravel that fragile progress for thousands like him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053758\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, pets his cat Libby as he looks out the window at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When he was living in his truck, Wade was fighting a deep depression. He was divorced, and his only child had died in her 20s of a brain tumor. “Throughout those years, I was contemplating suicide and got pretty close,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Wade volunteers as a security guard for a nearby church, and he’s made a couple of friends in the building. Still, he struggles. “Sometimes I get down and out,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing has not swept away his depression, but he’s less alone. His VA case worker regularly calls to check up on him and make sure he’s seeing his doctor and taking medication. He’s enrolled in an anger management class and goes on group outings to the movies or to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his favorite field trip, they visited stables, and Wade met a horse named Country Candy. He beamed as he recounted brushing her chest. “We had a ball,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "this-is-how-one-bay-area-woman-went-from-homelessness-to-homeownership",
"title": "From Homeless to Homeowner: One Bay Area Woman's Journey",
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"headTitle": "From Homeless to Homeowner: One Bay Area Woman’s Journey | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>This summer, Jenn Oakley bought a one-bedroom condo in Emeryville — a milestone that once seemed impossible after more than a decade of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/homelessness\">homelessness\u003c/a>, addiction, recovery and rehabilitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her journey is wild, full of sharp turns and near collapses. Before I get to it, know this: When I first \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Who-can-really-afford-rent-in-the-Bay-Area-Beats-15271337.php\">told her story\u003c/a> as a \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist, readers sent money. Their generosity gave her the foothold she needed to start climbing back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the truth about touching the bottom: No one climbs out alone. Some land on a safety net. Others crash onto concrete. We pass them every day — in tents, in shacks, at stoplights with cardboard pleas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley’s story makes me wonder what else might be possible in the Bay Area, where stability feels impossible for many. Her story illuminates the cruelty of a system that punishes those who lose their housing. Years of homelessness, addiction and structural barriers made Oakley — the most determined unhoused person I’ve reported on — a long shot. She did nearly everything right — sobriety, training, work, service — and still needed luck and the kindness of strangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the tens of thousands drifting street to street and the countless more hanging on by a rent check, the door to stable, permanent housing isn’t just closed — it’s bolted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054862\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12054862 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley poses for a portrait inside her moving truck after moving out her belongings from a storage unit en route to her first-ever owned home in the East Bay on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When I first met Oakley, she had her face buried in the hood of a beat-up Nissan Altima, which was leaking oil. It was May 2020, outside the Lake Merritt Tuff Sheds, Oakland’s transitional housing for the unhoused. It was the early pandemic, and most of us were going stir-crazy inside. I wanted to talk to the people who didn’t have the luxury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley told me she’d been homeless for a decade. After moving to Oakland from Tennessee nearly two decades ago, Oakley, a college graduate, sold insurance. Her slide began in 2009, after her father died. Grief pushed her into meth. The spiral was swift and merciless: she lost her housing, her work and nearly herself. Then came the stroke, which left her partially paralyzed in a room at the Value Inn at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Shafter Avenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I followed her for seven months. In December 2020, she moved into her own room near UC Berkeley — $950 a month for a chance at stability, made possible in part by the generosity of \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> readers. The distance \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Bay-Area-has-been-memorable-but-family-s-15780385.php\">between the streets and a bed\u003c/a> with a roof came down to just $3,000.[aside postID=news_12051236 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250626-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg']On May 28, 2025, Oakley became the owner of a waterfront condo in Emeryville. The complex has gyms, jacuzzis and saunas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m working so much I can’t even enjoy it yet,” Oakley told me, standing in the breakfast nook where she has her work-from-home station. She’s juggling three jobs and nearly 80 hours a week. “In the future, I’m gonna make some changes to this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wants to get rid of the beige carpet. Oakley, who regularly runs five miles a day, still has to hang her running medals, patches and bibs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve kept in touch since meeting five years ago. The more I got to know her, the more I realized: If someone as focused as Oakley can barely grasp an affordable apartment, what hope remains for those on the street?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed cities to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">ban homeless encampments\u003c/a> across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RV communities are asphalt villages, stubborn and sprawling, their challenges mounting as more Californians \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043516/rv-encampments-are-notoriously-hard-to-close-this-city-found-something-that-works\">trade driveways for curbsides\u003c/a> and turn vehicles into permanent homes. California’s homeless population is still the largest in the country, with more than 187,000 people \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">at last count\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043991\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043991 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley relied on her community of friends and graduates from Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, where she is a case manager, for assistance in moving out of her storage unit in Emeryville on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, the homelessness crisis continues to swell, reaching a record 38,891 people in 2024 — a 6% jump from the year before, according to the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The surge is driven by the relentless housing and affordability crunch, compounded by struggles with mental health and substance use. Already stretched shelters and supportive housing programs struggle to keep up with a growing population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most, the odds of escaping homelessness are grim. But every so often, someone beats them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley, known as Tennessee Jenn on the streets, won the lottery. No, not like the unhoused man who \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/california-lottery-homeless-man-20769219.php\">won a $1 million prize\u003c/a> from a California Lottery scratcher. Oakley won the housing lottery in Emeryville. She’s the first person to become a homeowner through First Home Emeryville, the city’s down payment assistance program for first-time buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If your credit’s not good enough, if you don’t have enough money, then you’re out,” she told me as she showed me around her place. “And even if you do get approved, then you gotta find a spot. There’s only 40 condos for sale in Emeryville at any given time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043988\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043988 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley carries a box filled with her belongings into a moving truck in Emeryville on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Only three were in her price range — and she needed to qualify for a loan. Another buyer made an offer, and she nearly lost the place, but her mortgage broker hustled to close the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we sat on her porch one Sunday afternoon last month, Fattie, Oakley’s lab-mastiff mix, nudged my leg, drooling for attention. Until her stroke, Oakley, now 47, had lived and worked in a hotel for three years, she said. The stroke only slowed her down temporarily. As she recovered, she threw herself into learning new trades, determined to build a stable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley’s leadership and passion for helping others were obvious the first time she met former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.[aside postID=news_12050701 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250722-SHELTERFAMILIES-08-BL-KQED.jpg']“It was a pleasure to stay in touch and see those gifts develop,” Schaaf said. “I’m grateful she stayed in touch with me. So often, as policymakers, we launch a program like Cabin Communities, we only get to evaluate its success with cold aggregated data or, sadly, not at all. To see intimately how Jenn was affected by the city’s actions was a profound gift for me. And I got a friend in the bargain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While living in the cabins, Oakley took automotive tech classes at Chabot College in Hayward. She completed a construction-training program at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, which helps low-income people enter trades. She trained for two years to be a heavy equipment mechanic, only to be dismissed, she said, by a sexist instructor who questioned her age and mocked her background. Oakley said she was the third woman in 10 years to complete the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s worked security, changed oil at Jiffy Lube in Castro Valley, even fueled airplanes at San Francisco International Airport — until a background check flagged old drug and weapon charges, and she was escorted off the premises, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She found her occupational calling by leaning into what she knows. She thrived working at Lifelong Medical Care, an organization that helps residents navigate the transition from homelessness into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043998\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043998 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley moves her belongings into the bedroom of her first-ever owned home in the East Bay on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All these people had been homeless, now they’re trying to figure out how to live inside,” she told me. “They’ve got disabilities, addiction, violence — but I loved it. And they loved me. I was good at it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s now the lead case manager at Rising Sun, helping others move out of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was homeless for 10 years. I was on drugs for 30. I can tell them all that stuff, and it gives me instant credibility,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her compassion isn’t limited to her job description. She also looks after a man she met while homeless — a man who had a stroke and cannot speak. She helped him secure an apartment in Brooklyn Basin and still checks in, making sure he has meals, medication and the support he needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043997\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043997 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley has championed advocacy for equal access to housing and opportunities in the East Bay and plans to write a book about her journey from homelessness to home ownership. Photographed on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were friends, but we weren’t that close. He’s older, and I saw him, and I had instant survivor’s guilt,” Oakley said. “I mean, my stroke — I came back. I started taking care of him and doing his case work, doing all this stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the weekends, she surveys unhoused people across East Oakland, where encampments have been pushed. She navigates streets to connect with people who would otherwise disappear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re scattered. It’s a whole different climate than it was five years ago. Ever since Grants Pass passed, everything has changed,” she said, referring to the Supreme Court decision that gives cities \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">more power to regulate\u003c/a> encampments on sidewalks and public property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a long way from the street to where she lives now, in a complex with Bay Bridge views and three swimming pools. We watched as neighbors shuffled past in robes, heading to swim or sunbathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like, wait,” Oakley said, shaking her head, “this is where I live now?