User:Marisa Balades/Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area/BeckMarin Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

Marisa Balades


 * Link to draft you're reviewing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Marisa%20Balades/Homelessness_in_the_San_Francisco_Bay_Area?veaction=edit&preload=Template%3ADashboard.wikiedu.org_draft_template
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)
 * Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area

Evaluate the drafted changes
(Compose a detailed peer review here, considering each of the key aspects listed above if it is relevant. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what feedback looks like.)

Hotels not hospitals (don't capitalize the 'H' in hospitals) In general, need citations!

Throughout the course of the pandemic, (Give a time frame instead and specify what pandemic you are talking about) more nonprofit and non-state actors have had to take the reigns (new word) with regards to navigating San Francisco's lack of housing support. Hotels not Hospitals (HnH) is a local, community-funded organization that was created expeditiously (new word, simplier word) at the start of the pandemic (name the pandemic) in 2020 in order to immediately respond to the lack of housing support from the local government and city officials. (could use data to understand the scope of this problem) HnH works to identify hotels and, more recently, apartments that can provide the unhoused community with warm, safe spaces to live since the global pandemic (global pandemic is redundent because pandemic means global epidemic) has only inflamed (new word, that's an essay word) issues of poverty. They are increasingly becoming focused on the creation of long-term housing for the San Francisco community, and have actively fundraised tens of thousands of dollars towards both keeping their current residents in their hotel or apartment arrangements while also getting more people off the streets.

Alongside their fundraising efforts to house the community, they have also emphasized the political economy side of this issue.(sounds like an essay) As of today, (date) HnH has hosted two direct actions to ensure the continuation of proper housing for those who are currently staying in hotels and apartments through HnH. As the The organization believes that meaningful political reform has to take place in order for homelessness to see an end, so they’ve taken to the streets and social media in order to share their message and encourage others to join and volunteer as well. (could use a quote from their website)

Hotels not Hospitals views housing as a quintessential human right. (essay voice, what does quintessential human right mean) They have openly expressed that they believe “[p]eople experiencing homelessness and poverty are not a ‘problem’ to be solved. The real problem is a capitalist system that turns a blind eye to the human suffering in our communities". As a result of this belief, HnH has written to the city about their concerns over the lack of acknowledgement of the unhoused community throughout the duration of the pandemic. They are also able to rely on their community of supporters. HnH states that, “The first step towards building a more humane, compassionate society is to change the way we treat its most marginalized and least privileged members. This project aims for housed and unhoused San Franciscans to partner and work towards such a society,” (HnH). In order to achieve (work towards) this goal, HnH has created what they refer to as a Community-Supported Housing Model. (too many quotes)

The Community-Supported Housing Model (is this a HoH thing?) relies on community funds to pay for housing expenses such as rent and utilities and the hotel rooms that are rented out for unhoused individuals. In order to (essay word) obtain these funds, HnH takes to social media, direct actions, and the streets to explain their mission and why continuing to collect community funds is imperative to the sustainability of Community-Supported Housing. This housing model inherently expects that state or city-funding of any type is nonexistent and, instead, relies on trustworthy and consistent community members to donate when they can.

Lead[edit]

 * I think you could add to the Lead with statistics about COVID-19 or just anything on COVID.

Article body[edit]
The creative communication strategies and practices of the Coalition on Homelessness, Poor News Network, and Media Alliance have both empowered voices from impoverished San Francisco Bay Area communities, and also enabled the development of "counter-public spheres" that work in tangent with mainstream media outlets. (what does this mean?? why is it important?)

Former state assemblyman Mike Gatto, in a 2018 opinion piece, proposed that a new form of detention be created as a method to force drug addicted and mentally ill homeless people (who make up two-thirds of California's homeless population) off the streets and into treatment.

California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC)[edit][edit]
Ongoing efforts include the California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC). Established in 1988 as a private nonprofit organization, it aims to sustain access to affordable housing through project partnerships with other non-profits and government housing agencies, in addition to being a resource for affordable housing policy efforts. CHPC has been successful in preserving more than 60,000 homes through over $12 billion in private and public partnerships. (cute up the sentence, sounds like an essay)

We Count California![edit][edit]
"We Count California!" is a collaborative effort between the California Homeless Youth Project and the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health to combat the issue of homeless youth being undercounted during the annual point-in-time homeless counts which are crucial for federal funding of homeless support programs. (why are they crucial?) They hope to achieve more accurate counts by providing trainings and statewide technical assistance activities to support California communities toward improved youth inclusion.

under prevalence + visibility by city:

Berkeley[edit][edit]
People's Park is currently home to many community members of Berkeley's large homeless population and has remained a safe place of refuge for them due to a long history of students advocacy, free speech riots, and protests against the University of California, Berkeley in the iconic (essay word) university owned public park.