Gentrification, eviction and displacement are growing problems around the Bay Area and beyond. We must raise our voices and take action to protect long-term and low-income residents' housing in order to prevent increases in the number of homeless families and individuals.
As students of the UC Berkeley ACES program, we worked with artist and anti-eviction organizer, Leslie Dreyer, in conjunction with the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC) and the Coalition on Homelessness (COH) throughout the Fall of 2016. We participated in creative actions against gentrification and displacement. Our mission was to fight for housing for all. Specifically, the goals SFADC and COH's actions were to raise awareness, stop anti-affordable housing propositions P and U and anti-homeless propositions Q, and R from passing. In doing so, we aimed to decrease the amount of displacement as well as the mistreatment of homeless residents in San Francisco.
As students of the UC Berkeley ACES program, we worked with artist and anti-eviction organizer, Leslie Dreyer, in conjunction with the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC) and the Coalition on Homelessness (COH) throughout the Fall of 2016. We participated in creative actions against gentrification and displacement. Our mission was to fight for housing for all. Specifically, the goals SFADC and COH's actions were to raise awareness, stop anti-affordable housing propositions P and U and anti-homeless propositions Q, and R from passing. In doing so, we aimed to decrease the amount of displacement as well as the mistreatment of homeless residents in San Francisco.
Coalition on Homelessness' Castro Action
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2016
Time: 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Location: Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 On October 13th, in the Castro District of San Francisco, as a step towards preserving the vibrant culture of the area, activists, neighbors, artists and students took action against threatening anti-homeless ballot measures. We set up large play cards in the typical house of cards style, to represent how Proposistions Q and R, were nothing but a house of cards. The similarites behind the action and the measures is simple: these measures purport to fix the housing crisis, but they do nothing of the sort. By providing no housing and removing tents (the only shelter some people have), these laws would only make life more difficult for the already disenfranchised. The measures falsely imply they'll provide housing, even though no low income housing construction or funds are included the proposistions.
Why the Castro? Twenty-nine percent of the homeless populations identify as LGBTQ+ and forty percent of homeless youth identify as queer or trans. Even though the attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community have become more accepting, homeless LGBTQ+ people are still being mistreated. An attack on homeless folks is also an attack on LGBTQ folks. |
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Prepping for Action!
The best learning happens in real life with real problems and real people and not in classrooms UC Berkeley freshman assist artist/organizer Leslie Dreyer by preparing for actions at an art warehouse in Oakland. They built tents, painted banners, and spray painted frames to hang up at the action on Mission Street.
They also assisted in staging the actions at both the Castro and Mission district locations. |
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SFADC and COH's Mission Action
Date: Thursday, November 3rd, 2016
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Location: 24th Street and Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 On Thursday, November 3rd, 2016, the event, "First They Came for Our Homes - Together We Fight Back!" took place on Mission Street. The protest was a creative action designed by artist/organizer Leslie Dreyer and co-organized with SFADC and COH that included art, music, performance and ritual that advocated for housing justice.
The event began by the 24th BART Station in San Francisco. A crowd of supporters gathered together to hold banners, carry posters and lift painted, lit-up tents. First, protesters sang songs, played music, rallied, and shared touching testimonies. Then, they marched onto the road, blocked Mission Street, and arrived at the site of burned down former rent-controlled housing. The building that used to house many low-income Latino families will likely become luxury condos for wealthy newcomers. The new condos next door, named Vida, is a prime example of how developers and the wealthy can take what low-income families have and call it their own. In the construction site, 60 white outfits were hung on a clothing line to represent the number of people who were burned out of their rent-controlled housing. On Mission Street, white furniture and actors clad in white demonstrated the spectres of the displaced. Projections on Vida condo's wall and testimonies of displaced victims on the gates surrounding the construction site gave a voice to those impacted by gentrification.The action successfully attracted a large crowd and received much public attention. The purpose of this event was to have residents come together to collectively defend housing rights for all. The Mission district is known as a melting pot that welcomes everyone and every culture. However, gentrification has become a prominent problem in the area forcing many Latino families to leave their homes. This united event of children, students, families, and people of various backgrounds showed the necessity to keep the Mission district affordable and to preserve the culture for its long-time and low-income residents. |
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