San Francisco prepares to change how homeless encampments are managed
SAN FRANCISCO -- Change is coming for how San Francisco manages homeless encampments. That is the promise from the city attorney and he says it will happen within weeks.
The city is currently facing a lawsuit from homeless advocates who sued over how street encampments are dealt with. A judge issued an injunction putting limits on what the city can do and that is being considered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
San Francisco says a judge has cleared the way to resume enforcement on city sidewalks.
What might that look like? What will the city be enforcing?
With family and a lifetime spread across several states, Linda (no last name given) has been moving for much of her life and she is about to move again.
"I'm actually from Bakersfield but grew up for a little bit in Arizona," she explained. "All over here, all over this area of the Tenderloin, I've been around and, right now, I've gotten moved out, around the block."
With help from a sympathetic neighbor, she has dragged her tent about 25 yards, just off the Van Ness sidewalk.
"It's crazy. Every other week we've got to pick up everything but it's like, why? Why do I have to keep moving? Why can't I just pull up to the side and let you guys clean up?" she asked.
This is the routine. Outreach teams come and offer everyone services before public works crews pick up the trash and power-wash the sidewalks. This happens at least every two weeks and neighbors say virtually nothing has changed on these blocks for about a year.
'The Eye Institute is here," said John Meade. "It's mostly glaucoma patients. So they're elderly, trying to get through that sidewalk. It is impossible, so it forces them to walk on the street."
"We have it all," said Viveka Rydell-Anderson, who runs the Pacific Vision Foundation, a non-profit that draws people in need from across the West Coast.. "We have a lot of fantastic doctors in our building who see people and it's the underserved. We will welcome anyone."
"That's why we're here," she said. "That's why our foundation bought this office building. We have ample parking and we're right here by City Hall."
She says the sidewalk conditions have presented challenges for her clients and she too has been dismayed by the seeming intractability of what is happening outside.
"We talk to the supervisors," she said of efforts to find solutions. "The mayor's office, the coalitions, our landlord, neighbors and other non-profits."
"This injunction has prevented the city from enforcing a half dozen laws that would otherwise prohibit sitting, lying, sleeping or camping on our public sidewalks," said San Francisco city attorney David Chiu.
Chiu says the injunction has handcuffed the city's response to many encampment challenges but things are about to change. While the case filed by the Homeless Coalition is ongoing, he says the courts have opened a door.
"With this clarification, those laws can be enforced against individuals who are refusing shelter," he explained. "As long as there is a good-faith offer of available shelter somewhere in the system."
The way the city attorney describes it, the real shift will be in what the city can do about those on the sidewalk who have already been provided some kind of shelter or housing and Linda is one of those people, having been offered a mini home about one mile away from where she has her tent.
"I'm put in a mini home right now," she said of her home on Gough Street. "And in the mini home -- I don't like it. I don't have a kitchen. I don't have a bathroom."
She splits her time between the tent and the mini home. "Just to see what else I can get," she said.
So what, exactly, will happen now when outreach teams or the police encounter those who do have a place to go?
"Our clients are working on operational changes to make sure that we are abiding by what we learned in the Ninth Circuit," Chiu said. "So I do expect, in the coming weeks, you will see changes on the streets in how that happens."
So it's unclear what enforcement or consequences might look like but it could affect a significant number of people. By the city's estimate, half of those they're encountering on the street already have or have declined a housing option.
At the corner of Van Ness and Eddy, silver planters appeared on the sidewalk in the past week. They were installed to prevent encampments and come at the request of the property owner who, in this case, KPIX has not been able to reach. What happened to the tents? They're easy to spot on nearby blocks. Some are right across the street.