The Homes not Jails (HNJ) San Francisco chapter was formed in 1992 in response to the reality that while there are huge numbers of homeless folks on the streets, vacant houses in the city go empty for months or years. Through covert housing takeovers, public building occupations, and direct action, HNJ aims to fulfill the basic human right to free and safe housing for all. As they case the streets for houses to put people up for the night, HNJ is influenced by slogans like ‘property is robbery’ and ‘property is violence’: “There’s people out in the streets every night that are being hurt- people that are starving, dying, getting harassed by police…how is that not violence when there are all these homes that are owned but not being used?”
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