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Why the ‘right to shelter’ is wrong

By Randy Shaw on
Commentary   Opinion
In response to rising homelessness, key Califonia politicians are drawing the wrong conclusions about what needs to be done. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who heads Governor Newsom’s Commission on Homelessness, is leading this misguided effort.

Homeless in Trump’s America

By Peter Y. Sussman on
Commentary   Features   Opinion
A man who lives at taxpayer expense in luxurious public housing in Washington, D.C. has started a campaign against those who aren’t so lucky. There’s something that repels him about homeless people, and in two appearances in recent months, the president began to clarify what it is.

Where are Berkeley’s mobile showers?

By Timothy Busby on
Commentary   Opinion
Summertime is here in sunny Northern California, but what does that mean for the homeless living on the streets? It’s not that hard to figure out, it means limited access to showers, sweating all day, wearing stinking clothes and a real need for access to the basic human necessities.

Gentrification abroad: The destruction of a Roma village

By Sylvia Sawislak on
Arts and Culture   Commentary   YSA youth contributions
As I walk through a Roma village in Istanbul, I see pink and yellow painted houses that are rusting, with open windows that have clothes hanging down the sides. There is trash everywhere I step. Ahead of me in the distance, I see tall buildings that are multicolored and modern. These are the apartment buildings that are replacing the Roma village. As Roma activist Sadi Cati shows me around, the Roma people living in the little houses look very unhappy while staring at me.

Berkeley homeless services imperiled

By Susan Black on
Commentary   Opinion
At the Berkeley city council meet- ing on May 21, Berkeley’s City Manager unveiled her budget proposal for the next four years. This proposed budget would eliminate $223,356 from Dorothy Day House’s proposed funding. This amounts to a 20 percent cut in the money we will receive from the city.

39 years of Food Not Bombs

By Keith McHenry on
Commentary   Opinion
Food Not Bombs has been serving meals at People’s Park five days a week since 1991. And as the Park commemorates its 50th anniversary, Food Not Bombs is celebrating 39 years serving meals to the hungry. In honor of this shared anniversary, Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry shares his project’s origin story.

Unity grows in East Bay activism

By Dayton Andrews on
Commentary   Opinion
I have seen something quite remarkable start to develop over the last few months. In the face of increased pressure on working people to find decent housing, some of the most hard-pressed people in the Bay Area have not only been standing their ground against threats of eviction—they are also traveling across neighborhoods to support comrades in other struggles doing the same.

The economy of prison and homelessness

By Kevin D. Sawyer on
Arts and Culture   Commentary   Opinion   YSA youth contributions
The United States misappropriates resources (including the human ones) in a business-as-usual profit over people custom. For decades, the U.S. prison industrial complex has embraced tough-on-crime legislation to branch its growth through the incarceration of its citizens. One of the many downsides of this policy is the increase in people living in squalor while others are “sheltered” in the name of public safety.