title: Lindsay Pearce

text: Pearce later explained that being on "The Glee Project" felt like abuse and the show was heavily edited to make her seem like a monster. Scenes that could've "humanized" her were frequently cut, including a moment when she talked about her sexual assault. Additionally, a director on the show told her to kiss fellow contestant Cameron Mitchell while shooting a music video, and she did not know he had not given consent. This kiss eventually led to Mitchell quitting the show two weeks later.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: In the third-season premiere of "Glee", Pearce was introduced as Harmony, an ambitious and talented singer who awes characters Kurt and Rachel when they watch her and her group sing a mash-up of "Anything Goes" from the musical "Anything Goes" and "Anything You Can Do" from the musical "Annie Get Your Gun". This first episode featuring her character aired September 20, 2011. Her debut was widely acclaimed by critics such as "TVLine" Michael Slezak, who said Harmony was "brilliantly brought to life" by Pearce, and Emily VanDerWerff of "The A.V. Club", who wrote that she "may be the best new character ever". The mash-up was released as a single for digital download after the episode aired. She appeared for a second time in the eighth episode, "Hold On to Sixteen", in which Harmony was the lead singer of a different group, the Unitards, a rival show choir competing against the show's main glee club, New Directions. In the episode, she sings "Buenos Aires" from the musical "Evita", which was also released as a single. Pearce was complimented for her rendition by "Billboard" Rae Votta, who said she was a "fantastic singer". Harmony tells Kurt that she is a sophomore, leaving open the possibility that she could return to the show in future seasons.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: The "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up was widely acclaimed. Respers France named Pearce's performance the best moment of the episode, and found that the character positively reminded her of ""Glee" of old". The song was also a favorite of Lee's, who wrote that the intensity of the actress was perfectly matched to the character's disposition. West, Slezak and Benigno gave the performance an "A"; the former called it an "outstanding rendition" which "felt like it belonged on a big stage or in a big-screen musical", and the latter two praised her vocal talent, which Benigno deemed unequalled on "Glee". Futterman and Bell found Harmony a credible rival to Rachel vocally, and eagerly anticipated future competition between them. Urban called Pearce's performance merely "serviceable". Though she felt her acting was a weak point, she compared her favorably to season two guest star Charice and praised her vocals.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: The day after "The Glee Project" finale aired, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Pearce had been cast to star as Snow White in El Portal Theatre's production of the musical "A Snow White Christmas". Marina Sirtis co-starred as the Wicked Queen, and Neil Patrick Harris in the onscreen role of the Magic Mirror. The Lythgoe Family Productions show ran from November 30, 2011 through December 18, 2011. Bobbie Whiteman of "Variety" wrote that Pearce as "a very sassy Snow [that] belts out Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' in true Broadway fashion", and that "her voice blends beautifully with Bergen's", the show's prince. "TheaterMania" Jonas Schwartz called the production "rather endearing, thanks mostly to "The Glee Project" Lindsay Pearce in the title role". He added, "Pearce has a wonderful presence, an earthy charm, and her belting voice is used to fine effect on Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' and Katy Perry's 'Fireworks'."


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: She next starred in the role of Cathy in Jason Robert Brown's musical "The Last Five Years" at the Brauntex Theatre in New Braunfels, Texas. There were three performances, on January 6 and 7, 2012. Deborah Martin of the "San Antonio Express-News" wrote of Pearce and co-star Alex Trevino that they "give charismatic, vocally assured performances, fully capturing the relationship and their characters' inner lives. Highlights include Pearce's pain-drenched 'Still Hurting', tender 'I'm Part of That' and witty 'Audition Sequence. She also noted that "when they actively share the stage, Pearce and Trevino show off great chemistry".


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: Ten days later, Pearce had been cast as Wendla Bergman, the female lead in the musical "Spring Awakening", which was presented in Los Angeles by Over the Moon Productions. The show opened on March 16, 2012, and ended its run on April 22, 2012.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: Between 2013 and 2017, Pearce appeared in various roles in the "For the Record" series in Los Angeles and on the Norwegian Cruise Lines alongside cast such as Janel Parrish, Rumer Willis, Barrett Foa, Shoshana Bean, and Ginifer King. The "For the Record" series was created by Shane Scheel and Christopher Lloyd Bratten and reinvents cabaret with productions that blend movies and music. Her roles in the series include Daisy Buchanan in "For the Record: Baz Luhrmann" in 2013 and 2014, O-Ren Ishii in "For the Record: Tarantino" in 2014, and Basketcase in "For the Record: The Brat Pack" in 2017.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: It was announced in May 2013 that glory|struck productions would present the Los Angeles return of the Damon Intrabartolo-Jon Hartmere pop opera "" at the Hayworth Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles from September 5 to 22, 2013. Later in June, it was announced Pearce was set to play Ivy in the production alongside Payson Lewis and Jonah Platt. Pearce subsequently won 2013 BroadwayWorld Los Angeles's Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Local Production) award for her performance as Ivy.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: On April 9, 2015, it was announced that Pearce would be playing a role in the immersive glory|struck production of "American Idiot". It was later announced that she would play Whatshername. Performances began on May 15 and the show closed on June 7.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: On February 25, 2020, Pearce made her Broadway debut as Elphaba in "Wicked". After her first week in the role, she sustained a hip injury that sidelined her for five shows. Shortly after returning from the injury, Broadway went dark. On September 14, 2021, she reopened "Wicked" on Broadway as Elphaba after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. Upon returning, she sustained another injury and was out of the show on medical leave from October 12 to December 11. After playing her final show on May 22, 2022, Pearce joined the first national tour of the musical "Mean Girls" as Janis Sarkisian.


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: Pearce moved to Los Angeles, California following "The Glee Project" in 2011 and resided there until she moved to New York in 2020 for her job in "Wicked".


title: Lindsay Pearce

text: Pearce has been open about her alcoholism and sobriety. Her drinking and drug use escalated in the spring of 2013 and she made the decision to get clean and sober in February 2018.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: The 1988 NFL season was the 69th regular season of the National Football League. The Cardinals relocated from St. Louis, Missouri to the Phoenix, Arizona area becoming the Phoenix Cardinals but remained in the NFC East division. The playoff races came down to the regular season's final week, with the Seattle Seahawks winning the AFC West by one game, and the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers winning their respective divisions in a five-way tie, with the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants losing the NFC Wild Card berth to the Los Angeles Rams on tiebreakers.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: 1988 marked the final seasons for legendary head coaches Tom Landry of Dallas and Bill Walsh of San Francisco as well as the final full year for commissioner Pete Rozelle.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: The season ended with Super Bowl XXIII when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 20–16 at the Joe Robbie Stadium in Florida.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: The 1988 NFL Draft was held from April 24 to 25, 1988 at New York City’s Marriott Marquis. With the first pick, the Atlanta Falcons selected linebacker Aundray Bruce from the University of Auburn.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: Johnny Grier became the first African-American in NFL history to be promoted to referee. Grier replaced long time referee Bob Frederic, who retired in the offseason. Grier was the field judge in the previous season's Super Bowl XXII, which was the same game that Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins became the first African-American quarterback to win the Super Bowl.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: A series of National Football League pre-season exhibition games that were held at sites outside the United States, the only American Bowl game in 1988 was held at London's Wembley Stadium.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: The relocated Phoenix Cardinals moved from Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona


title: 1988 NFL season

text: This was the second year under the league's three-year broadcast contracts with ABC, CBS, NBC, and ESPN to televise "Monday Night Football", the NFC package, the AFC package, and "Sunday Night Football", respectively. Joe Theismann took over as lead color commentator in ESPN's booth, replacing Roy Firestone, while the weekly "guest color commentator" spot was discontinued. Meanwhile, Dick Butkus joined "The NFL Today" as analyst, alongside host Brent Musburger and Irv Cross.


title: 1988 NFL season

text: A number of NBC's regular NFL commentators were temporarily replaced while they called the network's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea from September 17 to October 2. Among them, Len Berman returned to the NFL on NBC pregame show to fill-in for host Bob Costas, while Curt Gowdy, Ray Scott, Chuck Thompson, Marty Glickman, Merle Harmon, and Al DeRogatis filled-in on the network's various broadcast crews.


title: John Tower

text: John Goodwin Tower (September 29, 1925 – April 5, 1991) was an American politician, serving as a Republican United States Senator from Texas from 1961 to 1985. He was the first Republican Senator elected from Texas since Reconstruction. Tower also led the Tower Commission, which investigated the Iran-Contra Affair, and was an unsuccessful nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1989.


title: John Tower

text: Born in Houston, Texas, he served in the Pacific Theater of World War II. After the war, he worked as a radio announcer and taught at Midwestern University (now Midwestern State University) in Wichita Falls. He switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the early 1950s and worked on the 1956 presidential campaign of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Tower lost Texas's 1960 Senate election to Democratic Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, but performed relatively well compared to his Republican predecessors. With the Democratic victory in the 1960 presidential election, Johnson vacated his Senate seat to become Vice President of the United States. In the 1961 special election, Tower defeated Johnson's appointed successor, Bill Blakley. He won re-election in 1966, 1972, and 1978.


title: John Tower

text: Upon joining the Senate in 1961, Tower became the first Republican Senator to represent a state in the South since 1913. He was the only Southern Republican in the Senate until Strom Thurmond switched parties in 1964. A political conservative earlier in his career, Tower staunchly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Starting in 1976 with his support of Gerald Ford rather than Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Republican primaries, Tower began to alienate many fellow conservatives. He became less conservative over time, later voicing support for legal abortion and opposing President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in 1982.


