To: Libby Schaaf, Mayor of Oakland, Edwin Lee, Mayor of San Francisco, and Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San Jose
Mayors: stop helping tech billionaires while ignoring the homeless!
The income inequality in the Bay Area is getting worse every day, and government is hurting rather than helping, giving tax breaks to tech giants even as the number of homeless people spirals out of control.
We’re calling on the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose to do the right thing: commit major resources to a regional initiative to support homeless people on a path to self-sufficiency.
We’re calling on the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose to do the right thing: commit major resources to a regional initiative to support homeless people on a path to self-sufficiency.
Why is this important?
This petition is by Ben Gordon and Charlotte Ashlock. We are an engaged couple who moved to the Bay Area to start a new life together. The Bay Area doesn’t seem so great to us any more. We see some people in multimillion dollar homes and other people begging just for pennies. It's not okay.
Beneath is the full text of our petition, written in the form of an open letter to local government officials in the Bay Area. Thanks so much for taking the time & effort to check out our petition!
Dear Mayors Edwin Lee of San Francisco, Libby Schaaf of Oakland, and Sam Liccardo of San Jose;
Dear Supervisors of Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco counties;
Recently the Mayor of Portland faced an army of its citizens protesting outside city hall his threat to destroy homeless camps. I think this is a wake up call that people won't stand for dealing with the homeless in this way. But let's be real; no one's putting up any solutions here, especially when Lee's most exciting announcement was that we might house 500 of the 10,500 homeless people who applied for housing. Maybe. Maybe next year. Maybe 500.
We as society have a problem where we are willing to allow people to fall out of society and have not constructed the proper tool set to keep them from falling out, nor for bringing them back in. We all universally agree this is wrong, but when faced with the problem or assigning a budget to the problem we look away and walk away. We pretend it's not there. It's not our problem we tell ourselves.
We in the Bay Area are at the forefront with San Francisco dubbed "the homeless capitol of the world". San Francisco may be the second densest population area in the US, but we have by far the densest homeless population. We have become the global face of income inequality and poverty and the face of tremendous economic growth and success simultaneously.
We challenge elected Bay Area leaders to step up and COLLABORATE. These are the challenges and demands we are issuing to Bay Area leadership:
1.) Admit that the issue of homelessness is a regional issue that needs to be tackled regionally.
2.) Admit that it is unacceptable we can give tax breaks to Twitter, Google, Facebook, and all the other tech giants who have all the resources in the Bay Area and we let people beg in the streets for the right to eat and have shelter.
3.) Admit that we do have the collaborative resources to productively solve this problem and that we can turn from a global embarrassment to a world leader if we work together.
4.) The assignment and creation of a inter-county budget and task force with the full political support of the Bay Area’s major city leaders and business leaders.
5.) The creation of effective, lasting, comprehensive policy that addresses basic needs and a plan for a return to self-sufficiency. This includes but is not limited to elements of inclusion, outreach, housing, job training, job placement, language training, hygiene, clothing, nutritional support, mental health, physical health, social work counseling. This plan must provide for the infrastructure and staffing of ALL the bay area's homeless even the criminally dangerous and the severely mentally ill. This plan must provide the full scope of support and enablement to return to self-sufficiency with all the tools we have at our disposal.
6.) The establishment of a permanent regional funding source to the project that will be a tied percentage to the required scope of the issue. This funding source should not be a sales tax source and voted on by the 2016 election.
Please like, share, tweet this message, even if you’re not from the Bay Area. Please email Sam Liccardo, Edwin Lee, Libby Schaaf or whoever your local mayor is. Our voices must be heard. Thank you.
Beneath is the full text of our petition, written in the form of an open letter to local government officials in the Bay Area. Thanks so much for taking the time & effort to check out our petition!
Dear Mayors Edwin Lee of San Francisco, Libby Schaaf of Oakland, and Sam Liccardo of San Jose;
Dear Supervisors of Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco counties;
Recently the Mayor of Portland faced an army of its citizens protesting outside city hall his threat to destroy homeless camps. I think this is a wake up call that people won't stand for dealing with the homeless in this way. But let's be real; no one's putting up any solutions here, especially when Lee's most exciting announcement was that we might house 500 of the 10,500 homeless people who applied for housing. Maybe. Maybe next year. Maybe 500.
We as society have a problem where we are willing to allow people to fall out of society and have not constructed the proper tool set to keep them from falling out, nor for bringing them back in. We all universally agree this is wrong, but when faced with the problem or assigning a budget to the problem we look away and walk away. We pretend it's not there. It's not our problem we tell ourselves.
We in the Bay Area are at the forefront with San Francisco dubbed "the homeless capitol of the world". San Francisco may be the second densest population area in the US, but we have by far the densest homeless population. We have become the global face of income inequality and poverty and the face of tremendous economic growth and success simultaneously.
We challenge elected Bay Area leaders to step up and COLLABORATE. These are the challenges and demands we are issuing to Bay Area leadership:
1.) Admit that the issue of homelessness is a regional issue that needs to be tackled regionally.
2.) Admit that it is unacceptable we can give tax breaks to Twitter, Google, Facebook, and all the other tech giants who have all the resources in the Bay Area and we let people beg in the streets for the right to eat and have shelter.
3.) Admit that we do have the collaborative resources to productively solve this problem and that we can turn from a global embarrassment to a world leader if we work together.
4.) The assignment and creation of a inter-county budget and task force with the full political support of the Bay Area’s major city leaders and business leaders.
5.) The creation of effective, lasting, comprehensive policy that addresses basic needs and a plan for a return to self-sufficiency. This includes but is not limited to elements of inclusion, outreach, housing, job training, job placement, language training, hygiene, clothing, nutritional support, mental health, physical health, social work counseling. This plan must provide for the infrastructure and staffing of ALL the bay area's homeless even the criminally dangerous and the severely mentally ill. This plan must provide the full scope of support and enablement to return to self-sufficiency with all the tools we have at our disposal.
6.) The establishment of a permanent regional funding source to the project that will be a tied percentage to the required scope of the issue. This funding source should not be a sales tax source and voted on by the 2016 election.
Please like, share, tweet this message, even if you’re not from the Bay Area. Please email Sam Liccardo, Edwin Lee, Libby Schaaf or whoever your local mayor is. Our voices must be heard. Thank you.