SF Chronicle: SF sweeps of homeless shift south of Market

SoMa patrols to shepherd homeless away from tourist areas
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007



San Francisco will begin cracking down this week on homeless people who commit quality-of-life crimes in a 15-block area of the city's South of Market district - the tourist-heavy section that includes Bloomingdales, the Metreon and Moscone Center.

The city will send teams of outreach workers and police officers to offer social services to any homeless person caught littering, camping, trespassing, urinating, defecating, blocking sidewalks or publicly intoxicated.

If the homeless people refuse the services, they will receive a citation and will be told to appear in traffic court in 45 days. If a person is caught committing another quality-of-life crime within the same 8-hour period, he or she will be taken into custody.

Details of the plan are contained in a memo from the mayor's office obtained by Supervisor Chris Daly, a political foe of Mayor Gavin Newsom. Daly said the idea sounds like a reincarnation of former Mayor Frank Jordan's unpopular attempt to use police officers to get homeless people off the streets.

But members of the Newsom administration - which has focused on quality-of-life crimes in recent months with a proposal for a new court to tackle such offenses in the Tenderloin - dismissed concern about the program.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/03/MNUCSILM6.DTL

Note: Gavin Newsom ran on solving homelessness in San Francisco.

Please vote in the poll at link!

And this was part of his plan?

resource "fairs" at a convention center -- once a month, iirc? -- that most homeless people can't even get to.

And, they do sweeps which they later deny.

This latest is just the icing.

It puts together all the myriad services that the homeless qualify for in one place. Everyone knows about it and when it is and there's a huge outreach to the whole community to get people down there. When I volunteered for it, it was at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and it was PACKED. I saw a lot of very needy people get a lot of help all in one place rather than having to run all over town. In fact, I saw many people guided through from one booth to another by staffers who had an idea what services they might need or qualify for.

It may not be perfect, but it is a big step forward in my opinion.

to get there -- and that excludes 90% of my homeless neighbors.

Yes -- having everything in one place is the way to go. Expecting poor people or people with limited mobility / functionality to GET THERE is just plain stupid. For your information.

Clearly not everyone can be helped in this way. A large number of people are though. Shall we stop helping some just because we can't reach every single person? Seems a bit short-sighted to me.

If there were a real outreach program, it could make a difference. Like, transportation from the neighborhoods. I've been tracking about 20 people out here at the edge of the continent, and downtown might as well be Boston to them.

We have a neighborhood group. Most neighborhoods do. If the Mayor's office bothered to coordinate with us and send out a bus or something, a couple of us could accompany people we've built trust with out to the center. But, that would involve actual thought and coordination which don't play well in the Chronicle.

Much better to signal to the corporati that Gavin is a no shit guy that can beat up on helpless people.

seems to be removal.

with a court appearance on top of everything else.

The idiot that formulated this program should be forced to go live out doors in that district for a week. See how well they make out.

Rather than incarceration. This is not necessarily a bad thing if they conduct it properly and w/ restraint.

how successful do you think the outreach will be?

This is just plain unblinking stupidity.

I've seen it done successfully. Not often enough, but it can be done.

In reality, it's just a show Gavin is putting on. It has nothing to do with stemming homelessness but all about kissing up to money.

And unfortunately that's mostly the case when something like this is done and it sucks because it's a population that needs a lot of help.. I was hoping for better from SF. Oh well. *sigh*

Political opportunists like Newsom put on shows and avoid the initial outlay of funds -- only to pass on the real cost of their failed policies to their successors in office.

But, we have good people in city government, and one of these times, one will be elected to the Mayoral office and we can fix this. It's not rocket science.

It's common sense actually. Contact w/ subjects should be initiated by trained social/case workers or plain clothes officers w/ adequate training and violations and detainment should be the absolute last resort and only in response to obviously unstable/dangerous subjects (and even then response should be handled by mental health professionals and they should not be incarcerated but remanded to treatment facilities). PRIORTIZING compassion and understanding is a must.

There are more than 9 million people who need low-income housing.

There are 6 million low-income housing units available.

THEREFORE, 3 million people MUST be homeless at any given time.

WHAT services take the place of low-income housing?????

Please work for HR2895!

Did I say any did? You're talking to someone whose field happens to be providing low income housing and services for the needy. So, before you go off half cocked, take a deep breath and read all my responses in this thread.

