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by the United Front Against Displacement
On Dec. 16, 2021, at 4 p.m., outside of Nancy Pelosi’s office at 90 Seventh St. in San Francisco, the United Front Against Displacement staged a protest against the nationwide gutting of public housing and San Francisco’s attempt to kick low-income people out of the city.
The past 50 years have seen a nationwide onslaught against public housing. From a complete cessation of building new housing in the ‘70s, to schemes like HOPE VI that gutted public housing in the ‘90s and early 2000s, to today’s forced relocations and dispositions – the powers that be have done everything to dismantle one of the few low-income housing options in this country.
HOPE SF is San Francisco’s latest iteration. While it is one scheme in a long chain of others, it should be seen as a pilot program for the rest of the nation.
Those working under the HOPE SF banner use words like “equity” and “community power” all while dismissing residents, running down the properties and pressuring residents out of their homes. The city is working overtime to get people to move to mixed-income developments rife with issues – see page 12 here – or out of the city entirely.
Since the politicians and developers want residents out faster than they can build these new mixed-income developments, HOPE SF is implementing something called “accelerated disposition”, the first plan of its kind.
She showed up to our home and told lies. We showed up to her office to tell the truth and voice our demands.
Under accelerated disposition, residents are pressured into signing new leases with private managers who take over from the Housing Authority without building any new housing. Residents stay in dilapidated units, while the developers stand to make a huge profit and the Housing Authority can renounce all responsibility.
We oppose privatization, accelerated disposition and all other attempts to destroy public housing because we understand that these plots harm working people in order for the rich to profit. Our local and national politicians, on the other hand, are in bed with the developers and banks who stand to profit from these plans, so they always support them.
Look no further than Nancy Pelosi. She has whipped up support for the Build Back Better bill that aims to completely starve public housing. She has been a strong backer of the HOPE SF plan.
We know that she is corrupt and morally bankrupt. Nancy even showed up at Sunnydale just a couple of months ago. While she was giving a speech calling residents “the real VIPs,” those same supposed VIPs were being barred from entering by police.
She showed up to our home and told lies. We showed up to her office to tell the truth and voice our demands. Stay tuned for more from UFAD.
The United Front Against Displacement (UFAD) is an anti-gentrification organization that resists gentrification and pushes back against attempts to criminalize and displace people. Contact the group at wewontgo@riseup.net and at 510-815-9978. Follow them online @theUFAD and www.theufad.org.
