Street Speak
Street Speak
Episode 2: What is an Encampment Sweep?
Episode 2: What is an Encampment Sweep?
Feb 14, 2020
What happens when enough 311 complaints come in and the city decides to clear out a community of people? What happens to their belongings? And importantly, with over a thousand people on the shelter waitlist, where are people supposed to go? Today we answer the question, what is an encampment sweep?
To get a better sense of what an encampment sweep is, we sat down with Couper Orona, who has experienced sweeps firsthand during her ten years of homelessness and who is a team member of the project Stolen Belonging, led by artist Leslie Dreyer. The project explores the impacts of encampment sweeps on homeless people by documenting the personal items confiscated by police and DPW.
We also spoke with Human Rights Organizer Kelley Cutler, whose work at the Coalition on Homelessness has involved speaking with hundreds of people impacted by sweeps and advocating for policy changes through organizing and action.
The weather report for this episode is brought to you by Banda Sin Nombre, a five-piece street band from San Francisco's Mission District dedicated to performing folk music from around the world. Mixing rich vocal harmonies with acoustic instruments including guitar, fiddle, cajon, charango, and bass, the band's inspirations range from Peruvian chicha to Catalan rumba and Appalachian old time to cumbia. You heard their original song Yo No Quiero Trabajar.
On this episode:
Stolen Belonging Project: https://www.stolenbelonging.org/
Coalition on Homelessness: http://www.cohsf.org/
Solutions Not Sweeps: https://solutionsnotsweeps.org/
Banda Sin Nombre: http://www.bandasinnombre.com/
You're listening to the Street Speak podcast answering your questions about poverty and homelessness in San Francisco. This podcast is produced by the street sheet newspaper. Homeless people and advocates all over San Francisco are decrying the city's practice of sweeping encampments, taking on house people's belongings and telling people to move along.
Brian Edwards :I talked to the police and they said that they had been ordered they've had so many complaints that they have to clear this today.
Quiver Watts :We are your hosts, Quiver Watts
TJ Johnston :and TJ Johnston.
Quiver Watts :What happens when enough 311 complaints come in and the city decides to clear out a community of people? what happens to their belongings? And importantly, with over 1000 people on the shelter waitlist, Where are people supposed to go?
Brian Edwards :Today, and that they are waiting on HOT to finish their engagement and whoever hot doesn't take they are going to clear and that they're going to call in DPW trash trucks. So the sergeant is waiting on his orders to move. There's 10 police that I could count and it looks like there's more in vehicles looks like DPW has just shown up and HOT confirmed that they want to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible because they don't want to be connected with what's gonna happen afterwards.
TJ Johnston :Today we answer the question, what is an encampment sweep?
Shaka :My name is Shaka. It's 70 right now. January 23, Thursday, 2020.
Quiver Watts :You're hearing from Shaka, an advocate on the scene when police showed up to sweep Willow street, a block in the tenderloin where many unhoused people have been pushed.
Shaka :The police arrived near on middle Willow. And they're often people HOT team, HOT team, HOT team. So they called the HOT team people out here. The HOT team people are here. But I've noticed this though, they're not doing that because they care about the people, they're doing that because they're gonna come up with something else to make you say, you're gonna go inside or you're gonna go to jail. They don't want to deal with the problem. He's gonna take the tent and throw it away, as opposed to a person in that tent needs services. Okay, so then we can't solve that 30 days. The police present you with the resource of course you ain't gonna go. You quit the HOT team with the police. The police just call the HOT team like go do your job. Why are you doing that? Like I wasn't getting the damn Vance. I saw the police at the pool. If the police asked me if I wanted to go out I would say hell no. But if the HOT team people came here by theyself, different story. That's when I want. If you want to eliminate homeless you got when you do a census how many homeless people and did you have enough beds for them? Then you could justify taking people's tents and shit because you have somewhere for them to go.
TJ Johnston :This isn't the first time Shaka has experienced an encampment sweep. He says the process of sweeping people has changed over time.
Shaka :I've been here, when you were just taking tents from people in the rain, go to jail, give it to them or go to jail. People were giving their tents up.When they start coming by, sent two different messages. So some police would come and say, just break it down, break your tent down. Some police would just come and take your tent. So after that I was here when they offered you services, but the service is only for one week.
Quiver Watts :Wow.
Shaka :So that's not even getting a chance to even rest for a week anywhere from a week to 30 days, which is really not enough time for a person to go on they feet.
