Kne’Lahni, 3 (center) holds her younger brother Anthony's face, 1, as they try to play jokes on their mother Nyomie to make her laugh while she attempts to sleep in their motel room at in Oakland, California on August 10th, 2023. Nyomie, who is a sex worker, and lives day by day, does the best she can for her children. At 26-years-old she has been a sex worker since she was 13-years-old. She has four kids with four different fathers and three of them have died from gun violence. As she raises the kids with little help, she hopes everyday for a fresh start. She dreams of being able to go to school to become psychologist. Their last name is withheld for safety reasons.
Firefighters walk through brush as they prepare for a backburn operation on the North Complex Fire in Butte County, California, U.S.A. on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020. A series of approximately 12,000 lighting strikes hit the Bay Area causing over 350 fires including the North Complex Fire.
Lieutenant firefighter and PIO Jonathan Baxter administers emergency aid to save man named Ryan during a fentanyl overdose on Olive Street in San Francisco, California, USA on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. The deaths from fentanyl in San Francisco have doubled since 2019 and tripled since 2017. There are projected to be over 700 deaths in San Francisco by the end of the year.
Duat Mai walks on a dead whale at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California, on Monday, May 6, 2019.
Caregivers Jose Rodriguez (left) and Nancy Rubio Campos (right) lift Pat Michelin, 93, out of her wheelchair and back into her bed moments after receiving the second dose of her COVID-19 shot at Gordon Manor assisted living facility on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 in Redwood City, California. Pat requires a lot of assistance because she broke her hip during the pandemic and can no longer walk. Before the pandemic she could have a conversation with her daughter. Now, she doesn’t know who her daughter is.
Undercover narcotics police officers arrest a Honduran drug dealer on Fulton Street in a coordinated drug bust in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. When a longtime drug dealer was asked whether he was afraid of San Francisco police, the dealer let out a loud laugh. Yes and no, he said. “They know what’s going on, but I don’t know. If they want to clean it, they can clean it,” the dealer said. “Sometimes they do the job, but it’s like, just for the news, like, ‘Oh, we did the job good.’ If they wanted to clean it good, they could do that.” The dealer said he likes some of San Francisco’s police officers. Sometimes, he said, one will tap him on the shoulder and say, “You’ve been out here for four hours. You’ve made enough money.” “Fentanyl has changed the game in San Francisco and in California,” SFPD Police Chief Scott said. “This deadly poison has caused fatal overdoses to increase almost every year since it hit the streets of our city. We have changed how we are evaluating and responding to this drug crisis. The SFPD has increased our plainclothes operations and buy-busts to ensure we hold the dealers who profit from this misery accountable.” The opioid epidemic has hit San Francisco particularly hard as authorities have been unable to control the open air drug markets. 2023 has been the deadliest for opioid overdoses on record despite local efforts. As of November 2023, 752 had died of drug overdoses.
(L-r) Fallon Rider, 4, Blake Schuler, 4, Fiona Rider, 7, and Ben Pons, 6 watch the 4th of July Parade in Alameda, Calif., on Monday, July 4, 2022.
Gloria Goodwin cheers at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024.
Clarice Patterson (right) gives her great- grandaughter Kaliyah Guillory, 9, (left) a taste of salad as they eat lunch at Patterson's home in Pacifica, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.
Estrella Burch, 9, (center) held a candle during a multi-faith vigil, where community members discussed Islamophobia and denounced violence, in Berkeley, California on Thursday, December 17, 2015.
Dancer Joshua Webb ties Grace Rosendin's tutu right before she gets on stage during the final performance of the Nutcracker at the State Street Theater in Oroville, California on Sunday January 20, 2019. Grace lost her home in Paradise during the Camp Fire. The ballet school was also destroyed.
Bayview Station Capt. Steven Ford (left) and Pastor Jeffrey Branner (right) comfort Sarah Inez Thomas-Cael (center), the wife of Jevon Cael who was killed last Monday in the Bayview during a prayer service in the Bayview in San Francisco, California, on Monday, June 11, 2018.
Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie with a patron at Buttercup diner during a campaign stop on March 03, 2020 in Oakland, California.
Displaced resident Kim Usher gets emotional while talking to a housing counselor with the city of Oakland at a local assistance center regarding her options for housing after losing her home in a fire on San Pablo Avenue last week in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, April 4, 2017. Usher lives with her mother and three sons and has one more night to stay at the West Oakland Youth Center.
A woman is arrested on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Allston Way during a clash between protesters in Berkeley, Calif., on Sunday, August 27th, 2017.
