Homelessness

S.F. Hopes Homeless Will Start Playing Soccer, Find Homes

The same man who thought adorable puppies would solve San Francisco's panhandling problem is now saying that soccer could do what former Mayor Gavin Newsom could not: end homelessness. The city's Recreation and Parks Department just announced it was partnering with the Mayor's Homeless czar Bevan ... More >>

Why Parking Spots Make Great Beds for the Homeless

L​ast week we regaled readers with stories of residents converting highly coveted parking spots into parks, offices, and even nudist camps. Perhaps that's where Bennett Austin, a local advertising student, got the idea to turn metered spots in the Haight District into beds for the homeless. All we ... More >>

Homeless Veterans' Housing Grant Isn't Enough

What would a voucher get you in San Francisco?​There are more than 136,000 homeless veterans in the U.S., and California has more than a quarter of them. So while the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is patting itself on the back for handing over more than $4 million in grant money to the Bay A ... More >>

S.F. Homeless People: How Many Are There Really?

Does this count?​Earlier this year, we told you about a survey that said tourists feel the worst thing about visiting San Francisco is the incessant panhandling -- they hate it even more than fog at the beach. But here's some news that's sure not to help reform our gritty image: There are now only ... More >>

Street Life

Homeless Who Won't Leave The Street -- No Matter What

Not just a number ​The Bay Citizen wrote today that San Francisco's homeless czar, Dariush Kayhan, has been overstating the number of homeless people who lived at the Transbay Terminal before it was closed last August for demolition. The article states he'd told two news outlets -- the Chronicle ... More >>

City Finds Homeless Woman Housing -- One Down, Thousands More to Go

Needs a lot more than just a bed for the night ​We already know it's wishful thinking that the city will reach former Mayor Gavin Newsom's pie-in-the-sky idea to end chronic homelessness by 2014 -- for plenty of reasons. But Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius points out that city leaders are trying, ... More >>

Homelessness, Weather: The Things Tourists Hate Most about S.F.

Homeless are also victims of the crappy weather in San Francisco ​Two things in San Francisco any tourist will almost certainly encounter -- foggy weather and panhandlers. That also happens to be the two issues that irritate visitors the very most about our fair city, as confirmed by a recent San ... More >>

San Francisco Wants Homeless People to Shower and Groom

A shower will get you farther in life than a college degree​Most people who live on the streets or in Portland, Ore., don't take showers -- and it's unsavory. But how can anyone expect a homeless person to find a job that pays them enough to live in an apartment if they don't lather up routinely?S ... More >>

Marty and Kelli Christensen Reunite - Marty Opts To Stay Homeless (VIDEO)

Found at last.​Kelli Christensen's long hunt to reconnect with her homeless father ended at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday when she walked up to a Muni bus shelter in front of a Market Street 7-Eleven store downtown. There, sat a man in an orange baseball cap with his head down. Her cousin, Caine, who drove ... More >>

Terminal People

The closure of the Transbay Terminal was a chance to help some of the city’s most hardcore homeless. But many didn’t want help, and others couldn’t be helped.

City Reverses Course, Promises No Reduction in Homeless Beds in 2010

Jacob Riis​San Francisco officials are expected to file documents in federal court this week stating they have reached an agreement with anti-poverty activists on a pledge to not reduce the number of shelter beds available to homeless people this year.This represents an about-face from city policy ... More >>

While our hypocritical mayor vows to reduce homeless population, city eyes cutting shelter beds

Lives in the Gulch

Gimme Shelter

Musician once played for the homeless as charity. Now he is homeless.

Look San Francisco! Somebody Knows a Better Way To Count the Homeless

A couple of weeks ago, I went on the homeless count and came to the conclusion that it was a total sham. People posted comments on the blog, asking how the count could be improved, and here's the ticket, folks: instead of trying to figure out if a person is homeless by care-bear stare ... More >>

A Numbers Game

S.F.'s flawed system for counting the homeless.

S.F. Homeless Count Is a Farce -- And I Know This Because I Volunteered

Declan McCullaghWho has one? I have one. One homeless manWhen I arrived last night at the Centra Latino de San Francisco -- my home base for the biannual homeless count -- the packed room was already abuzz with nonprofiteers trading acronyms and sweaty handshakes. ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

"What We Ultimately Can Do Is Get It to a Whole 'Nuther Level by Automating All of Our Programs." - Gavin Newsom's Plan for Homeless Robots

By Benjamin Wachs This is part of our continuing effort to see if we can watch Gavin Newsom's entire State of the City address before it kills us. Click here for all the Newsom-isodes. Today Gavin is talking about the issue of homelessness, except when he's talking about panhandling. Homeles ... More >>

RAT Entrap

Police are luring the homeless into crime. Is this time well spent?

SF Government InAction: If Anyone at City Hall was Paying Attention to the Civil Grand Jury Report, They'd be Furious. Fortunately, That Never Happens!

So the Audit says the Care Not Cash Program Works, Right?…Right?

Free Parking for Sale

Many say homeless guys who help commuters find street parking provide a valuable service. But others complain that they cause trouble.

Google To Give San Francisco's Homeless Free Phone Numbers, Voicemail

The Chronicle Mashup: An Amalgamation of All the Stories Our Local Paper Has Covered to Death

Care Not Cash Volunteer Recommends Work, Ass-Kicking to Homeless in SF Weekly Letters

Doh! Mathematically Clueless City Causes Homeless Attacks

Drugs, Booze Cause Homelessness, Says America

Week of September 19-25, 2007

Don't Book 'Em

A new library program tries to gently ease the homeless problem out the door

Love Thy Neighbor

Unless your neighbor tries to build a homeless shelter in Noe Valley

Whose Haight?

Street kids expect the neighborhood to welcome them as it did their forebears in the '60s, but residents, merchants, and cops are planning a different future

The Missing Man

Fliers plastered everywhere. Friends scouring the city. High-tech search logistics. And psychics. Why can't San Francisco find Jerry Tang?

Street Shuffle

Gavin Newsom's push to move the "chronic" homeless into supportive housing has made him the darling of the Bush administration's homelessness czar. But is there enough money to make it work?

Rich Conspiracy

Unless there's been a Newsom/Getty/bin Laden/Bush plot of some kind, how could voters support Care Not Cash?

Best Restaurant Policy

Portico

Dog Bites

What's $100 Million When You're Homeless?; We Feel Safer Already

On the Homeless Front

Providing comprehensive services for street people is morally uplifting -- and, as shown in New York, good policy

Letters to the Editor

Unanswered Questions; Let Your Comics Be Your Guide; The Homeless Problem;

The Tenderloin's Burden

New homeless shelter proposal splits neighborhood

Tender Box

Inflamed by crime, drugs, and rising rents, Tenderloin residents are now launching lawsuits to clean up the city's dumping ground

Hunting in the Shadows

A unique Oakland program coaxes homeless from the streets

Weak Foundation

The post of homeless coordinator may be so much window dressing

Dog Bites

Letters

Letters

The Last Homeless Story

Are there long-term solutions to this problem?

Paper Trails

Matrix's Happy Face

New statistics contradict Jordan's spin on homeless crackdown