Quiver Watts :Because of the presence of advocates like Shaka and Brian from the Coalition on Homelessness, the police left for the day, but everyone knew they would be back the next day and probably the day after that to continue shuffling people from block to block.
Brian Edwards :So what happened is that HOT left hastily. There was going to be a police operation. That police operation got cancelled, largely because probably the coalition on homelessness showed up, and HOT is back to do more lengthy engagements with folks to try and find people that want to take Nav placements. And if they can fill up enough Nav placements, they can probably hold off the action and the operation until at least tomorrow. But so when they were first here, they were just literally running up to tents trying to stay clear the cops. Hey, you guys want that placement? No. Okay. See ya, because they really do try and separate themselves from the cops as much as possible because, you know there's an issue. They don't want to be seen as the velvet glove. Now when you call 311, it gets dispatched through the Department Emergency Management and the majority of responses are SFPD with DPW attached. There's 80 police, there's 80 police that are tasked with responding to homelessness and only 40 homeless outreach team members. So who is it going to go to? It is going to go to the cops.
TJ Johnston :To get a better sense of what an encampment sweep We sat down with Cooper, who has experienced sweeps firsthand during her 10 years of homelessness, and who is a team member of the project 'Stolen Belonging', led by artist Leslie Dreier. The project explores the impacts of encampment sweeps on homeless people by documenting the personal items confiscated by police and public works. We asked Cooper what happens when police respond to an encampment and she explained that there are two ways police might respond to a complaint about an encampment: either with a sweep or with a resolution.
Couper Orona :My name is Couper Orona. I happen to be an unhoused San Francisco resident at the moment and I'm a homeless advocate and a breakdance fighter. No just joking! Well, an encampment sweep is,when the police when they do it they're supposed to do it by the book when they do buy the book it is: They come out to an area that is a large encampment, usually something that has a lot of 311 calls, something that is, you know, they're impeding the sidewalks or something where, you know, residents or businesses are bothered by the said, issues that are happening within that encampment though the HOT team has a little team like encampment resolution that they that's their little, whatever moniker or whatever, but they go out there and they let people know that this area is gonna be swept, it's gonna be swept, and you're gonna have you have to go. So they, in an ideal world they supposed to give them there's usually it's like a couple weeks, but ideally they only really give you 72 hour notice and then another written 24 hour notice. But they should come out early because people have a lot of stuff it it's a larger encampment. They give them some time and then they'll come back and visit them. You know, in a perfect world, they visit them and say hey you guys time's coming up. And then when the when the sweep, when the actual sweep happens the day of there will be this when the cops show up obviously, with the DPW workers and you know, big trash trucks and they start you know, going through and you know, taking peoples' stuff and/or you know what they told people it you know, this particular encampment sweep that it was coming, so they people knew that it was coming and most people were prepared and they go along with the program. Then we have with, you know, another sweep, it's not, you know, all wrapped up in a nice little bow that the cops just go out and say they see, you know, a couple guys in a tent or whatever, like, you know, you guys got to get the fuck out of here, like bounce, you know, in these 311 calls or they give me a you know, a couple tents, whatever. And if they don't within like an hour instead of days or weeks, they tell him within minutes, you got to get your shit and get the fuck out. And if they don't, you know, if they move too slowly cops can, you know, and they could take their tent. They say for evidence, they keep it so that person has no shelter. Or they just threaten them straight out threaten them like, you can either leave or we take you to jail. That's what's on the street right now that's what's happening at this moment, what the cops are doing. So people end up leaving all their stuff, all their belongings and all the things that they have. They pretty much left in this world and so they don't go to jail. So we have a couple different types of sweeps that hopefully I answered a little bit about whatyou know...
TJ Johnston :She also had some thoughts on why they might do a sweep versus a resolution.
Couper Orona :I think that whenever the like the supervisor of that area, they want it to get some press, they want to get something, then they do like an encampment resolution, you know, sweep, where it's all by the book and here comes the HOT team there. They're supporting, getting housing. Bringing people into shelters and/or navigation It's all pretty with like a little bow like oh here, it's all for media and it's all for you know, it's not for actually the people that are out there experiencing homelessness right now they also they when they do just your basic cop sweep, you know there's no cameras, there's no pretty pictures, there's no nothing, it's just like Get the fuck up and go.
Quiver Watts :So when the police do a resolution, they may offer reprieve from displacement temporarily, while offering people in the encampment some form of services. But as soon as that period is up, then any homeless person camping in that area can be pushed out with no warning whatsoever. But whether the police do a sweep or an encampment resolution, they show up with public works employees who oftentimes confiscate people's belongings. Cooper told us what they are supposed to do when they take someone's belongings and also what really happens.
