No. 45, April 2005 Good News for. . . Men Free prostate cancer screenings
for men over 45 who live in SROs will be available
on Prostate Cancer Awareness Day, Friday, April 22,
noon-2 p.m., at the Tenderloin Police Station Community
Room. Davy Jones, who is promoting the testing, says
any “poor” man residing in the TL or the
Sixth Street corridor can get the screening. A screening
conducted in February at The Rose on Sixth Street attracted
26 men but 10 were turned away after arriving too late.
Jones hopes they’ll return for the blood test
that takes less than two minutes to administer. Music lovers Summer’ll
be here before you know it, and that means free music
at Boeddeker Park every Tuesday in July through September
from noon to 1 p.m. Lynn Valente, associate director
of the Market Street Association and coordinator of
the People in Plazas program, wants TL nonprofits to
tell her what kind of tunes their constituents would
like to hear. “If you want to bring seniors,
I’ll make sure there’s swing,” Valente
said, “and if you want to bring teens, I can
get a benign rap group up there on the stage. We should
get as much bang for our buck as possible.” The
bucks for the People in Plaza program — this
is its 29th season — come courtesy of the Koret
Foundation and Grants for the Arts/S.F. Hotel Tax Fund.
To plug the music you want to hear: 362-2500. Low-income taxpayers It’s
tax time, and a dizzying array of tax credits and refunds
are available to help offset the high costs of — well — of
living. Besides the federal earned income tax credit
(EITC), which gives up to $4,300 to families with incomes
below $35,458, there’s the regular child tax
credit, an additional-child tax credit, a saver’s
credit and a new health coverage tax credit. The state
offers credits to renters and elderly, low-income homeowners,
and for child care. And San Francisco came on board
this year with its working families tax credit that
will match a portion of the feds’ EITC. At no
cost, H & R Block will help anyone eligible to
apply for the city’s tax break: You must live
in S.F., claim at least one child on your tax return,
claim the EITC and have earned less than $35,458 in
2004. The S.F. treasurer’s office said that by
mid-March it had received 4,000 Working Families Credit
applications and wants to double that number by April
15. For info: 554-5678. Free tax-preparation sites:
1-800-358-8832. Let there be
lights You know
those lights that go on automatically when someone
approaches and stay on only as long as they detect
movement? Want a couple to discourage breakins at your
business or residence, or to light up a dingy hallway
indoors? Want them for free? Just call S.F. Community
Power Cooperative. Its motion sensor program, funded
by rate-payers through the state PUC, will install
up to three of these energy-efficient devices and will
throw in the long-lasting bulbs. Any building owner,
manager or resident in Zip codes 94102, -03, -07, -10,
-24 and –34 can call for an appointment. That
includes the Tenderloin and the Sixth Street corridor.
One requirement: A sensor can only be attached to a
working light fixture. If it isn’t, says Paul
Liotsakis, the Power Co-op’s associate director,
he’ll refer the caller to an electrician. They’d
charge about $175, he estimated. Last year, he says,
the sensor program saved folks in Potrero and Bayview-Hunters
Point 700,000 kilowatt hours of electricity — worth
more than $100,000 — because lights don’t
have to be on all night. In the central city, sensors
already are lighting up the dark at 201 Turk, at the
Dudley Apartments at 172 Sixth St., and at the Cecil
Williams Building. Appointments and info: 626-8723. Marlton Residence Residents
are compiling useful neighborhood information for the
Jones Street hotel’s first welcome package for
new tenants. “When I came here six years ago
all I got was, ‘Here’s your room,’” says
Allen Harven. Rose Riggs says she received just a key
and a copy of the lease. They are members of a new
five-member meet-and-greet committee formed by manager
Linda Rochelle to help build community in the hotel. “I
like the idea of making them (newcomers) feel this
is their home, not just a hotel,” says Riggs.
One volunteer speaks Mandarin and another Vietnamese.
Rochelle asked St. Anthony’s community liaison
Daniel O’Connor to help the committee create
a project. The handbook is the result. It is divided
into three sections: Seniors, Neighborhood and In House. “I
use a wheelchair 90% of the time,” says Riggs, “so
I researched Muni and found they give a free training
program for the disabled on how to use Muni.” Bruce
Logan drew a welcome mouse for the packet covers, which
neighborhood school kids and seniors will color. To
defray production costs, Will Dempsey wants to sell
advertising and says he has already found some interested
restaurants. “Maybe this will grow,” says
O’Connor. 
Will Dempsey, Rose Riggs, Allen harven, Brue Logan
and
Daniel O'Connor are producing the Marlton's guide
for newcomers.
The community Hospitality
House annually honors TenderChamps — people and
organizations with long records of improving the conditions
of the homeless in the Tenderloin. Awards at the March
9 event went to: Laura Guzman, Coalition on Homelessness
board president, a homeless and immigrant rights advocate
and a trainer for the Harm Reduction Training Institute;
Community Housing Partnership, the 15-year-old nonprofit
exclusively dedicated to providing supportive housing
for homeless people; Kym Valadez, a veterans’ advocate
who has served on numerous homeless boards and task
forces for 20 years and was an original member of the
S.F. Homeless Service Providers Network in 1986; and
Paul Boden, for 30 years an advocate for local, state
and national policies on homelessness, founder in 1987
of the Coalition on Homelessness (run by and for the
homeless), and a drafter of the Bringing America Home
Act introduced in Congress that aims to end homelessness
in America. — Marjorie Beggs and Tom
Carter This column needs regular infusions. If you have some
good news (no events, please), send it to marjorie@studycenter.org.
or tom@studycenter.org {Home} Central
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