title: John Tower

text: Tower retired from the Senate in 1985. After leaving Congress, he served as chief negotiator of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with the Soviet Union and led the Tower Commission. The commission's report was highly critical of the Reagan administration's relations with Iran and the Contras. In 1989, incoming President George H. W. Bush chose Tower as his nominee for Secretary of Defense, but his nomination was rejected by the Senate. After the defeat, Tower chaired the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Tower died in the 1991 Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 crash.


title: John Tower

text: Tower was born in Houston, the son of Joe Z. Tower (1898–1970) and Beryl Goodwin Tower (1898–1990). The family often moved throughout East Texas due to Joe's career as a Methodist minister.


title: John Tower

text: Having attended public schools in Houston and Beaumont, Texas, Tower graduated from Beaumont High School in 1942. After high school, he enrolled at Southwestern University in fall 1942. In June 1943, Tower paused his college studies to serve in the United States Navy during the Pacific Theater of World War II on an LCS(L) amphibious gunboat.


title: John Tower

text: In March 1946, Tower was discharged from the Navy ranked seaman first class and resumed his studies at Southwestern. He graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. While at Southwestern, Tower was a member of the Iota chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and would later serve the organization in significant alumnus volunteer roles.


title: John Tower

text: Tower worked as a radio announcer for country music station KTAE in Taylor, northeast of Austin, during college and for some time afterward. Tower continued his military service in the United States Naval Reserve until retiring in 1989 with the rank of master chief's boatswain mate.


title: John Tower

text: In 1949, he began graduate studies in political science at Southern Methodist University and worked part time as an insurance agent. Then in 1951, Tower became an assistant professor of political science at Midwestern University (now Midwestern State University), a job he held until 1960. In 1952 and 1953, he pursued graduate coursework at the London School of Economics and conducted field research on the organization of the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. His research was presented in his thesis, "The Conservative Worker in Britain". He received his Master of Arts degree from SMU in 1953.


title: John Tower

text: Although raised as a Southern Democrat, Tower became a Republican in college about 1951. He rose quickly through the ranks of the Texas Republican Party; he was an unsuccessful candidate for representative to the Texas House of Representatives for the 18th district in 1954. He was a delegate to the 1956 Republican National Convention. In the 1956 presidential election, he was the campaign manager for Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 23rd Senatorial District.


title: John Tower

text: In 1960, he was chosen by the state convention held in McAllen in Hidalgo County in south Texas, as the Republican candidate for the United States Senate against Lyndon Johnson. Two other Republicans mentioned for the senatorial nomination, Thad Hutcheson, who had sought Texas's other Senate seat in a special election in 1957, and Bruce Alger, the only Republican congressman from Texas at the time, were both uninterested.


title: John Tower

text: Johnson, the incumbent senator and famous nationwide as the Senate Majority Leader, won the election against Tower. As John F. Kennedy's running mate, Johnson was also seeking the vice presidency in the same election. Tower's campaign slogan was "double your pleasure, double your fun — vote against Johnson two times, not one."


title: John Tower

text: In the Senate, Tower was assigned to two major committees: the Labor and Public Welfare Committee and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Tower left the Labor and Public Welfare Committee in 1964, although in 1965 he was named to the Senate Armed Services Committee, in which he served until his retirement. He was chairman of the Armed Services Committee from 1981 to 1984. Tower also served on the Joint Committee on Defense Production from 1963 until 1977 and on the Senate Republican Policy Committee in 1962 and from 1969 until 1984. Tower served as chairman of the latter from 1973 until his retirement from the Senate. As a member and later chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Tower was a strong proponent of modernizing the armed forces. In the Banking and Currency Committee, he was a champion of small businesses and worked to improve the national infrastructure and financial institutions. Tower supported Texas economic interests, working to improve the business environment of the energy, agricultural, and fishing and maritime sectors.


title: John Tower

text: Tower was a leading opponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and voted against both bills, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while not voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and voting in favor of the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: John Tower

text: Although opposing the final passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Tower also voted against an amendment by Albert Gore Sr. which sought to weaken the legislation. He stated:


title: John Tower

text: According to "The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy" by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, Tower became the liaison for Robert Maxwell, a British publishing mogul and super-agent for Mossad, to the White House and to US government operations. The relationship began in 1984, and the soon-to-be retired Tower "told Maxwell that his fee as Maxwell's personal consultant would be $200,000." Tower received his fee in four separate payments of $50,000 into a Swiss bank account. Tower arranged for Maxwell to meet with leadership of Sandia National Laboratories, a US nuclear lab. Maxwell sold to Sandia a copy of PROMIS software that had a backdoor which was accessible by Israeli intelligence, giving nuclear details to Israel. Shortly after retirement from the Senate, in 1985, Tower took Maxwell's request for American help in arming Iran, and relayed it to President Reagan as a means to trade for American hostages held in Lebanon. "Two days later the former Senator reported to Maxwell that his meeting with President Reagan had produced a positive response."


title: John Tower

text: Tower retired from the Senate after nearly twenty-four years in office. He continued to be involved in national politics, advising the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Two weeks after his leaving office, Tower was named chief United States negotiator at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva, Switzerland. Tower resigned from this office in 1987, and for a time was a professor at Southern Methodist University. He became a consultant with Tower, Eggers, and Greene Consulting from 1987 until his death in 1991.


title: John Tower

text: In November 1986, President Reagan asked Tower to chair the President's Special Review Board to study the action of the National Security Council and its staff during the Iran-Contra Affair. The board, which became known as the Tower Commission, issued its report on February 26, 1987. The report was highly critical of the Reagan administration and of the National Security Council's dealings with both Iran and the Nicaraguan Contras.


title: John Tower

text: In 1989, Tower was President George H. W. Bush's choice to become Secretary of Defense. In a stunning move, particularly since Tower was himself a former Senate colleague, the Senate rejected his nomination. The largest factors were concern about possible conflicts of interest and Tower's personal life, in particular allegations of alcohol abuse and womanizing. The Senate vote was 47–53, and it marked the first time that the Senate had rejected a Cabinet nominee of a newly elected president.


title: John Tower

text: As "The New York Times" reported in his obituary, "Mr. Tower's repudiation by his former colleagues, who rejected him as President Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense after public allegations of womanizing and heavy drinking, left a bitterness that could not be assuaged. In the normally clubby Senate, Mr. Tower was regarded by some colleagues as a gut fighter who did not suffer fools gladly, and some lawmakers indicated that they were only too pleased to rebuke him."


title: John Tower

text: In response to the alcohol allegations, Tower told "The New York Times" in 1990: "Have I ever drunk to excess? Yes. Am I alcohol-dependent? No. Have I always been a good boy? Of course not. But I've never done anything disqualifying. That's the point."


title: John Tower

text: After Tower's defeat, he was named chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Dick Cheney, then a Representative from Wyoming and the House Minority Whip, was later confirmed as Secretary of Defense.


title: John Tower

text: While a professor at Midwestern State University, Tower met Joza Lou Bullington, whom he married in 1952. A native of San Diego, California, Lou was reared in Wichita Falls and was the organist at the Towers' church. She was five years his senior.


title: John Tower

text: John and Lou Tower had three children during their years in Wichita Falls born in three consecutive years: Penny (1954), Marian (1955–1991), and Jeanne (1956). The couple divorced in 1976. Following his divorce from Lou, who remained single for the rest of her life, Tower married Lilla Burt Cummings in 1977. The couple separated in 1985 and divorced on July 2, 1986.


title: John Tower

text: On April 5, 1991, Tower was aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 when it crashed while on approach for landing at Brunswick, Georgia. The crash instantly killed everyone on board, including Tower and his middle daughter, Marian, the astronaut Sonny Carter, and twenty others. An investigation determined that the crash resulted from failure of the plane's propeller control unit.


title: John Tower

text: Tower and his daughter are buried together at the family plot of the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas. A cenotaph in Tower's honor was erected at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. Tower's personal and political life are chronicled in his autobiography, "Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir", published a few months before his death. He donated his papers to his "alma mater", Southwestern University.


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: A K-type main-sequence star, also referred to as a K-type dwarf or an orange dwarf, is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type K and luminosity class V. These stars are intermediate in size between red M-type main-sequence stars ("red dwarfs") and yellow/white G-type main-sequence stars. They have masses between 0.6 and 0.9 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 3,900 and 5,300 K. These stars are of particular interest in the search for extraterrestrial life due to their stability and long lifespan. Well-known examples include Alpha Centauri B (K1 V) and Epsilon Indi (K5 V).


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: The revised Yerkes Atlas system (Johnson & Morgan 1953) listed 12 K-type dwarf spectral standard stars, however not all of these have survived to this day as standards. The "anchor points" of the MK classification system among the K-type main-sequence dwarf stars, i.e. those standard stars that have remain unchanged over the years, are:


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: Based on the example set in some references (e.g. Johnson & Morgan 1953, Keenan & McNeil 1989), many authors consider the step between K7 V and M0 V to be a single subdivision, and the K8 and K9 classifications are rarely seen. A few examples such as HIP 111288 (K8V) and HIP 3261 (K9V) have been defined and used.


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: These stars are of particular interest in the search for extraterrestrial life because they are stable on the main sequence for a very long time (17-70 billion years, compared to 10 billion for the Sun).


