Project
Homefulness
"More than 75,000 individuals in Los Angeles and 20,000 individuals in San Francisco experienced homelessness in 2023, most of whom are Black, Indigenous/Latino and LGBTQ people, who are consistently underfunded in their communities, underemployed and underpaid, and over-policed and incarcerated. Job loss and evictions are the most common reasons for homelessness locally.
The streets are increasingly unsafe for houseless people, who are already 16 times more likely to die of a sudden death due to the harshness of their living conditions.Violent vigilantism against unhoused people is increasing. This violence is often aided and abetted by local police, who continuously illegally dismantle encampments and threaten residents with arrest.
~Homefulness, Poor Magazine
Homefulness emerged from the leadership of a formerly unhoused mother and daughter as a living response to the criminalization of poverty. Across the western states, Homefulness is creating permanent housing rooted in dignity for people who have been displaced, persecuted, and punished for being unhoused. The first Homefulness site, completed in East Huchiun (Oakland), is home to 23 formerly unhoused elders, youth, and families with disabilities, and serves as a vibrant hub for education, art, food, storytelling, and movement media—housing a sliding-scale café, POOR Magazine’s living library, and Revolutionary Radio on PNN–KEXU.
The Center for Ethical Land Transition is honored to support the ongoing expansion of Homefulness, including accompaniment for a new land transition in Tovaangar (the Los Angeles Basin). We work in close solidarity with the broader family of allies supporting Homefulness and POOR Magazine. In addition to supporting acquisition strategy for the Tovaangar site, CELT partnered with attorneys at SELC to help facilitate the successful “unselling” of land in Yelamu—the homelands of the Ramaytush Ohlone, now known as San Francisco—where planning is underway for Homefulness Site #4.
