On Thursday, a damning report dropped, offering new data on San Francisco’s practice of sweeping encampments. Authored by the Coalition on Homelessness, the report alleges the Healthy Streets Operation Center regularly fails to offer an adequate number of shelter beds to people on the streets during its cleanup operations and is illegally discarding people’s belongings. The practices create serious legal risk for San Francisco.
Category: Homelessness
Posted inCoronavirus, Health, Homelessness, Housing
As COVID Cases Surge Among SF’s Homeless, Shelter Options Narrow
As cases of COVID-19 surge in San Francisco, advocates question whether the city can prevent another outbreak in the homeless community. Between June 30 and July 31, confirmed cases among homeless people quadrupled from 18 to 78. But as the delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps across the city, there is a growing shortage of safe places for homeless people to go.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Government & Politics, Homelessness, Housing, Social Services
How SF Will Allocate $1 Billion in Homelessness Funding
Emily Cohen, interim director for strategy and external affairs at the department, talked with “Civic” about where these investments are being focused — more than half of the funds are earmarked for housing — and why. A count of people visibly unsheltered on the street that takes place on one night every two years tallied about 8,000 people in 2019. Cohen said city programs have helped some 25,000 people exit homelessness since 2005.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Bay Area, Homelessness, Housing
Advocates Sue Mountain View, Calling its RV Parking Ban ‘Inhumane’
A group of civil rights organizations filed suit against the city of Mountain View over an ordinance that restricts oversize vehicle parking on most city streets, describing it as unconstitutional and inhumane.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Community, Coronavirus, Health, Homelessness
Outreach Effort Brings Vaccines Directly to Tenderloin Streets
During the pandemic, Code Tenderloin has distributed everything from water to masks to food. With the arrival of the vaccine, they have collaborated with health care providers from the University of California, San Francisco and the nonprofit service provider Glide to try to overcome barriers to vaccination by walking the streets, offering immunizations on the spot.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Community, Homelessness
Nonprofit Leaders Reframe Homelessness as Systemic, Not Personal, Problem
With the state emerging from a pandemic that prompted emergency action and investment to bring people living on the street indoors, and after recent pledges from state and local officials to invest in solutions to homelessness, local nonprofit leaders discussed what long-lasting solutions might look like.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Homelessness, Housing, Social Services
Invest in Temporary, Permanent and Preventive Measures to House Homeless, Report Says
“Civic” spoke with Tomiquia Moss, founder and CEO of AllHome, a regional organization working to disrupt cycles of poverty and homelessness and to create more economic mobility for extremely low-income people. Moss describes the need for more investment across different interventions to reduce the pressure to prioritize those who have the most complex and chronic needs over those who could exit homelessness with shorter-term help, or over prevention strategies.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Community, Health, Homelessness, Public Safety
SF Team of Specialists Responds to People in Crisis on the Street
Members of San Francisco’s Street Crisis Response Team show up to situations when someone is experiencing a mental health or substance-related crisis, as an alternative to police response, which can escalate such situations.
Posted inCoronavirus, Government & Politics, Health, Homelessness
City’s Popular Portable Toilets Frequently Moved or Closed
While the number of 24-hour Pit Stop public bathrooms increased 16-fold at the beginning of the pandemic, keeping them in place has proven to be a challenge. Many high-traffic Pit Stops — some used more than 1,000 times per month — are being relocated, and Supervisor Mat Haney wants to know why.
Posted inCommunity, Government & Politics, Homelessness, Neighborhoods
Housing Elusive for Residents of Haight’s Sanctioned Campsite
The site in an old McDonald’s parking lot at the edge of Golden Gate Park opened in May 2020 with 40 spots, becoming the city’s second sanctioned tent camp.
On June 16 it shuts down. The question now is where to move site residents, many of whom have called the Haight neighborhood home for decades and don’t want to leave.