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: Like M-type stars, they tend to have a very small mass, leading to their extremely long lifespan that offers plenty of time for life to develop on orbiting Earth-like, terrestrial planets. In addition, K-type stars emit less ultraviolet and other ionizing radiation (which can damage DNA and thus hamper the emergence of nucleic acid based life) than G-type stars like the Sun. In fact, many peak in the red.


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: However, there is growing evidence that K-type dwarf stars emit dangerously high energy radiation levels, in the form of X-rays and far ultraviolet (FUV) radiation, for considerably longer into their early main sequence phase than in comparison to G-type and early M-type dwarf stars. This prolonged radiation saturation period may be sterilising, destroying the atmospheres of, or at least delaying the emergence of life for Earth-like planets orbiting inside the habitable zones around K-type dwarf stars.


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: K-type main-sequence stars are about three to four times as abundant as G-type main-sequence stars, making planet searches easier. While M-type stars are the most abundant, they are more likely to have tidally locked planets in orbit and are more prone to producing solar flares and cold spots that would more easily strike nearby rocky planets, potentially making it much harder for life to develop. Due to their greater heat, the habitable zones of K-type stars are also much wider than those of M-type stars. For all of these reasons, they may be the most favorable stars to focus on in the search for exoplanets and extraterrestrial life.


title: K-type main-sequence star

text: Some of the nearest K-type stars known to have planets include Epsilon Eridani, HD 192310, Gliese 86, and 54 Piscium.


title: Giralda

text: The Giralda ( ) is the bell tower of Seville Cathedral in Seville, Spain. It was built as the minaret for the Great Mosque of Seville in al-Andalus, Moorish Spain, during the reign of the Almohad dynasty, with a Renaissance-style belfry added by the Catholics after the expulsion of the Muslims from the area. The Cathedral, including the Giralda, was registered in 1987 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with the Alcázar and the General Archive of the Indies. The tower is in height and remains one of the most important symbols of the city, as it has been since the Middle Ages.


title: Giralda

text: The mosque was built to replace the older Mosque of Ibn 'Addabas, built in the 9th century under Umayyad rule, since the congregation had grown larger than that modest mosque could accommodate. It was commissioned in 1171 by caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf. Sevillian architect Ahmad Ibn Baso, who had led other construction projects for the caliph, was in charge of designing the mosque. Construction was slowed down by the redirection of an existing city sewer that needed to be moved to accommodate the broad foundation for the building, an engineering obstacle that slowed progress by four years.


title: Giralda

text: From the beginning, craftsmen from all over Al-Andalus and the Maghreb were enlisted in the mosque's planning, construction, and decoration, and the caliph himself was highly invested in the process and was said to have visited the site daily. By 1176, the mosque was complete, save for the minaret; however, Friday prayer was not held there until 1182.


title: Giralda

text: Upon returning to al-Andalus in 1184 for a new military campaign, Aby Ya'qub Yusuf ordered the construction of the minaret. However, construction halted that same year with the death of the architect and, a month and a half later, the caliph, who died while commanding the Siege of Santarém. His son, Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, ordered construction on the minaret to continue upon his accession in 1184, but the work stalled again soon after and did not restart until 1188. Ahmad Ibn Baso had begun the base of the tower in cut stone and his work was continued by a Maghrebi Berber architect named 'Ali al-Ghumari, who was responsible for building the main body of the minaret in brick, and completed by Sicilian architect Abu Layth Al-Siqilli, who built the small secondary shaft at the top of the tower. The minaret was built using both local bricks and recycled marble from old Umayyad monuments. On 10 March 1198, the tower was completed with the addition of the finial ("jāmūr") of four precious metal spheres (either gold or bronze) at the tower's peak to commemorate al-Mansur's victory over Alfonso VIII of Castile, which had taken place four years prior.


title: Giralda

text: Before its partial destruction in a 1356 earthquake, the mosque was comparable in size to the great mosque of Cordoba and its walls faced the cardinal directions with mathematical preciseness. It had a rectangular floor plan measuring approximately 113 by 135 meters. The prayer hall was symmetrical and airy, with a still-extant courtyard, the "Patio de los Naranjos," or "Courtyard of Orange Trees"."" Its interior had a stucco-carved dome over the mihrab, as well as several matching carvings over the arched doorways. The minbar was decorated in a Cordoban style, constructed from expensive wood and embellished with sandalwood, ivory, ebony, gold, and silver. The main northern entrance to the courtyard, the present-day "Puerta del Perdón", contains a bronze-plated door with geometric decoration and floral knockers. The current knockers in place are replicas of the originals which are on display inside the Giralda tower.


title: Giralda

text: The minaret of the mosque still stands as the Giralda. The base at street level is a square of 13.6 m on the side and which sits on a solid foundation which is a bit wider, 15~16 m and about 5 m deep. The foundation is built with solid, rectangular stones, some taken and reused from the nearby walls of the former Abbadid palace and from the Roman city walls. The tower consists of two sections: the main shaft and a much smaller second shaft, superimposed on top of it, which is enveloped today by the Renaissance-era belfry. The main shaft is 50.51 meters tall and the second shaft is 14.39 meters tall and has a square base measuring 6.83 meters. The tower contains a series of 35 ramps winding around the perimeter of seven vaulted chambers at the tower's core. These ramps were designed with enough width and height to accommodate "beasts of burden, people, and the custodians," according to one chronicler from the era.


title: Giralda

text: The decorated facades and windows on the tower are stepped to match the ramps in order to maximize light to the chambers inside. This exterior brick decoration was mainly done by 'Ali al-Ghumari, who also did repair work on the mosque. The decoration of the façades is divided into three equal vertical zones. The middle zone is occupied by the windows that provide light to the interior ramp passage. These windows vary in form from single horseshoe-arch openings to double-arched openings with polylobed (multifoil) profiles and a central marble column. They are generally framed by an ornate blind arch with marble columns on the sides and arabesque carvings in the spandrels. The two other vertical zones of the facades feature large panels of "sebka" motifs, each of which springs from a blind arcade of polylobed arches supported on marble columns. The top of the main shaft is decorated by another blind arcade forming a horizontal band of intersecting polylobed arches. The marble columns used throughout these areas feature spoliated Umayyad-era capitals from the 9th-10th centuries in the style of Madinat al-Zahra. Leopoldo Torres Balbás counted 92 such capitals reused in the tower. The facades of the tower did contain some plaster embellishment, but they were removed during a modern restoration. The top edge of the tower's main shaft was originally crowned by stepped or sawtooth-shaped merlons, as was common with other contemporary minarets in the region. The small secondary shaft at the top of the minaret also features "sebka" and blind arch decoration, though this is only visible from inside the belfry today.


title: Giralda

text: After Seville was taken by the Christians in 1248 during the Reconquista, the city's mosque was symbolically converted into a cathedral. This involved changing the liturgical orientation, closing and screening off exits and archways, and creating several small family chapels. The former mosque was not well-maintained by any of the groups inhabiting their own sections of the building during this period, and most of the records from the 13th and early 14th centuries describe its neglect, damage, and consequent destruction to make way for a new cathedral.


title: Giralda

text: This structure was badly damaged in a 1356 earthquake, and by 1433 the city began building the current cathedral. Local stone to build with was scarce, and there were few skilled stonemasons in the area, so timber and stone had to be shipped from overseas, and like its earlier incarnation, the construction of the cathedral brought together artisans from all over its respective empire, this time as far away as Germany and the Netherlands. Construction took 73 years and was completed in 1506. Today, the cathedral stands as one of the largest churches in the world and an example of the Gothic and Baroque architectural styles.


title: Giralda

text: When the mosque was converted into a cathedral, the minaret was reused as a bell tower. Its structure remained largely the same during this period. The metal spheres that originally topped the tower fell during the 1356 earthquake, and the spheres were replaced in 1400 with a cross and bell. The first public striking clock in Spain was added here around the same time.


title: Giralda

text: In the 16th century Hernán Ruiz the Younger, who was commissioned to work on cathedral, constructed a new Renaissance-style belfry extension at the top of the tower, which houses the bells today. The new belfry was constructed between 1558 and 1568. It brings the height of the tower to approximately 95 or 96 meters. It consists of several sections or tiers. The lower section has a square layout with the same width as the main shaft of the tower. It consists of a lantern-like structure with 5 openings on either side in which the bells are hung. The space above these openings features for oculi in addition to a central arch. The top edge of this section is crowned with decorative stone "urns" popularly known as ""carambolas"". The upper section is narrower and consists of two square sections topped by two round sections of diminishing size. Black tiles are used alongside sculptural details for decoration throughout the belfry. The top of the square sections also features the inscription "TURRIS FORTISSIMA NOMEN DNI PROBERBI8", a reference to a passage of the 18th Proverb: "The name of the Lord is a fortified tower."


title: Giralda

text: The finishing touch added to the summit of the belfry in 1568 is the rotating sculpture known as the "Giraldillo" (weather vane), from which the name "Giralda" is derived. It was designed by Luis de Vargas, a model was made by Juan Bautista Vásquez "el Viejo" and then it was cast in bronze by Bartolomé Morel. The sculpture, in the form of a woman carrying a flag pole, was probably inspired by the image of Pallas Athena, adapting it to a symbol of Christian faith. It is 4 meters tall and approximately 4 meters wide, weighing 1,500 kilograms. As it is made of cast bronze sheets, the interior is mostly empty and it is held together with the help of several vertical and horizontal bars. These internal supports rest on a vertical metal axis which is inserted into the sculpture itself up to around breast height and which is anchored below to the summit of the tower. The sculpture thus rotates around this axis like a weather vane.


