UPDATE 5/20/2020: Adds link to city website showing some open park restrooms in eighth paragraph of “Hygiene” section. More than four in every 10 emergency hygiene facilities the city has set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to serve homeless people lack at least one element essential to handwashing, the Public Press found. A third of […]
Author Archives: Brian Howey
Brian Howey was a staff reporter at the San Francisco Public Press in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Howey won a Society of Professional Journalists, NorCal Excellence in Journalism Award for his coverage at The San Francisco Public Press of San Francisco’s response to homelessness during the pandemic. He can be reached at BrianWHowey@gmail.com For encrypted email, write to Brianwhowey@protonmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @SteelandBallast.
Posted inCity Hall, Coronavirus, Homelessness, Housing
Homeless Activists’ Latest Tactic: Occupying Hotel Rooms
Seven protesters from Poor Magazine, a publication and activist organization, attempted to occupy the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown San Francisco on Monday morning to demand that the city house more homeless residents in the thousands of hotel rooms left vacant during the coronavirus pandemic.
Posted inCoronavirus, Homelessness, Housing
City Kills Plan for Mass Coronavirus Testing in S.F. Homeless Shelters
San Francisco turned down a research startup’s offer to test all of the city’s homeless shelter residents for COVID-19, urging the firm to divert its resources to other populations, according to emails. Shelter leaders and organizers had lined up doctors and volunteers to perform the testing, and the startup had drafted a letter of understanding, when the city pulled the plug on the plan.
Posted inCoronavirus, Homelessness
City Outlines Plan to Move Homeless Into RVs
Vulnerable homeless people will finally start moving into recreational vehicles and live-in trailers in mid- to late May as part of a plan to curb the spread of the coronavirus that San Francisco officials announced Friday. The vehicles, including RVs that have been sitting empty for more than a month, would be stationed near the Bayview.
Posted inCoronavirus, Homelessness
Shelter Ejects Clients for Violating New Coronavirus-Related Restrictions
A homeless shelter in the Tenderloin has ejected at least two residents for violating a new coronavirus-related policy that bars inhabitants from leaving for more than two hours at a time, according to a tenant advocacy group. The move drew criticism from directors of two other shelters and an advocate for shelter residents.
Posted inCoronavirus, Homelessness
RVs for Homeless Affected by Coronavirus Pandemic Sitting Empty
While the coronavirus was spreading in San Francisco’s homeless shelters, 30 recreational vehicles leased by the city to house people affected by the pandemic have been sitting empty for nearly a month, a city official confirmed Thursday. The RVs were intended to house people who were awaiting coronavirus testing or had tested positive for the virus and did not have access to adequate housing.
Posted inCity Hall
S.F. Cites Equipment Shortages in COVID-19 Testing as Thousands of Swabs Arrive in Town
UCSF has offered to provide free COVID-19 testing to San Francisco homeless shelter residents, but it’s unclear if or when the city will take the university and medical center up on the offer due to what Mayor London Breed on Sunday described as a shortage of nasal swabs and other testing supplies. A day earlier, a shipment of 100,000 swabs arrived at UCSF.
Posted inCoronavirus, Economy & Business, Homelessness
Distrust of S.F. Agencies Leaves Some Homeless Wary of Quarantine Hotels
Some homeless people say they wouldn’t move into the hotel rooms progressive city supervisors have been pushing to allocate for them. That’s largely due to longstanding distrust in city agencies by homeless people who have been subject to move-along orders, police citations and sweeps that resulted in their tents and other belongings being confiscated.
Posted inCoronavirus, Economy & Business, Homelessness
Coronavirus Case in Homeless Shelter Adds Urgency to Hotel Room Debate
The push to move San Francisco’s homeless residents into hotel rooms in response to the coronavirus gained urgency Thursday with the announcement of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 by a homeless shelter resident.
Posted inHealth, Homelessness
S.F. Policy May Hurt Efforts to Curb COVID-19 Among Drug Users
As coronavirus cases climb, San Francisco officials have left unchanged a directive against distributing clean pipes to people who smoke drugs, a stance that may hurt efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19 among the city’s drug users, outreach workers said.