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This summer, Jenn Oakley bought a one-bedroom condo in Emeryville — a milestone that once seemed impossible after more than a decade of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/homelessness\">homelessness\u003c/a>, addiction, recovery and rehabilitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her journey is wild, full of sharp turns and near collapses. Before I get to it, know this: When I first \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Who-can-really-afford-rent-in-the-Bay-Area-Beats-15271337.php\">told her story\u003c/a> as a \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist, readers sent money. Their generosity gave her the foothold she needed to start climbing back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the truth about touching the bottom: No one climbs out alone. Some land on a safety net. Others crash onto concrete. We pass them every day — in tents, in shacks, at stoplights with cardboard pleas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley’s story makes me wonder what else might be possible in the Bay Area, where stability feels impossible for many. Her story illuminates the cruelty of a system that punishes those who lose their housing. Years of homelessness, addiction and structural barriers made Oakley — the most determined unhoused person I’ve reported on — a long shot. She did nearly everything right — sobriety, training, work, service — and still needed luck and the kindness of strangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the tens of thousands drifting street to street and the countless more hanging on by a rent check, the door to stable, permanent housing isn’t just closed — it’s bolted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054862\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12054862 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Jenn-Oakley_homelessnesshomeownership_MO32_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley poses for a portrait inside her moving truck after moving out her belongings from a storage unit en route to her first-ever owned home in the East Bay on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When I first met Oakley, she had her face buried in the hood of a beat-up Nissan Altima, which was leaking oil. It was May 2020, outside the Lake Merritt Tuff Sheds, Oakland’s transitional housing for the unhoused. It was the early pandemic, and most of us were going stir-crazy inside. I wanted to talk to the people who didn’t have the luxury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley told me she’d been homeless for a decade. After moving to Oakland from Tennessee nearly two decades ago, Oakley, a college graduate, sold insurance. Her slide began in 2009, after her father died. Grief pushed her into meth. The spiral was swift and merciless: she lost her housing, her work and nearly herself. Then came the stroke, which left her partially paralyzed in a room at the Value Inn at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Shafter Avenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I followed her for seven months. In December 2020, she moved into her own room near UC Berkeley — $950 a month for a chance at stability, made possible in part by the generosity of \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> readers. The distance \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Bay-Area-has-been-memorable-but-family-s-15780385.php\">between the streets and a bed\u003c/a> with a roof came down to just $3,000.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On May 28, 2025, Oakley became the owner of a waterfront condo in Emeryville. The complex has gyms, jacuzzis and saunas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m working so much I can’t even enjoy it yet,” Oakley told me, standing in the breakfast nook where she has her work-from-home station. She’s juggling three jobs and nearly 80 hours a week. “In the future, I’m gonna make some changes to this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wants to get rid of the beige carpet. Oakley, who regularly runs five miles a day, still has to hang her running medals, patches and bibs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve kept in touch since meeting five years ago. The more I got to know her, the more I realized: If someone as focused as Oakley can barely grasp an affordable apartment, what hope remains for those on the street?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed cities to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">ban homeless encampments\u003c/a> across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RV communities are asphalt villages, stubborn and sprawling, their challenges mounting as more Californians \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043516/rv-encampments-are-notoriously-hard-to-close-this-city-found-something-that-works\">trade driveways for curbsides\u003c/a> and turn vehicles into permanent homes. California’s homeless population is still the largest in the country, with more than 187,000 people \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">at last count\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043991\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043991 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO15-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley relied on her community of friends and graduates from Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, where she is a case manager, for assistance in moving out of her storage unit in Emeryville on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, the homelessness crisis continues to swell, reaching a record 38,891 people in 2024 — a 6% jump from the year before, according to the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The surge is driven by the relentless housing and affordability crunch, compounded by struggles with mental health and substance use. Already stretched shelters and supportive housing programs struggle to keep up with a growing population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most, the odds of escaping homelessness are grim. But every so often, someone beats them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley, known as Tennessee Jenn on the streets, won the lottery. No, not like the unhoused man who \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/california-lottery-homeless-man-20769219.php\">won a $1 million prize\u003c/a> from a California Lottery scratcher. Oakley won the housing lottery in Emeryville. She’s the first person to become a homeowner through First Home Emeryville, the city’s down payment assistance program for first-time buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If your credit’s not good enough, if you don’t have enough money, then you’re out,” she told me as she showed me around her place. “And even if you do get approved, then you gotta find a spot. There’s only 40 condos for sale in Emeryville at any given time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043988\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043988 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley carries a box filled with her belongings into a moving truck in Emeryville on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Only three were in her price range — and she needed to qualify for a loan. Another buyer made an offer, and she nearly lost the place, but her mortgage broker hustled to close the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we sat on her porch one Sunday afternoon last month, Fattie, Oakley’s lab-mastiff mix, nudged my leg, drooling for attention. Until her stroke, Oakley, now 47, had lived and worked in a hotel for three years, she said. The stroke only slowed her down temporarily. As she recovered, she threw herself into learning new trades, determined to build a stable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakley’s leadership and passion for helping others were obvious the first time she met former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It was a pleasure to stay in touch and see those gifts develop,” Schaaf said. “I’m grateful she stayed in touch with me. So often, as policymakers, we launch a program like Cabin Communities, we only get to evaluate its success with cold aggregated data or, sadly, not at all. To see intimately how Jenn was affected by the city’s actions was a profound gift for me. And I got a friend in the bargain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While living in the cabins, Oakley took automotive tech classes at Chabot College in Hayward. She completed a construction-training program at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, which helps low-income people enter trades. She trained for two years to be a heavy equipment mechanic, only to be dismissed, she said, by a sexist instructor who questioned her age and mocked her background. Oakley said she was the third woman in 10 years to complete the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s worked security, changed oil at Jiffy Lube in Castro Valley, even fueled airplanes at San Francisco International Airport — until a background check flagged old drug and weapon charges, and she was escorted off the premises, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She found her occupational calling by leaning into what she knows. She thrived working at Lifelong Medical Care, an organization that helps residents navigate the transition from homelessness into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043998\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043998 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO42-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley moves her belongings into the bedroom of her first-ever owned home in the East Bay on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All these people had been homeless, now they’re trying to figure out how to live inside,” she told me. “They’ve got disabilities, addiction, violence — but I loved it. And they loved me. I was good at it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s now the lead case manager at Rising Sun, helping others move out of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was homeless for 10 years. I was on drugs for 30. I can tell them all that stuff, and it gives me instant credibility,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her compassion isn’t limited to her job description. She also looks after a man she met while homeless — a man who had a stroke and cannot speak. She helped him secure an apartment in Brooklyn Basin and still checks in, making sure he has meals, medication and the support he needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043997\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12043997 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/JENN-OAKLEY_HOMELESSNESSHOMEOWNERSHIP_MO39-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenn Oakley has championed advocacy for equal access to housing and opportunities in the East Bay and plans to write a book about her journey from homelessness to home ownership. Photographed on June 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were friends, but we weren’t that close. He’s older, and I saw him, and I had instant survivor’s guilt,” Oakley said. “I mean, my stroke — I came back. I started taking care of him and doing his case work, doing all this stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the weekends, she surveys unhoused people across East Oakland, where encampments have been pushed. She navigates streets to connect with people who would otherwise disappear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re scattered. It’s a whole different climate than it was five years ago. Ever since Grants Pass passed, everything has changed,” she said, referring to the Supreme Court decision that gives cities \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">more power to regulate\u003c/a> encampments on sidewalks and public property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a long way from the street to where she lives now, in a complex with Bay Bridge views and three swimming pools. We watched as neighbors shuffled past in robes, heading to swim or sunbathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like, wait,” Oakley said, shaking her head, “this is where I live now?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday it has reached a $1 million settlement with a homeless services nonprofit, which it had previously \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985194\">accused of nepotism and fraud\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the agreement, Providence Foundation of San Francisco admitted wrongdoing, removed employees who participated in the misconduct, reimbursed the city for fraudulent invoices and paid current and former employees who were denied holiday pay, among other concessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m proud we were able to resolve this amicably,” City Attorney David Chiu told KQED. “This is a great example of how an organization can turn itself around and do the right thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization operates the Oasis Hotel, a 59-unit shelter, a navigation center, multiple voucher and housing subsidy programs and services for people experiencing homelessness. Dexter Hall, Providence’s Interim Executive Director, said the settlement was “a pivotal moment” for his organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s public recognition of the transformation that we have led over this past year,” he told KQED. “Under my leadership, a new board’s leadership, as well as our talented team members, Providence has implemented some very sweeping reforms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives of Providence and its lawyers did not immediately respond to KQED’s request for comment. The organization operates the Oasis Hotel, a 59-unit shelter, a navigation center, multiple voucher and housing subsidy programs and services for people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not the only homeless services nonprofit to come under scrutiny. Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981767\">city officials also audited HomeRise\u003c/a>, a housing provider for people exiting homelessness, accusing it of wasteful spending and mismanagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chiu’s investigation of Providence, his office found that previous leaders signed off on falsified invoices — totalling $105,000 of taxpayer funding — related to maintenance for the Oasis Hotel. The company submitted invoices claiming it painted the hotel’s exterior and removed deadbolt locks, despite that work not happening at all, the investigation found. Rust and fungus remained on its outer walls.[aside postID=news_11985194 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/230808-SanFranciscoCityHall-25-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg']Chiu’s office also accused the nonprofit of hiring family members, including children of the executive director and vice president of the board, violating an anti-nepotism provision in a city grant agreement. Separately, San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement started its own investigation after receiving complaints from employees who claimed labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city suspended funding for Providence to operate the Oasis Hotel and its other programs and threatened to debar it, permanently cutting off future funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall said he and other colleagues now require more transparency and oversight for the hours employees work and how expenses are approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With this matter behind us, we really do stand stronger, clearer and more committed than ever,” he said. “We’re not just rebuilding systems, we’re rebuilding trust, and we’re committed to doing that with our families, seniors, youth — all who deserve nothing less than dignity, stability and hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of HomeRise, the city’s report found the company had spent $12,500 on a social event and $200,000 in bonuses. The developer operates about 1,500 units across 19 properties, making up almost a third of city-funded homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But rather than cut off funding, it instead urged other city agencies to strengthen oversight of HomeRise contracts and directed the housing provider to improve how it managed city funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiu told KQED the city does not want to debar organizations if it doesn’t have to and called the announcement a “win-win” because Providence cooperated with the investigation and agreed to reform its practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city has spent an incredible amount of dollars in recent years investing in addressing the homelessness crisis in our streets, and we need to make sure that every dollar is put to good use,” he said. “I think today’s announcement is a step forward toward that accountability and assuring that public dollars are addressing the needs and crises on our streets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the settlement agreement in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday it has reached a $1 million settlement with a homeless services nonprofit, which it had previously \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985194\">accused of nepotism and fraud\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the agreement, Providence Foundation of San Francisco admitted wrongdoing, removed employees who participated in the misconduct, reimbursed the city for fraudulent invoices and paid current and former employees who were denied holiday pay, among other concessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m proud we were able to resolve this amicably,” City Attorney David Chiu told KQED. “This is a great example of how an organization can turn itself around and do the right thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization operates the Oasis Hotel, a 59-unit shelter, a navigation center, multiple voucher and housing subsidy programs and services for people experiencing homelessness. Dexter Hall, Providence’s Interim Executive Director, said the settlement was “a pivotal moment” for his organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s public recognition of the transformation that we have led over this past year,” he told KQED. “Under my leadership, a new board’s leadership, as well as our talented team members, Providence has implemented some very sweeping reforms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives of Providence and its lawyers did not immediately respond to KQED’s request for comment. The organization operates the Oasis Hotel, a 59-unit shelter, a navigation center, multiple voucher and housing subsidy programs and services for people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not the only homeless services nonprofit to come under scrutiny. Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981767\">city officials also audited HomeRise\u003c/a>, a housing provider for people exiting homelessness, accusing it of wasteful spending and mismanagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chiu’s investigation of Providence, his office found that previous leaders signed off on falsified invoices — totalling $105,000 of taxpayer funding — related to maintenance for the Oasis Hotel. The company submitted invoices claiming it painted the hotel’s exterior and removed deadbolt locks, despite that work not happening at all, the investigation found. Rust and fungus remained on its outer walls.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Chiu’s office also accused the nonprofit of hiring family members, including children of the executive director and vice president of the board, violating an anti-nepotism provision in a city grant agreement. Separately, San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement started its own investigation after receiving complaints from employees who claimed labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city suspended funding for Providence to operate the Oasis Hotel and its other programs and threatened to debar it, permanently cutting off future funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall said he and other colleagues now require more transparency and oversight for the hours employees work and how expenses are approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With this matter behind us, we really do stand stronger, clearer and more committed than ever,” he said. “We’re not just rebuilding systems, we’re rebuilding trust, and we’re committed to doing that with our families, seniors, youth — all who deserve nothing less than dignity, stability and hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of HomeRise, the city’s report found the company had spent $12,500 on a social event and $200,000 in bonuses. The developer operates about 1,500 units across 19 properties, making up almost a third of city-funded homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But rather than cut off funding, it instead urged other city agencies to strengthen oversight of HomeRise contracts and directed the housing provider to improve how it managed city funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiu told KQED the city does not want to debar organizations if it doesn’t have to and called the announcement a “win-win” because Providence cooperated with the investigation and agreed to reform its practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city has spent an incredible amount of dollars in recent years investing in addressing the homelessness crisis in our streets, and we need to make sure that every dollar is put to good use,” he said. “I think today’s announcement is a step forward toward that accountability and assuring that public dollars are addressing the needs and crises on our streets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the settlement agreement in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-jose-begins-clearing-columbus-park-the-citys-biggest-homeless-encampment",
"title": "San José Begins Clearing Columbus Park, the City’s Biggest Homeless Encampment",
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"headTitle": "San José Begins Clearing Columbus Park, the City’s Biggest Homeless Encampment | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Under a bright morning sun, garbage trucks, tow trucks and law enforcement poured into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a>’s Columbus Park on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews of city workers wearing bright vests began taping off sections of sidewalk, raking up piles of debris and trash, disassembling tents and even ripping microwaves, solar panels and other materials out of RVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday morning marked the zero hour for what city officials say is a three-month plan to completely clear out the more than 100 RVs, many more tents and other forms of soft shelter from the park, where hundreds of people have lived for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Columbus Park is the largest single encampment in San José since The Jungle — a sprawling community that hundreds of people called home along Coyote Creek near Story and Senter roads — was dismantled in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials say the conditions at the park, which lies just south of the San José Mineta International Airport, had become untenable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day this encampment is allowed to persist, it puts lives at risk, especially the lives of those who call it home. The lives of children, seniors, the most vulnerable,” Mayor Matt Mahan said Monday during a press conference inside City Hall, about a six-minute drive from the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052738\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052738 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosemary Pineda rakes the ground near where the she lives in Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The crush of RVs, vehicles and tents has dominated the space for several years, with the streets in and around the camp lined with loose trash and debris, making it unusable for recreation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conditions, city officials said, only added to the risks for people living there in close quarters, many of whom were already facing difficult and desperate situations in pricey Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our homeless neighbors are living in increasingly unsafe, unmanaged conditions, including a homicide in the park last year, a pedestrian fatality just last month, and a suicide just last week. That’s why we’re moving with urgency and resolve,” Mahan said.[aside postID=news_12051236 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250626-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg']The process of clearing the park has followed more than two months of in-person outreach to residents, city officials said. City workers offered park residents temporary spaces in motel rooms around the city, only about 42 of which are move-in ready now. Mahan said he expects nearly 400 will be ready within about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is also building nearly 400 spaces for people that should be ready by year’s end, officials said, in the form of clusters of tiny homes or sanctioned safe camping sites, in addition to an existing safe parking site for people in RVs in the Berryessa neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some residents of the park are also being offered a roughly $2,000 buyback of their RVs in exchange for an agreement to accept temporary shelter in one of the city’s hotels or managed sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a thoughtful, methodical, multi-month process of standing up safe, dignified interim housing,” Mahan said of the plan, which will include meals, case management and security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And if people are unwilling to accept that option, they will not be allowed to continue to camp in a public park. It’s as simple as that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052741 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers remove the belongings from an RV at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the last few years, San José has worked to cordon off sections of the nearby open grasslands where residents camped before, and which the city said must remain vacant due to federal aviation rules near airports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without enough shelter beds or homes for the residents, the several sweeps, cleanups and relocations have mostly shuffled around people facing homelessness onto a smaller footprint of the park, such as the former baseball diamonds and soccer fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Columbus Park residents told KQED on Monday they have accepted shelter offers and are happy to have the chance to move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052680\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052680 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily V. packs up her belongings at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, of course. I am looking forward to being able to be in a hotel,” Emily V., a 33-year-old who has been living at Columbus Park for about a year, said, while packing up tentpoles and a suitcase on the sidewalk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, nobody really wants to camp forever, you know? It’s just one of those things that happens to you. Life happens to everybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others, like Fernando Alcantara, said he wasn’t given clear information about his options. Alcantara prepared to leave the park with his trailer on Monday, but instead, city crews dismantled it in front of him and hastily hoisted the shell onto a flatbed tow truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052674\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052674 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fernando Alcantara speaks with a city official in front of his RV shortly before it was towed at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At least, can I take my stuff out? Because I have my wallet, I have money, I have everything,” in the trailer, he said. “They didn’t let me take anything. No I.D., no nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcantara’s situation highlighted some of the confusion and disarray on the ground during the large and sprawling operation. Only after his RV was confiscated did city workers determine he wasn’t offered shelter, and said they would try to connect him with an option for housing in one of the motel spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others who have agreed to accept a motel or tiny home space will be allowed to remain at the site until Sept. 5, or until such shelter is ready for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052679 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fernando Alcantara watches as his RV is towed at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shaunn Cartwright, an advocate for unhoused people and a frequent critic of Mahan’s policies that prioritize interim housing instead of building permanent affordable housing, said the city’s plan to inform people fell far short of what was needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said many people didn’t receive detailed information, including herself, about what people should do to prepare, and what choices they had, so it could be shared with residents to avoid panic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city intentionally left everybody in the dark here. And then it made it where it was so much easier for rumors to start,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052678 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shawn Spencer relocates his belongings from where he’d been staying at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s people that work nine to five, and if you assume they take the bus, so they’re seven to seven, and they missed everything. So they didn’t get to apply for the buyback program, they didn’t get to go to the hotels or anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s director of housing, Erik Soliván, said the city is facing a “dynamic” situation, and emphasized that the park’s fluctuating population made informing all residents — a count estimated at 370 people last weekend — a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to capture as many people as we can to ensure we can give them offers of shelter and service,” Soliván told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052736\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052736 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers clear the homeless encampment at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mahan said he understands the plans may not be perfect when trying to address the individual needs of people who may be struggling in different ways, but said a change must happen soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to end unsheltered homelessness. We cannot, in a modern city, have thousands of people living in unmanaged conditions all over the city with trash and fires and crime. So we’ve got to get people indoors,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can I promise you that as we move people indoors, none of those problems will come? No, of course not,” he said. “But it’s a lot better than the status quo today in terms of human suffering, cost, community impacts and environmental impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the cleanup work, the city plans to renovate the park with new soccer fields, pickleball and basketball courts, as well as spaces for futsal and horseshoes, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The city is beginning to remove RVs and tents from Columbus Park in North San José, where hundreds of homeless people have lived for years. ",
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"title": "San José Begins Clearing Columbus Park, the City’s Biggest Homeless Encampment | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Under a bright morning sun, garbage trucks, tow trucks and law enforcement poured into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a>’s Columbus Park on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews of city workers wearing bright vests began taping off sections of sidewalk, raking up piles of debris and trash, disassembling tents and even ripping microwaves, solar panels and other materials out of RVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday morning marked the zero hour for what city officials say is a three-month plan to completely clear out the more than 100 RVs, many more tents and other forms of soft shelter from the park, where hundreds of people have lived for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Columbus Park is the largest single encampment in San José since The Jungle — a sprawling community that hundreds of people called home along Coyote Creek near Story and Senter roads — was dismantled in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials say the conditions at the park, which lies just south of the San José Mineta International Airport, had become untenable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day this encampment is allowed to persist, it puts lives at risk, especially the lives of those who call it home. The lives of children, seniors, the most vulnerable,” Mayor Matt Mahan said Monday during a press conference inside City Hall, about a six-minute drive from the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052738\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052738 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosemary Pineda rakes the ground near where the she lives in Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The crush of RVs, vehicles and tents has dominated the space for several years, with the streets in and around the camp lined with loose trash and debris, making it unusable for recreation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conditions, city officials said, only added to the risks for people living there in close quarters, many of whom were already facing difficult and desperate situations in pricey Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our homeless neighbors are living in increasingly unsafe, unmanaged conditions, including a homicide in the park last year, a pedestrian fatality just last month, and a suicide just last week. That’s why we’re moving with urgency and resolve,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The process of clearing the park has followed more than two months of in-person outreach to residents, city officials said. City workers offered park residents temporary spaces in motel rooms around the city, only about 42 of which are move-in ready now. Mahan said he expects nearly 400 will be ready within about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is also building nearly 400 spaces for people that should be ready by year’s end, officials said, in the form of clusters of tiny homes or sanctioned safe camping sites, in addition to an existing safe parking site for people in RVs in the Berryessa neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some residents of the park are also being offered a roughly $2,000 buyback of their RVs in exchange for an agreement to accept temporary shelter in one of the city’s hotels or managed sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a thoughtful, methodical, multi-month process of standing up safe, dignified interim housing,” Mahan said of the plan, which will include meals, case management and security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And if people are unwilling to accept that option, they will not be allowed to continue to camp in a public park. It’s as simple as that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052741 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-06-KQED-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers remove the belongings from an RV at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the last few years, San José has worked to cordon off sections of the nearby open grasslands where residents camped before, and which the city said must remain vacant due to federal aviation rules near airports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without enough shelter beds or homes for the residents, the several sweeps, cleanups and relocations have mostly shuffled around people facing homelessness onto a smaller footprint of the park, such as the former baseball diamonds and soccer fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Columbus Park residents told KQED on Monday they have accepted shelter offers and are happy to have the chance to move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052680\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052680 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-11-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily V. packs up her belongings at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, of course. I am looking forward to being able to be in a hotel,” Emily V., a 33-year-old who has been living at Columbus Park for about a year, said, while packing up tentpoles and a suitcase on the sidewalk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, nobody really wants to camp forever, you know? It’s just one of those things that happens to you. Life happens to everybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others, like Fernando Alcantara, said he wasn’t given clear information about his options. Alcantara prepared to leave the park with his trailer on Monday, but instead, city crews dismantled it in front of him and hastily hoisted the shell onto a flatbed tow truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052674\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052674 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-05-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fernando Alcantara speaks with a city official in front of his RV shortly before it was towed at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At least, can I take my stuff out? Because I have my wallet, I have money, I have everything,” in the trailer, he said. “They didn’t let me take anything. No I.D., no nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcantara’s situation highlighted some of the confusion and disarray on the ground during the large and sprawling operation. Only after his RV was confiscated did city workers determine he wasn’t offered shelter, and said they would try to connect him with an option for housing in one of the motel spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others who have agreed to accept a motel or tiny home space will be allowed to remain at the site until Sept. 5, or until such shelter is ready for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052679 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-10-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fernando Alcantara watches as his RV is towed at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shaunn Cartwright, an advocate for unhoused people and a frequent critic of Mahan’s policies that prioritize interim housing instead of building permanent affordable housing, said the city’s plan to inform people fell far short of what was needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said many people didn’t receive detailed information, including herself, about what people should do to prepare, and what choices they had, so it could be shared with residents to avoid panic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city intentionally left everybody in the dark here. And then it made it where it was so much easier for rumors to start,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052678 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-09-KQED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shawn Spencer relocates his belongings from where he’d been staying at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s people that work nine to five, and if you assume they take the bus, so they’re seven to seven, and they missed everything. So they didn’t get to apply for the buyback program, they didn’t get to go to the hotels or anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s director of housing, Erik Soliván, said the city is facing a “dynamic” situation, and emphasized that the park’s fluctuating population made informing all residents — a count estimated at 370 people last weekend — a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to capture as many people as we can to ensure we can give them offers of shelter and service,” Soliván told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052736\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12052736 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250818-COLUMBUS-PARK-MD-20-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers clear the homeless encampment at Columbus Park in San José on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mahan said he understands the plans may not be perfect when trying to address the individual needs of people who may be struggling in different ways, but said a change must happen soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to end unsheltered homelessness. We cannot, in a modern city, have thousands of people living in unmanaged conditions all over the city with trash and fires and crime. So we’ve got to get people indoors,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can I promise you that as we move people indoors, none of those problems will come? No, of course not,” he said. “But it’s a lot better than the status quo today in terms of human suffering, cost, community impacts and environmental impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the cleanup work, the city plans to renovate the park with new soccer fields, pickleball and basketball courts, as well as spaces for futsal and horseshoes, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Armando Herrera got out of drug treatment last year, he returned to the streets of\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\"> San Francisco\u003c/a> — still unhoused, but in a better place than he’d been in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d kicked his addiction to alcohol and meth, regained a sense of confidence and reconnected with his kids. Ten months away from the chaos of street life had given him something like stability. But back outside, he found the ground had shifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before rehab, he could set up his tent in one spot and leave it there for weeks. Now, the rules of survival had changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t leave [your tent],” he said. “The first time, they give you a warning. The second time, they give you a ticket. The third time you go to jail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So these days, he camps near an industrial building with two others, but never for very long. They arrive late, set up after dark and break down again before sunrise in a daily cycle of, as he puts it, “Go and come back, go and come back, go and come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12046792\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12046792\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Armando Herrera Vargas (left) talks with a friend at The Gubbio Project in San Francisco on July 1, 2025, with his belongings nearby. The project provides a safe place for unhoused people to rest during the day inside local churches. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That routine has kept Herrera out of jail, but it hasn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">gotten him off the street\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade into homelessness, he’s navigating a new and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046259\">more aggressive era of street enforcement\u003c/a> in San Francisco, one shaped by last year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">U.S. Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> giving cities broad authority to punish people for sleeping outside, even when there are no shelter beds available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, some 50 cities statewide have passed or strengthened anti-camping ordinances, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5257640\">May report\u003c/a> from UC Berkeley. San Francisco has \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/09/30/nx-s1-5094930/supreme-court-homeless-camps-san-francisco\">leaned into a tougher stance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since July of last year, the city conducted at least 471 encampment sweeps and placed over 900 people into shelters. Meanwhile, police arrested more than 1,100 people for “lodging without permission,” essentially public camping, and the city’s district attorney \u003ca href=\"https://data.sfgov.org/Public-Safety/District-Attorney-Cases-Prosecuted/dcjk-vw8q/data_preview\">filed charges\u003c/a> in just over 250 of those cases. So far, about 100 \u003ca href=\"https://data.sfgov.org/Public-Safety/District-Attorney-Case-Resolutions/ynfy-z5kt/data_preview\">have been resolved\u003c/a>, most through diversion programs that allow people to avoid a criminal record if they meet certain conditions.[aside postID=news_12050701 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250722-SHELTERFAMILIES-08-BL-KQED.jpg']Those efforts have reshaped the streets and changed the lives of unhoused residents like Herrera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera has a warm, slightly weary demeanor, with a smile that reveals straight white teeth and deep creases around his brown eyes. He’s 53 and has lived in San Francisco for three decades. He said he moved here from Mexico City and married an American citizen. He had three kids, a home and a furniture restoration business. Then it all unraveled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been kinda like chaos for the last 15 years,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details and timeline of his story are a little murky. He said after the 2008 financial crisis, his business failed, then he worked for someone else in the furniture business until a job injury ended that, too. He said his wife died, and he lost contact with his kids. His disability benefits provided enough income to pay for a place to live or for food and essentials, but not both. In 2014, he lost his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a while, he got by in cheap hotels, selling what he had until there was nothing left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I started seeing people putting tents everywhere,” he said. “I was like, ‘Well, might as well do the same,’ since I really got no place to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998912\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man experiencing homelessness packs up his belongings in anticipation of an encampment sweep by San Francisco’s Department of Public Works around Showplace Square on Aug. 1, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He camped with others for safety and a sense of belonging. “Being homeless and then being alone, you just feel like you don’t belong,” he said. “That’s when depression comes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, he was arrested for possessing a stolen bike — something he said he bought off the street. From jail, he entered a diversion program, which led him to rehab. That’s where he was when the Supreme Court handed down its decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Mayor London Breed was among the first in the state to begin enforcing a crackdown on public camping, vowing to make people sleeping outside “so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer [of shelter]” in part by authorizing police to issue citations, which could lead to misdemeanors.[aside postID=news_12050263 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250722-ShelterFamilies-09-BL_qed.jpg']Back outside, Herrera found fewer tents and fewer familiar faces. “All the people that I knew back then, they’re gone,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s because they have housing now … they just totally disappear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep from getting ticketed, Herrera learned to stay mobile. He got a storage unit and bought an electric scooter, lashing a city garbage can to it so he could haul his supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to carry all the stuff everywhere you go,” he said. “It’s a pain in the butt being in the street and not being comfortable and not being in a place where you can lay your head and take a nap.” He said it’s exhausting to be around people constantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all the ways the new era has made Herrera’s life harder, he said there are some upsides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crackdown on encampments has changed the way housed residents treat him. In the past, when he had a messy camp near businesses, he said owners dumped water on his tent, and once, he suspects, even set fire to it. “They were always calling the cops,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that he moves his tent daily, he said some of those same business owners smile at him. “They do treat me differently,” he said. “They always say hi.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12046789\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12046789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Vaughn, a tenant organizer and peer counselor with Tenderloin Housing Clinic, stands near her apartment in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on June 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the parts of the city hardest hit by homelessness, business owners and residents have long said encampments make their lives miserable — driving away customers and forcing them to dodge syringes and human waste on the sidewalk. Some say things have improved since the sweeps ramped up. Others say not much has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Kathy Vaughn, a Tenderloin resident, the difference is personal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just felt like nobody gave a damn,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before, she had to walk in the street, dodging cars, to avoid the tents that stretched from her doorway to the corner store. “It was like literally a nightmare to try to get through this neighborhood,” she said.[aside postID=news_12049612 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-SHELTERFAMILIES-05-BL-KQED.jpg']Vaughn was homeless herself once, and said she has empathy for unhoused people, but she supports the city’s more aggressive approach. “I love my neighborhood. I love the people,” she said. “I wanna see it even better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera said he didn’t like the old status quo either. He hated feeling like a nuisance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s better for both of us. I never thought it was a good thing,” he said of setting up camp in front of businesses and apartment buildings. “I did it because I needed it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he may be keeping a lower profile now and making life easier for business owners and housed residents, he’s still homeless. He said he wants to work. He had a job with the Salvation Army for a few months, and eventually hopes to get back to restoring furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I need a place I can stay so I can go on with my life,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recently got a break: his social worker told him some housing had finally opened up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like ‘No, I can’t believe it!’ I almost started crying,” he said. “I gave her a big hug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera had few details about the offer at the time, but was expecting to move in within the next few weeks. It’s not clear if that happened. He hasn’t answered his phone since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Armando Herrera got out of drug treatment last year, he returned to the streets of\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\"> San Francisco\u003c/a> — still unhoused, but in a better place than he’d been in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d kicked his addiction to alcohol and meth, regained a sense of confidence and reconnected with his kids. Ten months away from the chaos of street life had given him something like stability. But back outside, he found the ground had shifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before rehab, he could set up his tent in one spot and leave it there for weeks. Now, the rules of survival had changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t leave [your tent],” he said. “The first time, they give you a warning. The second time, they give you a ticket. The third time you go to jail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So these days, he camps near an industrial building with two others, but never for very long. They arrive late, set up after dark and break down again before sunrise in a daily cycle of, as he puts it, “Go and come back, go and come back, go and come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12046792\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12046792\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250701-GRANTSPASS-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Armando Herrera Vargas (left) talks with a friend at The Gubbio Project in San Francisco on July 1, 2025, with his belongings nearby. The project provides a safe place for unhoused people to rest during the day inside local churches. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That routine has kept Herrera out of jail, but it hasn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">gotten him off the street\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade into homelessness, he’s navigating a new and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046259\">more aggressive era of street enforcement\u003c/a> in San Francisco, one shaped by last year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">U.S. Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> giving cities broad authority to punish people for sleeping outside, even when there are no shelter beds available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, some 50 cities statewide have passed or strengthened anti-camping ordinances, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5257640\">May report\u003c/a> from UC Berkeley. San Francisco has \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/09/30/nx-s1-5094930/supreme-court-homeless-camps-san-francisco\">leaned into a tougher stance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since July of last year, the city conducted at least 471 encampment sweeps and placed over 900 people into shelters. Meanwhile, police arrested more than 1,100 people for “lodging without permission,” essentially public camping, and the city’s district attorney \u003ca href=\"https://data.sfgov.org/Public-Safety/District-Attorney-Cases-Prosecuted/dcjk-vw8q/data_preview\">filed charges\u003c/a> in just over 250 of those cases. So far, about 100 \u003ca href=\"https://data.sfgov.org/Public-Safety/District-Attorney-Case-Resolutions/ynfy-z5kt/data_preview\">have been resolved\u003c/a>, most through diversion programs that allow people to avoid a criminal record if they meet certain conditions.