By Heather Knight
San Francisco Chronicle

As debate rages over how to solve San Francisco's seemingly intractable homeless problem, city leaders, academic researchers and even some formerly homeless people themselves say progress is being made every Thursday afternoon inside Department 15 at the city's gloomy Hall of Justice. For a couple of hours each week, the courtroom fills with dozens of defendants with serious mental illnesses who have been charged with or convicted of crimes ranging from misdemeanor theft to felony assault and robbery. Almost all were homeless or on the brink of living on the streets at the time of their arrests, and many of them struggle with drug or alcohol abuse.  It sounds like a scary scene, like many city residents' worst fears gathered together in one room. But it's surprisingly touching - and according to Superior Court Judge Mary Morgan, who presides over the court, it's "the most hopeful thing happening in the criminal justice system." Read more »

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.

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By John J. Donohue III and Jens Ludwig

It would be unrealistic to expect crime to continue dropping sharply as it did in the 1990s, but that is no reason to undermine the progress brought by successful policies. With recent FBI data showing crime on the rise, it is time to reconsider the massive de-funding of one of the most successful federal anti-crime measures of the 1990s: the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) program. The program, authorized by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, provides grants to state and local police to hire additional officers and adopt aspects of "community policing." Read more »

By Rosanne Haggerty
President, Common Ground Community

Maryann and Gerry were fixtures at the Times Square subway entrance, well known to local office workers, to the police and the courts.  With a dog as one prop, and Gerry’s drums as another, they had supported themselves and their heroin habits by panhandling, sometimes aggressively, to tourists and the regular business crowd.  Their belongings a makeshift tent, sleeping bags and clothes - were tucked into two carts, which sidewalk food vendors and the security staff at the office building above the station would watch for as they shifted to more lucrative posts over the course of the day or went to buy heroin or tend to their growing array of health problems.   By night, they bedded down at the subway entrance beneath the office plaza. Read more »

By Charles J. Hynes, Brooklyn District Attorney
San Francisco Sentinel

If the community justice center concept can work in Red Hook, Brooklyn, it can work anywhere.  Why am I so certain? Because as Brooklyn’s elected district attorney for the past 18 years, I have seen the neighborhood of Red Hook transformed. Ten years ago, Red Hook was a high-crime community that had lost much of its hope and energy. Today, the waterfront neighborhood—which includes both the largest public housing development in Brooklyn and blocks of quaint row houses—is revitalized, with safe streets, safe parks, new businesses, and supportive citizens who are working together on even greater improvements.  Who is responsible for this transformation? There are many who can take credit. But there is no question that the Red Hook Community Justice Center is among the vital players.

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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 »