Newsom was all over the local news tonight, attacking one of our supervisors for "politicizing" the issue when this whole project is to boost Newsom's numbers ahead of his re-election campaign.

And that supervisor had a background much like yours. The last time I put together a fundraiser for our local Coalition for the Homeless, he showed up and spoke to the audience even though his wife was in LABOR at the time.

People like Chris Daly give me the will to live. :)

Is Newsom really that much of a pig? I had no idea...

which can make for problems. Imho, he can still turn around but he's not there yet.

Sorry if you took it personally. I had to reply to *some* post about it, it wasn't directed at you, personally.

I repeat... I'm stating that with a shortage of 3 million low-income units, "services" can't do much of anything.

Most of DU still doesn't understand that.

If you do, that is great.

And, I'm willing to bet that if you were in my shoes, you'd be "half-cocked" yourself.

I'm sick of suffering over all this, and I'm sick of knowing that so many others are suffering.

My passion is NOT a bad thing.

and only one rain so far this season that I don't think did much help.

I never heard of a quality-of-life crime. Quality of whose life?

:grr:

geez, sorry to offend. I didn't say I was happy about the sweeps.
:shrug:

The thing is, I know a lot of homeless people here. They're not abstractions to me. This thing got me so worked up, I can barely type. Sorry if that came off wrong.

:(

/Looks like I better stop trying to type. lol

I see those folks as people too, but didn't communicate it, came off as shallow (which coulda been avoided with the right smiley)
:sarcasm:

Last time I walked around in that area, I decided that I would prefer being homeless in the suburb or the country over the city, because at least (in the places I can think of) you have a chance of living off the land and meeting people who would help you. In a city I think you're trapped and the pollution is deadly.

I've been trying to advocate for the homeless here, for a sane policy that works, for years. Seeing this in the paper today was like a slap in the face.

Maybe try life on the streets yourself sometime?

Just for grins?

The whole city is on the ocean. All I could smell there was fish and seawater.

Ghouliani is a major proponent. It's the updated term for "broken windows" policing, with an emphasis on the poor and minorities.

:)

We get a lot of campers through here as we're close to the park.

I would walk thru going to the Moscone Center for the Mac Developer conferences and she'd be there.

She was there a couple years straight, but I changed jobs and haven't been out there for a couple years. She looked like she was in her 30s, so I figure she'll be around for a while.

The last time I went downtown to prove to myself that I could handle the crowd, lol, I found a Street Sheet vendor and bought a few copies of the paper.

There are plenty of brains in this joint. They just don't seem to be really interested in solving this problem. My friend, a reporter for the Chronicle, did an award winning series of articles on our homeless. He dug up all kinds of great programs being run in other cities.

The information apparently went down a rabbit hole.

I left S.F. because I could see the inevitability of total gentrification, but this boggles my mind.

:eyes:

Ist generation. It is increasingly gentrified. This city has some real choices to make and now.

Thank God, though, that we have wonderful progressives on our board of supervisors. They've been working hard to look out for people. They get demonized and ridiculed in our sellout paper, but they keep on truckin'. I'm proud of them for that. :)

I went to the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair the last time I was in S.F. and my first time in that part of the city. I reached Haight-Ashbury and first thing I see ... a fucking Gap store! :grr:

Jesus, Joesph and Mary!

I used to live on Waller Street, a block up from Haight & Ashbury. Oh, they've cleaned it up but good.

:grr:

so, it wasn't TOO bad ;-).

Come to Lower Haight if you wanna have a good time :D



(except for that shitty Danny Coyle's yuppie bar....)

but mostly stay out here by the beach. This is a great neighborhood. We've kept more chains out and if we could find a lot for a community garden, it would be about perfect. Students, working people, retired people, painters and surfer kids. It used to be one of the most conservative parts of the city but getting more liberal all the time. We're winning. :evilgrin:

I moved to the East Bay ~8 years ago from The City, and I'm not sure it'll be easy to restore the SF character.

Willie Brown sure made life easy on developers/corporations and hard on low-income families. :(

Newsom should have followed his calling in fashion. That's about what he's been good for.

To the Editor:

Chris Daly is exactly right: by pairing outreach workers with law enforcement, Newsom is compromising the outreach effort and burdening law enforcement.

Once again, the Newsom administration is criminalizing poverty in San Francisco. It is a crime that any resident of this city be made to endure this mistreatment and Mayor Newsom should be cited first for putting politics before public service on the backs of poor people.

