San Francisco sidewalks largely cleared of homeless tents

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sidewalks once filled with tents, tarps and people passed out next to piles of trash have largely disappeared from large swaths of San Francisco, a city widely known for its visible homeless population.

The number of people sleeping outdoors fell to fewer than 3,000 in January, the lowest level the city has recorded in a decade, according to a federal count.

And that number has likely dropped further since Mayor London Breed, a Democrat, a difficult re-election fight this november — began to strengthen law enforcement anti-camping laws in August following a Supreme Court of the United States decision.

Homelessness in no path has disappearedand actually increased 7%, to 8,300 in January, according to the same federal count.

But the problem is now out of public view, raising questions about where people went and whether the shift marks a turning point in a crisis long associated with San Francisco.

“We’re seeing much cleaner sidewalks,” said Terry Asten Bennett, owner of Cliff’s Variety store in the city’s historically gay neighborhood. Castro Districtadding that she hates to see homeless people displaced.

“But also, as a business owner, I need clean, welcoming streets to encourage people to come shop and visit our city,” she said.

Homeless advocates say encampment sweeps that force people off the streets are an easy way to hide homelessness from public view.

“Shelters should always be a transitional solution,” said Lukas Illa, an organizer with the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. “We shouldn’t let people stay in them as a long-term solution.”

Other California cities have also reported a decline in the number of visible homeless people, thanks to better outreach and more temporary housing. The beach city of Santa Cruz reported a 49% drop in the number of people sleeping rough this year, while Los Angeles recorded a 10% drop.

San Francisco has increased the number of shelter beds and permanent assisted living units by more than 50 percent over the past six years. At the same time, city officials are on track to surpass nearly 500 scans performed last year, with Breed give priority to bus tickets out of town for the homeless and allow the police do more to eliminate tents.

San Francisco police have issued at least 150 tickets for illegal lodging since Aug. 1, surpassing the 60 tickets issued in the previous three years. City teams have also deleted more than 1,200 tents and structures.

It is extremely difficult to track down the homeless, and it is impossible to know where everyone who once lived on the streets of San Francisco has gone.

There are still people sleeping on sidewalks, some with just a blanket, and tents continue to sprout under highway overpasses and in the city’s most isolated corners. But the tents that once sprouted in front of libraries and subway stations, and stretched endlessly for blocks in the Mission, downtown and South of Market neighborhoods, are gone. Even the people who are struggling Filet Mignon District has seen progress.

Steven Burcell, who became homeless a year ago after a shoulder injury cost him his job, moved into one of the 60 new shacks in May after the car he was living in caught fire.

Mission Cabins is a new type of emergency shelter that offers privacy and allows pets. But like all shelters, it has rules. No drugs, weapons or outside guests are allowed. Residents must consent to have their rooms searched.

“It was hard at first, you know, coming in and getting used to being searched and having people go through your bags,” Burcell, 51, acknowledged.

Her tidy 6-square-metre room contains a double bed, pairs of shoes lined up near a door that locks and opens onto a sunny courtyard that, on a recent morning, was filled with the voices of children playing at the primary school next door.

“Having your own space inside here and closing the door, not sharing anything with anybody,” he said, “is huge.”

But Burcell opposes the encampment sweeps. He said two of his friends turned down beds because they thought — wrongly, he said — the shelter would be infested with rodents. That didn’t stop crews from seizing their tent and everything in it.

“Now they have nothing. They have no shelter,” he said. “They walk around and take the bus, like many people.”

Since 2018, San Francisco has added 1,800 emergency shelter beds and nearly 5,000 permanent assisted housing units, where people pay 30% of their income on rent and the rest is subsidized, bringing the total to more than 4,200 beds and 14,000 units.

Race, who first won the office in June 2018, can claim credit for the expansion, although some plans were in place before she became mayor and her administration received considerable financial assistance.

The money came from the federal government fighting the pandemic and from a California governor — and former San Francisco mayor — who has made fighting homelessness and tent camps his priority. Governor Gavin Newsom has has injected at least $24 billion into this effort since coming to power in 2019, including a program to transform hotels into housing.

San Francisco also had a controversial 2018 Wealth tax on city’s tech titans Breed opposed it, saying businesses would leave. There was no exodus and the The pandemic eclipsed any fallout.

THE funds helped get people off the streets and tripled the annual budget for San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Assisted Housing from nearly $300 million in 2018 to $850 million this year.

But the department’s budget is expected to fall below $700 million next year, worrying experts who say more is needed in a city where the median home price is $1.4 million.

“The housing market remains too expensive for too many people. And as long as it continues to be that way, we’re going to see people become homeless,” said Alex Visotzky, senior fellow at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Homeless advocates say that’s why city officials need to invest in more affordable housing.

One such place is 835 Turk Street, a former hotel that the city bought and reopened two years ago as public housing. It’s where David Labogin, who lost his home after his mother died, lives.

“Sure, things could be a lot better,” he said, sitting on a single bed, “but from where I come from, I haven’t had any complaints.”

But building housing takes longer, and transforming old properties isn’t cheap. The city bought 835 Turk for $25 million and spent $18 million — twice the estimated amount — rehabilitate him.

In the meantime, shelters are adapting, welcoming couples and people with pets.

It takes about two weeks for new residents to adjust to the rules at Mission Cabins, said Steve Good, CEO of operator Five Keys. “A few rules to keep them safe is better than living on the street, where there are no rules,” he said.

“Amen,” said Patrick Richardson, 54, who stopped by to hear Good’s interview. He was on his way to a two-year college in Oakland where he is studying to become an X-ray technician.

Richardson was sleeping on couches and on the sidewalk when a social worker offered him a cabin.

His new home, he said, “saved me.”