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Those efforts have reshaped the streets and changed the lives of unhoused residents like Herrera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera has a warm, slightly weary demeanor, with a smile that reveals straight white teeth and deep creases around his brown eyes. He’s 53 and has lived in San Francisco for three decades. He said he moved here from Mexico City and married an American citizen. He had three kids, a home and a furniture restoration business. Then it all unraveled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been kinda like chaos for the last 15 years,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details and timeline of his story are a little murky. He said after the 2008 financial crisis, his business failed, then he worked for someone else in the furniture business until a job injury ended that, too. He said his wife died, and he lost contact with his kids. His disability benefits provided enough income to pay for a place to live or for food and essentials, but not both. In 2014, he lost his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a while, he got by in cheap hotels, selling what he had until there was nothing left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I started seeing people putting tents everywhere,” he said. “I was like, ‘Well, might as well do the same,’ since I really got no place to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998912\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man experiencing homelessness packs up his belongings in anticipation of an encampment sweep by San Francisco’s Department of Public Works around Showplace Square on Aug. 1, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He camped with others for safety and a sense of belonging. “Being homeless and then being alone, you just feel like you don’t belong,” he said. “That’s when depression comes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, he was arrested for possessing a stolen bike — something he said he bought off the street. From jail, he entered a diversion program, which led him to rehab. That’s where he was when the Supreme Court handed down its decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Mayor London Breed was among the first in the state to begin enforcing a crackdown on public camping, vowing to make people sleeping outside “so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer [of shelter]” in part by authorizing police to issue citations, which could lead to misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Back outside, Herrera found fewer tents and fewer familiar faces. “All the people that I knew back then, they’re gone,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s because they have housing now … they just totally disappear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep from getting ticketed, Herrera learned to stay mobile. He got a storage unit and bought an electric scooter, lashing a city garbage can to it so he could haul his supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to carry all the stuff everywhere you go,” he said. “It’s a pain in the butt being in the street and not being comfortable and not being in a place where you can lay your head and take a nap.” He said it’s exhausting to be around people constantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all the ways the new era has made Herrera’s life harder, he said there are some upsides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crackdown on encampments has changed the way housed residents treat him. In the past, when he had a messy camp near businesses, he said owners dumped water on his tent, and once, he suspects, even set fire to it. “They were always calling the cops,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that he moves his tent daily, he said some of those same business owners smile at him. “They do treat me differently,” he said. “They always say hi.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12046789\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12046789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250617-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Vaughn, a tenant organizer and peer counselor with Tenderloin Housing Clinic, stands near her apartment in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on June 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the parts of the city hardest hit by homelessness, business owners and residents have long said encampments make their lives miserable — driving away customers and forcing them to dodge syringes and human waste on the sidewalk. Some say things have improved since the sweeps ramped up. Others say not much has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Kathy Vaughn, a Tenderloin resident, the difference is personal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just felt like nobody gave a damn,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before, she had to walk in the street, dodging cars, to avoid the tents that stretched from her doorway to the corner store. “It was like literally a nightmare to try to get through this neighborhood,” she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Vaughn was homeless herself once, and said she has empathy for unhoused people, but she supports the city’s more aggressive approach. “I love my neighborhood. I love the people,” she said. “I wanna see it even better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera said he didn’t like the old status quo either. He hated feeling like a nuisance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s better for both of us. I never thought it was a good thing,” he said of setting up camp in front of businesses and apartment buildings. “I did it because I needed it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he may be keeping a lower profile now and making life easier for business owners and housed residents, he’s still homeless. He said he wants to work. He had a job with the Salvation Army for a few months, and eventually hopes to get back to restoring furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I need a place I can stay so I can go on with my life,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recently got a break: his social worker told him some housing had finally opened up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like ‘No, I can’t believe it!’ I almost started crying,” he said. “I gave her a big hug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera had few details about the offer at the time, but was expecting to move in within the next few weeks. It’s not clear if that happened. He hasn’t answered his phone since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When we talk about homelessness, especially in San Francisco, many of us are usually talking about individuals living on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the number of \u003ci>families\u003c/i> experiencing homelessness in San Francisco nearly doubled from 2022 to 2024, according to the city’s Point In Time Count. And many of them move from shelter to shelter, in a system that’s meant to be temporary but has few permanent housing options to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1400014884&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049612/sf-families-win-shelter-extension-rights-still-face-long-waits-for-housing\">SF Families Win Shelter Extension Rights, Still Face Long Waits for Housing\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:01:41] I wanted to focus on families because many of them already live in shelters and are not visible on the streets and are are not necessarily part of this population that the city is putting a lot of focus on right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:56] Sydney Johnson is a reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] They end up getting stuck in shelters and have had time limits for how long that they can stay there. And that can be a really tedious, onerous process to go through that extension while you’re waiting for housing to come through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:16] I know you met a family living in a shelter. Can you tell me a little bit about Maritza Salinas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:02:22] Maritza is a mother of three and she’s living in one of the city’s homeless shelters for families. She’s originally from El Salvador, but moved to the Bay Area when she was 19 and has lived in San Francisco for many years now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:02:38] Maritza, I’m curious what a, just like a typical day is like for you and your family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:02:45] For me, as a single mom, it’s many things daily. And sometimes I am blessed to accomplish one thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:02:53] I spent some time with her and her two littlest ones, Matthew who’s six and Renee who’s four. And you know, they’re just adorable little kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:03:04] We get up daily, shower first thing, prayer, and we make food. We share kitchen and community so you have to get up very early when nobody else is awake so you can have time to cook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:28] How did she and her kids end up in a shelter?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:03:33] So Maritza became homeless after leaving an abusive relationship in 2022. And this is unfortunately a pretty common experience for many mothers and families who are in the city’s shelter system. And it’s also a reminder of why shelters are important. People often need a place to go, sometimes immediately, when they know it’s time to leave their situation or if they don’t have a choice and are evicted. So she now lives in a shelter for families in the south of Market. It’s one of several shelters she’s bounced around from, including shelters specifically for domestic violence survivors. But these place often have time limits for how long you can stay. And, you know, she’s grateful to have the shelter and says the staff there are helpful and kind to her kids and that her children have other kids to play with there too. But it’s been a really unstable situation bouncing from shelter to shelter, and they’re really just looking for a home to stay in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:04:40] I have two extensions with Harbor House, which that comes to six months. And when those six months ends, that’s the question, right? Where we gonna go? What we gonna do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:57] Shelters aren’t meant to be forever homes, but affordable forever homes are just really hard to come by. At the same time, the city is focusing more on moving people off the streets and into these shelters, and they need more open beds to do that. So in December, San Francisco decided families could only stay in shelters for 90 days. And if they wanted to stay longer, they’d have to apply for it. When this rule was announced, families like Maritza’s pushed back because it felt like they were being punished for a system that just doesn’t move people into permanent housing fast enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:05:42] The shelter she’s staying at right now, she currently has a 90 day limit before she can apply for an extension. But at the last shelter she was at, she did reach that end of the term. And so she was waiting for an expansion to come through. She said it was an extremely confusing process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:06:02] When I was being pushed away from Hamilton without an extension and it’s like y’all saying it’s so easy, it sounds so easy but I’m being pushed away, like what I’m supposed to do you know like where do I need to go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:06:15] Families and advocates for people who are unhoused said this was incredibly stressful to essentially just be chasing application after application because they essentially were still just waiting for rapid rehousing vouchers or permanent housing placements to come through. For Maritza, she has stayed in shelters, but she has also stayed in cars. She has had her kids stay with family members. She stayed in hotels, and all of that change and disruption can be really taxing and demoralizing as you’re trying to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:03] That said, we are talking about this because changes are coming to these shelter extension rules in San Francisco, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] Right. So the city recently announced that instead of requiring people who are in shelters to apply for extensions every 30 days, they now get about three months or 90 days at their shelter stay. You know, that still requires going through an application process, but it’s a bit more of a compromise, I think, between people in the city who are trying to deal with a limited number of beds and move people in and out of shelters. But also extending some grace to the families who are there and already stuck waiting for a housing opportunity to come through and don’t necessarily have somewhere else to go besides another shelter if that extension is not approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:05] Why is this change happening? Like, how did it happen?