Media Advisory: October 19, 2015
Contact: Mike Zint 510-725-9261, [email protected]; Mike Wilson 510-299-0493,
[email protected]
When: All-night, starting Friday October 23, 2015 at 6:00PM
Where: 4096 17th St. (near Diamond St.), San Francisco, CA
Why: To demand that San Francisco’s most upwardly-mobile politician serve
the City’s residents with the greatest needs, rather than the fewest
First They Came for the Homeless
will host a Les Misérables-themed
Scott Wiener Roast
outside his residence
Bring furniture, jokes, food to share
You’re encouraged to wear Les Misérables costumes
or nothing at all
Our Demands:
1. Stop criminalizing homelessness – it only makes the problem worse. Harassing
homeless people for sitting or lying on sidewalks, depriving them of sleep, driving them
out of parks that are their best available sanctuary makes it impossible for them to heal
the damage done to their lives.
2. Allow homeless folks to take care of themselves. With proper rest and even a
minimal sense of security, homeless people will have a better chance of organizing their
lives and of becoming self-sufficient. As San Francisco provides shelter beds for less than
20% of its homeless population, urban camping areas must exist within the City limits as
an alternative.
3. Create housing that the homeless can afford. Salt Lake City has demonstrated that
this is cheaper than hounding homeless folks like criminals and wasting money on
emergency services that obviously don’t solve the problem of homelessness.
As the 2016 election season ramps up, Americans are – true to form – hearing lots of arguments
about what to do to fix the economy. In this election cycle, we’re hearing more about growing
income inequality than ever before. According to a study by the Brookings Institute (see link
below), San Francisco has the second-highest income gap in the country, and the prevailing
strategy among the City’s power brokers appears to be to make it number one.
One of San Francisco’s rising politicians – Scott Wiener, Dist. 8 – has tried to make a name for
himself as a man-of-the-people by pushing for further codification of tenants rights. But these
measures will do little to narrow the chasm between haves and have-nots. On the suffering of
the City’s poorest residents, Wiener had this to say:
[T]aking over public space and creating structures on it - is unacceptable in any
location at any point in time. The city and our police department need to be
much more consistent in quickly addressing this behavior and sending a clear
message that it will never be tolerated.
(https://instagram.com/p/8ldK8qRV6w/?taken-by=scott_wiener)
Wiener is very involved in plans to clean up Buena Vista Park, which is in his District. To make
plans for eliminating the park as a safe place for homeless people to camp, Wiener has met with
local property owners, reps from SFPD and DPW, but has not shown any willingness to consider
the needs of homeless folks who depend on the parks as alternatives to inadequate and
dangerous shelters or “affordable” housing options that the City’s poorest residents can’t access.
Wiener has very real hopes of winning the State Senate seat for San Francisco next year. In his
last two campaigns, more than 40% of his contributions have come from real estate
development firms and the tech industry – forces that are widening the income gap. Clearly,
Scott Wiener is a tool for those who are aggressively expropriating the scant means the poor
have to survive in San Francisco.
First They Came for the Homeless:
https://www.facebook.com/First-they-came-for-the-homeless-253882908111999/
Brookings Institute: Some Cities Are Still More Unequal Than Others
http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/03/city-inequality-berube-holmes
Contact: Mike Zint 510-725-9261, [email protected]; Mike Wilson 510-299-0493,
[email protected]
When: All-night, starting Friday October 23, 2015 at 6:00PM
Where: 4096 17th St. (near Diamond St.), San Francisco, CA
Why: To demand that San Francisco’s most upwardly-mobile politician serve
the City’s residents with the greatest needs, rather than the fewest
First They Came for the Homeless
will host a Les Misérables-themed
Scott Wiener Roast
outside his residence
Bring furniture, jokes, food to share
You’re encouraged to wear Les Misérables costumes
or nothing at all
Our Demands:
1. Stop criminalizing homelessness – it only makes the problem worse. Harassing
homeless people for sitting or lying on sidewalks, depriving them of sleep, driving them
out of parks that are their best available sanctuary makes it impossible for them to heal
the damage done to their lives.
2. Allow homeless folks to take care of themselves. With proper rest and even a
minimal sense of security, homeless people will have a better chance of organizing their
lives and of becoming self-sufficient. As San Francisco provides shelter beds for less than
20% of its homeless population, urban camping areas must exist within the City limits as
an alternative.
3. Create housing that the homeless can afford. Salt Lake City has demonstrated that
this is cheaper than hounding homeless folks like criminals and wasting money on
emergency services that obviously don’t solve the problem of homelessness.
As the 2016 election season ramps up, Americans are – true to form – hearing lots of arguments
about what to do to fix the economy. In this election cycle, we’re hearing more about growing
income inequality than ever before. According to a study by the Brookings Institute (see link
below), San Francisco has the second-highest income gap in the country, and the prevailing
strategy among the City’s power brokers appears to be to make it number one.
One of San Francisco’s rising politicians – Scott Wiener, Dist. 8 – has tried to make a name for
himself as a man-of-the-people by pushing for further codification of tenants rights. But these
measures will do little to narrow the chasm between haves and have-nots. On the suffering of
the City’s poorest residents, Wiener had this to say:
[T]aking over public space and creating structures on it - is unacceptable in any
location at any point in time. The city and our police department need to be
much more consistent in quickly addressing this behavior and sending a clear
message that it will never be tolerated.
(https://instagram.com/p/8ldK8qRV6w/?taken-by=scott_wiener)
Wiener is very involved in plans to clean up Buena Vista Park, which is in his District. To make
plans for eliminating the park as a safe place for homeless people to camp, Wiener has met with
local property owners, reps from SFPD and DPW, but has not shown any willingness to consider
the needs of homeless folks who depend on the parks as alternatives to inadequate and
dangerous shelters or “affordable” housing options that the City’s poorest residents can’t access.
Wiener has very real hopes of winning the State Senate seat for San Francisco next year. In his
last two campaigns, more than 40% of his contributions have come from real estate
development firms and the tech industry – forces that are widening the income gap. Clearly,
Scott Wiener is a tool for those who are aggressively expropriating the scant means the poor
have to survive in San Francisco.
First They Came for the Homeless:
https://www.facebook.com/First-they-came-for-the-homeless-253882908111999/
Brookings Institute: Some Cities Are Still More Unequal Than Others
http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/03/city-inequality-berube-holmes