Couper Orona :What's supposed to happen is when they come in and they do these sweeps, they're supposed to do what's called a 'Bag and tag'. And that's like, whatever you do, whatever items, like if the person's there at their encampment at their tent, you, you're not supposed to take their stuff. Because they're there. They're the owner of that stuff. They're there, they have the right to, you know, they're packing up whatever you want them to do if you need to clean the sidewalk, well, then they're gonna move their stuff, you know, out of the way. You're supposed to be able to if you're not there, you're supposed to have someone that is watching your stuff so that your stuff doesn't get taken. But I'll get to the what happens. I'm trying to give you the 'supposed to happen' you know, but so when you...whenever they do, they come up and...they start to just kind of start grabbing tents, or items, regardless of the person's there or not. So that's what's not supposed to happen, obviously. And a lot of the DPW and the cops know whose tent is who's, so a lot of times, like you say, like, for instance, like, Heather, is there watching her ten with Fozzie or, or Crystal and that now they know who's tent is who's so like, this isn't your tent, this is not your stuff, but I'm watching, even in their own policies and procedures, there can be someone there watching the things because everyone has to go to the bathroom. And that's usually when they do, they'll swoop in, when someone says, they see him leave, and then they'll go and just take their whole tent, everything they have, throw it in the back of their truck, and they're gone. When they 'bag and tag' when they when the person is there. And there's they're saying, 'Well, you know, we're taking all this stuff, because maybe the person is going to jail' or whatever or something. They're supposed to give a written receipt to the person that is the owner of those things. And then they have 90 days to come and pick that up. So say if, you know, 15th and Michigan got swept well on, you know, 1/29/2020, well, when you go and see 'Oh, my tents gone,' you should really go down to that to the DPW yard and be able to get your items. 'Okay, it was the street, the time, the date' that's all you pretty much need, because if you weren't 'bagged and tagged' then they don't know who you are so they don't know, but they know the area they got swept...But what we're finding out is that, what we have found out is that, it doesn't exist, pretty much, we have seen and been part of taking people out there and it's crickets, you know, there's no nothing, nothing's there. And people come with their, their their receipt from the bag and tag. It says what they have you know, it's maybe like two weeks later, there's nothing there. Something happened like the the yard was broken into or, you know, it never made it into the lot or never made it past the, the, you know, the DPW yard fence. You know, I mean, so what's happening between there where's the items going? Where's these peoples' stuff? Where's it at? And that's what we've yet to get. No, we've yet to get anyone stuff back. I mean, and so that's a problem. So basically, there's stealing from folks that are, you know, the unhoused San Francisco residents, you know...
TJ Johnston :So every day San Francisco Police and Public Works are going out to encampments, usually because they've gotten a lot of calls at 311. And they're taking the belongings of homeless people who already have almost nothing. Cooper talks to us about what kinds of things she and other people experiencing homelessness have lost through the violence of these encampment sweeps.
Couper Orona :Basically, shelter is one of the main things that..their tents are taken. And this is usually the last...this is the only shelter they have from the rain. So whatever we're having, what kind of weather also from the wind ....you know just the things you basically just....when someone has a tent, they have that comfort of, of having their own space and their safety. And when that's taken away, it's it's it's such a fucked up situation because it's like, now everyone can see you now everyone knows what you're doing, everyone. You're more chances of getting harmed or robbed or you know, sexually assaulted if you're a female like, you know, that little bit of shelter that little small tent is is like a castle to most people. I know it was for me because it was my safety, it was my structure and I felt safe in there. And and then only the shelter but people's, you know, the belongings and things that they had their most precious items like ashes, it's several people know many people have lost have had their parents ashes. One one guy that I know, Oscar, his family Bible from, from 1780, his whole family, everything was in there, it you know, he just said, met his family, he was reacquainted with his family after many, many years. They gave him the Bible to look at and it had tins in it, you know, he had all the pictures. I mean, things from each one of the family's weddings. It was like it I mean, they ripped that from his hands to throw that away. He searched for like, almost a year went back and forth to the DPW yard, just back and forth. And he's just, he's just beside himself because he didn't want to tell his family he lost his whole life of who he is. I mean, it is took that from him without even a second thought. You know, just because someone's unhoused, doesn't mean that they're not human, and then they're not...they don't still hold on to things, they keep things on them that are important, because that's why it's on them is because it's important. And so what happens is, is that he DPW they just come strolling through picking things up, throwing things away, putting on the truck, and then they go through it later on, they'll go through, they'll take wherever they want, and a lot of times that, you know, they make money off of it, you know, the things that they take from unhoused folks, you know, they just took their tents. I mean, so whatever is in that tent is fair game to them. And they what we found out was a lot of the, the DPW workers are selling items on the weekend at the flea market. So that's, that's an issue and a lot of these people DPW folks that were in jail and or the Jail-to-work program or homeless themselves and they're now they're, they're stealing from the people that they used to be right next to you, you know what I mean? So it's a it's really kind of sad state of affairs people are just being targeted just because they're unhoused. And there's no difference between...The only difference between someone that's housing and unhoused is they have a roof over their head. We don't. We're all San Francisco residents, so we should be treated as such, you know.
