The Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco Network Ministries, and the general public will gather tonight to honor those who died while homeless. The memorial will happen at 5:30 p.m. at Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall. "The memorial is traditionally held on the winter solstice because, according to organizers, it represents the coldest, darkest time for the homeless population," notes BCN. more ›

Paris Powell, the Oakland man shot just after midnight on Tuesday while trying to deliver a fish dinner to a homeless man with whom he'd formed a relationship, died late last night. He was removed from life support at around 11 p.m. Wednesday at Highland Hospital in Oakland. more ›

San Francisco's controversial sit-lie ordinance, which passed in November by a narrow margin, has accomplished what many predicted: nothing. The law, making it verboten to sit or lie on public sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., was favored strongly by local business owners and some residents in the Haight-Ashbury. They claimed they were being harassed by scrappy street urchins who loitered on nearby sidewalks. more ›

Berkeleyside effortlessly tugs our heart strings today with a story about Paw Fund, a clinic for pets of homeless people started by Jill Posener, a photographer and onetime Animal Care Commissioner. Behold: more ›

Wednesday night's three-alarm fire that ravaged Park Hotel on Folsom Street left over 75 San Franciscans homeless. The Red Cross set up shelters to cover the displaced for the night, and will continue tonight. While investigators have yet to determine how it started -- SF Weekly debunked rumors that the fire was sparked by an indoor barbecue -- the Chronicle reports that the blaze "gutted the apartment house and spread to three other buildings, causing significant damage to a six-unit apartment behind it and minor to moderate damage to adjacent structures." more ›

San Franciscans love to complain about things, we know this. The Chamber of Commerce probably knows this too (unless they are completely out of touch), so in order to quantify exactly which complaints were the most bothersome to San Franciscans they took it upon themselves to survey the locals about "the city's most pressing issue". Here's how the poll of 500 registered voters broke down: more ›

Please, please, please join us at The Lookout on Tuesday, February 15, for a fundraiser to benefit the displaced residents of the Castro arson fires. As many of you know, four fires in the Castro sent waves of paranoia throughout the community. One fire in particular, at 16th and Market Streets, displaced 17 people. In an effort to help these now homeless residents, writer and SFGate personality Beth Spotswood and local politico Kate Ryken have planned a most delightful fund raising party in the heart of the Castro. more ›

YouTube user Photorikki captured several recessionistas living it up near former Supervisor Chris Daly's new bar, Buck's Tavern, on Stevenson Street. (This was shot before Daly took over, by the way.) In the video, the "homeless drunk boys" throw stuff (yikes!), gingerly sip Four Loko (double yikes!), and scream at the videographer. more ›

A two-alarm fire broke out in a North Beach apartment building early New Year's Day, displacing 48 residents, two-thirds of whom only speak Cantonese and many of them low-income. The fire was reported just before 1:30 a.m., after one of the residents found her bathroom on fire. The blaze spread quickly, and residents had to flee with few belongings. more ›

James Jeter gets a beard trim and haircut during the Veterans Connect event at the downtown VA clinic in San Francisco on Wednesday. Veterans Connect, which targets roughly 2,500 homeless veterans in the city and is held each year the day before Veterans Day, connects former servicemen and servicewomen to a variety of services including housing assistance, medical care, and mental health and substance abuse treatment. Jeter said that he served in the Army. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) more ›

While Haight residents rejected Measure L -- election 2010's divisive sit/lie law that, after passing, will now keep city sidewalks sparkling clean, or whatever -- loads of cash and plenty of votes from San Francisco's richest neighborhoods helped edge the anti-street urchin law into victory. SF Appeal's Chris Roberts looked at precinct results, basically showing sit-lie snatched vote in rich person places -- i.e., Pacific Heights, Seacliff, and West of Twin Peaks. more ›

Untitled photo by Justin Beck. more ›

In a new endorsement for S.F. as America's number-one tourist destination (18th year in a row, boyeee), two "transients" attacked a tourist couple near Fisherman's Wharf last week. As Mike Aldax reports in the Examiner, the male transient challenged the man to a fight while the female transient pressed a lit cigarette into the man's wife's cheek. more ›

On Sunday, during a rally for World Homeless Day starting at Civic Center, activists took over a vacant San Francisco residential hotel in the Tenderloin. IndyBay reveals that the Creative Housing Liberation and other grous occupied the Leslie Hotel at 581 Eddy Street, which has been vacant for two years. more ›

