7
street roots
Dec. 21, 2012
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There’s No Place Like
Home!
v
:
Homeless Bill of Rights introduced in Calif. Legislature
By Brendan Lee
S T A F F R E P O R TS
S A N F R A N C IS C O —
Dorothy said, “there’s no place like home!”
When she tapped her heals of her red ruby
slippers together
The Oregon Ducks said, “there’s no better
place for a bowl game!”
So Kansas State welcomed the Ducks to the
Tostitos Bowl!
The Emerald City delivered by following the
Yellow brick road
And so the Oregon Ducks journey to Kansas.
Bringing the heart and spirit of Dorothy and
Toto home.
Honoring the fans of the Emerald City
With multiple touch downs & winning the
Tostitos Bowl.
There’s no place like home!
There’s no place like home in the end zone!
:
uilding off of Rhode Island’s
community effort, a coalition of
West Coast organizations is
working with Assemblymen Tom
Ammiano (D-San Francisco) to introduce
a Homeless Persons’ Bill of Rights and
Fairness Act
“We need to stop criminalizing the
behavior of people who have nowhere
else to turn,” Ammiano said. “People
who are in need of mental health
services or who have lost their jobs and
their homes are being told, ‘Move along
or go to jail.’ The Homeless Persons’ Bill
of Rights begins to give us a framework
for appropriate approaches to protecting
our communities and those who are
vulnerable.”
“From the Ugly Laws of the mid-19th
century — which made it a crime to have
a visible disability in public — through
the anti-Okie law of the Great
Depression — which made it a crime for
poor people to enter the state — up
through the present, state and local
B
governments have used unjust laws to
punish or conceal poor people,” said
Paul Boden, Organizing Director of the
Western Regional Advocacy Project
(WRAP). “But as long as these laws have
existed, there’s been resistance. We’re
introducing this bill of rights because we
believe that the time has come to
address the wrongs and most
importantly stop them from ever
happening again.”
The effort is a collaboration between
WRAP, Jericho: A Voice for Justice, and
the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
Judith Larson of Jericho said, “This is
the essence of what Jericho was formed
to do, and has continued to do for the
past 25 years.”
A similar effort has begun in Oregon.
WRAP has conducted over 800 surveys
concerning homeless people’s
interactions with law enforcement.
82 percent of survey respondents had
been hassled by law enforcement for
sleeping. 78 percent had had interactions
with law enforcement simply because
they’d been hanging out in a public
space. 77 percent had been harassed by
law enforcement for sitting down. Becky
Dennison, Co-Director of the Los
Angeles Community Action Network,
said, “When we’ve criminalized sleeping,
standing and sitting down, we’ve basically
criminalized a person’s existence. A bill
like this is long overdue.”
The act would guarantee homeless
people freedom from discrimination in
law enforcement, employment, housing
and shelter and public benefits. It
protects the right to use public space, to
keep personal property, and to engage in
life-sustaining activities. It also
guarantees people the right to counsel in
any case where they’re being prosecuted.
Paula Lomazzi from Sacramento
Homeless Organizing Committee said,
“These are basic rights that allow all
people to stay alive and engage in a
democratic society — things most of us
get to take for granted, but which remain
a daily challenge for many of the poorest
members of our communities.”
Moon Venom
By Michael Vance
Dark miracle,
Light my path.
Dark miracle,
Rip away my blindness,
Transform sound into sight
That I may see the howling of the
hounds.
Dark miracle,
Spin me like a top,
Through the whirlwinds of the night.
Dark miracle,
Reverse the limits I once believed
And may I seek poisons no more.
Dark miracle,
Release my soul into the abyss,
Beyond the lights,
And return it to my flesh
In the form of full moon light.
That I may be a slave
To gravity no more!
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