In the News: Bay Area Reporter

Trump election raises housing, homelessness concerns
Published 12/01/2016 

David-Elijah Nahmod

Federal funds for homelessness and housing programs could dry up under a Trump administration, leaving city officials scrambling to determine how the services can be maintained if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on promises he's made to deport undocumented immigrants and penalize sanctuary cities like San Francisco.

The city could lose as much as $1 billion per year in federal funding, leaving advocates concerned about where that shortfall would be made up and about how housing services would be provided to the homeless, seniors, immigrants, and others.

Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors have reaffirmed San Francisco's sanctuary city status, and Lee said at a unity rally after the election that San Francisco would remain a welcoming place for all, including LGBT people, people of color, and all religious faiths.

Earlier this month, Brian Cheu, director of community development for the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, held a forum to assess the housing needs of the homeless, senior, and LGBTQ communities. Also mentioned was how programs could continue being funded should the city lose its federal funding during a Trump administration.

"Currently our department was asked to provide a summary of our current federal dollars and what it supports so that the mayor could better understand how a cut to our federal funding would affect our department," Cheu said at the November 17 meeting. "The mayor will look at available funding sources to see how the general fund and other sources would be used to maximize the availability of existing services and avoid losing valuable community resources."

Cheu also said that it was too early in the budgeting process for the city to finalize strategies should certain significant funding streams be eliminated.

Around 100 people attended the forum at the Castro Senior Center inside Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church at 110 Diamond Street. The meeting was divided into three groups. Elena Chavez Quezada, senior program officer for the Walter and Elise Hass Fund, led the homeless discussion. Clinton Loftman, who also works with the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, facilitated the senior housing discussion. The HIV and housing discussion was led by Pastor Megan Rohrer of Grace Lutheran Church.

Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District and Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee both participated in the homeless discussion. Aiello addressed the Castro Cares programs, which puts community monitors out onto the streets of the neighborhood to help lead them to the services they need.

"Homeless outreach is about getting to know people," she said. "How can that happen when monitors are out there for two hours every six months? While we've touched a lot of people there's a gap. Something is missing. We're not quite providing what the people need."

Avicolli Mecca said people need to fight evictions and see that more housing is built.

"We need to decriminalize homelessness – we need to involve homeless folks in the discussion. Why is there no shelter in the Castro? Our community has a homelessness crisis," he said.

One homeless man who declined to give his name spoke up during the discussion. "We need to lean on the tech companies," he said. "Make them come through with funding. It's disgusting that we have so much wealth – there should be no one on the streets."

He also mentioned mental health concerns, noting that in his experience psychiatrists were shying away from homeless services because they could charge higher fees to tech workers.

At the HIV table, people were expressing concern about the possibility of funding cuts. Several people mentioned that the housing policies that have been developed in Salt Lake City were a good model for San Francisco to follow. Salt Lake City – and the state of Utah – has decreased homelessness by 91 percent by increasing the services it offers and by sending more outreach workers into homeless communities.

Rohrer spoke to the Bay Area Reporter after the meeting.

"Before the meeting, I thought the most emergent issue would be a response to the projected loss of $2 million dollars in HIV/AIDS housing funds due to federal recalculations," Rohrer said. "After listening to the needs of advocates, service providers, and legal advisers supporting individuals with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco, I now understand that the potential loss of federal funding is across a wide range of important intersectional issues affecting vulnerable San Franciscans."

Rohrer, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said that they were pleased to learn about a new computer portal that will soon streamline the application process for low-income housing. The portal will also email individuals when housing that matches their criteria becomes available.

At all three discussions, the scarcity of available housing was an ongoing issue. Some noted that the cost of building affordable housing has limited the city's ability to match the needs of its low-income residents, while others argued that the city could build the housing regardless. A number of people expressed support for the city's new Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, which aims to streamline all services under one roof.

"While it's always good to have discussions on this topic, the simple fact is that the city has to provide housing to the homeless," Avicolli Mecca said. "Why is the city continuing to build luxury housing for the rich? We especially need housing for the homeless in the Castro. The LGBT community has high rates of homelessness and poverty – yet in the past six years no housing for the homeless has been built in the Castro area."

