Activists and politicians gathered at San Francisco’s City Hall on Tuesday asking the city to turn its vacant office buildings into permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.
The demonstration was organized by Poor Magazine, which is a poor and Indigenous-led media, education, and art group. It opened with an Aztec Dance from Southern Turtle Island.
Leading the dance was a man named Muteado Silencio, a co-founder of the Homefulness Project and one of the people who helped build the permanent housing units they now have in Oakland.
He said, "As a day laborer myself, with no education, with no college education, I want to say that I’m really proud that I could use my skills as a carpenter, as a builder."
The Homefulness Project has built 15 permanent housing units for formerly houseless families and individuals in East Oakland. They want to bring their work to San Francisco by turning some of the vacant office buildings downtown into permanent housing.
Supervisor Dean Preston called out the inequities plaguing San Francisco’s housing and development market, saying:
"There are 50,000 units of residential housing that are sitting vacant tonight. There are ten residential homes sitting empty for every person who will sleep on the streets of San Francisco tonight. So, do not tell us and do not tell these wonderful children and their families that there is not enough housing for them here in San Francisco. There's a choice being made not to use that housing for the people who need it."
