We, the undersigned, come together as members of the LGBT and Queer communities of San Francisco to demand that Supervisor's Mark Farrell, Scott Wiener, Katy Tang, and Malia Cohen remove your ballot initiatives “Promotion Of Safe And Open Sidewalks” and "Neighborhood Crime Unit in Police Department." We know that 29% of the SF homeless population identifies as LGBT and up to 40% of homeless youth do as well. Our community is being disproportionately impacted by homelessness. So it’s not surprising that many of us have concerns regarding your measures. We call on you all to drop these obviously politically motivated ballot initiatives.

Concern 1 – It offers no resources

The “resources” proposed include a Homeward Bound ticket, 1 night in a city shelter bed, and other singular services. According to a Coalition on Homelessness survey a few years ago 70% of transgender respondents said that they had experienced harassment and threats at the city’s shelters. That’s why LGBT activists came together and created Jazzie’s Place, an LGBT shelter, though that shelter only has 24 beds. Many LGBT and Queer folks who are experiencing homelessness have had traumatic experiences in their homes of origin, sometimes the root contribution to their homelessness. They also experience trauma while trying to use the shelter system, often experiencing extreme homophobia and transphobia. A choice between one night in a shelter, going home to an abusive homelife, and criminalization is not a choice at all for our communities. In November 2015, a member from the TAJA Coalition organized a successful protest at Episcopal Community Services (ECS) shelter “Next Door” and made strong demands for culture shifting and integration of training and support for fighting homophobia and transphobia in the shelter system. Until such shifts are made across the city, this will not be a welcoming service for LGBT and Queer folks.

Concern 2 – This will hurt those already languishing on the shelter waitlist

As of today, the current waitlist for shelter according to the 311 system is 846. This means that setting aside beds for police and law enforcement to refer people during sweeps is further extending the waitlist. We believe these initiatives would further strain an already fractured shelter system, creating longer waits and greater bed scarcity, which inevitably increases the conditions for violence, especially directed at already vulnerable people like LGBT and Queer shelter users.

Concern 3 – We NEED housing!

There is an overall lack of affordable housing for LGBT and Queer San Franciscans. In fact, housing for trans folks is non-existent! Thus, exits out of homelessness for our community is near impossible for those wishing to remain in the city. We need an investment in affordable housing for our community members forced to live on the streets where they will have a chance for healing from the abuse that many flee from in the first place. The only LGBT housing coming on line in the near future is Open House’s 110 apartments at 55 Laguna for LGBT seniors, which were fought for by community activists and which are a mere drop in the bucket. This will not help any of the 40% of homeless youth who are LGBT.

Concern 4 – Criminalization hurts our LGBT and Queer communities

Your measures create yet more tools of criminalization that will inevitably have disproportionate impacts on LGBT and Queer community members experiencing homelessness. Not only does the criminalization of homelessness decrease one’s ability to access housing and employment, but due to inherent homophobia and transphobia in law enforcement towards LGBT and Queer people, there is a particularly high experience of this type of policing and negative impacts of criminalization.

We can not, and will not sit idly by while your risky political maneuvers wreck havoc on our community members lives. Do the right thing and take your measures off the ballot, work collaboratively with the community and your colleagues, and develop proactive solutions to what we all agree is an urgent crisis. We will be delivering signatures to the Board of Supervisor's on Monday July 18th @ 10am at SF City Hall.

For information on how to join: https://www.facebook.com/events/1951414841751541/