NHC AmeriCorps and The Street Sheet
Posted on: July 3, 2020San Francisco
NHC SF AmeriCorps Member Jeffrey Levita blogs about San Francisco’s Street Sheet Newspaper.
The Street Sheet Newspaper
My name is Jeffrey, and I serve as a M.A.T Liaison for the SF Department of Public Health Street Medicine Shelter Health program. My role is to help address the opioid epidemic among homeless clients by providing harm reduction health education to clients. Before shelter in place, I shadowed nurses and providers and assisted them with care coordination for homeless clients at the Tom Waddell Open Access Clinic and various shelter clinics around the city. During my service, I had the ability to speak to clients and understand their needs. Since shelter in place, I have been creating resource flyers for shelter residents and the homeless community.
I have been updating myself about the needs of the homeless community by reading Street Sheet. I first came across Street Sheet during my service at Next Door Shelter Clinic. I saw a vendor selling the Street Sheet newspapers on the corner of the shelter. I was reading an issue that was inside of the clinic. I did further research and found out that this publication highlights the voices of the homeless community. Their goal is to center the voices of the poor and homeless San Franciscans in the struggle for social and economic rights. I wanted to talk to highlight the work that Street Sheet newspaper has done to uplift the homeless community while keeping the San Francisco residents updated on the homelessness issue.
What is Street Sheet?
A publication of the Coalition of Homelessness that started in 1989. They are located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. They post two publications a month that highlight the voices of the homeless community of San Francisco. The publication defends homeless and low-income people from attacks on their rights and their persons while advocating for permanent solutions to homelessness.
Street Sheet helps support 400 homeless and housing insecure vendors. The Coalition on Homelessness provides the Street Sheet for free. They hire registered vendors who can pick up roughly 100 copies every weekday morning and can sell the papers for $2 a copy. These vendors sell the Street Sheet newspapers on street corners around San Francisco and get to keep all proceeds. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic and less foot traffic in the city, many vendors are left worried. For many, selling papers is a lifeline: they spend what they earn on survival and basic needs necessities.
I wanted information about Street Sheet because it helps me stay connected and learn about the homeless community while I do my service from home. I like that it helps give the local homeless population an opportunity to tell their stories.
If you want to learn more, read new paper archives, and support Street Sheet visit: http://www.streetsheet.org/
This post was written by NHC SF member Jeffrey Levita. Serves serves as the Shelter Health and Street Outreach Coordinator with San Francisco Department of Public Health.