TAKE ACTION!

Call or email Mayor Daniel Lurie to ask him to authorize a rent subsidy so Samara can have a home where she can recover from sugery!

Mayor Daniel Lurie

(415) 554-6141

Daniel.Lurie@sfgov.org

KTVU

Samara is a 7-year-old girl with complex medical conditions which have required multiple surgeries over the past month. Samara and her family have spent two years living in shelters. Her parents have been working hard so they can give Samara a safe, dignified home for her recovery, but they still can’t afford San Francisco’s extremely high rents.

According to the Department of Homelessness, Samara and her family do not qualify for any housing assistance because a computer says they do not have enough points. Staff at the City’s Access Point told Samara’s parents that they are not “homeless enough” based on the computer’s point system.

Maria Zavala, Samara’s mom, is a Faith in Action Bay Area leader who’s been organizing along with other immigrant families to ensure that other children and families do not have to go through what she has endured. In May, she co-authored an op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner asking Mayor Lurie to stop evicting homeless families from shelters and to invest in real solutions. In July, the Mayor agreed to end the experimental eviction policy and invest $30 million in new funds for family homelessness. But Maria is still being told that there are no solutions for Samara once she leaves the hospital.

Maria and the other families are saying “WE ARE ALL SAMARA” to emphasize that although Samara’s situation is especially urgent, there are 3,000 homeless children in San Francisco, all of whom deserve safe, dignified homes—-and we can’t stop pushing our elected leaders to do the right thing until there are no more children living in the streets.