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] The change came about really after a lot of activism and outcry from families themselves. That was actually how I met Maritza. She was one of many mothers who have been showing up to City Hall and telling city officials that this 30-day extension process was extremely taxing and telling them, you know, we don’t want to stay in shelters forever. We want housing. But it’s really stressful to have to go through this extra process week after week, month after month of ensuring that you can just stay where you’re at while you’re waiting for housing to come through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:08:50] For my autistic kid. This is a challenge, like transfer from one shelter to the next shelter, there’s no stability. There is a lot of behavior issues because of that. It’s a lot a stress for him and for us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:09:11] And the city listened. And they said, okay, we’ll space that out a bit more, give you a little more breathing room while other parts of the homelessness system are hopefully catching up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] I want to talk a little more about this instability in shelters for families, because obviously the best case scenario is that when you get sent into a shelter, you then get eventually moved into some sort of permanent, more stable housing. But how often is that even happening for families like Maritza’s in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:10:07] A report from March of this year found that just 13% of people in the city’s shelters exited to permanent housing. That was overall. And for families specifically, it was a little higher, around 21%. But that’s still, you know, less than a quarter of families who are leaving shelters for housing. Many are moving back into other shelters, or they are deciding to stay in cars or doubling up with friends and family. For the majority, the city just doesn’t know. They might reach the end of their time limit at the shelter and then exit the city’s system of care entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] Why are these numbers so low? Does it really all just come back down to the fact that there is simply not enough affordable housing in California and in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:10:58] That’s certainly a big part of it, and that’s what Christin Evans, who is a member of the city’s Homeless Oversight Board, shared with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christin Evans \u003c/strong>[00:11:07] When people come into shelter, they’re seeking assistance to secure stable housing. They don’t want to remain in the shelter. They actually want to exit to a permanent housing situation. We have limited amount of funds that are going to rapid rehousing vouchers and permanent supportive housing placements and there are very long wait lists for people to get resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:11:28] It’s also some upstream effects too, like the city can also prevent homelessness by helping families who are facing eviction, providing legal aid to folks who maybe are going through a messy divorce that could cause them to lose their housing. You know, there are so many ways that people can become homeless. And so, yes, it’s certainly a deficit of affordable housing, specifically for people who have little to no income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christin Evans \u003c/strong>[00:12:03] I’ve been working with a senior that has three school-age children and he just doesn’t make enough money. So this is the problem. We just have a lack of affordable housing, especially if you had two or more children. It’s really hard to find housing that would be within minimum wage or low wage workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:12:29] There are people who are just living on razor thin margins and that can also be a really powerful place where the city can address homelessness before it reaches that point, before someone needs a shelter bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:47] Coming back to Maritza here, what does she tell you about how this change to shelter stays and extensions are gonna help her in her daily life?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:13:00] Yeah, I mean, Maritza, I think is pretty clear-eyed about it. She’s grateful that she has, you know, one less thing that she had to do every four weeks or probably even more frequently than that, you know by not having to apply for a shelter extension so often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:13:20] This is a new thing for me, and I’m just gonna follow through. I don’t know yet how is it gonna go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:13:31] But she also recognizes that staying at the shelter is not the end goal for the city or for her and her family. Quite simply, she wants a home for her children. She is on the wait list for an apartment right now and has applied for housing vouchers and other support, but she’s still waiting to hear back. And in the meantime, her stay at the shelter is limited. And even though she can request extensions and doesn’t have to do so quite as frequently now, she still doesn’t wanna get caught there and wants to build a stable life for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:14:11] It will be nice for people to understand that we are humans, and it’s not that we want to be there. It is a process for us to move forward, and it will be for people to really see the children, our children, and that they have compassion and love for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:30] I mean, you cover homelessness in San Francisco. You’ve been covering Mayor Daniel Lurie’s approach to homelessness. I’m curious what takeaways you might have on the challenges that families in particular are facing around homelessness in Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:14:49] You know, the city has put a lot of emphasis on clearing street homelessness, particularly for people with substance use disorder. And those people do need help, but families like Maritza’s, like we talked about, often go unnoticed. You know, her kids are in the city’s public schools. Her youngest daughter is starting kindergarten this fall. She’s active in her community and you just probably wouldn’t know she’s homeless if you saw her just picking up groceries at your local store. And at the same time, advocates say that families like hers are losing some attention and quite literal like material resources. In the city’s current fight over homeless funding and with this priority on clearing tents and sidewalks. The city is still planning to build more shelters, to be clear. The mayor’s office has said that they have about 1,000 shelter beds that they were planning to open by the end of the year. We’ll see if that actually comes about. It’s worth pointing out that many of these families, the city’s even quote unquote affordable housing doesn’t cut it. Vouchers and subsidized housing are really important and those are also limited resources. Because without places where people can move on to, the city kind of creates this bottleneck in the shelter system and beds become limited too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:28] Well, Sydney, thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:16:33] Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:01:41] I wanted to focus on families because many of them already live in shelters and are not visible on the streets and are are not necessarily part of this population that the city is putting a lot of focus on right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:56] Sydney Johnson is a reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] They end up getting stuck in shelters and have had time limits for how long that they can stay there. And that can be a really tedious, onerous process to go through that extension while you’re waiting for housing to come through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:16] I know you met a family living in a shelter. Can you tell me a little bit about Maritza Salinas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:02:22] Maritza is a mother of three and she’s living in one of the city’s homeless shelters for families. She’s originally from El Salvador, but moved to the Bay Area when she was 19 and has lived in San Francisco for many years now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:02:38] Maritza, I’m curious what a, just like a typical day is like for you and your family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:02:45] For me, as a single mom, it’s many things daily. And sometimes I am blessed to accomplish one thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:02:53] I spent some time with her and her two littlest ones, Matthew who’s six and Renee who’s four. And you know, they’re just adorable little kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:03:04] We get up daily, shower first thing, prayer, and we make food. We share kitchen and community so you have to get up very early when nobody else is awake so you can have time to cook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:28] How did she and her kids end up in a shelter?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:03:33] So Maritza became homeless after leaving an abusive relationship in 2022. And this is unfortunately a pretty common experience for many mothers and families who are in the city’s shelter system. And it’s also a reminder of why shelters are important. People often need a place to go, sometimes immediately, when they know it’s time to leave their situation or if they don’t have a choice and are evicted. So she now lives in a shelter for families in the south of Market. It’s one of several shelters she’s bounced around from, including shelters specifically for domestic violence survivors. But these place often have time limits for how long you can stay. And, you know, she’s grateful to have the shelter and says the staff there are helpful and kind to her kids and that her children have other kids to play with there too. But it’s been a really unstable situation bouncing from shelter to shelter, and they’re really just looking for a home to stay in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:04:40] I have two extensions with Harbor House, which that comes to six months. And when those six months ends, that’s the question, right? Where we gonna go? What we gonna do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:57] Shelters aren’t meant to be forever homes, but affordable forever homes are just really hard to come by. At the same time, the city is focusing more on moving people off the streets and into these shelters, and they need more open beds to do that. So in December, San Francisco decided families could only stay in shelters for 90 days. And if they wanted to stay longer, they’d have to apply for it. When this rule was announced, families like Maritza’s pushed back because it felt like they were being punished for a system that just doesn’t move people into permanent housing fast enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:05:42] The shelter she’s staying at right now, she currently has a 90 day limit before she can apply for an extension. But at the last shelter she was at, she did reach that end of the term. And so she was waiting for an expansion to come through. She said it was an extremely confusing process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:06:02] When I was being pushed away from Hamilton without an extension and it’s like y’all saying it’s so easy, it sounds so easy but I’m being pushed away, like what I’m supposed to do you know like where do I need to go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:06:15] Families and advocates for people who are unhoused said this was incredibly stressful to essentially just be chasing application after application because they essentially were still just waiting for rapid rehousing vouchers or permanent housing placements to come through. For Maritza, she has stayed in shelters, but she has also stayed in cars. She has had her kids stay with family members. She stayed in hotels, and all of that change and disruption can be really taxing and demoralizing as you’re trying to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:03] That said, we are talking about this because changes are coming to these shelter extension rules in San Francisco, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] Right. So the city recently announced that instead of requiring people who are in shelters to apply for extensions every 30 days, they now get about three months or 90 days at their shelter stay. You know, that still requires going through an application process, but it’s a bit more of a compromise, I think, between people in the city who are trying to deal with a limited number of beds and move people in and out of shelters. But also extending some grace to the families who are there and already stuck waiting for a housing opportunity to come through and don’t necessarily have somewhere else to go besides another shelter if that extension is not approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:05] Why is this change happening? Like, how did it happen?