Families and Immigration Organization

The door, small and gated, stood overshadowed by The Tenderloin Housing clinic. It may stand quietly on this street, but what’s brewing behind are four groups fighting for the rights for homeless in San Francisco.

Turk Street in the Tenderloin district is not a pretty street. The street that is only few blocks away from Union Square is broke down and noisy with people hanging around outside hotels and cars whizzing by. But it’s on this street that the entrance to the Coalition on Homelessness is located.

The Families and Immigrants, one of the sub groups in the coalition, advocates for better housing for homeless families and individual every Tuesday. The group works half as a support group and half as an organized voice for homelessness. The group center most on the Hispanic population due to most of the members are Spanish speakers. Many of the attendees are middle age mother looking for a better housing situation

On this Tuesday’s meeting, the group discussed the current situation on the subsidies bill they are trying to passed. The city council has passed it once, and later that day, they would vote again to see if it would reach the mayor’s desk.

The Coalition of Homelessness define themselves as a union for the homeless. There four different sub groups that focuses on a certain problem the homeless and low-income housing families are facing. Families and Immigration has about 135 members of Hispanic families fighting for rights of low income families. The group also work with other organizations that are working with various other organizations to make sure families of all ethnicities are getting better living situation.

Miguel Carrera has been with the Homeless Coalition for 16 years. He had attempted to organize a group like Families and Immigrants three times with no avail. However, he felt that this group has been the strongest that he has ever seen.

“What makes this group so successful are the women ,” Carrera said. “They devote a lot of time to the cause and really help build this group.”

Andy Kreamer, a volunteer from the East Bay, have been working with many non-profit organizations in East Bay. However, he was still quite surprise with how much the coalition gets done.

“It’s powerful,” Kreamer said. “We don’t have anything like this in the East Bay.”

The Families and Immigrants have been working on this subsidy bill for the last year. They tried to push it through city council once and was voted out. Now with a new draft, their chance of getting this passed looked better. If the actually get passed, then that means low-income families will have $500 from the city toward rent and allow them to have better housing.

The Families and Immigrants have been working with SRO Families United Collaborative, an organization that try to make sure all the SROs in San Francisco are in safe living condition.

SROs, in some way, is a hidden problem among the many problems the city has with the homeless. The reason for that is due to the fact that many people do not even know what SROs are. Many of the SRO hotels look like typical apartment buildings, which people unnoticeably. However, it’s the inside of the complex where the problem lies. The rooms inside are 10 by 10 square foot apartment. Most of the hotels the residence has to share one bathroom on one floor.

According to the SRO Families United Collaborative, there are on average 3.4 people live in one these small rooms. Most of the SRO families are immigrants. Approximately 450 SRO families live in various part of San Francisco. Around 62% of the families reside

People in SRO, by city definition, are not homeless. But the living situation can be so bad that they mind as well be homeless and live in shelters.

According to Coalition of Homelessness, a report by San Francisco’s City Contoller in 2002 found that families have to wait 3 to 5 months for space in a full-time shelter.” Section 8 housing through Hosing Authority can take up to 4 years.

For the Coalition of Homelessness, it has been a continuous battle for the rights of homeless. As each of the four groups try to keep track of the cities major problem, it seems like a righteous battle with no winning side. But perhaps its not about winning or losing.

Matthias Morinino moved from Italy three years ago and been working with non-profit organizations. Currently, he works with SRO Families United Collaborative and also merging with Families and Immigrant group.

“What I’m worried about mostly are the children,” Morinino said. “This kind of living condition can really affect the growth of a child’s life.