Quiver Watts :In her inaugural address this January, Mayor London Breed promised to take a 'tough love' approach to homeless people in San Francisco. As this episode airs on Valentine's Day, we ask Cooper for her take on the mayor's 'tough love'.
Couper Orona :If anything, this is already tough love, because one people are without families two they're without, you know, their items that they you know, their structure stability, their their normal feeling of safety and security is not there. So, tough love. I think London Breed needs turn around and take a look at herself in the mirror and ask herself what tough love, why she why she's being so cold hearted to people that are unhoused? what her issues are because that's what she's tough on herself because I think that that's not what people need. They don't need tough love what they need is, services that actually exist. They need for people to acknowledge them, and they need for people to feel like they belong in this fucking city because like I said, before, we are all San Francisco residents....there's no difference. We all live here. And we should be treated as San Francisco residents. I mean, come out and walk on the street, come out with Cooper, and walk on the street side by side without all the other bullshit and see what it's like to, you know, change a battery or see what your officers are like when when they tell 'hey fucker get up and move'. You know, like, 'You're, you're gonna be arrested'. See, we would take you out to the Bayshore. And help jump my friend's RV. Things like that real world experience. That's tough love. You gotta know the beat of the street. Got to touch it, taste it, feel it, lick it, whatever it is you got to do. You know you got to know the beat of the street.
TJ Johnston :While the city of San Francisco continues to deny that it is conducting sweeps, the mayor has repeatedly claimed that homeless people are 'service resistant,' and are turning down services the city tries to offer
Couper Orona :What happens on the street when they when, you know like that, you know, city halls says: 'Oh, these people we've offered them housing, but they you know, there's service resist, they don't want the services we're offering.' Well, because you may be offering something that isn't good for them. They may have a partner or they may have a child, when you offer services to somebody and they're like, 'No, no, I can't. No, I have a partner I can't leave right now because I'm watching my stuff. And my partner's at work or do my dog is you know,' so when that happens, they automatically, that's checkmark, they're like, 'Oh, well, you certainly don't want services, we offer services, we offer the navigation or whatever. And a lot of a lot of women don't want to go into navigation because they want, they want more of a woman oriented driven navigation because there's a lot of predators and they put punch anyone in the navigation. So a woman being assaulted in the navigations. There being there's, there's stuff being stolen in navigation. And so that's another problem. So people are like, No, I'm not going to navigation. I'm not going to a shelter, because, you know, so did you hear on the news? Oh, well, we had, you know, 240 people we moved to move up. But all you know, only two people wanted services, the service resistant? No, it's just a nice, pretty little word that they're, you know, trying to make it like we're, it's them this Doom the problem because they're not offering the right type of services that people need as an individual basis. But those people that gave up on themselves, or the people that have been through the system, have been let down. have been time and time again, not given services when they needed it. It's not we're not Do you want a service resistant? You know, it's the services are resistant, you know, I mean, there's no real end. So all those people that you see that like just they're just laying on the sidewalk, there's some people that don't have no shelter on those ones that give up, they gave up and they don't care anymore. This is a small percentage of us. But that's what London breed is doing to her community is she's destroying people from the inside out. Instead of telling what people need, once you ask the person what they need, and we'll go from there.
Quiver Watts :The lack of respect for the dignity and well being of homeless people is personal and it hits home for Couper.
