Homeless encampment fires plague residents of San Francisco Tenderloin District building
SAN FRANCISCO -- A group of San Francisco residents says homeless encampment fires are becoming more frequent outside their building in the city's Tenderloin District and are posing a great danger to the community, even as their repeated requests for help have been ignored by the city.
"The first thing I saw or heard was a large explosion, and I saw the flames hit my window," said Ashanti, a resident who declined to share her last name for privacy reasons.
She was among dozens of residents who evacuated their building at Leavenworth and O'Farrell Streets at 3 a.m. Friday.
"It's been really hard, it's been difficult like I said I probably get on average, like, 6 to 5 hours of sleep, just because I'm constantly hearing the noise, even if I close my window," she said. "It's nonstop, the screaming, the yelling, the fighting."
ALSO READ: San Francisco crackdown on open-air drug use intensifies
She said she often witnesses illegal activity at the encampments that can take over the entire block of Leavenworth Street.
In the last year, the 24-year-old said countless fires have come dangerously close to her building.
"Every day now, we are really scared, I mean I'm serious, I've never had to do this before, I pack an emergency bag," said Ashanti.
Her O'Farrell Street home is her first apartment since she herself was homeless. When she was 21, Ashanti said she fled an abusive relationship and lived in a tent in the Mission District for a brief period of time. She's struggled with housing instability her whole life.
"I know what it's like to deal with the street life, every single day. And so, like, I understand where they're coming from but also there's so many resources out here as well, and I just wish that everybody who is going through this would take the help," she said.
With the help of Larkin Street Youth Services, she turned her life around and now works full-time. Ashanti said her rent-controlled building is home to many hardworking professionals, including city workers. Like many of her longtime neighbors, they feel that their calls for help to Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Dean Preston and emergency services have largely been ignored.
"The last year, last six months, it seems like our building, our building in particular has been under attack," said Eddie Valentine, a resident of 33 years.
"There's speculation there might have been a meth lab in one of the tents the other night when the fire went up. Couple times I had homeless people lunge at me," added Bronwyn Galloway, who has lived in the 1920s-era building for 18 years.
Valentine and Galloway say they are entrenched in the community and have worked in nearby neighborhoods for years.
In December, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily prevents the city from clearing encampments, if there aren't immediate shelter beds available. The city is appealing. In the meantime, it can still enforce ordinances and sweep encampments if they pose threats to public health and safety, or block portions of sidewalks.
"I used to think I could handle living on the border of the Tenderloin and walking through the Tenderloin. No longer, I'm really afraid," said Valentine, who said he often walks across the street to avoid passing the encampments.
Friday's fire burned a recently-vacated dry cleaning shop after neighbors said the owner could no longer deal with the problematic encampments. Galloway said customers had trouble entering the storefront, and the owner was assaulted on two occasions.
"The Tenderloin is not just residents who are all drug dealers and stuff like that. We have normal lives and it's being affected," said Ashanti. "This wouldn't happen in any other district. I just feel like us in the Tenderloin we're kind of left out."
KPIX 5 reached out to Supervisor Preston's office and the Department of Emergency Management, which oversees encampment activity. We will update this article if we get a response.