By Kevin Fagan
San Francisco Chronicle

The number of chronically homeless people across the United States has dropped by 11.5 percent thanks to an increased focus on providing counseling and housing rather than police crackdowns or emergency shelter beds, federal officials said Wednesday. There was no homeless count in San Francisco from 2002 to 2005, when Mayor Gavin Newsom revived the practice. City and federal officials pointed out that between 2002 and 2007, the number of chronically homeless people in San Francisco dropped 38 percent, from 4,535 to 2,771. Chronically homeless people are defined as the most troubled of the homeless population, suffering from mental or addiction troubles and living on the street for at least a solid year.

Read more »

We need your help right now to save the Community Justice Center.  Supervisor Daly introduced legislation yesterday to stop the Community Justice Center and to cut funds for more police, funds to fix our roads and sidewalks, funds to upgrade the successful new 311 Call Center, funds for new trees, funds to help rebuild public housing, funds to help small businesses and many other vital services.  We need the Community Justice Center to keep making progress on the homeless crisis. The court is a proven way to direct those who commit quality-of-life crimes like aggressive panhandling into social services.  In a time of rising homicide rates, we need the new police officers Daly wants to cut to keep our streets safe.  We need the funds Daly wants to cut to repair our roads and infrastructure after decades of neglect. Read more »

By Gavin Newsom and Kamala D. Harris
San Francisco Chronicle
Originally Published May 13, 2007

On any given day, take a walk in the Tenderloin, Civic Center or South of Market, and you will see the same problems that have plagued our neighborhoods for decades: drugs, theft, prostitution, auto break-ins and aggressive panhandling. Has the justice system forgotten about these neighborhoods? No. But the fact is that low-level offenders cycle through the system, at a cost to the city of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The result? Offenders don't get the life-saving help they need, victims lose faith in the justice system, and neighbors have to live in a dangerous and frightening environment.  The time has come to break away from the status quo. We owe it to the community, to the victims -- and to the offenders. Many people who are living on the streets are suffering from addiction and mental illness and receiving no treatment. Turning a blind eye and doing nothing is not compassionate -- not for those individuals, and not for our neighborhoods. That's why the two of us are partnering to launch the Community Justice Center, a collaborative, problem-solving service center with a court on site. Read more »