Street Spirit

Trump’s Plan to Slash Affordable Housing

Features   Uncategorized
Trump plans massive cuts to HUD’s low-income housing, yet proposes billions more in federal subsidies that benefit banks, realtors and homeowners. All this pain and suffering so that HUD’s budget can be reduced to $40.7 billion while homeowner subsidies are expected to rise to $162.5 billion.

My Art Makes My Life Matter

Arts and Culture
“I create art as a way to bring love and faith to people who face hardship. My art is offered to uplift people who strive to overcome oppression. My art is for people who find strength and unity in our community’s historic and endless struggle for justice.” — Leon Kennedy

The System of Repression Is a Disaster

Features   In Dialogue
The depth of the love and resistance and solidarity and strength that keeps people going in the face of this horror is really incredible. Even with all the horrors and the violence that the state inflicts on people, still there is something about the human spirit that doesn’t surrender.

Next Step in Santa Cruz: Task Force on Homelessness

Features   Uncategorized
Several wondered why service providers and members of the homeless community were not included in the preparation of the report. The Task Force must include the faith community, neighborhood groups, local businesses, advocates for the homeless and, most importantly, members of our local homeless community.

Sidestepping Democracy: A Berkeley Tradition Lives On

By Carol Denney on
Commentary   Opinion
The anti-panhandling law, the anti-sitting law, the two-square-feet-of-possessions-only law, and the proposal to equip the smoke-free downtown with ashtrays have one thing in common: the Downtown Berkeley Association. This unelected group was given a free hand in crafting contradictory and unconstitutional legislation.

Out on the Street, Hope Is Out of Reach

By Ron Anderson on
Opinion
I recently spent the night at the homeless encampment near West Grand Avenue in Oakland. We sat on milk crates on a cold night, and we ate sandwiches while I listened as they talked about their fears, despairs and why help takes so long to reach them.

Remembering Dave Linn: An Attorney for the People

Features   Uncategorized
It is hard to defend high-profile People’s Park defendants in a contemporary legal world. It is hard to be the one man in Birkenstocks surrounded by Italian suits. But Dave Linn took the cases most people would assess as unwinnable, and gave them his full attention.

The Debate Over Tiny Homes: Ask Those Who Have No Home

Features   Uncategorized
Living on the streets is dangerous and debilitating. People’s meager belongings can be stolen; they can be assaulted. If we listen to people who are currently housed but have experienced periods of homelessness, it is clear that the effects, physical and psychological, have never left them.

The Street Spirit Interview with Amir Soltani

Features   In Dialogue
People wanted the recycling center gone because they just didn’t want the poor around them. It’s a game of Monopoly in which everybody’s interests are linked to the price of real estate, without the slightest concern about what speculation in land prices does to communities.

How to Save a Life

By Janny Castillo on
Opinion
On the street, I see someone who looks like my brother, dresses like him, moves like him. For a moment, I suspend the truth and say, “There’s my brother.” The moment passes too soon. But there are many who suffer still, and I try to treat them like brothers, for my brother.