My buddy Josh from the Mission SRO collaborative alerted me to a community teach-in and press conference going down tomorrow at Dolores Street Community Services on Valencia between 20th and 21st.  Here’s the what:

San Francisco city officials and low income housing advocates will launch the newly expanded 311 that will benefit the more than 18,000 SRO residents throughout the city.  Formerly utilized mainly for outdoor issues (potholes, graffiti, parks, etc.), 311 has now been expanded to address building issues, such as pests, inadequate heat or water, blocked fire exits and more.  Advocates and city officials will be hitting the streets to get the word out and encourage residents to utilize the new service.

The event kicks off at 9:30 a.m.   District supervisors David Campos and David Chiu will be in attendance, among others.

The Mission SRO Collaborative program is an interesting one, and one whose efforts we’ve been happy to highlight in the past.  The non-profit provides outreach and education to residents of Single Room Occupancy (SRO, duh) hotels in the Mission, of which there are around 50, housing around 2,000 people.

It’s nice to hear there are organizations remedying all the shitty SF homelessness.  Me, I just work for the Internet.  The Internet doesn’t help anyone.

Check it out if at all interested.

URGENT! Mission SRO Collaborative is collecting toys for about 100 kids in need because Toys for Tots came up short this year.

These kids are seriously gonna have a shitty Christmas if you don’t help out. And I’m not talking about like when you were 8 and your mom fucked up and got you a Go-Bot instead of a Transformer. We’re talking no toys AT ALL for these little tykes. At this rate, these kids might prematurely stop believing in Santa (or black Santa) which will have some serious social ramifications (decreased cheer/goodwill towards man, disbelief in the easter bunny and muppets, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria).

Help stop the downfall of society now. Here are the details:

We need Toys (nothing fancy, just simple things like action figures, dolls, games, puzzles…you know the real stuff) by (This is the URGENT part) Monday 12/21 at 3pm.

How to get them to us: We are at 938 Valencia St. between 20^th and 21^st and we will take donations of Toys at any time between 9 and 6pm.

If you can’t stop by or need to make special arrangements, call me Jorge Portillo at 415-671-5089 or someone here at the Collaborative 415-282-6209 ext 16, 12, or 19 or email me at jorge@dscs.org or facebook or portillomail@gmail.com and I will personally see to it that they get here!

More at Dolores Street Community Services. Thanks Laurie @ Mission Locatl for the tip.