title: Giralda

text: The "Giraldillo" has been damaged and worn over time. Repairs were historically difficult due to its weight and its hard-to-reach location. During the 1755 Lisbon earthquake it suffered damage but repairs were not performed until 1770, when it was completely disassembled and its internal support system replaced. In the 1980 and 1981 it was partially repaired again, which allowed modern scholars and scientists to study it directly for the first time. It was determined then that the sculpture was in poor condition and needed further restoration. This process began in 1999, when the "Giraldillo" was removed and brought to the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute ("Instituto Andaluz de Patrimonio Histórico") for restoration, while a replica was put in its place. The restored sculpture was reinstalled in 2005 along with instrumentation designed to monitor its condition in the future.


title: Giralda

text: Many towers have borrowed from the Giralda's design throughout history. Several church towers in the province of Seville also bear a resemblance to the tower, and may have been inspired by the Giralda. These towers, most notably those in Lebrija and Carmona, are popularly known as "Giraldillas".


title: Charlie Countryman

text: Charlie Countryman (originally titled The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman as well as Kill Charlie Countryman) is a 2013 romantic drama film directed by Fredrik Bond in his directorial debut, written by Matt Drake, and starring Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood and Mads Mikkelsen.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: The film premiered on January 21, 2013 at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was screened in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. The film was released November 15, 2013 in the United States was released on October 31, 2014 in the United Kingdom.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: In Chicago, Charlie Countryman grieves as his dying mother is taken off life support. Her spirit appears to him, urging him to go to Bucharest, and Charlie does so. He bonds with Victor, the Romanian man sitting next to him on the plane, who is returning home after seeing a Chicago Cubs game. During the flight, Victor dies, and his spirit asks Charlie to deliver a gift and a final message to his daughter.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: At the airport, Charlie is tased and questioned by security after trying to retrieve Victor’s gift. He is instantly smitten with Victor's daughter, Gabi, and consoles her before parting ways. Taking a taxi into the city, he notices Gabi in her car and offers to drive her. They nearly collide with the ambulance transporting her father’s body, which crashes. Gabi accompanies the body in another ambulance, leaving her car with Charlie, who finds a revolver in her purse with an inscription from “Nigel”.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: He drives to the Romanian Athenaeum where Gabi performs as a cellist, and she calls him with instructions to deliver her instrument to the conductor, Bela. Charlie waits while Gabi performs with the pit orchestra, and they are confronted by her estranged husband, Nigel. Staying at a hostel, Charlie parties with his roommates Karl and Luc after they dose him with ecstasy, and is menaced by Nigel in the bathroom. Spotting Gabi, Charlie insists on following her and they spend the night out, sharing memories of their parents, and she promises him a kiss if he can find her the next day.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: After Karl takes an overdose of Viagra, he and Luc bring Charlie to a strip club. They receive a bill for 9,900 Romanian leu ($) and are threatened by the manager, Darko, who notices that Charlie recognizes pictures of Nigel and Gabi on his wall. Demanding to know Nigel’s whereabouts, Darko lets them go. Charlie waits for Gabi at the Athenaeum, and Bela takes him to Gabi’s home, where a memorial is being held for Victor. Gabi and Charlie share the kiss she promised him, and he tells her about meeting Darko. Nigel barges in and threatens Charlie, but Gabi forces him to leave at gunpoint. Once they are alone, she explains to Charlie how she met Nigel, realizing he was a violent criminal after they married, and that her father forced Nigel to leave Bucharest with the threat of an incriminating videotape that Darko wants to obtain. Charlie confesses he is in love with her, and they have sex.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: Waking up alone, Charlie finds a tape in Victor’s collection labeled “Cubbies”, revealed to be security footage of Nigel and Darko murdering a group of people. A shocked Charlie finds Gabi at a café with Nigel and declares to them that he watched the tape. Nigel nearly kills him before the police arrive, escaping while Charlie is taken into custody. Bela arranges to have Charlie sent to Budapest, bluntly stating that Gabi doesn't want to see him. Charlie is dropped off at the hostel to collect his belongings, but the owner warns him that men are waiting for him. Pursued by Darko’s henchmen, Charlie escapes to Gabi’s house only to find the tape missing. He is confronted by Darko, who has kidnapped and interrogated Karl and Luc. Gabi calls Darko to arrange a meeting, and he knocks Charlie unconscious.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: Gabi finds Charlie outside the Athenaeum and tells him that he will never see her again. Having taken the tape, she prepares to leave with Nigel to meet Darko. Encouraged by another vision of his mother, Charlie tries to stop Nigel but is knocked out again. He is taken to the docks and hung by his ankle above the water, while Darko burns the tape. Nigel forces Gabi to shoot Charlie, but she spares him as the police arrive. Darko and his men flee, dropping Charlie into the water, while Nigel realizes Gabi loves Charlie and commits suicide by cop. Charlie emerges from the water alive and reunites with Gabi.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: John Hurt was a brief narrator for the film's original version released at Sundance, but his narration was edited out and is included on its Blu-ray release as an extra.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: In early development, LaBeouf dropped out of the project and the title role was briefly given to Zac Efron before LaBeouf returned to the project in August 2010. Dante Ariola was originally attached as director but left before filming began.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: LaBeouf reportedly tripped on acid while filming acid scenes. According to LaBeouf, he had to trip on the acid to really get into the head of his character and to emulate some of his acting heroes. "There's a way to do an acid trip like "Harold & Kumar" and there's a way to be on acid. What I know of acting, Sean Penn actually strapped up to that electric chair in "Dead Man Walking". These are the guys that I look up to."


title: Charlie Countryman

text: Wood criticised the American censors for insisting that a scene be cut in which her character receives oral sex from LaBeouf, while taking no issue with the many violent scenes:


title: Charlie Countryman

text: The official soundtrack album was released digitally on Feb 11, 2014, by Psychedelic Records. The soundtrack album featured 14 songs of score music composed by Christophe Beck and Deadmono.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: "Charlie Countryman" received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 27% approval rating, based on 66 reviews with an average rating of 3.93/10; the site's consensus reads: "Shia LaBeouf clearly relishes his role in "Charlie Countryman", but his efforts can't salvage the movie's shallow script and overstuffed direction." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score, rated it 31/100 based on 20 reviews.


title: Charlie Countryman

text: John Anderson of "Variety" called it "a profoundly unnecessary film" with "strained attempts at magic realism". Justin Lowe of "The Hollywood Reporter" describe it as "an atmospheric feature that sets out to tackle big questions of love and destiny." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" wrote, "this catastrophe of a movie zigzags drunkenly between action-adventure and surreal comedy with some magical realism slopped over it like ketchup." Robert Abele of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "Pulpy dross of surpassing dumbness, "Charlie Countryman" takes the blender approach to mixing dark adventure, doofus comedy and pie-eyed romance, but forgets to put the lid on when pulsed." Damon Wise of "Empire" gave a positive review, stating "Bond's use of music is excellent and his vision of eastern Europe both hellish and magical."


title: Guy Burnet

text: Burnet was born in London, England. He attended Holland Park School where his interest in drama first developed, taking an A level in the subject.


title: Guy Burnet

text: Before becoming an actor, Burnet aspired to become a professional footballer. He attended Queens Park Rangers Football School. He subsequently undertook trials and played in various locations throughout Europe before returning to London to complete his A levels.


title: Guy Burnet

text: He still plays football, taking part in a football match on 1 June 2007 at the new Wembley Stadium prior to England's first match at the stadium. In September 2007 he played for England in an England v Russia charity match in support of the Give Life Foundation.


title: Guy Burnet

text: Burnet started his career in theatre and making short films. He has trained with the acting coach Ivana Chubbuck.


title: Guy Burnet

text: Burnet joined the cast of "Hollyoaks" in 2002 as a main character and series regular following his second ever audition. On 3 August 2007 Hollyoaks Producer Bryan Kirkwood confirmed on Digital Spy that Burnet was quitting Hollyoaks. He said, "I am genuinely gutted that Guy is leaving the show, but after five years he feels the time is right. He's an amazing actor and has really come into his own through his work on the Craig and John Paul storyline - and has helped turn it into one of Hollyoaks' biggest ever storylines. We've left the door open for him to return and I wish him the very best of luck for whatever he does next."


title: Guy Burnet

text: In 2009, Burnet played "Pinklady" in "Moving On" for the BBC. After years on the New York stage Burnet moved on to cable TV work and film. He appeared on Showtime series "Ray Donovan".


title: Guy Burnet

text: In 2016, Burnet joined the third series of Showtime's "The Affair" in the recurring role of Mike Cornwell. In 2017 he joined the second season of "Hand of God" starring Ron Perlman. Also in 2017 Burnet was shooting "Counterpart" opposite J.K. Simmons.


title: Guy Burnet

text: He was also seen in the Bryan Cranston produced Amazon series "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams" opposite Terrance Howard and Anna Paquin.


title: Guy Burnet

text: In 2012, Burnet completed work as a lead in the feature film "Two Jacks" alongside Sienna Miller. Other roles include work in "Boxing Day", a Leo Tolstoy adaptation directed by Bernard Rose, in the thriller "Rites of Passage" with Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff, and in "Age of Heroes" a period war film with Sean Bean.