You know how the Board of Supervisors are trying to make up for some $17 million spent annually on medical care and law enforcement related to alcohol abuse by taxing all alcohol sold? Well, as ABC 7 reports, another controversial method they have of lowering the taxpayer burden for caring for drunks is setting up a "wet house," something Seattle has already done, where chronic inebriates who mostly live on the streets can receive free housing and medical care, while they continue drinking. more ›

Well, this seems downright mean, depriving someone of a $1 McDouble. And that, dear readers, is just what the Haight and Stanyan McDonald's has done. See, according to the Chronicle, the store "eliminated its Dollar Menu about a month ago, making the items on it too expensive for the people who spend the better part of their day on the sidewalk in front." (Is that even legal? The Dollar Menu, as you all know, is as American as dissidence and apple pie.) more ›

Today, President Obama announced the launch of Opening Doors, which will, ideally, help prevent homelessness by using a San Francisco-based model. Not so simply put, Opening Doors is "a more targeted approach by the federal government in leveraging local and regional strategies to end homelessness and building upon momentum that has been generated in cities such as San Francisco through its Project Homeless Connect program." more ›

In lieu of dealing with the Board of Supervisors, Gavin Newsom will have voters decide on the sensitive sit-lie law, which would make it illegal for folks to sit or lie down on sidewalks during certain hours in the city. Newsom plans to attaching it to the November ballot because of "stiff resistance from a majority of supervisors." In an interview with The Chronicle, Newsom said, "It's crystal clear that the board's not serious about it ... We're moving forward with sit/lie." more ›

Everything from yoga near the beach to a hot tub party to comics performing while lying down on the sidewalk (including Nato Green and Kamau Bell) occurred on Saturday during a large sit/lie law protest. Sidewalks from all over the city -- Haight and Cole, 16th and Mission, Folsom and 7th, 16th Avenue and Moraga -- all played host to concerned citizens attending the Stand Against Sit/Lie rally. more ›

This morning, there was a sit/lie rally happening at City Hall -- a protest against a law that would, if all goes according to plan, preemptively stop crimes from happening in the Haight. How so? Well, it would make it illegal to sit or lie down on public sidewalks. That is to say, it would attempt to legally extract the teen hooligans who, reported C.V. Nevius, have been using their pooches, cross words and stale body odor to terrorize residents and passersby on Haight Street. more ›

As SFist commenter auweia1 pointed out on his blog, San Francisco homeless ilk could receive $82 million. The cash would go to BeyondChron's Randy Shaw and Tenderloin Housing Clinic for the next five years. While, on the surface, we have no issue with helping out the homeless with such a luxurious wad of money (Fancy Feast doesn't come cheap), we do have some reservations with any dollar amount going to a noted Beyonce hater. (How could you, Randy?!) Also, before you nut in the comments, remember that this is just in committee; these kind of things have to be approved by committee then by the full board two times before it happens. This was merely set to be discussed in the budget today per the agenda. [via Bluoz] more ›

Daniel Harlan, the homeless man who had been searching for his cat Samantha for weeks, was reunited with her this evening. more ›

This morning, Carl Nolte of the Chronicle brings our attention to the tale of a man's (adorable) missing cat. Daniel Harlan, 58, a homeless man and pan handler, had his "pug-nosed Himalayan cat named Samantha" stolen from him. (Here is a photo of said cat.) more ›

Police arrested Willie Tucker, 56, yesterday for allegedly setting fire to an apartment building at 2949 18th St. at about 8 a.m. on Jan. 28. Tucker, a transient gentleman, it seems, set the fire "outside an apartment door of a female resident, who had reportedly befriended him months ago and given him food." What's more, the words "Welcome hell" and other illegible ramblings "were found scrawled on the door in permanent marker." Egads. Anyway, no one was injured. [via Appeal] more ›

Yesterday, several enthusiastic university students broke into the Hibernia National Bank, which was recently smeared this dated, fetishistic bit of graffiti, to protest the way the homeless are treated in the area. Which is bad. Real bad. Or something like that. more ›

SFist received a pressing (albeit insensitive and Nevius-esque) question in the editor's inbox this afternoon. Perhaps you can help? A reader (who asked to remain anonymous) writes: more ›

Via Brian Monnier: "Just saw a homeless guy bum $2 from someone and then burn it in front of the guy. Just awesome, I love sf." more ›