Aiello pointed out that a lot of the suggestions made at the meeting had been heard before.
"The city knows what needs to be done," she said. "It just needs the political will to do it. Optimism was expressed about the city's move to bring all services under the new Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. I share that optimism, but strong leadership and the political will will be needed."
Cheu said that he was pleased with the meeting. He called the evening "an honest, civic dialogue about important issues such as civic housing, housing for HIV-positive folks, and the homeless."

"As we were holding the meeting in the Castro, these three issues are of key importance both to the city at large and specifically to the Castro community," Cheu added. "There was a good mix of stakeholders represented, and that being said, there is always the need to have even more constituents present who are affected daily by these issues."

In the News: NationSwell

Rose Broome of HandUp

HandUp's innovative technology is revolutionizing how donors connect with those in need.

The seed for HandUp, a crowdfunding site that solicits donations to help the homeless, was planted in early 2012 when Rose Broome passed a shivering woman huddling in the doorway of a real estate office in San Francisco. “On a cold night, I was walking down the street and saw a woman sleeping on the sidewalk,” recalls Broome. “She didn’t have a jacket, she didn’t have a sweater — just a thin blanket protecting her from the cold ground.” That night, Broome says, “I made a commitment to myself to do one thing to make a difference, and that one thing turned into HandUp.”
The platform for HandUp allows those battling homelessness to appeal directly to donors to fund their particular needs. Since 2013, more than 2,000 people have raised nearly $1.6 million. By sharing their stories on the site, those in need are able to fundraise for housing assistance — security deposits, moving costs, help paying back rent, and so on — as well as for food, education, medical care and technological access. “Having a phone, the Internet, the ability to text is extremely important for everyone, especially for the most vulnerable people,” says Broome, who, besides cofounding HandUp, acts as its CEO.
The need for funding is enormous. Nationwide, 3.5 million people struggle with homelessness every year, and 50 million people live below the poverty line. But there’s a misconception about what being homeless looks like, says Broome, pointing out that the image of a person sleeping on the street, wrestling with mental health issues or drug addictions (or both), tends to capture the public’s imagination. In reality, however, 30 percent of those who are homeless are part of families. As Broome puts it, “You could walk right past 80 percent of people experiencing homelessness and not know any different.”
HandUp works by partnering with organizations that serve homeless populations. These organizations help their clients sign up and create profiles on the site (to date, they’ve launched more than 5,800 campaigns in 29 cities). When donors give, the money goes to the organization, which will pay for the items requested. Donors get an email update when their money has been put to use. HandUp also helps homeless people create donation request cards, which they can hand out to people they meet on the street, and donors in San Francisco can buy HandUp gift cards in $25 increments and distribute them when they meet someone in need (the cards can be used for groceries, clothes and other goods at HandUp’s nonprofit partners).

---

Join the cause! Help those experiencing poverty or homelessness. Read their stories, then post a message or make a donation here.

---

Broome and her cofounder, Sammie Rayner, are passionate about using technology to solve problems and create change. “It’s surprising, but right now, only 8 percent of charitable giving happens online,” Broome says. And unfortunately, the nonprofit sector tends to lag far behind the private sector in adopting new technologies. “So often, nonprofits are the last to get some of the best technology to do their work,” adds Rayner.
For the nonprofits that work with HandUp, the platform allows them to fund needs that wouldn’t otherwise be met, filling in the gaps left by restrictive government and foundation grant funding. SF Cares, a collaborative project of several Lutheran churches working to serve low-income and homeless individuals in San Francisco, has used HandUp to raise $18,000 for the needy they work with, plus another $20,000 toward their general operating costs. “They’re funds our organization never would have gotten before,” says the Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer, the executive director of SF Cares and pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. And the people doing the giving through HandUp are new donors that SF Cares might not have reached on its own, she adds.
Rohrer says she loves the way HandUp lets people combatting homelessness “speak in their own voice.” And she likes that the site lets people decide for themselves what they need to improve their lives. “Plus,” she says, “any time that I don’t have to spend fundraising means I get to eat with the homeless, and I get to sing songs with them too.”
Creating human connections is as much a part of HandUp’s purpose as developing innovative technological solutions. “On HandUp, you can read the stories of thousands of people who need help with very specific goals,” Rayner says. “As soon as people read the human story and have that connection through our platform, it’s harder to have the same stereotypes, and it’s harder to judge.” When donors give on HandUp, they can also post words of encouragement. The people who receive money through the site often say those kind words mean more than the donation, adds Broome. “A lot of people who are homeless feel invisible,” she says. HandUp helps them feel seen.