Elizabeth Ferrari

Society disgusts me at times.

We have a lot of resources in this town. Newsom's team has great models they could follow. And instead, they do THIS. Someone must need political capital with Big Money in town.

:puke:

I can feel the whips now..

OUCH!

:hi: :pals: :hi:

I read only a few of the comments there before I felt like puking. Some people are so nasty and devoid of compassion I hesitate to consider them human.

I wonder what "social services" will be offered, and fear that if a police officer is standing there the message might not go over well. People need real help rather than stop-gap measures or they're just going to end up back on the streets. I hope real help is what's being offered.




On edit: I can't believe that poll. People are so worried about their "tourist area being cleaned up". Well then do something real to help the homeless people, selfish assh*les! They're human beings, not some trash that's laying around. :grr:

I'd duck out in a heartbeat. Mission accomplished. :shrug:

This is just so stupid, Buffy.

out of TOURIST areas?

Our tax dollars at work, neglecting if not outright ABUSING our poor and sucking up to Big Money.

'Way to go, San Francisco! :sarcasm:

know about this. :thumbsup:

San Francisco is among the most progressive cities in this country. And THIS is how we're handling poverty?

We can't do better than THIS?

Yes, we can and we have to.

:kick:

that look a lot like the Matrix program circa 1991.

DURING a sweep they later pretended not to know was ongoing.

Disgusting up one side and down the other.

To me, the man is sleaze incarnate.

Seems like no one is as sincere as you. I view you as the conscience of DU.

Keep up the good things that you do for those less fortunate.

:rofl:

I was a liberal when everyone started hating them so much (late 70's). I can't imagine liberals being "liked." LOL!

which drives the freeps crazy. lol :hi:

I can see why they want to keep them away from tourists.

then give them a place to live, not a shelter and not a halfway house, but a place with a key that they can call home. San Francisco is full of hotels, surely the city can tax the wealthy property owners of some of the most expensive real estate in the world to pay for this.

is not a solution to poverty.

So the plan is to encourage them to utilize social services, if not they are given a citation. So what happens if they don't appear in court? If they commit another quality of life crime they are taken into custody..wouldn't that depend on the same cop catching the same person? It's not like most homeless people carry ID. What happens after they are taken into custody? Stupid.

of the homeless of SF getting rounded up and put in buses. (And sent to Southern California, no doubt -- just like that episode of South Park).

I walked up to the newspaper rack and did a double take. I don't read the Chron every day because -- well because it blows and the Santa Rosa Paper at least tells me what Freeway Exits are closed for construction. I just stood outside the Whole Foods gawking at the headline.

I've been really out of it -- my mom's been really sick and I've been traveling back and forth to Houston. I all I could think was -- woah, what happened to my city when I was gone?

"Homeless sweeps" "quality of life crimes" in San Francisco? I just felt like I was in another dimension.

because of this headline.

It is now a crime here to stand on the sidewalk while poor.

go to another town for "services".

The awareness level is pathetic, and that's why they're getting away with this shit.

a ''quality of life'' crime?

:grr:

Or The Matrix, the movie.

Well if homeless people had a home... I'd rather sleep outside too than a temporary nasty-ass bed in a horrible temporary shelter.

But if San Francisco found a home for everybody word would get out through the homeless grapevine, and of course, once you find a home for one, a thousand more will be lining up for their home too. How caring and generous could San Franciscans be pushed? Would Dianne Feinstein take a dozen homeless IV users into the many chambers of her palatial palace? She promises not to get in the way that much. She generally only comes home weekends.

People with homes do not like to look at people without homes. They want them gone. Rather than giving them a home, it is more economical to criminalize and remove these unwelcome homeless people from crowded city centers, far from view of what we want our citizens to look like. Where is the private prison industry when you need them? Surely detention centers can be built to put them all in.

Homelessness is a fact of society bigger than San Francisco's image and ego, of course. And it will continue to be so, and grow, so long as the cause of massive homelessness in America is not treated, only the symptom, and that not very well.

Thank you for understanding the basic facts!

Most liberals, when hearing about or being confronted with a homeless person, the first word they utter is "shelter"

The level of disease in these "shelters" is frightening, and TB is approaching an epidemic level in shelters.

ENOUGH!

HOUSING FIRST! That's a video, and an organization, and an important issue!