Couper Orona :So some of the homeless people say I don't look homeless. But one time a woman walked out into traffic rather than walk next to me and I kept my encampment of 15 people in that area squared away clean and I was up against the pillar with my...there's plenty of room to walk across the sidewalk but she walks...she'd rather walk out into traffic, than walk next to me. And that still affects me to this day, it was years ago, and I say this all the time at different things that I speak at or are just talking to the general public. I looked at that woman when she's walking in traffic and I go, 'Why the fuck did you do that?' You know, and I go, 'I'm not gonna bite you and give you homelessness.' You know? I mean, it's not a disease. It's a situation. It's a hiccup in my life. I mean, but you'd rather walk into traffic than walk next to me. That's fucked up.
TJ Johnston :That was Couper Orona, a team member and advisor on the Stolen Belonging project, documenting the belongings people have lost to sweeps. To learn more about the project, you can visit StolenBelonging.org after this brief weather report, we'll hear from Kelley Cutler, a human rights organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness, about the impacts of encampment sweeps.
Quiver Watts :And now for the weather. You just heard 'Yo no quiero trabajar' an original song by Bondus en nombre. Check out Bondus en nombre's music on Spotify. You can also catch them on May 1 International Workers Day where they will share a bill with Bicicletas Por La Paz and Mission Delirium. We're back With Kelley Cutler,
Kelley Cutler :My name is Kelly Cutler. I'm a human rights organizer here at the Coalition on Homelessness. An encampments sweep is when law enforcement and oftentimes Department of Public Works also known as DPW, comes through and tells people to get out, to go away, and in the process end up taking and throwing away their belongings. Oftentimes, people are given tickets, citations, a misdemeanor for having a tent and a lot of other possible citations and then they just tell them to go away as if people just disappear. The term sweep is so fitting to describe what they do because when you look at who, what do you sweep, you sweep trash. So the city is treating people like trash.
TJ Johnston :So they're telling people they have to move along. But where can people go?
Kelley Cutler :That's the question I ask officers on a regular basis as they're doing a sweep. I say 'where are people supposed to go?' And, you know, the answer that I get consistently is oftentimes, in a very defeated way, they say, 'we don't have an answer for that,' because they don't have an answer because there is nowhere people could go. And also they they know that it doesn't work. If not later that day, or the next day, they're going to be called again on the next block over to come and do the same thing and push people right back. So it's wasting everyone's time. It's also extremely traumatic.
Quiver Watts :But can't people just go stay in a shelter?
Kelley Cutler :There's so much social stigma and stuff around homelessness. People go 'Why don't they just go to a shelter' and it's like, well. there's almost 1000 people on the shelter, waitlist and even then there's so many issues there.
TJ Johnston :So we've talked a lot about what happens when cops sweep an encampment. They may offer minimal resources, they take people's tents, they trash people's belongings. What is the impact of this kind of harassment on homeless people themselves? Kelley told us that the city has a somewhat unofficial policy revealed through records request called 'alone and unsheltered.' That means that cops are going out to engage with homeless people and encampments with the idea that folks should be separated, not in groups where they can look out for each other and 'unsheltered' meaning without a tent or anything to take cover under.
Kelley Cutler :All their stuff is being taken. Oftentimes, their ID the identification, their medication. Narcan is taken.The bizarre one to me is walkers and wheelchairs. I don't get that one, but it's a regular occurrence. But their survival gear, everything they own is taken and thrown away. And so you're having to start totally from scratch even just to get identification. And this is happening just on a regular basis. So it's not you know, just happening to a few people here, a few people there. It's, it's basically everyone that I talked to, on outreach has experienced this and regularly experiences this. And so you know, any type of stability or or it just takes everything away, which is horrible to do to someone. It's a setup. I was reading something recently about what with trauma were the thing that makes the biggest impact in, where the trauma still happens, but where for people to be able to, to kind of thrive or do better is if there's at least that community connection, even if it's just one person. And then then I was thinking about how with the city's 'alone and unsheltered' policy that they're , it's going the opposite of that is to try and to break up community and the city is, traumatizing people, and you know, actively doing that, and then officers say, 'Well, I'm just following orders.' And like, that's really bad when you got to say that. The goal of sweeps is to break apart communities. It's to...to scatter people because really the goal is to just get poor and unhoused people to go away. To get people to disappear, you know, if there's enough pressure, maybe they'll leave San Francisco or, I don't know, to go away, you know, the city will give them a bus ticket to go away. It's really just this cruelty....but it is the goal really is to break up the community, any type of social support....But that's but the reality is is that that really makes anyone more vulnerable. You know, without community then you're on your own.
Quiver Watts :Kelley is part of a group called 'Solutions Not Sweeps,' which is working to encourage the city to move away from the current practice of sweeping and criminalizing homeless people and towards offering real solutions. To help people access housing.