title: Guy Burnet

text: Burnet then went on to play Ewan McGregor's partner in crime caper "Mortdecai" opposite Johnny Depp. Burnet co-starred in the musical comedy film "Pitch Perfect 3", opposite Anna Kendrick.


title: Guy Burnet

text: Burnet is cast in "Jacob’s Ladder", the remake of the 1990 film of the same name. Burnet will also appear in the Michael Caton-Jones directed "Asher".


title: Guy Burnet

text: As well as playing football, Burnet is involved in amateur boxing. His interest in boxing led him to direct a documentary on WBU featherweight title holder Derry Mathews.


title: Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area

text: The San Francisco Bay Area comprises nine northern California counties and contains four of the ten most expensive counties in the United States. Strong economic growth has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs, but coupled with severe restrictions on building new housing units, it has resulted in an extreme housing shortage which has driven rents to extremely high levels. "The Sacramento Bee" notes that large cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles both attribute their recent increases in homeless people to the housing shortage, with the result that homelessness in California overall has increased by 15% from 2015 to 2017. In September 2019, the Council of Economic Advisers released a report in which they stated that deregulation of the housing markets would reduce homelessness in some of the most constrained markets by estimates of 54% in San Francisco, 40 percent in Los Angeles, and 38 percent in San Diego, because rents would fall by 55 percent, 41 percent, and 39 percent respectively. In San Francisco, a minimum wage worker would have to work approximately 4.7 full-time jobs to be able to spend less than 30% of their income on renting a two-bedroom apartment.


text: San Francisco has several thousand homeless people, despite extensive efforts by city government to address the issue. San Francisco's dense, compact development pattern, its comparative lack of vacant land (i.e., beneath freeways, alongside creeks), and its high volumes of pedestrians tend to limit homeless encampments to the city's sidewalks and thus more readily visible to the general public. This dramatically-larger prevalence of visible homelessness in the city, relative to other large US cities, is widely noted by visitors as well as residents. As of 2018, this had begun to impact the city's largest industry, tourism (a $9 billion industry), as one large doctors' group has decided to move their annual convention elsewhere after members' concerns about threatening behavior, mental illness, and assault on one of their board members.


text: The number of the people in poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area grew from 573,333 (8.6%) in 2000 to 668,876 (9.7%) in 2006-2010. While poverty rates vary greatly across the SF Bay area, in 2015, the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies published that the poverty rate was 11.3%, having a slight downward trend from 12%; however, it was still above the historical average rate of 9%.


text: The prevalence of homelessness emerged both in San Francisco and the United States in general in the late 70's and early 80's. Jennifer Wolch identifies some of these factors to include the loss of jobs from deindustrialization, a rapid rise in housing prices, and the elimination of social welfare programs. The Reagan Administration made large cutbacks on affordable and public housing programs, such as Section 8, leaving much of the task of providing public and supportive housing up to local jurisdictions. The economic shift from production oriented jobs in factories towards the service industry resulted in a loss of wages as factory jobs were more lucrative. This decrease in wages was compounded by the fact housing prices continued to rise, with average real estate value in the Bay Area increasing by 100% between 1984 and 1990. As these economic changes were occurring, social events also impacted the city's homeless population. The deinstitutionalization movement of the 1970s had succeeded, and saw the mass transfer of mental health patients to community based clinics. This transfer was not smooth, as many previously institutionalized patients found themselves back in society with less support than they were accustomed to and few possessed the professional skills or resources needed to successfully transition. The failure of deinstitutionalization is often attributed to the cuts to mental health services made at the same time, with mental health budgets decreasing by a third between 1978 and 1982. As a result, the homeless population has had a disproportionate rate of mental health needs met ever since the 80's.


text: Dianne Feinstein was the first mayor of San Francisco forced to address the homeless issue. Her administration operated under the belief that the growing homeless problem was a temporary issue, and a side effect of the recent recession. The response to the problem was to open temporary shelters that provided a sandwich and a bed for a night, with the hope that those served could find permanent housing soon. This program proved to be underfunded and unprepared for the demand, as the homeless population continued to grow.


text: Feinstein's successor, Art Agnos, took a more involved approach to address the homeless problem as part of a broader progressive mayoral campaign. Agnos' view of homelessness was that it was the result of structural inequalities and could only be resolved by intervention from state welfare programs. Under his direction, two multi-service buildings that provided mental health counseling and substance abuse support in addition to housing were opened to benefit the homeless community.


text: Despite Agnos' official support for homeless people, his administration was not without some controversy. A group of young anarcho-activists, Food Not Bombs, began to distribute free vegetarian meals to homeless people in parks around the Haight, which was opposed by a group representing developers and business interests. Tensions between activists, who argued they were just providing aid to the residents the city didn't support, and the city eventually escalated in the city arresting activists and confiscating their supplies. Clashes between the city and activists continued off and on over the course of the following year, until confrontations over the usage of Civic Center Plaza escalated to the occupation of the park by a mix of activists and members from the homeless community estimated to number between 300 and 350 in all and eventually became known as "Camp Agnos". Complaints from the protesters included the city's inaction to address the growing homelessness, lack of affordable housing options, and the ineffectiveness of existing shelters. One homeless protester said of the services provided, "A shelter is like being in prison. There's no freedom of movement" and complained of the inability of being able to use shelters with her husband, opting instead to sleep on the streets so they could be together. Under pressure from the Board of Supervisors and the negative publicity, Agnos ordered police to ticket and arrest those who remained in Camp Agnos.


text: Former police chief Frank Jordan won the 1992 mayoral race on a platform of bringing public order back to the city and promised to return public space back to its residents from homeless people and youth activists. Jordan sought to crack down on the disorderly and troublesome activists who he thought were dealt with too leniently by the former administration. Jordan's four years saw 700 arrests and citations given to the Food Not Bombs activists, prompting Amnesty International to respond:"Amnesty International is concerned that the Food Not Bombs activists may have been targeted on account of their beliefs and effectively prohibited from exercising their right to freedom of expression, assembly, and the right to impart information. If this were found to be the case, the City of San Francisco would be in breach of international law and Amnesty International would adopt those imprisoned as "Prisoners of Conscience" and work for their unconditional release."This approach of criminalizing homelessness, in the eyes of homeless advocates, was popularly viewed as a step in the wrong direction and did little to actually aid the community, and rather only manage it.


text: Jordan's homeless policy extended beyond confronting Food Not Bombs members and their homeless allies. Jordan introduced the Matrix Program, which expanded the role police had in tackling homelessness by increasing the number of citations given to homeless people for city misdemeanors, with 6,000 citations issued in the first six months of the program's initiation. Matrix teams of city police usually accompanied with social service workers to systematically sweep the city block by block to engage members of the homeless community and dismantle homeless encampments. The initial reception from city residents was mostly positive with 75% of calls to the Mayor's office praising the crackdown as a needed step to clean the city up.


text: Critics of Matrix accused the program of using resources on punitive enforcement of quality of life laws that generally only affect the homeless community, like sleeping in public and loitering, instead of promoting services to aid homeless people. Mass citations to homeless people, critics argued, was counter-productive since those in extreme poverty lacked the funds to pay the fines. Judges would respond to unpaid fines by issuing arrest warrants, resulting in the incarceration of homeless people when the same resources used to jail the inmates could instead go towards expanding shelter services. Additional critiques lobbied at the program centered around the use of police as social service workers. Matrix police were authorized to give psychological field tests to determine if a homeless person was acting erratically and were the deciding force on whether or not to bring them to the hospital for mental services. In 1994, homeless rights advocates succeeded in convincing the board of supervisors to pass a resolution opposing the Matrix Program, with Jordan's response being to double down by expanding the program's sweeps to Golden Gate Park. Though the Matrix program persisted, public opinion shifted against it for being too harsh and Jordan failed to secure a second term.


text: Willie Brown, San Francisco's first African-American mayor, won a run-off against Frank Jordan with a campaign promise to end the Matrix Program. Upon assuming office, Brown suspended the Matrix Program and ordered a judge to revoke all citations and warrants stemming from the program. Despite this action to end Matrix, citations issued to the homeless community for quality of life violations, a highly criticized aspect of Matrix, increased. The last year of Matrix saw 11,000 of these kind of citations, which rose to 16,000 in Brown's first year and soared to 23,000 by 1999.


text: The militarized clearance of homeless people's encampments within Golden Gate Park, which had an estimated population of 1,000 throughout the park and featured the deployment of police helicopters equipped with infra-red cameras, demonstrated Brown's commitment to his promise: "You tell me where the camp is, and in 24 hours it won't be there". These citations were less publicized than Jordan's Matrix program and considered to be routine policing instead of any homeless oriented policy, allowing Brown to avoid some of the negative publicity that plagued his predecessor. Not all of Brown's positions were detrimental to the homeless community as he successfully mobilized support to secure a $100 million government bond to expand affordable housing and his support for universal healthcare was a central tenet to his platform, though its implementation was never manifested.


text: Riding a robust economy and operating under a patronage system that benefited his allies and restricted political opponents, Brown was able to secure a second term despite policies that alienated his liberal base, including his harsher than expected treatment of the city's homeless.


