Survival Gear Drive

This weekend’s forecast is predicting almost two inches of rain. The wet weather is just a nuisance for most people, but for our homeless neighbors it’s a major ordeal. That’s why DSA SF’s (Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco’s) Homelessness Working Group is organizing a drive to distribute survival gear to unhoused neighbors during the storm this weekend (2/1/2019 - 2/3/2019). The purpose of this fundraiser is to cover the expenses for tents, tarps, ponchos, socks, etc. Any extra funds will be used for similar DSA SF Homelessness drives in the future.

During the storm in mid-January, the city offered only 25 extra mats for 4,200 homeless people during storm. Meanwhile, organizers handed out tents, tarps, ponchos, and socks to our unhoused neighbors, but the SF Police Department continued the sweeps, confiscating property and telling unhoused people to move along. The city’s confiscation policy won’t stop us from doing what the city refuses to do: helping our unhoused neighbors in need. Meet us at the DSA SF Office to pick up supplies and go out in groups to help distribute them to our unhoused neighbors.

The first distribution will begin at 6pm on Thursday 1/31 at DSA SF 350 Alabama St. If we have remaining resources we will attempt to repeat the distribution on Friday and Saturday as the storm progresses.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It’s like a nightmare where you wake up and you know, you’re falling, you’re scared awake.

You can’t really sleep. You don’t have any coverage, anything protecting you. Anyone can walk up on you, and they do. It’s scary. You can’t sleep, your eyes are opening and closing.

When the wind comes in, and the rain comes in, it soaks through your whole being. That cold, you can’t shake it, and there’s no way of getting dry again, for hours. You can’t go into Starbucks, you’re all wet. You want to get warm but you can’t. It’s like reaching for a doorknob but you can’t reach it, missing it, missing it, missing it.

When you have a tent, that’s your shelter, that’s your protection. It’s like a castle. It stops people from looking in, taking your things, from being creepy… you feel like you can get a good night sleep.

When you don’t have that simple layer of tent, it’s like you’re on stage for the world — to steal from you. Hurt you. It’s very scary and cold.”

-Couper O. (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-rolled-25-extra-mats-4200-unsheltered-homeless-people-storm/)