Good morning! There’s some rough news for the Mission today, as relief measures passed during the worst of the pandemic expire.
The emergency is officially over—and now another kind of emergency begins. The new Congress dropped pandemic-era federal food assistance aid, and about 70,000 San Francisco households will see deep cuts to their CalFresh benefits. The city estimates the average household will receive $160 less per month—a loss with serious consequences for hungry families, inflation-stressed local food pantries, and neighborhood grocery stores. “We expect the food lines will triple,” says Tracy Gallardo Brown, chair of the Latino Task Force’s health committee.
Rules meant to protect renters and help landlords kept shifting during the pandemic, and now untangling what happened is a challenge. A judge overseeing “one of the most difficult cases I’ve had in over a decade” halted the automatic eviction of Alicia Flores, an 87-year old Mission woman who’s lived over a butcher shop since the 1970s. But the case will continue, pitting an “essentially blind” monolingual Spanish speaker who rarely leaves her home against landlords who say she owes almost $23,000. The landlords, like Flores, failed to take advantage of different pandemic measures.
More soon,
Sara
The Latest News
100K San Franciscans to feel the pinch as CalFresh food benefits slashed
Local grocers anticipate big losses, and Tracy Gallardo Brown of the Latino Task Force says, “We expect the food lines will triple.”
87-year-old Mission resident faces eviction for rent underpayment
A judge halted her eviction, but Alicia Flores remains in “legal limbo” as her case continues.
SNAP
