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FAITH COMMUNITIES RALLY TO SUPPORT PROP M

AS NUMBER OF EMPTY HOMES SOARS TO 60,000

Moral outrage grows as 15% of San Francisco’s housing stock sits empty

while low-income seniors and families fear eviction and homelessness

WHAT: Rally for “Yes on Prop M, Let’s make San Francisco a City for All!”

WHEN: Thursday, October 13, 5:30 PM

WHERE: San Francisco City Hall Steps (facing Polk St)

VISUALS: elders with canes and wheelchairs, clergy, members of the Board of

Supervisors, altar with voter pledge cards, signs

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – At 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 13, hundreds of community

members from Faith in Action Bay Area will will hold a rally at San Francisco City Hall to

push for the passage of Proposition M, the Empty Homes Tax, on the November 8

ballot.

The measure seeks to stem the tide of a skyrocketing number of empty homes in San Francisco, a major contributor to rising rents. At the same time, Prop M would provide crucial rent subsidies for low-income seniors and families. According to a city report released in January, there were approximately 40,000 empty units in 2019, many of them left intentionally vacant by profit-making investors. An updated City report due for release on Oct. 20 is expected to reveal the actual number surpasses 60,000.

“We believe in the right of every human being to live with dignity,” said Victor Floyd, Minister of Spiritual Care of Calvary Presbyterian Church. “Our vision for the City of

Saint Francis is of a true sanctuary city, where everyone belongs. Every spiritual tradition cautions us against the dangers of extreme income inequality. Prop M offers us a moral choice to incentivize wealthy corporate owners to rent out long-vacant units. If speculators want to trade empty homes like stocks, let them pay their fair share so that

seniors and low-income households can live in peace.”

At the October 13 rally, the immigrant leaders who helped write Prop M in collaboration with Supervisor Dean Preston and the Democratic Socialists of America will explain what motivated them to sponsor the ballot measure. “During the pandemic I was evicted twice and ended up on the street with my kids,” said Faith in Action leader Maria Venegas, who now lives in a small SRO with her two children. “My housing is still

unstable and inadequate, but this measure gives me a beacon of hope.”

The rally will feature stories showing the reality of the human suffering caused by our City’s housing crisis, including many seniors who’ve spent decades working in San Francisco and now pay more than 70% of their income on rent. “I’m 75 years old,” said Faith in Action leader Carlos Valle, “and I just want to retire with dignity. I arrived in this country in 1989 and have never stopped working—not even a vacation. But I still can’t

afford to stop working or I won’t be able to pay the rent.”

Thousands of commitment cards collected by Faith in Action from voters who pledge to vote for Prop M will be piled atop an altar near the top of the City Hall steps. Clergy surrounding the altar will offer opening and closing prayers. Musicians will lead the crowd in singing.

Faith in Action leaders have long been advocating for rental subsidies as a proven strategy for keeping people in their homes, and Prop M will provide a stable ongoing funding source. “We know that subsidies work to help keep people in their homes,” said Deisy Camey. “And for years we’ve been asking for more subsidies, but City officials said there were no funds. Then we saw all these empty apartments just sitting there, and we said, why not have those wealthy owners pay a small tax, and that will provide the funds for the subsidies.”

When Prop M was written, the number of empty housing units in San Francisco had been estimated at 40,000, based on data from before the pandemic. A new City report due to be released at a hearing of the Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee puts the actual numbers of vacancies above 60,000. “More than

15% of our housing stock is sitting empty, with many units being used as investment properties by global financiers,” said Leslie Roffman, a Faith in Action leader from Or Shalom Jewish Community. “That’s a moral outrage when you consider how low-income San Franciscans are struggling to find safe and decent housing they can afford.”

Faith in Action Bay Area is a network of leaders of more than 100 congregations and schools, as well as individuals, in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. Its volunteer leaders work together to build power across lines of class, race, language, and age, guided by those most affected by injustice. “Our dream is that everyone in San

Francisco can pay 30% of their income in rent,” said Faith in Action board chair Brenda Cordoba. “That would be a City where everyone belongs, a true City of St. Francis

Students from the fall semester's anatomy lab and the Pre-SOMA graduate club held a memorial service to celebrate and honor the deaths of the body donors who gave their bodies to science. The students had spent the semester disecting the cadavers and learning from them. The students and professor Julia Halterman met in SC106 to share reflections and sing a song then moved out to the practice soccer field where a prayer was said and lanterns were released. Photos by Macson McGuigan/EMU.

Students march from Thomas Plaza around the front lawn and into Lehman during the MLK Day solidarity march.

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Students march from Thomas Plaza around the front lawn and into Lehman during the MLK Day solidarity march. Photos by Macson McGuigan/EMU.

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The travelers in front of the Treasury at Petra.

Left to right: Tim Hart-Andersen, Nancy Zwickey, Priscilla Northenscold, Bill Steil, Dick Flint, Richard Fulmer, Kathy Fisher, JoAnne McNamara, Joan Williams, Jill Rusterholz, Marilyn Nelson, Harold Serumgard, Gail Miller, Kathy Michael, Melanie Ohnstad, Lara Homa, Sally Anderson, Carol Flint, Nancy Slaughter, Diane Homa, Lori Khorsandian, Shirley Fulmer, Karayn Cunnington, Warren Sagstuen, Sarah Murray, Jane Confer, Gudron Boeve, Tom Northenscold, Ed Cunnington

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Domed ceiling inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

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From our Faith in Action Sunday where we were filling shoeboxes for Christmas gifts (for underpriviledged children.

 

Our drummer's sunglasses ;-)

 

HBWE!

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Spent today helping at The Noise, which is a weekend of social action projects in North Bristol, organised by a group of local churches. Over 500 volunteers involved over the weekend and - today - there were 60 separate projects. This morning I helped remove some rubble from a garden and, in so doing, we came across a couple of slow worms (Anguis fragilis) and this woodlouse spider (Dysdera crocata) which feeds on the hundreds of woodlice (Oniscus asellus) that were also to be found hiding in the nooks and crannies.

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