Sweeping us to Nowhere- While Silencing our Solutions

RoofLEss Radio WeSearch report 2024

Do you know where the bus station is?,” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr. Asuncion asked, who had just been swept from a little corner he was standing on by California Highway Patrol officers. He had a bus ticket he had received in his hand but had no idea where he was going, no money or resources or family in the town he was going to and not sure exactly why he even had the bus ticket.  (His words are an excerpt from the 1st WeSearch report Sweeping us to Nowhere available on poormagazine.org )

Sr Asuncion is just one of the 31 houseless povertyskola reporters from both sides of the occupied Ohlone /Lisjan Bay- Yelamu and Huchiun aka so-called San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland who contributed to this first group of findings from the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report on these acts of violence and abuse being made by Governor Newsom and Mayors from San Francisco to Los Angeles to disappear our houseless bodies and lives from the public streets of so-called California.

The vision of WeSearch is that we houseless and poor povertyskolaz who have been targeted for removal, arrest and harassment have our own experiences and don’t need more about us without us Akademiks and poltricksters to count, study, survey and report on us. We Have our own voices and our own solutions- and to ensure they are listened to and taken seriously we are releasing them in these series of reports.

The FINDINGS 

From Grants Pass Vs Johnson to Governor Newsom and London Breed, Karen Bass, Sheng Tao and Eric Adams, all of these towns across occupied Turtle Island (United States) are waging a war against our houseless bodies. Sweeping, disappearing and arresting us to nowhere. 

Homelessness kills us. We are dying everyday from the sweeps and violent arrests and ongoing removal. Since the Grants Pass and Newsom’s order, more of us are dying and getting sick. We have nowhere to go. 

We have solutions that aren’t being listened to, solutions like Homefulness (East Oakland), Wood Street Commons (West Oakland), Aetna Street Solidarity (LA), Camp Resolution (Sacramento) and Nicklesville in Seattle.Instead, poltricksters are spending thousands of dollars on PoLice and Sheriffs to sweep, arrest, harass and remove us.

WHO are the WeSearchers and Reporters: 

The ComeUnities of RoofLessRadio WeSearchers are us- houseless and formerly houseless youth, elders, mamas and uncles from all across the Bay from POOR MAgazine and fellow houseless povertyskola reporters residing in the Tenderloin, Mission, and South of Market districts of San Francisco as well as East Oakland and West Oakland;

Five street reporters  from day 1 (Yelamu) SF

Nine street reporters from day 2 (Yelamu)  SF

Five street reporters from day 3 (Yelamu)  SF

12 street reporters from Day 4 (Huichin) 

Oakland

Twelve Street Reporters from (Tovaangar) West LA, North LA, Van Nuys, East LA and Skid Row on Day 5& 6

Findings and Demographics of WeSearchers

100% of RoofLess Radio reporters knew more than one fellow houseless povertyskola who had died, that was recently swept, removed and was trying to stay alive outside. 

100% of RoofLess Radio reporters stated clearly that they have “NOwhere Else to Go” and are just being violently pushed from one corner to another to who knows where.

100% of RoofLess Radio reporters reported multiple police, sheriff and CHP agencies were part of the sweeps, clearings and removal orders they have experienced since Grant Pass.

78% of RoofLess reporters lost housing because of eviction from homes and apartments they resided in the very town, location, and street they are now residing without a roof.

67% of RoofLess reporters from Huchiun, and Yelamu are of African Descent.

78% of RoofLess Radio reporters from Tovaangar are of African Descent

22% of RoofLess Reporters are of indigenous, Southern Turtle Island descent/immigrant/migrants(“undocumented” as described by the settler colonial notion of false border documentation).

98.5% of RoofLEss Huchiun reporters are Life-time Oakland Residents.

78% of RoofLess YElamu reporters are life-time San Francisco Residents.

82% of RoofLESS Tovaangar reporters are lifetime residents of Greater LA and the Valley

38% of RoofLess reporters are women.

78% of RoofLess reporters are over 62.

95% of Roofless reporters are physically disabled, medically fragile and/or living with mental illness.

52% of RoofLess reporters are currently working.

79% of RoofLess reporters have experienced, harassment, arrest and incarceration for the sole act of being unhoused.

100% of RoofLEss Reporters lost their belongings in poLice and “Cleaning”  raids and sweeps on both sides of the bay.

100% of RoofLess Reporters have never gotten their belongings back after being swept.

52% of RoofLess reporters struggle with substance use and have no access to treatment.

92% of RoofLess reporters have their own solutions to homelessness which include access to vacant land, abandoned buildings,  liberated Ohlone land (OakLAND), Tovaangar (LA) Land, Yelamu Land (SF) to build, sleep, rest, build ComeUnity.

This report is available on www.poormagazine.org . RoofLess Radio *WeSearch are projects of POOR Magazine- POOR Magazine is a poor, houseless, indigenous peoples -led movement dedicated to providing, and visioning media, education, art and solutions by and for communities in poverty locally and globally.  Homefulness is a homeless peoples solution to homelessness being MamaFested by poor and houseless people with permission and guidance by 1st Nations elders with two current sites in Huchiun and more planned for Tovaangar, Yelamu, and the PNW of Occupied Turtle Island (Oakland, SF, LA, Seattle/Bellingham, Olympia)

*WeSearch, Krapitalism,MamaFest and PoLice are words created by tiny aka @povertyskola. Poverty Scholarship is a poor people led theory and practice created by Mama Dee, tiny and POOR Magazine family of poverty, disabled, indigenous skolaz