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Immigration Requests Shoot Up in San Francisco, L.A. Jails Under Trump

02.14.2018
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By Marisa Lagos, KQED News Fix/The California Report
Immigration advocates derisively called former President Barack Obama the “deporter-in-chief,” but new data obtained by KQED show the Trump administration has been even more aggressive in targeting jail inmates for deportation from San Francisco. San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said the sheriff’s office received more than four times as many immigration requests in 2017 — the first year Donald Trump was president — as in the final year of Obama’s presidency. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/The California Report.

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‘Textgate’ Is the Textbook Example of the Limits of Police Reform

02.13.2018
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By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local
Nobody is disputing the cops who sent racist texts committed misconduct. But they stand to never be punished. That’s the law — and that’s how it was designed to work. Earlier this month, the San Francisco Police Department announced that the state attorney general, and not the federal Department of Justice, would now be overseeing its internal reforms, which is a bit like getting a new sponsor in your 12-step program. Let’s call it “Accountability Anonymous.”
Good thing, too.

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Bill Aims to Help Homeless Suffering From Severe Mental Illness, Drug Addiction

02.12.2018
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By Scott Shafer, KQED News Fix/The California Report
It’s not uncommon for visitors to San Francisco to leave town shocked by all the homeless people roaming the streets, many with visibly severe mental health problems.
Now, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-S.F., is teaming up with state Sen. Henry Stern, D-Canoga Park, on legislation to give counties more options for getting homeless people off the streets and into services. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/The California Report.

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Grappling With Uncertainty Over Temporary Protected Status Work Permits

02.08.2018
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By Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED News Fix/The California Report
Mariano Guzman has worked as a truck driver for a San Francisco Bay Area waste management company for 17 years. But last month, the 55-year-old Honduran immigrant got a major surprise when he showed up for his job south of San Francisco. Guzman’s employer said he couldn’t keep his job because his work authorization document had just expired. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/The California Report.

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Doctors Prepare for Possible Immigration Enforcement Visits at Hospitals

02.07.2018
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By April Dembosky, KQED News Fix
Pediatricians across California are calling on Congress to pass legislation protecting immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, saying their patients are skipping appointments because they’re afraid a visit to the hospital will get them deported. Doctors and hospital administrators have started formulating protocols so that staff members will know what to do if immigration agents enter hospitals or clinics to search for, or arrest, people who are in the country illegally. Read the complete story is  KQED News Fix.

From the Newsroom

10 Things I Learned About Homelessness at Our Community Workshop

02.06.2018
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It was a dizzying day at our Jan. 25 conference, Solving Homelessness: A Community Workshop. With dozens of speakers and hundreds of side conversations among the 200 attendees, it was clear that the reporting we’ve done at the Public Press to gather and investigate just a few of the most intriguing ideas for solutions to the human rights crisis playing out on our streets daily has just scratched the surface. By engaging the community, we opened ourselves up to criticism but also reaped the reward of an activated public. Many attendees — neighbors distressed by the sight of people living on the sidewalks and in marginal shelters, as well as subject experts who have devoted their lives and careers to helping stabilize people’s lives — said they learned new things and got inspired to follow up with proposals for fixes to broken systems.

I was surprised to learn a few things too.

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Ed Lee’s Contested Legacy on Housing

02.05.2018
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By Liza Veale, KALW/Crosscurrents
As the mayor that presided over a wave of gentrification and displacement, Ed Lee took a lot of heat from the public. But, he also easily won reelection. Since the affordable housing crisis was the No. 1 issue during Lee’s time in office, his policies around housing are likely to define what he’s remembered for. And there’s no clear consensus on whether he did more damage than good.

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Public Press Weekly: Building a Better City, or Just Building?

02.02.2018
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“If you build it, they will come” is the stuff of developers’ dreams in San Francisco and environs. These 7-by-7 (or so) square miles can be counted on, by some, to support construction, and then some. Take, for example, plans to put up 12,000 new homes on a former nuclear test site in Hunters Point — more housing, yay. » Read more

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Is It Jail for Service-Resistant Homeless Residents?

02.01.2018
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By Julian Mark, Mission Local
Mission Station will be working with the district attorney on issuing warrants to arrest homeless people who have been repeatedly cited for nuisance activities and who refuse services, said Capt. Gaetano Caltagirone at a community meeting at Mission Station on Tuesday. He said that while there are fewer tent encampments, there are still individuals who are not accepting services. “It gets tiresome for the officers who get on scene and they tell the individual to move and they say, ‘No, we’re not moving,’” Caltagirone said. Read the complete story at Mission Local.