{"id":38960,"date":"2025-01-22T12:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T20:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38960"},"modified":"2025-01-22T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T20:41:15","slug":"homeless-families-sent-eviction-notices-from-s-f-shelters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/22\/homeless-families-sent-eviction-notices-from-s-f-shelters\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless families sent eviction notices from S.F. shelters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A by\u00a0XU EER LU<\/a><\/strong> JANUARY 21, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Families delivering their letter to the mayor’s office. Photo by Xueer Lu. Jan. 21, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Comic<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Karina Ortiz, a 26-year-old living in the Salvation Army Harbor House homeless shelter with her husband and seven-year-old daughter, will be evicted in March \u2014 the same month that she is due to give birth to a baby boy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of Jan. 21, Ortiz stood in Room 200 of City Hall, joined by a half dozen other families also facing eviction. The group handed a staffer a letter demanding a meeting to address their urgent needs and asking the mayor to rescind the evictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These families all received an eviction letter with the operative date of Feb. 8 or 10 \u2014 about three weeks away. Ortiz managed to get a one-month reprieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eviction notices came as a result of a change in policy from the San Francisco Department of Homeless and Supportive Housing in December. Under the new policy, homeless families are now only permitted to stay in city shelters for 90 days; previously, they could stay indefinitely. For families unable to get housing subsidies, this will put them back onto the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe share the desire to move out of the shelters and into more stable housing,\u201d the families stated in the letter to the mayor, signed by \u201cThe Recently Arrived Families Committee\u201d of Faith in Action Bay Area. \u201cBut an eviction letter with no plan and no options for where to go means we could end up on the street with our children.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Notice
An eviction notice a family received.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt a time when the new federal administration is causing so much fear, we are disappointed that your local administration is also causing fear,\u201d the letter reads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This policy change is not new: It reinstates the 90-day time limit for families in city shelters that was in place prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Deborah Bouck, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeless and Supportive Housing, said the city suspended the stay limit to \u201cstabilize the community and support people during unprecedented times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the policy adopted in December, if a family needs more time after reaching 90 days in the shelter, the shelter can authorize up to three extensions \u2014 30 days each \u2014 based on the family\u2019s circumstances. Additional extensions can also be authorized by the department based on family circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bouck said that the policy change is aimed to \u201cdevelop key reforms to the family homelessness response system.\u201d The policy change would give priority to people who are experiencing street homelessness, disability, pregnancy, fleeing domestic violence, or those who have been homeless before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mr.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Families praying outside of Room 200 before handing the letter to Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Xueer Lu. Jan. 21, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear how many families have received the notices across the city, according to Matt Alexander, the communications director for Faith in Action Bay Area, which organized today\u2019s demonstration. But Faith in Action has heard from eight families who have received the notices, Alexander said. And families are still spreading the word across shelters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander also said that none of the eviction notices so far have been issued from the department; all are from individual shelters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathalie Hrizi, a vice president at the  United Educators of San Francisco teachers\u2019 union, also tagged along with the families at City Hall. Hrizi said she heard about the evictions last week and was \u201cupset, angry, and frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 2,403 San Francisco public school children are homeless, according to the school district\u2019s 2023 report<\/a>, which accounts for 4.3 percent of the 55,452 students enrolled that year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guide\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Families going into Room 200 to deliver their letter. Photo by Xueer Lu. Jan. 21, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco has 405 families \u2014 1,103 people \u2014 experiencing homelessness, according to the city\u2019s 2024 point-in-time count<\/a>. That number is likely an undercount, however, as the count is not an accurate measure of all homeless people in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, that number was almost double that in 2022, when the department reported only 605 people in 205 families who identified as homeless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very worried because we don\u2019t have any place to go,\u201d said Maria Zavala, a 37-year-old mother of three children in tears. Zavala\u2019s family is living off of her husband\u2019s biweekly garbage collector salary of $1,300. The family of five is cramped in a room with two sets of bunk beds. She said she can\u2019t work because she needs to take care of her disabled six-year-old daughter full-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith everything my daughter is going through, I just can\u2019t see ourselves [living] in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jennifer<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

The interviews were conducted in Spanish with translation from Cathy Peronius, a volunteer at Faith in Action Bay Area, and from Matt Alexander.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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XUEER LU<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

xueer@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xueer is a California Local News Fellow,<\/a> working on data and covering housing. Xueer is a bilingual multimedia journalist fluent in Chinese and English and is passionate about data, graphics, and innovative ways of storytelling. Xueer graduated from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism with a Master’s Degree in May 2023. She also loves cooking, photography, and scuba diving.More by Xueer Lu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0XU EER LU JANUARY 21, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) Read Mission Local often? Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below. Donate today! Karina Ortiz, a 26-year-old living in the Salvation Army Harbor House homeless shelter with her husband and seven-year-old daughter, will be evicted… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38961,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38960\/revisions\/38961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}