Read more: http://nationswell.com/2016-allstars-rose-broome-handup/#ixzz4OnzHL9Nj

In the News: West Hawaii Today

About Town:
Event provides free health, vision services
The Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity is partnering with Project Vision Hawaii, the Kailua-Kona Lions Club and Pastor Megan Rohrer from Welcome Ministry in San Francisco to hold a Kona vision event.
Planned from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 25 at the Old Kona Airport Makaeo Events Pavilion, the event will serve homeless and low-income people. Attendees will have the opportunity to receive free vision screening, glasses, blood pressure, blood sugar, and HIV screening, free meals and haircuts. The free glasses will be ordered for attendees and later distributed by LCHT’s HERO Ministry.
Info: 329-5733, konalutheranchurch.com.

In the News: Hoodline

Faith-Based Meetup Distributes PB&Js To The Castro's Hungry

Photos: Courtesy of Pastor Megan Rohrer

Fri. May 20, 2016, 9:22am

“We can’t cure homelessness,” said Pastor Megan Rohrer. “But we can still be present and be visible out in our community. That was a big part of why we wanted to start having these gatherings.”

Rohrer helps to organize the San Francisco Faithful LGBTQ Meetup. The group comes together weekly for everything from bison walks in Golden Gate Park to wine tastings to wonton-making demos. But its most visible contribution is on Sunday afternoons, when members make 150 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and distribute them to the Castro’s homeless. 

“It’s an opportunity for us to wear matching T-shirts, to let people know that people of faith are LGBT, and that we can be doing good things,” said Rohrer, who was the first openly transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church. Rohrer has been an advocate for homeless LGBT San Franciscans for more than 15 years.

“We really wanted to make it a safe space for anybody of any faith to do good work,” said James Rowley, who co-organizes the Meetup with Rohrer. Within a few days of creating the group, over 75 people had signed up; about 12 people turn out for any given meeting. 

The group decided to distribute PB&J "because it’s nutritious, it doesn’t spoil, and we can give [the homeless] two or three of them and leave them with them, whether they’re sleeping on the side of the street or we have a conversation with them.”

The nutrition is particularly important for homeless people who are HIV-positive. "They need protein, and a lot of the ways that they can get really sick is if their muscles kind waste away,” Rohrer said. “We wanted to make sure that there was a lot of protein, but also to respect the crunchy lesbians who also wanted something vegan.”

The group gets most of its supplies—bread, peanut butter, jelly, sandwich bags, hand wipes—from Grace, although the Meetup is not affiliated with the congregation. “It’s not costly, peanut butter and jelly,” Rohrer said.

The Meetup group gathers inside St. Francis Church, located right across from the Safeway on Market Street, on Sunday afternoons. “We walk up from the Safeway at Church Sr. and then we go all the way down to Castro and 18th. By then we’re usually out of sandwiches,” Rohrer said.

"That neighborhood has more homeless people than other parts of town, because San Francisco figures out how they’re going to divide up homeless services based on police districts," Rohrer said. “The neighborhood that gets the most complaints on the non-emergency police number gets the most homeless resources for that month.”

“The reason why we start at Church Street is because that’s the dividing line between four different police districts. A lot of people gather in that neighborhood because instead of getting pushed along too far, [police will] say, ‘Cross the street, that’s the other police district, and then they’ll have to deal with you.’”

Rohrer and Rowley say this area also attracts a lot of LGBT homeless people, who want to be near the company and safety of fellow LGBT individuals. 

However, not every sandwich is given to the homeless. If the group gets to 18th Street and still has sandwiches, they head to Dolores Park. According to Rowley, mothers with fussy children have stopped members of the group and asked for a sandwich. “We’ve stopped a couple of tantrums at 4 in the afternoon,” said Rohrer, laughing. 

“The whole event is two hours: an hour to make [the sandwiches], an hour to give [them] out to people, and then we spend an hour having a drink together at Harvey’s,” Rowley said. “We’re not preachy.”

Rohrer is no stranger to the neighborhood’s homeless population. The transgender pastor goes out from 10pm to 4am with other local pastors about three times a month, as part of the city’s night ministries. “When I go out, I usually walk through the Castro, so I know a lot of their names and their stories and what they look like when they’re not wanting to be talked to. So I usually can give a little heads-up.” 

