Super Bowl Protest: Tackle Homelessness
Our response: “Hey Mayor Ed Lee, No Penalties for Poverty”
We, the people of San Francisco, demand that Super Bowl City and Ed Lee pay and invest $5 million right now in housing – we could house 500 people immediately with that money.
We also demand the use of publicly-owned assets, such as the empty Pier 29 or 80, or the land under the Freeway at 101/Cesar Chavez, and create monitored programs that support secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and access to transition/healing services.
We want an end to the criminalization of poverty and the continued violations of poor people’s civil and human rights. All resources currently being used for law enforcement of anti-homeless laws must be immediately re-directed to housing and support services.
Come out in your red & gold Niners colors to #TackleHomelessness. Join the Coalition on Homelessness, First they came for the homeless, andBroke-Ass Stuart as we protest the mayor’s unjust plan and demand immediate housing for our city’s unhoused residents.
Meet up is at 4:30 on 2/3 in front of Sinbad’s on Embacadero next to the Ferry Building. We are going to set up a tent city, with plenty of visuals next to the superbowl city. Bring signs and banners and cardboard cut-outs of houses. And bring tents if you don’t mind them getting confiscated.
Also, when creating signs for Wednesday please also include in messaging:#TakeBackSF along with #TackleHomelessness
And bring noisemakers and invite musicians and performers!
In the meantime invite EVERYONE you know. Let’s show Mayor Lee how San Francisco stands up for our neighbors.
Here are some other actions taking place as well:
Thurs 1/28 @ 10am – POOR Magazine WeSearch press conference and data release on impacts of Super Bowl Sweeps (http://poormagazine.org/
—Sat 1/30 @ 11a at Union Square – march with Mario Woods Coalition
—Saturday 2/6 @ 1pm – Procession from Civic Center to Super Bowl City
Link to the SOS SF procession event page (main March – meet Civic Center BART, 1pm, Feb 6th):
https://www.facebook.com/
Link to all events:
https://www.facebook.com/
Here is the website/Facebook for the whole 10 days of action:
http://
https://www.facebook.com/
Homeless Statistics:
– There’s 1 shelter bed for every 6 homeless people
– There are 8,000 homeless households on the waitlist for public housing
– 3,300 Children make up SF’s homeless poulation
– 61% have disabilities
– 11,000 citations were given to homeless for resting in SF last year
Superbowl-Related Statistics:
– 25% of the costs for Superbowl ads would be enough to end homelessness in SF (Each 30-second Superbowl ad costs 5 million.)
– The $5 million cost to SF to host the Superbowl would house 500 homeless people.
– SFPD is responsible for clearing out homeless people for the Super Bowl by giving them citations which are already up 20% from last year.
Citations are on the increase for sleeping on the streets of San Francisco even though there are not currently viable alternatives for the thousands of unhoused residents in that situation. The Department of Justice released a memo in mid and late 2015 stating that it is ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for cities to criminalize sleeping on the street when no viable alternatives are available. Currently, we have 1 shelter bed for every 6 people on the street.
We are uniting together to demand the end of criminalization of homelessness and increased investment in real housing solutions to “TackleHomelessness”.
image by Aaron Brodeur. Photo of the woman by Franco Folini
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