Super Bowl protests in S.F.: Tent city, Mario Woods march planned

Debra Lujan stands outside her tent on 13th Street in the evening of Tuesday, January 12, 2016 in San Francisco. Debra Lujan stands outside her tent on 13th Street in the evening of Tuesday, January 12, 2016 in San Francisco. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Super Bowl protests in S.F.: Tent city, Mario Woods march planned 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

For anyone who’s furious over just about any social-justice issue, next week isn’t really Super Bowl week.

It’s the Super Bowl of Protests week.

From homelessness and immigration to African American rights and urban farming, nearly every protest cause that ever snatched a headline is about to be aired out loud and long in the Bay Area.

Beginning Saturday, organizers promise to roll out demonstrations like a lineup of El Niño storms all the way through football’s biggest game on Feb. 7. The result is likely to be snarled traffic, standoffs with police and shouting from hundreds of throats.

“We’re still trying to figure out all the protests that are going to happen, but there are a lot in the works, and members of our communities are really interested in making sure all the messages are highlighted,” said Maria Zamudio, housing rights campaign organizer for Causa Justa-Just Cause, a human rights organization that will have a hand in most of the major protests.

“It’s very important that we all organize events during Super Bowl week,” Zamudio said. “There are a lot of things to protest.”

Woods march

Foremost among the plans are a march in San Francisco on Saturday protesting the police killing last month of stabbing suspect Mario Woods, and a downtown tent city of homeless people to be built Wednesday calling for housing rights. The Woods march begins at 11 a.m. at Union Square, and ends at the carnival-like Super Bowl City at the foot of Market Street.

The driving force for all this planning has very little to do with the Super Bowl itself. What’s inspiring people to pick up picket signs is all the media attention descending on the Bay Area.

“A lot of people are upset, and having millions of eyes on San Francisco is an opportunity to get national and international solidarity with the people and causes here,” said Lisa Marie Alatorre of the Coalition on Homelessness, which is planning to help assemble the tent city alongside Super Bowl City.

“My hope is that the city respects our right to get out our message, and recognizes that we’re not coming to mess anything up in destructive ways,” Alatorre said. “We want to let people know that homeless people are feeling disempowered and attacked.

“Now is really a moment for the police to show they are in solidarity with the community, and not just out to crack skulls.”

Police plans

Lt. Mike Nevin, head of the Police Department’s homeless outreach division, said officers will do what they can to keep the protests nonviolent.

“People have a right to express themselves, and the main interest of, I think, everyone in the city is seeing that homeless people get housed,” he said.

Organizers hope to draw hundreds, if not thousands, of participants to the tent city and the Woods march.

Black Lives Matter, which shut down BART’s West Oakland Station on the day after Thanksgiving in 2014, is also putting together protests. What’s left of the Occupy Oakland movement has plans, as does Occupy the Farm, which is trying to prevent the University of California from developing a stretch of land in Albany.

Details emerging

Organizers are keeping most details close to the vest for now. That’s partly because a lot of actions are still being hatched.

“This is an opportunity to get the word out, and we need people to know that in the East Bay there are people practically sleeping in every doorway,” said Sally Hindman, director of Youth Spirit Artworks, which works with homeless youths primarily in Berkeley. She said protesters tentatively plan to erect an encampment outside Berkeley City Hall.

“There is no place for homeless youths to spend the day in the rain, and it’s an emergency,” she said. “This El Niño situation with the homeless all over our area should bring out the best in Americans, and maybe by having the whole nation see what’s going on we can roll up our sleeves and solve the problem right here at our doorstep.”

‘Power in numbers’

Debra Lujan, 38, is among those planning to take part in the San Francisco tent city. She is now one of 250 people living on Division Street, the biggest homeless encampment in the city, although she was rousted by street cleaners Thursday.

“I just moved across the street, where they’ll probably clean me out again sometime,” Lujan said. “This sucks. I can’t wait for that Super Bowl tent city to start. We will have power in numbers and power in people, and we already have our permit — it’s the U.S. Constitution.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kfagan@sfchronicle.com