text: Gavin Newsom, a previous member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, succeeded Brown after running as a Democratic centrist to become San Francisco's youngest mayor in the past century. Given the ineffective steps taken to address homelessness over the past two decades, Newsom sought to implement wholesale change on how the city interacted with its homeless community as he thought programs needed more resources and oversight. With Newsom's support, the city passed two measures, propositions M and N, to change homeless policy. Proposition M expanded quality of life laws to include the prohibition of "aggressive" panhandling and panhandling near ATMs, parking lots, or buses. Though this was another quality of life law and included citations, priorities were made to funnel offenders to substance-abuse or mental health treatment as much as possible.


text: A cornerstone of Newsom's homeless legislation was actually passed with his support while he was still on the Board of Supervisors in 2002. Proposition N, better known as Care Not Cash, was passed by the city with 60% approval with the goal to overhaul the city's welfare system by cutting General Assistance payments to eligible adults from $395 a month (one of the highest rates in California) to $57 a month and to use the savings to expand care services for the city's homeless residents. Newsom claimed that using resources for services would prove to be more effective at supporting homeless residents instead of handouts, arguing that cash handouts encouraged homeless people to flock to the city from neighboring counties, along with increased usage of emergency medical services and crime rates on the weekends the cash was dispersed. His claim that handouts cause crime rates to spike and increased hospitalization has been disputed by some academic studies conducted in San Francisco, which have found an inverse relationship between recipients of monetary subsidies and risky behaviors such as substance usage. Care Not Cash resulted in approximately 1,200 homeless people finding shelter via the usage of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units in hotels throughout the city, however those that did not receive housing found life on the streets even more difficult due to the sharp funding cuts. Critics of the program accuse it of having exclusive standards to participate in, thereby excluding large segments of the homeless population, as well as using substandard SRO housing units, which often lack private bathrooms and food prep areas, as permanent housing.


text: Other measures introduced included Homeward Bound and Operation Outreach, as well as the introduction of new sit-lie ordinances. Homeward Bound was a program to pay for bus tickets to send homeless people out of the city so long as they could prove they had a place to be received at their destination. This was met with resistance from critics like the Coalition for Homelessness who accused the program of not solving anything and was just dumping the problem off to other counties. Mayor Newsom argued that "the vast majority of people that are out on the sidewalks are not from San Francisco originally" and would be better served by being returned to supportive family members, although by 2007 San Francisco's homeless census found that only 31% percent of the homeless population became homeless outside of San Francisco.


text: Operation Outreach was instituted in 2004 and, echoing some of the philosophies behind the Matrix program of the Jordan era, utilized police officers to enforce quality of life laws. This program differed from the Matrix program in that it involved a diverse number of agencies with the purpose of connecting the homeless community with services as the primary goal, with the quality of life citations a secondary result. The effectiveness of the outreach aspect of the program is disputable, as the Coalition found that only 24 of 204 people surveyed received a referral to a program or service in their last encounter with the police.


text: In his last year, Newsom expanded the quality of life laws within the city by successfully passing Proposition L in a public vote, which banned city residents from sitting or lying on sidewalks between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.


text: California Assembly Bill 2830 would have enabled cities and families to push people into court-ordered mental health treatment. A pivot away from the "housing first" strategy, critics have called the bill "misguided" and "immoral". A companion bill to SB 1338 would set up "CARE courts", aimed at expanding the bureaucracy of service provision to include judges and lawyers, and includes sanctions for cities that do not comply with the program.


text: Current Mayor London Breed, elected in 2018 and reelected in 2019, has expressed extremely progressive development plans for the unhoused community. Her policy has been centered around growing the availability of affordable units as well as protecting those that currently exist. She has also worked on local policy to support safe drug use. This includes fentanyl testing, clean needles, and the expansion of the San Francisco Street Overdose Team to include a dedicated team to support and follow up with people after overdose incidents. Her policies have also provided safe parking spaces for those residing in their vehicles.


text: One of the primary causes of homelessness in the Bay Area is an insufficient supply of affordable housing. Mass homelessness has several contributing factors, including: "Economic Dislocation", "Reduced Social Safety Nets", "Failed Housing Policy", "Mass Incarceration", "Family Instability", and other "Individual Causes" including mental health and physical wellness. Reasons cited for homelessness in the 2019 survey commissioned by the City of San Francisco include job loss (26%), alcohol/drug use (18%), eviction (13%), argument/asked to leave by friend/family (12%), mental health issues (8%), and divorce/separation (5%). 70% of people homeless in San Francisco in 2019 reported most recently becoming homeless while living in San Francisco: 22% came from another county within California, and 8% came from another state. However, of the 70% who had become homeless while living in San Francisco, 45% had only been in San Francisco for ten years or less, and 6% had only been in San Francisco for one year or less. Reasons for coming from outside San Francisco at the time of homelessness include seeking a job (25%), LGBTQ acceptance (11%), accessing homeless services (22%), was visiting and decided to stay (17%), accessing VA services or clinic (5%), and family/friends are here (13%).


text: In the 1930s the Great Depression caused widespread poverty, hunger, and homelessness, particularly in industry-dependent cities, such as San Francisco.


text: Two million homeless people migrated across the United States in search of jobs and housing, especially on the west coast. The number of people without homes grew in the 1980s in San Francisco, as wages stagnated and funding for welfare reform was cut, eliminating the social safety net.


text: Since the 1960s, San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area have enacted strict zoning regulations which have suppressed the number of new homes. Among other restrictions, San Francisco does not allow buildings over 40 feet tall in most of the city and has passed laws making it easier for residents to block developments. Partly as a result of these codes, from 2007 to 2014, the Bay Area issued building permits for only half the number of needed houses, based on the area's population growth.


text: In September 2019, the Council of Economic Advisers released a report in which they stated that deregulation of the housing markets would reduce homelessness in some of the most constrained markets by estimates of 54% in San Francisco, 40% in Los Angeles, and 38% in San Diego, because rents would fall by 55%, 41%, and 39% respectively.


text: In 2002, the San Francisco Planning Department launched the Eastern Neighborhoods Community Planning Process to resolve recognized land use conflicts in several SF neighborhoods. Many stakeholders in these neighborhoods oversaw the planning process, which was focused on the rezoning of historically industrial lands for new residential uses, but was unresponsive to neighborhood concerns of unaffordable housing, residential and job displacement, gentrification, public safety, and inadequate open space. Only those who could afford these limited new housing units were able to access housing, causing socioeconomically disadvantaged and ethnic minority groups to either seek housing in under-resourced neighborhoods of San Francisco such as the Tenderloin or lose housing completely, leading to poor health outcomes for marginalized populations. Adopted in 2008, the plan banned housing development in large areas to preserve land for light industrial uses. Since it was adopted, both homelessness and the housing crisis have worsened.


text: Gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area is of increasing concern. A research and action initiative of UC Berkeley in collaboration with researchers at UCLA and Portland State University has produced The Urban Displacement Project to "[examine] the relationships between investment, neighborhood change, gentrification, and displacement." This study indicates rising levels of segregation in relation to increasing income inequality in the SF Bay Area. A mapping tool has been also been developed through the project to track displacement and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area (http://www.urbandisplacement.org/map/sf).


text: With the emergence of a "new" Oakland, the African American population has decreased significantly from 2000 to 2010. During this period, there has been a push to kick out homeless people from government-funded housing which has further caused many landlords to halt renting to Section 8 tenants. According to a report done in 2015, 41% of homeless people who were surveyed in Oakland became homeless after age 50 which is likely due to rising housing prices and loss of safety nets.


text: The ongoing gentrification in the SF Bay area is deepening structural divisions. The rapid economic growth of the tech industry in San Francisco and nearby Silicon Valley has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The resultant high demand for housing, combined with the lack of supply, (caused by severe restrictions on the building of new housing units) have caused dramatic increases in rents and extremely high housing prices, adding to the already developing housing crisis. For example, from 2012 to 2017, the San Francisco metropolitan area added 400,000 new jobs, but only 60,000 new housing units.


text: Even though real income rates in the Bay Area have been increasing over time, it was published in 2011 by the American Journal of Economics and Sociology that low-income residents are left with less leftover income after their rental payments than the equivalent in the 1960s.


text: Additionally, gentrification affects the health outcomes of individuals and families being displaced. Melody Tullier's research identifies that as rates of gentrification in Alameda County grew between 2005-2013, low-tract census populations had an increase in incidents of preventable mortality, specifically due to suicide, homicide, diabetes, HIV and nutritional deficiencies.


text: By the end of 2000, gentrification in San Francisco grew to the center of political and organizing activity. Anti-displacement advocates received success in gaining representation in SF's Planning Department and in advancing new regulations (e.g., inclusionary zoning) to protect and create affordable housing, which led to a shift from citywide to district legislative elections to address neighborhood concerns at the city level.


text: On January 18, 2016, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in response to issues of gentrification the Black Seed Collective coordinated a Black Lives Matter movement protest blocking all westbound traffic on the Bay Bridge that connects Oakland and San Francisco. During this protest, they demanded for "the immediate divestment of city funds for policing and investment in sustainable, affordable housing so Black, Brown, and Indigenous people can remain in their hometowns of Oakland and San Francisco."


text: In the 1960s, San Francisco and surrounding Bay Area cities enacted strict zoning regulations. Zoning is the legal restriction of parts of a city to particular uses, such as residential, industrial, or commercial. In San Francisco, it also includes limitations on building height, density, and shape, and banning the demolition of old buildings. Zoning was originally executed as a public health prevention policy to ensure industrial emissions are separated from residential areas but has since been manipulated by homeowners to artificially drive up the price of housing.


