Homefulness, a landless people’s solution to houselessness

by Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia

Homefulness-graphic, Homefulness, a landless people’s solution to houselessness, Local News & Views In 2012 POOR Magazine’s family of landless, indigenous peoples and revolutionary donors took back a small slice of Pachamama to begin the construction of the self-determined housing, education, community garden and art revolution we call HOMEFULNESS. In 2013, with your revolutionary donation to our new Indiegogo Equity Campaign, we can start the building of this global template for change!

Here’s a little bit of the herstory of this magical year

On Feb. 26, the landless, indigenous revolutionaries at POOR Magazine un-paved the way for Homefulness. In collaboration with our families and compañeros, we removed chunks of asphalt and concrete which covered much of the earth on site to prepare it for the Homefulness garden. Even in the face of opposition from the “landlord” next door, who tried everything to stop us, we moved forward.

Beneath the busted concrete jungle we found life and healing. Roots, the beautiful widespread arms of a cut-down tree, Pachamama’s arms holding us, freeing us while we free her from the concrete holding her captive. She holds us, steadying us in this slow and uncertain process. On Sept. 23, we broke ground on the Pachamama Garden at Homefulness when youth, adults and elders worked with Take Back the Land, ROOTS and Decolonize Oakland to plant the first seeds!

We find blessings one day at a time. Poor Magazine’s Revolutionary Change Session and Healing the Hood Weekend were held at Homefulness. Beginning a cross-bay migration and collaboration between revolutionary poverty skolaz, solidarity family and community members, we are now holding Street Newsroom and doing community outreach at Homefulness on Thursdays, 1-5 p.m., and tending to the newly planted garden.

Pachamama-Garden-at-Homefulness-is-born-Maria-Machetes-Al-Osorio-Tiny-Tony-Robles-092312, Homefulness, a landless people’s solution to houselessness, Local News & Views And … (drumroll, please) … we found an architect and a structural engineer to donate time to design and build additional housing units, a school, office and cafe! These houses will be constructed using natural building materials. They are safe and more affordable to build, allowing us to start right away. We are now fundraising for building materials and city permit paper trails. This is a great time to donate to Homefulness!

If you would like to support the Homefulness equity campaign, please do so online at Indiegogo or by mail and indicate you want to support the Equity Campaign. If you are already a one-time Revolutionary Donor, please consider becoming a monthly Community Support member of POOR Magazine’s poor people-led, indigenous people-led media, art and education projects for as little as $10, $20, $50 or $100 per month. If you are able to give more, please do. Our snail mail address is 2940 16th St. #301, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Upcoming events

The Pachamama Garden is already happening. EVERYBODY is invited to our first Harvest Lunch and Holiday Party on Sunday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m., at Homefulness, 8032 MacArthur Blvd in Deep East Oakland.

Our next meeting to talk about how to actually build Homefulness and support indigenous community and po’ folks in a good way will be on Thursday, Dec. 6, 6:30 p.m., at POOR Magazine, 2940 16th St. #301, San Francisco.

Mercado de Cambio/Tha Po’ Sto’ at POOR Magazine, 2940 16th St. #301, San Francisco, Saturday, Dec. 15, 3-7 p.m., is our holiday art market and party – art, food, performance and revolution!

And we are out on the street every Thursday at Homefulness, 1-3 p.m., serving free healthy food and harm reduction hot dogs and filming Deep East TV, so come through and share your stories or just have some food!

Sincerely,

POOR Magazine Family

Tiny – or Lisa Gray-Garcia – is co-founder with her Mama Dee and co-editor with Tony Robles of POOR Magazine and its many projects and author of “Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America,” published by City Lights. She can be reached at deeandtiny@poormagazine.org. Visit www.tinygraygarcia.com and www.racepovertymediajustice.org.