San Francisco intensifies homeless encampment sweeps: 'It's time for us to do something'
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco has been doing homeless encampment resolutions or sweeps, but this week, the mayor said they are going to take an "aggressive" approach. And on Tuesday, we saw the first signs of that.
On 18th and Folsom, we witnessed the city's second and last clearing for the day.
SFPD officers along with Public Works employees and the Department of Emergency Management spread out through the area as signs on light poles gave many here a heads up.
Luz Pena: "What are they asking you to do?
Ramon Castillo: "To clean our spot."
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One of those asked to move was Ramon Castillo. He showed us inside his tent. He has been homeless for the last 3.5 years.
Ramon said he knew city workers were coming, but his plan is to stay on the streets.
Ramon Castillo: "For me, it's better to stay outside. I don't like to be in a hotel right now."
Luz Pena: "Did they offer you a hotel?"
Ramon Castillo: "Yes, and I have been there before and for me is better to stay outside."
Luz Pena: "So you are just going to move your tent somewhere else?"
Ramon Castillo: "Yeah."
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Earlier in the day, our news partner The San Francisco Standard captured another encampment resolution or sweep. Adam Mesnick, owner of the Deli Board, has been vocal about the need for sweeps.
"I think it's a necessary move. I think public camping it's completely out of control," said Mesnick.
Mesnick said he didn't like the city's approach during the first sweep he saw posted online.
"The way that the removal appeared also appeared to be quite inhumane," said Mesnick.
As the city gears up to continue sweeps following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, many gathered outside a hotel Whitcomb asking for the city to offer more shelter. The hotel was leased by San Francisco during the pandemic for shelter sits empty.
"It's a great example of what we could be doing. We could be leasing out or acquiring these kinds of buildings to house people. There are currently hundreds. Almost 800 permanent supportive housing units that are fully funded. They are just seating empty. So, we can be moving people from the streets into those units," said Supervisor Dean Preston.
We contacted the city's homelessness and supportive housing department. The spokesperson said they have hundreds of vacancies in their portfolio.
"As of July 2024, HSH has a 9.1% vacancy in our site-based PSH portfolio.
Of the 793 vacancies:
- 299 or 2.6% have move-ins in process
- 398 or 4.6% are offline
- 166 or 1.9% are available for referral"
The city's public defender's office is concerned the sweeps will end up in more people behind bars or cited if they refuse to move.
"We are concerned that the city has announced that they are going to do aggressive sweeps on top of the sweeps they are already doing and what is the plan for that? You are citing people, you are arresting people, our jails are already at 100% capacity," said Angela Chan with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.
In the meantime, some homeless advocates believe the city needs this approach.
"It's time for us to do something. A lot of our people on the streets don't have the conscious ability to make decisions for themselves and now it's time for us to make those decisions," said Del Seymour, Code Tenderloin's founder.
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Service providers prepare for potential influx
While popular among some, many homeless service providers believe it's the wrong approach.
"It's just shortsighted. We will not see a net change in the numbers of homeless or visible homelessness in our communities through this effort," said Mark Shotwell.
Shotwell is the CEO of the Ritter Center in Marin County.
He says besides being ineffective, the encampment sweeps have the potential to do further harm to people living on the streets.
"These abating encampment moments, they're re-traumatizing people. They're further ostracizing people from society," Shotwell said.
Instead of clearing encampments and forcing people to move, many service providers say state and city leaders should instead be focusing on the root causes of homelessness.
The big one being fixing the housing affordability crisis that is plaguing the state.
"For folks who are making $60,000 to spend 80% of their income on housing is very difficult for them to live and survive, never mind thrive," said Laura Bent.
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Bent is the CEO of Samaritan House in San Mateo County. She says with the increasing number of sweeps - which are being encouraged by Governor Gavin Newsom - service providers like hers are expecting a potential influx of new people.
"We're prepared to do that. We're prepared to staff up if necessary to ensure that everyone who comes in on the same day can be evaluated," said Bent.
Similar preparations are underway at the GLIDE in San Francisco. CEO Gina Fromer says while the city has done a lot to tackle homelessness, it still only has about half of the shelter beds it needs for the number of people out on the streets.
Fromer believes the money spent on clearing encampments could be better spent addressing issues like that.
"A housing subsidy or rental assistance for two months to cover their rent so they can get another job. Those are the services that work," Fromer said.
But with everyone demanding solutions to one of the state's most pressing problems, how soon that happens is anyone's guess.
Full statement from San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing:
"HSH funds over 13,300 units of supportive housing in our community.
As of July 2024, HSH has a 9.1% vacancy in our site-based PSH portfolio.
Of the 793 vacancies:
- 299 or 2.6% have move-ins in process
- 398 or 4.6% are offline
- 166 or 1.9% are available for referral"
Most common reason for offline units is janitorial or maintenance holds (182 units) followed by recently vacated units (96).
We have done significant work to reduce vacancies in recent years to reduce the vacancies in supportive housing. We continue to work toward a 7% vacancy rate which we believe we will achieve in the next few months.
In terms of shelter, HSH funds 3,600 shelter beds for adults, youth and families in San Francisco. We currently have a 93% occupancy rate which means that while largely used we do have enough capacity in our shelter system to offer shelter placements to people living unsheltered on a daily basis."