Kelley Cutler :With our campaign 'Solutions Not Sweep's is for actually to be fighting and pushing the city for real solutions. And things that we know that will actually work. It is pointing out how what the city and the system is currently doing, isn't working. It's making things worse. It's traumatizing people. It's costing a ton. And it's, it's just not helping. Some people think that there aren't solutions that homelessness is just, you know, that it's hopeless. But it's not. And this is not something that is...has always been here this is something you know, San Francisco didn't even have a shelter system till the early 80s because we didn't need on. Like this, what we what we see around us and this is not normal. This is something that was created. And we know how to end it, you know, housing ends homelessness. But at the moment, we don't have the political will, I would say or predict and feel pretty safe about saying this is that we're going to see things get a lot worse. It's about to get a lot worse when it comes to the human rights violations. And that's why it's so important for the community and allies and everyone to come together to start pushing back and saying this is not okay.
TJ Johnston :So as community members, what is the best way to respond to this injustice? If I'm walking to work or out on a walk, and I see police or public works employees, pushing homeless people out? What can I do to advocate for solutions?
Shaka :Anybody who advocates for homeless people is going against what they got, what they got playing what they can tolerate.
Couper Orona :Be a human being. Yeah, you know, because we are neighbors if we're out in front your house, you know, sorry, some people can be jerks and be messy, but guess what, there's still there's nowhere else to go. And they're your neighbors. And if something is not right, you know, you get you know, when you see something like, you see a cop cutting up a tent, you're like a pull out your phone, record it, you know, or go up and ask the officer 'Hey, pardon me, Officer, you know so and so what's going on ?' And of course, you know, they're gonna ask you back because you're, you know, Mister missus public, so they're gonna want to do but ask questions. Don't just walk by. Don't just ignore the situation. Because you could be that little bridge that could help the situation you don't you never know until you ask is nothing wrong with asking a question.
Kelley Cutler :I tend to start with checking in with the person who's being impacted by sweep, who's being targeted and ask, you know, if they're if they're okay, and if there's any way that I can be of support to them.
Shaka :Recording, you know. You can't say 'stop' to the police. But if you show that you are against what they doing, I mean, you got cell phones cell phones are free recorded. That's what I suggest. I mean, link hands or something I don't know. Something's gotta happen. I mean where are you gonna put people? Where we expect people to go?
Kelley Cutler :Asking the question 'Where can people go?' That will really piss off the cop but it's a legit question. Even just someone's presence who is not...does not appear to be homeless or changes the behavior of oftentimes Law enforcement or city workers because they know they're being watched. Even better, take a video.
Couper Orona :Try not to judge you know, it's It's hard. It's hard to know it's scary sometimes what about an academy you don't know if it's some naked guy screaming yelling on top of his lungs, or if it's just someone like, you know me that is sitting there fixing my BMX bike, and I'm just, you know, being part of your community be part of human human kind, remember what it's like to give a fuck about people and that's what we need to do.
Kelley Cutler :But when seeing a sweep, the biggest thing is to talk to the person that's being impacted. And, you know, just like anyone know, let you know what they need or what they don't need, but just caring is huge.
Quiver Watts :If you want to get involved, there is more you can do as well.
Kelley Cutler :Yeah, if you see a sweep and you see how horrifying it is, and you want to do something more, you can also come and get involved at the Coalition on Homelessness. We've got a Human Rights workgroup every Wednesday. From 12:30 to 2:30, and we have a Housing Justice workgroup on Tuesday from noon to two. But even if you're not available within those times, reach out to us and we can find different ways to utilize your strengths. There's so many ways that people can get involved if it's from art, if it's from writing, if it's tech or whatever, can be helpful. So come hit us up and we'll loop you in.
TJ Johnston :For more information on the human rights Working Group, visit Cohsf.org. To get involved with the solutions, not sweeps campaigns, visit SolutionsNotSweeps.org.
Quiver Watts :We covered so much in this episode, but we learned so much more from our guests that will have to cover it in another episode. Stay tuned for the next episode of Street Speak a podcast bringing you the word on the street. We will be discussing what the difference is between a traditional shelter and a navigation center.
Kelley Cutler :So these are things that people have to give up to go into a temporary stay at a Shelter. You can't be with your partner. You can't have your pet and there's very few belongings you can bring. So You gotta give up everything for this temporary stay
TJ Johnston :visit us online at street sheet.org or follow us on Facebook and Instagram at street sheet for updates.