S.F. Catholic archdiocese sorry for dousing homeless
SAN FRANCISCO -- St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco dismantled a sprinkler system that pours water on entrance areas of the Roman Catholic church frequented by homeless people after receiving a formal notice of violation from the city, CBS station KPIX-TV reports.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Roman Catholic Archdiocese has apologized for the "misunderstood" and "ill-conceived" effort to keep homeless people out of alcoves used to enter and exit the church.
In a story first reported by KCBS Radio, the principal church of the archdiocese used the watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral doorways. The archdiocese acknowledged Wednesday it had been using the system for the past two years.
But the system also drenches some homeless people and violates city building and safety codes.
After inspecting the cathedral, the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection filed a notice of violation against the archdiocese and the cathedral, giving them 15 days to remove the system. In response, the archdiocese has taken out a plumbing permit to remove the entire watering system, which was observed to run for about 75 seconds every 30 to 60 minutes.
Word of the cathedral's homeless deterrent caused an uproar on social media. However, the rector of St. Mary's Cathedral and the auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, Bishop William Justice, issued a statement defending the role of the archdiocese and the cathedral in supporting homeless programs.
Bishop said the sprinkler deterrent system has been in use for the last two years and modeled on similar systems used in the city's Financial District "as a safety, security and cleanliness measure to avoid the situation where needles, feces and other dangerous items were regularly being left in these hidden doorways."
"The idea was not to remove those persons but to encourage them to relocate to other areas of the cathedral, which are protected and safer. The purpose was to make the cathedral grounds as well as the homeless people who happen to be on those grounds safer.
We are sorry that our intentions have been misunderstood and recognize that the method used was ill-conceived. It actually has had the opposite effect from what it was intended to do, and for this we are very sorry."