| May Day Motor March! Tenants and Workers still in the streets, International Worker Day 2020 was unlike any we have seen! |
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The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco (HRCSF), Causa Justa/Just Cause, and the Coalition on Homelessness lead a car caravan on May 1st to celebrate May Day, bridging the struggles between tenants, workers, unhoused, imprisoned and undocumented people across San Francisco.
Over 150 cars drove through San Francisco with signs reading Cancel Rents and Cancel Mortgages. Key stops on the march highlighted demands that Governor Newsom and Veritas Investment CEO Yat Pang Au cancel rents and mortgages for the thousands in San Francisco, and millions in California, who have lost income in the last 6-weeks of Stay in Place/ “We need our housing stability to be prioritized over landlord, corporation and bank profits,” said one participant.
The caravan ended at 4555 19th St., where unhoused organizers with ReclaimSF occupied a vacant investment property in the Castro. While Couper Orona and Jess Gonzalez were evicted after just a few hours by police, the action highlighted advocates ongoing demands that Mayor London Breed use her emergency powers to open all vacant units to those currently trying to stay safe from the virus in congregate shelters, crowded SROs, or in tents on the street.
Some news coverage of the day can be found here:
For more on the national #CancelRent campaign go to cancelrent.us or read this Shelterforce article.