by Randy Shaw on August 5, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
Over 90% of Sidewalk Campers Refuse Shelter
The media claims San Francisco is unfairly breaking up encampments despite offering campers no other place to go. But city records destroy this narrative. They show that over 90% offered shelter refuse it—a fact reporters and many politicians ignore.
Consider HSOC field records from last week: On July 23, at Polk and Ellis 11 Engagements brought 0 shelter linkages. On July 24, 43 Engagements brought 2 shelter linkages in the Tenderloin. On July 26, 45 Engagements brought 0 linkages. (Thanks to Gina_Mothers Against Drug Addiction & Deaths, for posting these records)
San Francisco’s economy is damaged by the city allowing sidewalks to be dominated by shelter refuseniks. These drug tourists refuse to accept a shelter’s drug-free environment. For years they have been allowed to harm the lives of nearby residents and businesses.
Should San Francisco allow this to continue? Or will City Hall finally clear sidewalks and public spaces from drug tourists?
Can San Francisco stop serving as a safe place to openly use drugs?
Clear Sidewalks Now
Voters want sidewalks cleared. Now.
Mayor Breed pledged to be “aggressive” in closing encampments. This has yet to be seen in the Tenderloin. The first days of August saw drug activities vastly expand. This could be due to people pushed from other neighborhoods into the city’s preferred containment zone.
We will know by the end of this week whether this is Chief Scott’s strategy. Keep in mind that Chief Scott:
*refused to implement the mayor’s Tenderloin Emergency Declaration in December 2021;
*has denied the Tenderloin the consistent police response businesses requested and which is necessary to close drug markets;
*has long used the Tenderloin as a drug containment zone.
Scott creates the containment zone by depriving the Tenderloin neighborhood of the officers it needs. Scott has not provided beat cops to the Tenderloin neighborhood despite passage of a city law last year that requires this (undermining claims that the Board of Supervisors actually controls the SFPD).
Mayor Breed’s re-election chances rise if highly-visible encampments across the city are cleared. But given Chief Scott’s failure to implement the Tenderloin Emergency Declaration and his ongoing inability to close open air drug markets, Breed supporters should be concerned.
SF is Not “Criminalizing” Homelessness
Should unhoused people be allowed to block sidewalks in violation of federal and local laws? Should laws prohibiting open air drug use be ignored because those involved are homeless?
Most reporters and many politicians answer yes to both questions. They describe enforcing these laws as “criminalizing” homelessness.
But when people repeatedly engage in violating criminal laws negatively impacting others, it is not “criminalizing” homelessness to arrest them. What is morally criminal is ignoring the rights to equal protection of the laws for San Francisco’s working-class and low-income residents impacted by campers. It’s not “progressive” to prioritize drug tourists who refuse shelter over the needs of working people.
Accusing city officials of arresting people for the “crime” of poverty plays well in San Francisco and other blue cities. The impact? The Tenderloin, San Francisco’s largest neighborhood to resist gentrification is transformed into a drug containment zone. The chief victims? The formerly homeless residents of affordable housing who cannot leave their homes without confronting filth and drug activity.
Let me know when San Francisco stops enforcing criminal laws in Pacific Heights, Bernal Heights, or the Sunset. Residents in those neighborhoods would not accept for a week what the Tenderloin is forced to endure year-round.
Permanent Housing vs Temporary Shelters
Some argue that we could clear sidewalks by building more shelters. But why spend millions building more shelters when campers refuse them? Shouldn’t San Francisco wait to evaluate its shelter needs until it clears sidewalks of the vast numbers refusing shelter?
The best and most cost effective way to add shelter capacity is to ensure a steady exit from shelters into permanent housing. San Francisco has to do better at this. It costs the city less money to house someone in permanent supportive housing rather than in a shelter—and the latter keeps the person unhoused.
Unfortunately, instead of using shelters as a step toward exiting to permanent housing San Francisco gives the unhoused unlimited hotel stays with private baths and meals. This “non-congregate” shelter program also allows drug and alcohol use on site (See “SF’s Failed Shelter Policies Exposed at Cova Hotel, ” July 15)
Before spending money on shelters the city should stop encouraging people to stay homeless. Why start paying rent when you get a room with private bath and meals for free?
The Unhoused Population has Changed
The city’s unhoused population has radically changed in the past forty years.
I know from interviewing over 100 unhoused people in the 1980’s that most wanted and were qualified for jobs. The vast majority wanted housing or shelters and had no interest in camping. The less than 10% of unhoused who wanted to camp got the most publicity but they were always a small minority of the homeless population.
We didn’t have many tents on Tenderloin sidewalks in the 1980’s or 90’s. In fact, the spreading of tents in the Tenderloin did not begin until 2018.
Many argue that fentanyl has converted the crisis of the unhoused into a drug rather than housing problem. There’s no doubt that most of those camping in the Tenderloin and SOMA are drug users.
But assume every unhoused resident got treatment and lived drug-free. Wouldn’t many still need city, state or federal rent subsidies to afford housing? Of course they would.
Homelessness has become both a housing and drug problem. Removing drug tourists from public sidewalks must be part of the solution.
Will this happen? We’ll know a lot more by the end of this week.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
