SF homeless encampment sweeps continue: Here's what happened with one unhoused man
Homeless encampment sweeps intensified with city reporting progress despite 82% declining shelter
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Encampment sweeps are continuing throughout San Francisco, but on many streets, the tents are back.
Less than 24 hours after city workers moved homeless individuals from 19th and Folsom, we found several people on the same sidewalk with tents.
We caught up with Ramon Castillo. When we met him on Tuesday, he said he was going to move his tent to another street. On Wednesday, he said he didn't get to move it at all.
"They took my stuff," said Castillo and added, "They towed it away. They took it."
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We learned Ramon was arrested and cited for illegal lodging after we left on Tuesday. He mentioned feeling frustrated but was trying to stay positive.
"I'll be okay. It happened to me too many times. This one is a different thing," said Castillo.
During the resolution, San Francisco's Public Works and members of the Department of Emergency Management offered Ramon a hotel room. He declined then, but he had a change of heart.
"Right now, I hope they give me a hotel," said Ramon.
We made a call to our city contact. They asked for Ramon to meet them at their next location. We looked it up on the map and showed Ramon. He said he would be there at 1 p.m.
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We interviewed the city's Healthy Streets Operation Center Manager on their approach.
"Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the 9th Circuit vacating the majority of the injunction. Our approach and work have not really changed as of yet. So we do 72-hour noticing of the 10 locations that we address per week," said David Nakanishi, MPH, Healthy Streets Operation Center Manager.
Their data shows a total of 41 people were contacted on Monday and Tuesday. All were offered shelter, but 34 of those people or 82% refused.
"Behavior change takes time," said Nakanishi and added, "The challenge is that for someone who is chronically homeless to be able to move them from the street into permanent housing or even accepting shelter it's a long process."
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A member of the city's Homelessness Oversight Commission calls the sweeps inhumane.
"The way that things are happening right now is extremely traumatic to the people that are losing their belongings. When you are outside, all you have is your belongings so to lose that, is a trauma," said Whit Guerrero, Commissioner of the SF Homelessness Oversight Commission.
Nakanishi said the city's approach is compassionate.
"The fact that we could do more 51/50's which is an involuntary hold for either psychiatric or substance use reasons. There are people at that level on the street that it's unconscionable as a clinician for me to leave them on the street and not try to address that. So, I think we are approaching as respectfully and with concern and compassion as we can. I wouldn't be associated with this otherwise"
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We waited, but Ramon did not show up at the location the city asked him to meet. The city's street team said they would follow up with Ramon and offer him shelter again.
Nakanishi said one of the reasons people decline shelter in many cases is because it's not the type of shelter they want. For example, a single room, or a hotel room that may not be available at that time.
The team in charge of the resolutions said gaining people's trust is part of the process.
Nakanishi said anyone whose belongings were removed can go to the Public Works retrieval site and collect their items.
Homeless encampment sweeps hitting minorities hardest as calls for housing intensify
"This is extremely heartbreaking and quite frankly infuriating," said Gael Lala-Chavez, the executive director of LYRIC, a non-profit serving LGBTQ+ youth. They say clearing the camps is another blow to groups already struggling to access resources.
"They are among the poorest, predominantly Black, Indigenous, and people of color and the vast majority are trans and non-binary and so the fact that this is the response of our city officials is heartbreaking," said Lala-Chavez, noting transgender youth are the most vulnerable. "Many of them are experiencing family rejection, many of them had to flee really unsafe environments, many are here seeking refuge.
"These sweeps are really detrimental to communities minority and folks that are just disenfranchised in San Francisco," said Xavier Davenport, a Black transgender man who knows all too well what it means to be unhoused. "As a person that was experiencing homelessness no more than a year or two ago and was living out of my car that I'm sitting in right now."
He said a friend helped him get back on his feet - and that not everyone's that lucky.
"Some people don't have anybody. So you know, how are we really focusing on the homelessness here in the Bay Area?" Davenport said. "If we're not building real below-poverty housing here in San Francisco?"
In the South Bay, the same battle to get people off the streets and into housing.
"We need to make sure if we are doing any encampment cleaning that there are services attached and that means services that day," said Jennifer Hark Dietz, the CEO of PATH, a nonprofit helping connect people to housing across five counties, including Santa Clara County.
She said there are programs that are working, but getting on a path to housing. "Where you clear an encampment, but you have hotel rooms, you have interim housing and you have a true path to a permanent unit, that is what's successful," Hark Dietz said.