“With all the hate-filled rhetoric that’s happening in our world right now,” Rohrer said, “it feels good to have a positive outlet. What I’ve noticed working with the homeless in San Francisco is that whenever there’s homophobia or transphobia in other parts of the country, we get more LGBT homeless folk in San Francisco. They think 'At least they won’t discriminate against me there, even if I can’t afford the housing.'"

“We’re trying to think of ways, particularly as people of faith, that if there are people that get kicked out of their homes or churches that are not being supportive of LGBT folks in other parts of the country, ways that we can care for our community and make it so that they don’t have to get to the rock-bottom lowest space before they’re able to figure out their housing situation,” Rohrer said.  

Photo: Shane Downing/Hoodline

If you’re around the neighborhood on Sunday afternoons between 2-4pm and you see a group of people passing out sandwiches and wearing blue t-shirts that say “Live Generously” on them, don’t be confused. The Meetup is always looking for new members.

“We’re trying to get other people involved,” Rowley said, “to get together, go out to Harvey’s afterwards, and have a good time.”

“It’s fun to be in the Castro and just kind of hang out,” said Rohrer. “It’s something that we can do that’s portable, that’s gonna help people, and that’s not gonna get people in trouble.”

The San Francisco Faithful LGBTQ Meetup's next peanut butter and jelly gathering will be this Sunday, May 22nd. Check out the group's Meetup page for a list of events.

In the News: SFist

State Senator Mark Leno honors composer Kathleen McGuire, one of the composers of Street Requiem, and singer Frederica con Stade, one of the performers, prior to the SF premiere of the work. Photo credit: SFist

Street Requiem: Despite being nominally retired, Alameda resident and famed diva Frederica von Stade, aka Flicka, still shares her big talent and bigger heart for worthy causes. Last week, she brought her voice to a choir of singers recruited from the homeless ranks of San Francisco for the West Coast premiere of Street Requiem, an oratorio celebrating people who lived and died on the streets. The evening supported Singers of the Street, an organization funded in 2010 by Kathleen McGuire, who with her fellow Australian Andy Payne and Jonathon Welch, also composed the music for the requiem. Singers of the Street is a choir for homeless people, who get a sense of purpose and achievement from participating in the choir, a community to be part of, and provide a positive and human experience of homelessness to audiences. They accept donations.

We thought we should check in our cynicism at the door for a concert where the betterment of humankind is achieved by singing together. Heart-warming stories don't necessarily make great art. This was reinforced by a little welcome pitch from Rev. Megan Rohrer, whose congregation hosts the rehearsals and who asked for our leniency for the singers, and extolled their "courage to sing the wrong note." And it turns out that these guys are pretty darn good and would match any amateur choir in the city. No need for indulgence on the audience's part.

The concert was set in two halves, the first devoted to covers by Singers of the Street, and the second to the Street Requiem, with Flicka and a bunch of experienced singers. The acronym for the organization is SOS, and the first song was appropriately the Beatles' "Help"; it was followed by calls for solidarity and songs of positive affirmation, and they all took a pretty emotional color from the context. The performers of SOS literally sang their hearts out: you could hardly imagine performers giving more into a performance.

As for the Street Requiem, it is composed of ten sections, each with a different color, re-interpreting the typical Requiem format with Kyrie, Gloria, Dies Irae, Agnus Dei, etc, but updated with current texts in different languages. The opener gets Middle Eastern scales, an Irish folk song is appropriated for the ninth movement, percussive South African beats in the eighth. It is meant to be inclusive of all cultures. Some movements are of more indeterminate origins, but were always rooted in tonal harmonies. Flicka gets the most beautiful melody in the Pie Jesu. The orchestration sometimes feels a bit studious, it could be a bit more free and unpredictable; but there is a lot of generosity in the writing of the score and the energy of the Gloria is contagious. The Street Requiem has been performed in Australia, Dallas, and will be sung in Seattle, and we hope the composers keep staging it and tweaking it, it is a piece of great emotional power. And a testament that you can better the lives of people through singing.

In the News: Clark County Courier

April 9, 2104 Edition: Cover Story

Click on the photo for the article to become bigger.

Below are enlarged parts of the article to make it easier to read: