Crosscurrents

Homelessness ends with a home... Technically. But there’s much more to it, and the path to live indoors is most always complicated. 

For many unhoused people, access to services is only half the battle. The other half is trust. Like the disappointment of overpromised services that don’t deliver, inadequate shelter conditions, and just the accumulated trauma of life on the street. All that can leave people deeply skeptical of the outreach workers and programs meant to help them. 

So what does it actually take to build trust across that divide? One Oakland organization may have found a starting point: pets. KALW’s Homelessness reporter Alastair Boone went to learn more. 

Now, it’s time for New Arrivals, our pocket sized book tour with Bay Area authors. Vanessa Hua lives in the East Bay. Her new novel, "Coyoteland," is set in a fictional Bay Area suburb, and takes place about a year into the Covid pandemic. It’s about wealth, privilege and the housing market, as well as territory, predator, and prey.

Today, lasting lessons from the AIDS crisis. Then, we hear three generations of local leaders share their experiences of transitioning. Plus, a poem about never having to say goodbye. 

It’s been 45 years since AIDS was first named. The disease has killed roughly 40 million people worldwide, including 700 thousand Americans. And while much progress has been made, the fight is not over. 

More than eleven thousand San Franciscan’s are still living with HIV. And just earlier this year one of the largest and oldest HIV non-profits in the country, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation was fighting to prevent over a million dollars of annual city funding from being cut, right after the Trump administration cancelled a million dollars in federal funding. The good news is that funding cuts from the city have been partially averted after non-profits, residents and survivors fought and argued for the organization’s significance. 

And this AIDS Activism has a long history in SF, from the days of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. That’s when activists, caregivers, survivors, and community members started the long fight to build queer solidarity. KALW’s Travis Raburn wanted to know what we can learn from those elder pioneers today. So he recently invited three of them to join him in conversation at KALW’s live event space in Downtown SF. Paul Aguilar, who we heard earlier, a long-term survivor community liaison at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Patrick Batt, the owner of AutoErotica in the Castro, and Reverend Jim Mitulski, former pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church.

In this excerpt from their conversation, the three of them reflect on what it was like to live through the AIDS Crisis during their young adulthoods.

And now we let poetry help us imagine an impossibly beautiful world with no goodbyes. Filipinx poet Keana Aguila Labra and her piece "What If We Didn't Die after Bayani Bala & Maria Bolaños.”

Intergenerational conversations are important, and they take on an even greater role in communities that have been historically marginalized. Jojo, Honey, and Donna all grew up in the Bay Area and they are all pillars of the local Trans community. But each of them comes from a different generation. In this story from 2025, Reporter Yosmay del Mazo connects each of their stories to one greater trans legacy.

Today we honor one of the strongest voices that's fought for the disabled community. And one group is trying to make a notoriously demanding festival more accessible.

Alice Wong was born in Indianapolis in 1974. She was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and was told she wouldn’t live to be older than 18. But in 1997, at 23, she moved to San Francisco to pursue a masters in medical sociology at UCSF, but had trouble completing it because of accessibility issues on campus. Eventually she did finish her degree, and ended up working at the University to help make it more accessible for other disabled students.

Next, a conversation with two of Alice’s colleagues and friends as they remember and honor her work and legacy. Sandy Ho is the Executive Director of the Disability & Philanthropy Forum and Steven Thrasher is a journalist, professor and writer who was suspended from teaching classes after speaking out on Palestine - as Wong also did.

They talked about Alice on the Laura Flanders and Friends podcast.

July isn’t just Disability Pride Month, it’s also the time when lots of Bay Area folks are preparing to go to the festival in Nevada’s Black Rock desert: Burning man. 

And one group that goes each year exists at the intersection of disability advocacy and the values that guide the gathering. The Burner community is guided by what they call “The 10 Principles.” One of those principles is radical inclusion. But what does that mean for people with disabilities? 

Next, we revisit a story from an episode of the podcast the Intersection that explores what disability advocacy looks like in the desert. 

A new documentary takes viewers into the large, West Oakland homeless encampment 'Wood Street.' Community and resistance among Oakland’s unhoused people. Then, we’ll head to San Quentin to hear how listening to a song from your culture can make you feel a bit closer to home. And, Californians have weighed in and voted for their favorite state parks.