People wait for the bus on Market Street between 7th and 8th Streets in San Francisco, California, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2019.
Jorgito, 5, and his cousin and caretaker Margarita (left) share a moment together in their bedroom after taking a portrait in San Mateo, California, on Thursday, July 5, 2018. Jorgito was separated from his mother at the Texas border and she was since deported back to Guatemala.
(l-r)Firefighters John Waybright, Pedro Rios and Brent Panos and Mike Leslie take a lunch break from traversing a forested area while looking for hot spots caused by the Soberanes Fire, in Monterey, California, on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016.
A woman gets emotional while firefighters battle an apartment building fire on San Pablo Ave. on Monday, March 27, 2017, in Oakland, Calif.
Alie Jones, right, lays flowers to honor Rachel Imani Buckner in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. Buckner's body was found dismembered in Alameda in July 2023. Joseph Roberts, her boyfriend, was charged in September 2023 with her murder.
Nyomie dresses her 1-year-old son Anthony as she prepares to leave the motel she's been living in after not paying the bill in Oakland, California on August 10th, 2023. Nyomie, who is a sex worker, and lives day by day, does the best she can for her children. At 26-years-old she has been a sex worker since she was 13-years-old. She has four kids with four different fathers and three of them have died from gun violence. As she raises the kids with little help, she hopes everyday for a fresh start. She dreams of being able to go to school to become psychologist. Their last name is withheld for safety reasons.
David Scronce and Bill Lies embrace as they stand for a portrait before getting married at San Francisco's City Hall on May 13, 2016, in San Francisco, California.
Hog Island Oyster Company employee Wilber Mejia pushes a bag of farmed oysters onto a boat during a morning of harvesting in Marshall, California, on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016. The bags are taken back to the company's Marshall headquarters, where the oysters are processed and prepared for sale.
Ja’el Bryant (left) brushes her niece Demetria Calhoun’s hair as they get ready for church on Sunday, January 26,2020 in San Francisco, California. They go to church nearly every Sunday.
Ballet dancer Yuan Yuan Tan poses for a portrait at the War Memorial Opera House ahead of her retirement in San Francisco on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.
Honey Mahogany fixes her hair backstage as she gets ready to perform, at The Stud Bar in San Francisco, California, on Friday, July 8, 2016.
A woman jogs along the Embarcadero passing the Bay Bridge as an orange haze hangs in the sky due to multiple wildfires burning across California and Oregon in San Francisco, Calif. Wednesday, September 9, 2020.
Cars lined up to watch The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson at the Drive In theater during the pandemic at the San Mateo County Event Center on Saturday, July 18, 2020 in San Mateo, California.
Jie Chang Chen salts a pig at Hing Lung meat shop in Chinatown in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017.
Kristy Philips kisses partner Jason Werner at their home in Perryville, Missouri.
Diana Fernanda, 17 (second from left) is comforted by Cesar Becerra, 17 (left) during the campfire and final evening of Camp Everytown, an immersive program for high school students in Santa Cruz, California, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017.
Alexandra Mroz (center) rests her head as she rides the N Muni train during rush hour in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
Charles Darius applies makeup before performing with his band the Church of the Sacred Silversexual as part of a David Bowie tribute, at Slim's in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, January 13, 2016.
Jane Williams, from South Fulton, Ga., cheers during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday Aug. 20 , 2024.
Golden State Warriors fans cheer as they watch Game 5 of the NBA Championships between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers at Era Bar and Lounge in Oakland, California, on Monday, June 12, 2017.
Kalani Ben (left) and wife Megan Barton wore matching red sneakers to their wedding, on Friday May 13, 2016.
Lisa Russell grooms a dog named Papi while bulldog Conchita (left) and a french bulldog named Bear wait to be groomed at her shop SF Dog Parlour on Leland Avenue in the Visitation Valley neighborhood in San Francisco, California, on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019.
Cassie Hausauer, 95 (left) and her daughter Heidi Hausauer were excited to get out of the house as they waited for the start of The Shining at the Drive In theater at the San Mateo County Event Center on Saturday, July 18, 2020 in San Mateo, California.
People watch a helicopter rescue demonstration to commemorate the loss of Arunay Pruthi during an event about beach safety measures on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021 in Half Moon Bay, California. A wave swept 12-year old Arunay Pruthi into the ocean at a Half Moon Bay beach in January and rescuers never found his body. His family created a foundation, the Arunay Pruthi Foundation, to advocate for beach safety measures. His parents put up a sign about sneaker waves and a life ring at a beach near the one where he died.