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] The change came about really after a lot of activism and outcry from families themselves. That was actually how I met Maritza. She was one of many mothers who have been showing up to City Hall and telling city officials that this 30-day extension process was extremely taxing and telling them, you know, we don’t want to stay in shelters forever. We want housing. But it’s really stressful to have to go through this extra process week after week, month after month of ensuring that you can just stay where you’re at while you’re waiting for housing to come through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:08:50] For my autistic kid. This is a challenge, like transfer from one shelter to the next shelter, there’s no stability. There is a lot of behavior issues because of that. It’s a lot a stress for him and for us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:09:11] And the city listened. And they said, okay, we’ll space that out a bit more, give you a little more breathing room while other parts of the homelessness system are hopefully catching up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] I want to talk a little more about this instability in shelters for families, because obviously the best case scenario is that when you get sent into a shelter, you then get eventually moved into some sort of permanent, more stable housing. But how often is that even happening for families like Maritza’s in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:10:07] A report from March of this year found that just 13% of people in the city’s shelters exited to permanent housing. That was overall. And for families specifically, it was a little higher, around 21%. But that’s still, you know, less than a quarter of families who are leaving shelters for housing. Many are moving back into other shelters, or they are deciding to stay in cars or doubling up with friends and family. For the majority, the city just doesn’t know. They might reach the end of their time limit at the shelter and then exit the city’s system of care entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] Why are these numbers so low? Does it really all just come back down to the fact that there is simply not enough affordable housing in California and in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:10:58] That’s certainly a big part of it, and that’s what Christin Evans, who is a member of the city’s Homeless Oversight Board, shared with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christin Evans \u003c/strong>[00:11:07] When people come into shelter, they’re seeking assistance to secure stable housing. They don’t want to remain in the shelter. They actually want to exit to a permanent housing situation. We have limited amount of funds that are going to rapid rehousing vouchers and permanent supportive housing placements and there are very long wait lists for people to get resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:11:28] It’s also some upstream effects too, like the city can also prevent homelessness by helping families who are facing eviction, providing legal aid to folks who maybe are going through a messy divorce that could cause them to lose their housing. You know, there are so many ways that people can become homeless. And so, yes, it’s certainly a deficit of affordable housing, specifically for people who have little to no income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christin Evans \u003c/strong>[00:12:03] I’ve been working with a senior that has three school-age children and he just doesn’t make enough money. So this is the problem. We just have a lack of affordable housing, especially if you had two or more children. It’s really hard to find housing that would be within minimum wage or low wage workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:12:29] There are people who are just living on razor thin margins and that can also be a really powerful place where the city can address homelessness before it reaches that point, before someone needs a shelter bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:47] Coming back to Maritza here, what does she tell you about how this change to shelter stays and extensions are gonna help her in her daily life?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:13:00] Yeah, I mean, Maritza, I think is pretty clear-eyed about it. She’s grateful that she has, you know, one less thing that she had to do every four weeks or probably even more frequently than that, you know by not having to apply for a shelter extension so often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:13:20] This is a new thing for me, and I’m just gonna follow through. I don’t know yet how is it gonna go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:13:31] But she also recognizes that staying at the shelter is not the end goal for the city or for her and her family. Quite simply, she wants a home for her children. She is on the wait list for an apartment right now and has applied for housing vouchers and other support, but she’s still waiting to hear back. And in the meantime, her stay at the shelter is limited. And even though she can request extensions and doesn’t have to do so quite as frequently now, she still doesn’t wanna get caught there and wants to build a stable life for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maritza Salinas \u003c/strong>[00:14:11] It will be nice for people to understand that we are humans, and it’s not that we want to be there. It is a process for us to move forward, and it will be for people to really see the children, our children, and that they have compassion and love for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:30] I mean, you cover homelessness in San Francisco. You’ve been covering Mayor Daniel Lurie’s approach to homelessness. I’m curious what takeaways you might have on the challenges that families in particular are facing around homelessness in Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:14:49] You know, the city has put a lot of emphasis on clearing street homelessness, particularly for people with substance use disorder. And those people do need help, but families like Maritza’s, like we talked about, often go unnoticed. You know, her kids are in the city’s public schools. Her youngest daughter is starting kindergarten this fall. She’s active in her community and you just probably wouldn’t know she’s homeless if you saw her just picking up groceries at your local store. And at the same time, advocates say that families like hers are losing some attention and quite literal like material resources. In the city’s current fight over homeless funding and with this priority on clearing tents and sidewalks. The city is still planning to build more shelters, to be clear. The mayor’s office has said that they have about 1,000 shelter beds that they were planning to open by the end of the year. We’ll see if that actually comes about. It’s worth pointing out that many of these families, the city’s even quote unquote affordable housing doesn’t cut it. Vouchers and subsidized housing are really important and those are also limited resources. Because without places where people can move on to, the city kind of creates this bottleneck in the shelter system and beds become limited too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:28] Well, Sydney, thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sydney Johnson \u003c/strong>[00:16:33] Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco is one step closer to establishing a city-wide standard for opening homeless shelters after city leaders this week voted on legislation that would\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038376/tenderloin-welcomes-mental-health-clinic-demands-broader-city-action-on-homelessness\"> spread out shelters more equitably\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The One City Shelter Act, authored by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, is part of a broader effort to address the shortage of shelter for its homeless population, and address concerns of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037895/12037895-autosave-v1\">Tenderloin and South of Market residents \u003c/a>who say their neighborhoods already house more than their fair share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seventy-five percent of the city’s shelters and housing beds are situated in eight neighborhoods, according to \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/CON_Shelter_Assessment_Report.pdf\">city data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new legislation is a departure from Mahmood’s original proposal back in April, which would have required that new shelters be built in each district. But after weeks of talks with Mayor Daniel Lurie and other lawmakers, Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, adopted his proposal as a model that proposes new shelters based on neighborhood needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood also amended his original proposal to construct new shelters — which include transitional housing facilities and treatment centers — at least 300 feet away from existing shelters nearby. Originally, the proposed distance was at least 1,000 feet from existing shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco City Supervisor Bilal Mahmood speaks at a rally against the Trump administration’s travel bans in front of City Hall in San Francisco on June 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a commitment to new neighborhoods that are going to help their unhoused neighbors come indoors,” Mahmood told KQED. “We’re not going to put multiple shelters on the same block.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation also requires the city to conduct a report every two years to monitor which neighborhoods are meeting their shelter capacity. Based on the results, the city would then reallocate funding for neighborhoods with greater need.[aside postID=news_12049612 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-SHELTERFAMILIES-05-BL-KQED.jpg']The board voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill on Tuesday. Supervisors Connie Chan and Chyanne Chen voted against it, with Chan calling the bill “overly prescriptive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Placing a shelter in every neighborhood without intentional community input won’t address root causes of housing and affordability, behavioral health issues and more,” Chen said in the meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coalition on Homelessness’s executive director, Jennifer Friedenbach, echoed Chen’s concern over a lack of housing and the city’s overreliance on emergency shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Shelter should not be expanded unless housing is expanded along with it,” Friedenbach said. “You want them to move out and into housing, and then that leaves the bed open for someone else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Friedenbach supports more geographic diversity within the city’s shelter system, she also pushed back against the idea that unhoused residents are “a burden.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation is slated for a final consent vote in September before it lands on Lurie’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco is one step closer to establishing a city-wide standard for opening homeless shelters after city leaders this week voted on legislation that would\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038376/tenderloin-welcomes-mental-health-clinic-demands-broader-city-action-on-homelessness\"> spread out shelters more equitably\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The One City Shelter Act, authored by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, is part of a broader effort to address the shortage of shelter for its homeless population, and address concerns of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037895/12037895-autosave-v1\">Tenderloin and South of Market residents \u003c/a>who say their neighborhoods already house more than their fair share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seventy-five percent of the city’s shelters and housing beds are situated in eight neighborhoods, according to \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/CON_Shelter_Assessment_Report.pdf\">city data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new legislation is a departure from Mahmood’s original proposal back in April, which would have required that new shelters be built in each district. But after weeks of talks with Mayor Daniel Lurie and other lawmakers, Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, adopted his proposal as a model that proposes new shelters based on neighborhood needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood also amended his original proposal to construct new shelters — which include transitional housing facilities and treatment centers — at least 300 feet away from existing shelters nearby. Originally, the proposed distance was at least 1,000 feet from existing shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco City Supervisor Bilal Mahmood speaks at a rally against the Trump administration’s travel bans in front of City Hall in San Francisco on June 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a commitment to new neighborhoods that are going to help their unhoused neighbors come indoors,” Mahmood told KQED. “We’re not going to put multiple shelters on the same block.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation also requires the city to conduct a report every two years to monitor which neighborhoods are meeting their shelter capacity. Based on the results, the city would then reallocate funding for neighborhoods with greater need.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The board voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill on Tuesday. Supervisors Connie Chan and Chyanne Chen voted against it, with Chan calling the bill “overly prescriptive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Placing a shelter in every neighborhood without intentional community input won’t address root causes of housing and affordability, behavioral health issues and more,” Chen said in the meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coalition on Homelessness’s executive director, Jennifer Friedenbach, echoed Chen’s concern over a lack of housing and the city’s overreliance on emergency shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Shelter should not be expanded unless housing is expanded along with it,” Friedenbach said. “You want them to move out and into housing, and then that leaves the bed open for someone else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Friedenbach supports more geographic diversity within the city’s shelter system, she also pushed back against the idea that unhoused residents are “a burden.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation is slated for a final consent vote in September before it lands on Lurie’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"soldout": {
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"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
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"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
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"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
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