Womyn and children - the 50% - to be continued

A young white womon pushes a stroller with a sleeping bi-racial child across the street, right up to the new camping spot for the CodePINK womyn's tent at McPherson Square, where I happen to be standing. She wants to know exactly what we are doing here.

And what we think we can do for her.

I tell her we are working on ending wars at home and abroad; ending corporate rule. She peers at me thru one half-closed eye heavily shadowed with sparkly blue and green, outlined in black, and begs me to help her find housing for her and her baby.

Allison tells me the low-income apartment she lived in was leveled and $5000/month apartments have risen over its demise. She relates how her little family then encamped in a deserted warehouse that neglected to shut off the pg&e so they had electricity but no water.

They were evicted out of that space and she's been trying desperately to find housing she can afford.

"I have an income" she declares defiantly. She gets around $630 a month from disability. She's been diagnosed bi-polar so she can collect disability. Her 1 year old daughter gets an additional $311 a month from somewhere (I forget where). So she has money, $941 a month.

But where can she get shelter for that. Even if she spent the whole amount, there's no apartment she could find. She's on the mayor's list for low income housing - her number is in the 4,000's. And she was told today, the program was not refunded.

HUD's list for section 8, that she keeps calling, is closed. And not funded.

The shelter for battered womyn she's staying at only allows her to stay for 30 days. She has a week and a half left.

I urge her to come to the G.A. (general assembly) tonite and share her story. I ask her about camping here with her baby.

She enthusiastically says she can share her money and asks what we might need. I ask her if she has a tent, sleeping bags. She's skeptical about camping outside with her baby. It is getting briskly cold.