For this ex-cop, the drive to get homeless, addicts, and mentally ill out of the criminal justice system is personal

Jan 27, 2020 | Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

Al Casciato ought to have been thrilled. He ought to have been validated. But when the San...

With yet another board-and-care facility facing imminent closure, rooms sit unused while homeless crisis rages

Jan 21, 2020 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Inequality, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

“That’s my husband there,” says Dellie Punla, with a subtle nod of her head. Eyes turn toward the...

With soup kitchen shutting down for winter break, homeless residents say they’ll make do

Dec 25, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

On a dreary Christmas Eve morning, hundreds of hungry men and women arrived at Martin de...

During ongoing downpour, half of rainy day emergency homeless shelter spaces are going unused

Dec 7, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

Though just 26, R.K. Johnson has seen a lot. When we queried what “R.K.” stands for, she...

More than a dozen chronic mentally ill residents in limbo, as South Van Ness Manor facility set to close Nov. 30

Nov 25, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Instagram, Mobile, Today's Mission, Topics

A 21-room board-and-care facility housed in a gargantuan Victorian home on South Van Ness Avenue...

Focusing on prevention: Zak Williams talks about supes’ mental health overhaul

Oct 17, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Topics

At first glance, it’s hard to imagine what would bring two San Francisco supervisors and the son of the late Robin Williams onto the same stage on a chilly Wednesday night. But Supervisor Hillary Ronen, Supervisor Matt Haney, and Zak Williams stopped by Manny’s on 16th and Valencia to talk about something that touches many of our lives, and theirs more than most: mental health.

Dueling mental health reform plans emerge, as workers and patients claim victory at Behavioral Health Center

Oct 15, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

Political brawl between mayor’s ‘UrgentCareSF’ ballot measure and Supervisors Hillary...

Compromise reached to save Adult Residential Facility, which mayor and Health Department had moved to gut

Oct 14, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

The 55-bed Adult Residential Facility — which had been willfully kept largely empty for months,...

Discord in SF City Hall over ambitious mental health system overhaul

Oct 1, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Topics

Like the boulders of Clinton Park being rolled off the sidewalk, put back on, taken off again — and now perhaps replaced with bigger boulders — the political tug-of-war between a faction of the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed over reforming San Francisco’s mental health system draws on, as people continue to suffer on the street.

Dysfunctional, failing Behavioral Health Center feels like a microcosm of all San Francisco

Sep 30, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

Barring unforeseen lunacy, Tuesday’s Health Commission meeting will feature a discussion of the...

Everybody must get stoned: Clinton Park boulders are San Francisco’s clumsiest metaphor

Sep 30, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Housing, Inequality, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics, Trouble

Little-known fact: Stonehenge was actually installed when a group of Neolithic Briton homeowners...

Housed and unhoused agree: Anti-homeless boulders won’t work

Sep 25, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Topics

The arrival of twp dozen anti-homeless boulders on Clinton Park, a quaint residential street near Market and Dolores at the cusp of the Mission, has been met with varying degrees of outrage and acceptance in recent days. Yet the question remains: Do these rocks actually deter homeless encampments? Or are they simply a symbol of anti-homeless meanness?