SF CHRONICLE REACHES NEW LOW
FALSELY BLAMES HOMELESS COALITION FOR FATAL OVERDOSE

- By Jennifer Friedenbach, Coalition on Homelessness

In an outlandish and brazenly dishonest article by Chuck Nevius, columnist for the SF Chronicle, the Coalition on Homelessness citation defense program is blamed for the overdose of James Hill, a man who passed away recently in the San Francisco Library's Main Branch.

Nevius claims that if he had been convicted of open container, he would have been given treatment. In fact, there is no treatment attached to traffic court, nor any treatment being offered by the District Attorney. The most the District Attorney has provided is a list of services that includes phone numbers for treatment programs that are full, with waiting lists.

This is the latest in a long line of lies printed in Nevius's column.

On October 11, 2007, Nevius ran a story stating that a study Gary Blasi of UCLA

found that criminalizing homeless people decreased homelessness, when

in fact the study found the opposite. Before press time, he was informed of what the study really said, but he ignored that information and then lied anyway. Then, on March 2, 2008, Nevius argued that panhandling is out of control because the Coalition on Homelessness defends panhandlers in court. Once again, before he ran the article we informed him that we had only defended a handful of panhandlers (less than 2% of the number he suggests) over the year before he printed it. Not because we wouldn't but because most are misdemeanors and do not go to traffic court. He ran it anyway.

The Coalition is all of us. We need to hold this newspaper accountable.

Please write a letter to the editor with the following points:

• San Franciscans are deeply concerned with human dignity. The lack of safe and affordable housing will not be solved by making people without homes into criminals.

• Contrary to the article by Chuck Nevius, treatment was never offered
  through the court system to the man who died at the Library. There is
  a severe lack of substance abuse treatment in San Francisco. There are hundreds waiting for treatment every day. The City is proposing cutting that treatment and community based mental health treatment
  again this year by 15%.

• It is irresponsible for a major daily paper to continue printing outlandish lies about poor people and the organizations and volunteers who defend their rights.

• Due process is a basic civil right in the United States that the Chronicle is challenging.

• If no lawyer had ever stepped forward to represent James Hill he would be just as dead today, from just as fatal an overdose, following an endless cycle of jail, release, re-offense, and NO TREATMENT. Because there were no realistic treatment options that James Hill could turn to. Lawyers are not resisting or interfering with access to treatment.

• San Francisco does not provide enough resources for homeless people - in particular, there is a lack of clean, safe, permanent housing. The roots of this problem lie in the abandonment by the federal government of low-cost housing two decades ago, which has never been restored.

Please send letter to editor of Chronicle This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and cc it to 1) me and 2) Phil Bronstein This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and 3) Steve Proctor This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We want to have a cadre of agency and individual statements in response to the Nevius attacks on homeless people.