Decrying Ban on Homeless Sweeps, San Francisco Lawmakers To Stage Courthouse Protest

by Annie Gaus : sfstandard – excerpt

A group of San Francisco lawmakers, residents and merchants are heading up a rally outside the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals next week, just ahead of a key hearing on an injunction that temporarily bars the city from enforcing laws against sitting and lodging on the street.

Supervisors Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman and Joel Engardio are expected to attend the rally alongside San Francisco residents who are upset with street conditions that they say have grown increasingly untenable.

On Aug. 23, a Ninth Circuit panel will hear arguments in the city’s appeal of the controversial injunction, which was handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu in December 2022. The hearing will take place during a 9:30 a.m. session at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at 95 Seventh St…

At a press conference last week, the coalition’s attorneys proposed a settlement that included several specific provisions, such as a requirement that the city fill vacant supportive housing units within 30 days, spend unused funds from two housing-related ballot measures and exclude police from the enforcement of sit/lie laws.

City Attorney David Chiu balked at the public offer, calling it a “political stunt” that discouraged thoughtful settlement discussions. The parties had previously engaged in confidential settlement negotiations under court supervision, Chiu’s office said…

Terry Asten Bennett, who co-owns Cliff’s Variety Store in the Castro neighborhood, said the city should act more quickly to convert unused office spaces into dwellings and to enforce laws that it has the ability to enforce.

Bennett said that fights, drug use, screaming outbursts and other incidents have made her concerned for the safety of her employees and customers, and have discouraged visitors from coming to the world-famous Castro district.

“It’s really important that the residents of the city are aware of the position this judge has put us in … but we also have to hold the city accountable. There are so many things that could be enforced that just aren’t,” Bennett said. “The response from the judge and from the city is not good enough. It’s not OK, it’s not humane for anybody and it’s putting all of us in a bad position.”…(more)

KPIX Special Report: S.F. gets mixed grades on Tenderloin turnaround

Tenderloin Emergency in the news

Special report by Wilson Walker.

How the city authorities are paying attention to what these people are saying. We don’t need to spend more money on studies and counting. We need to see more actions are requested by the Tenderloin residents and businesses.

S.F. Spent Estimated $500,000 on Unused RVs Meant for Homeless

By Brian Howey : sfpublicpress – excerpt

UPDATE 5/28/2020 9:01 p.m. Adds new details from city officials that substantially change story. Revisions throughout.

Twenty-nine recreational vehicles leased by San Francisco to house homeless residents during the pandemic were never used for their intended purpose, an endeavor that may have cost the city as much as half a million dollars, a city official confirmed.

“There isn’t anyone in the RVs right now and we hadn’t moved anybody in,” said Human Services Agency spokeswoman Chandra Johnson.

The city leased the RVs in early March to house people who were unable to shelter in place on their own, such as unhoused residents. In mid-April, the Public Press revealed that the RVs had been sitting empty in a parking lot near Oracle Park for a month. At the time, Johnson said the delay was caused by bureaucratic hurdles, staffing issues and the challenge of finding an appropriate site for the camp…(more)

Unbelievable. Thanks for letting us know what is happening to the RVs and trailers. Who do we need to remove to remove the bureaucratic hurdles? Sounds like there are extra people in the way of getting things done at City Hall. What is wrong with letting people move into them where they are? Isn’t that what empty San Francisco parking lots are for? Dare I ask how much they are spending on security for those empty RVs and trailers?

RELATED:

While S.F. Resists, Seattle Embraces Regulated Homeless Camps

While San Francisco city leaders continue to resist long-term homeless encampments, another city 800 miles to the north is taking the opposite approach.

San Francisco has approved temporary encampments to slow the spread of COVID-19. But in Seattle, a half-decade experiment with regulated sites has proved so much more successful at getting people off the streets than other solutions that officials recently voted to expand it fourfold.

Seattle has set up nine “villages” of tiny houses, provided case managers on the premises and looked to the occupants themselves to help with daily operations. The results are impressive. Public data show that 37% of Seattle’s village clients moved on to permanent housing in 2019, compared with 23% from “enhanced shelters” like navigation centers and 4% from basic emergency shelters… (more)

 

 

SF’s Flawed $438 Million Bond Proposal

By Randy Shaw : beyondchron – excerpt

Bond Fails to Prioritize COVID19 Priorities

Mayor Breed’s proposed $438 million “Health and Recovery Bond” raises serious questions about city priorities. Much if not most of the proposed spending does not meet COVID-19 needs. The Board of Supervisors must revise it before it gets to the ballot… (more)

If the bond doesn’t meet the COVID-19 needs of the city, the voters can always oppose it. There is no reason to encourage a waste of funds during an economic crisis. By November the crisis will be real if things do not improve soon.

SF parks should be part of homeless solution

Opinion by Chris Giorni and Nancy H. DeStefanis: sfchronicle – excerpt

As longtime resident users of San Francisco parks, and directors of community programs that utilize Golden Gate Park and other parks in the city, we are in full support of the proposal to explore Safe Sleeping Sites on San Francisco Rec and Parks managed lands.

Supervisors Sandra Fewer and Gordon Mar have proposed legislation that would 1) make it allowable to use Rec and Parks land for “Safe Sleeping Sites” and 2) would require the Rec and Parks department to develop an inventory of sites that meet the requirements of such a site from the Department of Public Health. This legislation does not actually propose a site but rather opens up a conversation about how we all must come together to work on solutions to an incredible challenge made even more so challenging by a pandemic….