text: The housing crisis is both a regional and local problem. Gentrification and exclusion are intimately related at a neighborhood level. If a high-demand, high-cost neighborhood won't build, developers and people looking for housing will be diverted to the nearest low-cost neighborhoods. That increases demand and development and leads to gentrification. Since the residents of high-cost, high-demand neighborhoods tend to have mobility, money, and access to information and power, they are hugely successful in leveraging land-use policies to exclude newcomers.


text: Exclusionary zoning policies in San Francisco in city planning have caused a divide in affordability and accessibility for housing. The anti-development orientation of certain cities is turning them into preserves for the wealthy as housing costs increase beyond what lower-income families can afford to pay, which displaces communities and residents of low-income areas, leading to rising rates of homelessness.


text: Additionally, until 1968, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) enforced an explicit redlining policy of racial discrimination in mortgage lending. Under redlining, racial minority groups were refused loans for mortgages. The policy incentivized homeowners to restrict the sale of houses to white families only, creating all-white neighborhoods. Although prohibited by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the practice of neighborhood delineation based on race and class had a lasting impact, depriving certain neighborhoods of essential resources such as housing, schools, clinics, and grocery stores. The zoning policies created divisions within SF districts, widening the income inequality gap and polarizing resource accessibility and socioeconomic demographics, seen especially in the Tenderloin District, which currently experiences the highest rates of homelessness.


text: In a 2022 book titled “Homelessness is a Housing Problem,” Clayton Page Aldern (a policy analyst and data scientist in Seattle) and Gregg Colburn (an assistant professor of real estate at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments) studied per capita homelessness rates across the country along with what possible factors might be influencing the rates and found that high rates of homelessness are caused by shortages of affordable housing, not by mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty.


text: They found that mental illness, drug addiction, and the use of those who live in poverty occur nationwide, but not all places have equally expensive housing costs. One example cited is that two states with high rates of opioid addiction, Arkansas and West Virginia, both have low per capita rates of homelessness, because of low housing prices. With respect to poverty, the city of Detroit is one of the poorest cities, yet Detroit's per capita homelessness rate is 20% of that of West Coast cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.


text: In what is commonly referred to as a variation on Greyhound therapy, many cities in the United States, including the city of San Francisco, buy homeless persons free one-way bus tickets to reduce the visibility of homeless populations within the city. This has been occurring over the last three decades. From 2010 to 2017, an estimated "20,000 homeless people have been sent to and from within the mainland US". There have been numerous reports and lawsuits between cities regarding homeless and patient dumping especially in cases where the person's destination either


text: B) where the destination city has staff at the inbound bus terminal issuing similar one-way tickets back out to San Francisco or any other city in the U.S.


text: Homeless people are also a visual reminder for the Bay Area of the increasing struggles of homeless people with impoverishment due to the high cost of living as they particularly occupy common public spaces frequented by the middle and upper classes.


text: As of 2019, the city was believed to have approximately 8,035 homeless residents, 5,180 of whom are unsheltered. In March 2019, Saúl Hidalgo, the director of housing and shelter programs at the nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services, said that there were at most 3,000 homeless children in the district, with most of them attending the San Francisco Unified School District. As of 2019, approximately 70% of the city's homeless had housing in the city before becoming homeless, while the remaining 30% came from outside of San Francisco. This figure is up from 61% in 2013. Of that 70%, 55% had lived in San Francisco for less than 10 years before becoming homeless; 6% had only lived in San Francisco for a year before becoming homeless. By 2016, according to a report by urban planning and research organization SPUR, San Francisco had the third highest per capita homelessness rate (0.8%) of all large US cities, as well as the third highest percentage of unsheltered homeless (55%). ("Unsheltered" means sleeping somewhere not designated as a permanent living location, and includes tents, automobiles, and RV's, but does not include people staying in designated homeless shelters.)


text: SPUR says in one of their publications:"For anyone who believes, based on their own eyes, that San Francisco has the worst problem with homelessness in the country, this statistic — the number of unsheltered homeless people per capita — is the “smoking gun.” East Coast cities have adopted a very different set of strategies, emphasizing shelters as a low-cost, temporary solution and in many cases forcing people to go into those shelters, as opposed to allowing them to choose to sleep in public spaces. Indeed, New York State has a “right to shelter” law that compels the city and state to provide shelter beds to all New Yorkers who are homeless by “reason of physical, mental, or social dysfunction.” While some critics decry the New York approach as “warehousing” homeless people, it’s clear that they have been vastly more successful than large California cities in getting people at least minimal shelter and in addressing the quality of life impacts on city residents. By making “real housing” with wraparound social services the only acceptable solution, without having enough money to actually scale up that solution, Bay Area cities, especially San Francisco, have created the conditions in which thousands of people are living on the streets."


text: In 2018, San Francisco's homeless camps drew scrutiny from a UN special rapporteur, Leilani Farha, who visited different camps and spoke to residents. Farha compared the conditions she witnessed to those of Mumbai, stating: "...I'm sorry, California is a rich state, by any measures, the United States is a rich country, and to see these deplorable conditions that the government is allowing, by international human rights standards, it's unacceptable. I'm guided by human rights law." She also decried the city for conducting "tent sweeps" whereby encampments are cleared: "It's damaging because they always have to move.They're treated like nonentities. Sometimes they say [belongings are] put in storage, but more often they'll dump everyone's possessions into one dumpster. It's horrible. It's not dignified. The people have nowhere to go. It's illogical. It's tragic."


text: A much higher proportion of survey respondents identified as Black, African American, or African (35% compared to 6-7%), a much lower proportion of survey respondents identified as Asian or Asian American (7% compared to 37%), and a slightly lower percentage identified as White (42% compared to 51%), although the non-Hispanic white population is around 40%. Most survey respondents identified as either White (42%) or Black, African American, or African (35%). 6% are Native compared to roughly one percent of the city's population, and 5% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander compared to a scant 0.5-1% of the city's population. 42% are White.


text: As of 2017, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) have noted at least 76 encampments and about 800 people living homeless. About 50% of homeless residents lost their Richmond homes and ended up on the streets. According to the City of Richmond's memo on Homelessness Policies and Initiatives, “Richmond is already Contra Costa County’s predominant location for homeless shelter beds.” With a population of about 110,000 people, about 9.7% of the total population of the Contra Costa County, Richmond is a 55.4% contributor to Contra Costa County homeless shelter beds. Homeless people from across the Bay Area are sent to Richmond shelters, making it hard for the City of Richmond to deal with the city's own homeless population.


text: 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 university owned public park. Several of the largest homeless encampments in Berkeley, comprising approximately 131 residents, were swept in the spring and summer of 2021. Efforts have been made to build temporary transitional shelters with input from the community for those who live in tent encampments. A local newspaper Berkeleyside reported that an unhoused person "found [one such shelter] to be similar to a 'concentration camp,' a sentiment expressed by several other homeless people."


text: In 2016, the Oakland City Council declared a shelter crisis. Although, no action was taken beyond this declaration to address the problem. Programs such as Keep Oakland Housed help homeless people by providing current tenants with case managers that help them apply to programs that would benefit them financially. These programs include lowering phone bill costs and providing mental health counseling. Restoration of Lake Merritt, a significant landmark in Oakland has affected the lives of many who are homeless and live there. Though politicians thought that the renovation of Oakland by restoring Lake Merritt would help the city, creating more space for homes, 80% of existing Oakland households were unable to afford the prices of these new luxury buildings. The effect was a clear strengthening of gentrification of that area.


text: San Jose's largest homeless encampment was known as The Jungle; when it was dismantled in 2014, it was thought to be the largest encampment in the United States, covering near Coyote Creek with up to 175 residents. The city was home to an estimated 4,000 homeless in 2016; of those, approximately 500 were thought to be living out of their cars, while many others were believed to seek shelter along trails and creeks.


text: In 2019, the Joe Rodota Trail in Santa Rosa had the large homeless encampment in the history of Sonoma County, but was dispersed in January 2020, with some of its inhabitants relocating to other areas of Sonoma County. Homeless encampments often shift in Santa Rosa and surrounding areas, but are often found near downtown especially along the West End neighborhood, and small streets along Santa Rosa Avenue have small trailer and tent populations. There are over 2,700 homeless people in Sonoma County, 0.6% of the county’s population. Much of the homeless situation in Sonoma County also is found in Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, and especially in terms of per capita, the Russian River area that focuses on Guerneville is roughly 4-5% homeless.


text: Homeless populations are especially susceptible to physical and mental ill-health due to their lack of shelter and social safety nets. Not only are homeless populations more exposed to infectious diseases, injuries, and psychosocial pressures that lead to mental health issues, but they also rarely receive adequate care from the San Francisco area healthcare system. As victims of social and structural disenfranchisement, many displaced individuals resort to drug use and drug-related social communities as coping strategies. Homelessness in San Francisco is correlated with increased rates of substance abuse—methamphetamine, black-tar heroin, and crack cocaine were the most common illegal drugs found on San Francisco streets in 2018. A cycle of poverty and drug abuse contributes to the growth of the homeless population, and many homeless feel that they cannot escape.


text: Persons with prior physical or mental health issues are more likely to become homeless. Homelessness in turn worsens homeless people's mental health and decreases their access to therapy. "Individuals and families who have lost a safe place of residence are vulnerable to physical threats such as exposure and violence, and the psychosocial threats related to high stress associated with mental health problems and substance abuse." Homelessness has additional negative consequences within the Bay Area such as risky sex, urination and defecation in public areas and on the streets, use of emergency room visits as a way to get housed, and health problems. Stigma impacts the fates of homeless people by making them to be an "other" which in turn strengthens power dynamics. Structural forces are then obscured by the stigma. Many shelters have tried to address mental health issues; however, due to limited trained staff, they can do very little to treat mentally ill homeless people. Furthermore, many homeless and mentally ill people are resistant to intervention from clinicians, due to previous bad encounters.


text: Approximately 20% of the patients who end up in Bay Area emergency rooms are homeless or have been housing insecure in the previous two months, and 13.8% were living in homeless shelters or on the streets. In the past 12 months, 15.5% of them had spent a night in a shelter, 30.5% had previously been homeless, 25.4% were at risk of becoming homeless in the next two months, and 9.1% had been evicted in the past year. Homeless people are prone to a much higher rate of visiting the emergency department due to mental health issues. Reported obstacles in treating mental health like supportive housing has impacted the healthcare cost and usage.


text: San Francisco's homeless youth experience high rates of psychiatric disorders and substance use and have been known to use the following substances: cannabis, cocaine, narcotics (heroin and methadone) and stimulants (methamphetamine and amphetamine). Homelessness has been associated as a predictor of the use of heroin and recent nonfatal overdose among street-recruited injection heroin users in the San Francisco Bay Area, calling for more targeted interventions to decrease this risk association.


text: San Francisco streets are littered with drug syringes, trash, and feces, resulting in a level of contamination "...much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India". The city spends approximately 30 million dollars per year on the removal of feces and contaminated needles. Of the 400,000 needles distributed monthly, San Francisco receives around 246,000 back — meaning that there are roughly 150,000 discarded needles unaccounted for each month - or nearly 2 million per year.


text: After a visit to San Francisco's homeless camps in January 2018, United Nations special rapporteur Leilani Farha stated that the belief that drug abuse was a root cause of homelessness was not generally true, that the reverse in fact is more prevalent, whereby "Most people on the streets are living with some sort of 'structural trauma,' meaning they have lost their job, can't afford housing, been evicted by a landlord. The structural trauma causes deeply personal effects that can lead to living on the street that triggers drug use." Structural forces are then obscured by the stigma of homelessness. Stigma impacts the fates of homeless people by making them to be an "other" which in turn strengthens power dynamics.


text: Crime and violence within tent cities and homeless communities, including rival homeless encampments and individuals, has been an issue amongst homeless populations in the Bay Area and in North America. In 2021, news reports of a 39-year-old homeless man allegedly assaulting two elderly people in Market Street, San Francisco made headlines. It was initially reported by news sources that it had racial overtones, although a public defender denounced this. A stabbing of two elderly women, wounding them, occurred at a bus stop later that May.


text: There have been notable cases of homeless-on-housed people crimes that received higher press. The killing of Nia Wilson, an 18-year-old woman on a BART train, by a homeless 27-year-old man with severe mental illness, was an incident that brought concern over homelessness, mental illness, racial issues and violence within the community.


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: "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. They hope to achieve more accurate counts by providing trainings and statewide technical assistance activities to support California communities toward improved youth inclusion.


text: In 2014, the City of San Francisco spent $167 million annually on housing homeless residents. By 2016, total spending (including housing and treatment) was believed to be $241 million annually. However, much of this spending is focused on housing the formerly homeless, or those at risk, and not the currently homeless. The city's shelter program has approximately 1,200 beds, and several hundred people are on a waitlist to be housed. Even with 1,200 shelter beds and several hundred on waiting list, most homeless avoid the shelter for various reasons such as: overcrowding, safety, and rules that, among other things, separate people experiencing homelessness from their possessions, pets, and loved ones. In 2015, the Navigation Center shelter was created to address these issues.


text: There have been increasing efforts to keep homeless people away from the public eye, through forced removal, or harassment sweeps. These efforts have come to be known as the "war on the homeless". The Homeless Coalition has been an active body in the fight for homeless rights and decriminalization of homeless people. The "Right to Rest Act of the Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign" has been a large effort to allow homeless people to sit, rest and sleep on sidewalks and in public. This effort is seen as essential especially when there is a significant shortage in affordable housing. San Francisco's policies towards homeless people have been criticized by homeless rights advocates and was listed as the eleventh least desirable city in the US to be homeless. There are 23 city infractions that are known as “quality of life” crimes because they criminalize actions that would be legal on private property, thereby disproportionately affecting homeless people. Examples include the prohibition of sleeping in public, overnight parking restrictions, and anti-loitering ordinances. The city enforces these laws by issuing an average of over 3,000 citations a year. The price of enforcing quality of life crimes for San Francisco was $20.6 million in 2015. These citations typically involve fines that can be difficult for impoverished homeless residents to pay, leading to only 7% of fines paid in 2000. Unpaid fines can often result in arrests and criminal records, which makes it more difficult to gain employment and encourages avoidance of future contact with social services due to fear of punishment. Quality of life crimes have become so prevalent that the San Francisco Police Department launched Operation Outreach to specialize in homeless related crime. The program's intended purpose is to collaborate with other city agencies like the Department of Public Health and the Department of Public Works connect members of the homeless community with social services and resources.


text: A pilot program was launched at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in November 2018 to house that school's homeless families, paying $40,000 to the nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services to manage the shelter. However, the shelter, which had the capacity to house 20 families or 50 people, averaged less than two families per night. The San Francisco Board of Education unanimously voted to expand the program in March 2019 to include eligibility across the school district.


text: In September 2018, California SB 1045 was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. This bill will take effect on January 1, 2019 and would initiate a five-year pilot program ending on January 1, 2024. The goal of this legislation, as authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, is to improve the health of people suffering from substance abuse disorders or severe mental illness and has the potential to directly impact the homeless population of San Francisco. Under a pilot program of SB 1045, the bill would permit the board of supervisors of the County of Los Angeles, the County of San Diego and the City and County of San Francisco to appoint a conservator for an individual who is incapable of caring or making decisions for themselves through the order of a probate court. These provinces are also required to provide the following services and resources, which include, but are not limited to: adequate community housing, outpatient mental health counseling, psychiatric assistance, access to medications and substance use disorder services. People who have had eight or more 5150 holds within a year would be considered for conservatorship. San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that she plans to add 70 to 90 new beds for these prospective patients at the city's navigation centers and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital before November 2019.


text: With the support of Senator Weiner and Mayor Breed, San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman introduced a bill in October 2018 that outlined the conservatorship criteria for the city. The bill mimics Wiener's legislation as it identifies those who are homeless and frequently utilize emergency services due to severe mental illness or substance-abuse disorder as likely candidates for intervention. It is estimated that SB 1045 along with local legislation would impact between 50 and 100 people in San Francisco. Local homeless organizations and health centers have prompted concerns over criminalizing homelessness and the mentally ill as the legislation only targets those without homes.


text: Other oppositions have noted that the bill is too narrow and only covers a small subset of the population that suffers from substance abuse or mental disorder.


text: Additional critics, including the Coalition on Homelessness, argue that the bill violates a person's civil liberties and his/her freedom to control and make medical decisions about his/her own body.


text: Proposition C would collect up to $300 million per year to fund services for the city's homeless through taxes on San Francisco's biggest businesses. In November 2018, Proposition C was approved by 61% of San Francisco's voters; however, this proposition has been put on hold while the state debates whether a simple-majority is enough to pass the proposition or whether a two-thirds supermajority should be required.


text: The Navigation Center started as a pilot intervention program and is a collaboration between the City of San Francisco and the San Francisco Interfaith Council. It is funded by a $3 million anonymous donation and is based on the belief that people experiencing homelessness would be more receptive to utilizing shelters if they were "allowed to stay with their possessions, partners, and pets.” The first Navigation Center opened in 2015 at a former school building in the Mission District. Unlike other shelters, the Navigation Center allows clients to come and go as they please and tries to get them permanent housing within ten days. Navigation Center provides otherwise unsheltered residents of San Francisco with room and board while case managers work to connect them to income, public benefits, health services, shelter, and housing. Navigation Center is different from traditional housing units in that it has few barriers to entry and intensive case management.


text: There are 4 Navigation Centers so far in San Francisco. As of January 2017, they have provided shelter for 1,150 highly vulnerable people, and 72% of these guests have exited to housing. Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing determines access to Navigation Centers on a case-by-case basis. The most important goal of Navigation Centers, according to the stakeholders, is to have its guests rapid exits to housing. Due to the success of this program, The Board of Supervisors have voted for The City to negotiate a lease with Caltrans to open two Navigation Centers on state property.


text: In March 2019 San Francisco mayor, London Breed, proposed a navigation center to be built in San Francisco's Embarcadero. Breed's proposal was supported by tech giants Marc Benioff, Jack Dorsey, while local residents opposed to the idea which engulfed them into a 2 month long heated debate. Both pro and opposition groups started GoFundMe campaigns, SAFE Embarcadero for ALL (opp) and SAFER Embarcadero for ALL (pro), to serve their purpose; both raised more than $275,000 combined. The San Francisco Port Commission approved the 200 bed Navigation center proposed by Breed making it the largest in the city. Local residents refused the action with promises to take the matter to court using the money they've raised through GoFundMe to cover attorney fees.