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Women rule Alice event
Trans March inspires
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'Ring' cycle
Gina Yashere
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 26 • June 28-July 4, 2018
Pride provides strength in troubled times Rick Gerharter
A man slept on a sidewalk in the Castro district in April.
Castro Cares program revamps
by Matthew S. Bajko
A
community-driven homeless outreach program in the Castro is planning to relaunch this summer in an effort to provide more targeted assistance to individuals living on the streets in San Francisco’s gay neighborhood. Known as Castro Cares, the initiative first launched in the fall of 2014. It is a joint effort by the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District and a number of other Castro-based neighborhood groups. It had hired members of San Francisco’s Homeless Outreach Team to engage with homeless individuals several times a week along the upper Market Street corridor. As they did, they offered the people they encountered a wide array of services, from handing out free pairs of clean socks to arranging for medical care or a shelter bed to stay in for the night. But as the Bay Area Reporter reported last June, just 20 individuals over a 33-month period had utilized a shelter bed reservation made for them by the HOT team. Castro Cares officials reasoned the low usage rate was largely due to the individuals having to arrange their own transport to the shelter later that day. Last June 30, at the end of the city’s fiscal year, the Castro Cares initiative ended the HOT team outreach. Its organizers then spent several months researching how to revamp it in order for it to have a greater impact. “We came to the conclusion we should really try to do some kind of outreach and case management that is more intensive rather than just generally trying to reach a lot of people with a ‘Hi, how are you?’ wellness check,” explained CBD Executive Director Andrea Aiello. To achieve that goal, Castro Cares has teamed with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation to hire a temporary health educator to work 20 hours a week at varied times on different days and nights reaching out to homeless individuals in the neighborhood. The person would be part of SFAF’s substance use program known as the Stonewall Project and be based out of the See page 12 >>
Good Karma used different colors for its multi-hued balloons during the San Francisco Pride parade.
by Tony Taylor
A
fter weeks of heartbreaking news involving the Trump administration’s immigration strategy of childhood separations and zero tolerance at the southern U.S. border, a jubilant afternoon in San Francisco reminded thousands of people there’s hope – and strength – in numbers.
Themed “Generations of Strength,” San Francisco’s 48th annual Pride parade celebrated with confetti, sequins, and countless political statements Sunday, June 24. More than one million people attended the parade that began near the Embarcadero at 10:30 a.m. and lasted about six hours, according to CBS5, which livestreamed the event. Over 240 contingents paraded along Market Street
spilling into the Civic Center Pride festival. Officials with the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee were expecting more than 100,000 to view the parade along Market Street, according to the website. The weekend of activities likely brought close to a million people to the city. Dykes on Bikes led the procession of floats, groups, and other participants, See page 12 >>
Gay man launches new homeless nonprofit Rick Gerharter
by Matthew S. Bajko
A
mid his duties as an honoree at last weekend’s Pride celebration, Shaun Haines was overseeing the public debut of a new nonprofit aimed at giving homeless people in San Francisco a leg up. San Francisco Impact Partners, which Haines founded last year, organized a care package pop-up Saturday afternoon at the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist on 15th Street between the city’s Mission and gay Castro districts. Volunteers handed out packs filled with personal hygiene products like toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, and mouthwash. According to Haines, the majority of the 100 homeless people they saw that day were African-American and Latino, some of whom were transgender men and women. He hopes to regularly hold the pop-up events in the coming months. “I hope they will get bigger and bigger as we progress and are able to provide more services as time goes on,” said Haines, 40, a gay man who received this year’s Heritage of Pride Pride Community Award and rode in the parade Sunday in an open-top convertible. Haines, a former member of the board that oversees Pride, is serving as executive director of the new nonprofit on a volunteer basis for now. It stems from his own experience struggling to find housing in San Francisco, where he was born and raised.
Rick Gerharter
Shaun Haines, who started San Francisco Impact Partners, was an honoree in this year’s Pride parade.
In the past year Haines has gone from sleeping one night on the street to couch surfing with friends to renting a shared apartment in the Mission district after securing employment last fall. “I do have experience breaking down my house into several rolling bags,” i.e. suitcases on wheels, said Haines, who has been working for an IT service provider since November.
During his time without a permanent home, Haines was able to store his belongings in friends’ homes or offices. The experience made him realize there is a lack of storage facilities for homeless individuals in the city, as commercial storage facilities are economically out of reach for the majority of people living on the streets. “I have been in poverty many times before and homeless many times before. What made me successful was I always had access to storage, laundry, and a shower,” said Haines. “It is vital infrastructure support to get people through their poverty situation.” Providing storage space would not only benefit homeless individuals, noted Haines, but also lead to cleaner streets, an oft-cited concern of residents, tourists, and business owners. “It will address the cleanliness of the city by giving storage access to people who are homeless on the street,” said Haines. Providing storage space to homeless individuals is gaining greater attention as cities grapple to address ever-growing numbers of people living on their streets. Earlier this month San Diego city officials opened a storage facility that will allow up to 500 homeless people to store their belongings in a secure space. In San Francisco, there is a homeless storage facility located in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood. It provides free storage service for shoes and clothing only and has limited space. The need for additional no-cost storage facilities for the homeless is an issue Haines hopes his nonprofit will be able to address. See page 12 >>
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Twelve Days, Twelve Pianos, One Garden & You!
SUNSET PIANO & SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN PRESENT
FLOWER PIANO JULY 5–16, 2018
And get tickets now for NightGarden Piano—July 12, 13 & 14!