We thank Supervisors Fewer and Mar for putting forth this proposal to explore the use of Rec and Parks lands (which include parks as well as parking lots and other facilities) to help us together identify possible sites for safe sleeping. It is the right thing to do, and as people who are deeply invested in the park system, you have our strong support… (more)

 

Protest caravan demands hotel rooms for homeless

By Garrett Leahy : 48hills – excerpt

Medical, faith, and homeless communities puts the obvious question: why isn’t the city moving to take over, and ultimately buy, failing hotels for housing?

The streets around City Hall were filled with the sounds of cars honking, wooting, and chants of “housing is the cure!” on Friday evening as roughly 50 cars participated in a caravan protest calling for the city to house San Francisco’s homeless population in hotel rooms as well as increase their focus on acquiring long term affordable housing for the homeless.

The cars passed by city hall, the Painted Ladies, and along Pierce St. near Mayor London Breed’s home. The caravan protest was organized by homeless rights advocacy organizations the Coalition on Homelessness, the Do No Harm Coalition, and Faith in Action.

“We’re coming from different directions but we have one common goal which is to house the vulnerable for moral reasons, for health reasons, and it’s for the benefit of us all,” said Reverend Sadie Stone, a pastor at the United Methodist Church on Sanchez St and a member of Faith in Action… (more)

Community seizes MLK Park as immediate COVID relief for unhoused neighbors

by Maria Victoria Ahearne-Rosales, Beds 4 Bayview Coalition : sfbayview – excerpt

When the shelter-in-place order went into effect on March 17 in San Francisco, it would be safe to assume the order referred to those who had shelter. For the rest of our residents with no shelter, there would be no relief.

According to the San Francisco Homeless Point-in-Time Count & Survey, our city’s unhoused population has risen from 6,858 in 2017 to 8,035 in 2020. Carrying the second highest population of unhoused residents is District 10, with 1,841 total. Of those, 1,841 people, 313 are considered “sheltered,” leaving 1,528 “unsheltered” in District 10.

To further impact our unhoused population, shelters and navigation centers started to close. Describing what it was like when COVID hit Bayview Hunters Point, sitting in the Southeast corner of D10, is Gwendolyn Westbrook, CEO of United Council of Human Services, aka Mother Brown’s Dining Room:

“We went from serving 400 meals on a regular day to over 1,400 meals a day. Then the city closed the shelters. Then we had to decrease our services. Because of social distancing, our space would only allow us to have 25-30 people a mandatory 6 feet apart from each other. Whereas before, we used to have room for 130 people, upstairs and downstairs … (more)

RELATED:

First sanctioned tent city opens in SF

Supes assail SF Health Officer over absent homeless strategy

By Julian Mark : missionlocal – excerpt (includes audio track)

San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Tomas Aragón was hard-pressed for answers Tuesday evening as members of the Board of Supervisors grilled him about the Department of Public Health’s perceived lack of coronavirus strategy to address the city’s 8,000 homeless individuals.

“I’ve, frankly, been shocked that there has not been one health order issued yet directly related to this population …” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, asking Aragón why he has not yet issued a binding order to commandeer hotel rooms to allow the homeless to safely shelter in place.

Aragón said the city needed to exhaust all its resources to obtain hotel rooms before taking the dramatic step of commandeering them, per advice from the City Attorney. “So it didn’t seem to me to make sense to do an order if the city has the capacity to negotiate and get hotel rooms,” he said, “as the Board of Supervisors has also passed an ordinance to require that, as well.”…(more)

Another spin doctor we don’t need. Who is commandeering rooms? Who can follow Dr. Aragón’s reasoning? Before we start to use the empty rooms that are being paid for we must negotiate for more rooms? Really? People just want to move into the rooms sitting empty now. We are told that there is a waiting list for the rooms but, no one, in including the supervisors, is allowed to see it. WHY ARE WE PAYING FOR EMPTY ROOMS?

What happened to the trailers and RVs we heard about? Has anyone moved into them yet? What is the problem with using them? And what happened to plans to set aside safe parking for vehicle dwellers? How many years will it take to get that done? This is not a disaster plan. This is nightmare of incompetence.

Navigation Centers Heading Towards Full Capacity

by Bettina Cohen : potreroview – excerpt

The Embarcadero Shelter Access for Everyone (SAFE) Navigation Center, located at Seawall Lot 330, opened last December. By February, 130 beds at the facility were taken, 100 percent occupancy for the startup phase. Plans to ramp up to 200 beds by the end of the year were put on hold when the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) issued new guidelines last month intended to maintain physical distances between facility guests.

Five Keys, a nonprofit that operates a 128-bed navigation center at 125 Bayshore Boulevard, is managing the Center. The Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center Advisory Group (ESNCAG) was formed last year to facilitate communication between community members, City and Port of San Francisco officials, and Five Keys. Last month’s was held as a webinar rather than an in-person assembly, in response to DPH’s recommendation not to hold public get-togethers as a means to reduce COVID-19 exposure risks…

At last month’s webinar it was announced that as of March 23 the City was no longer accepting new referrals to any Navigation Center…

As this article went to press, the City had activated temporary housing sites for people who have tested positive for the virus and/or need to quarantine due to possible exposure… (more)

City efforts to fill empty rooms with humans who need shelter are failing

Update on the empty rooms:

A lot of people are asking this question: Is the city paying for empty rooms?

Answer came from Paul Monge in Hillary Ronen’s office:

There are a sizable number of vacant hotel rooms reserved for frontline workers that the city is paying for. These have remained unoccupied for weeks, so we are pressuring departments to reallocate those rooms for other vulnerable populations as quickly as possible.

Thank you,
Paul Monge, JD, MPP