S.F. Targets 13 Tenderloin Blocks for Tent Relocation, Cleanup, Services

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Jeff Kositsky, manager of the Healthy Streets Operations Center. Screen capture from SFGovTV

In response to an increase in tent encampments in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, city officials will target 13 blocks with outreach, services, cleaning and enforcement. People living in some encampments will be asked to relocate to permitted sites, and the city will open one such site with 50 spaces on Fulton Street between Larkin and Hyde streets.

Jeff Kositsky, manager of the Healthy Streets Operations Center, said the problems of homelessness have dramatically worsened during the pandemic, with a nearly 300% increase in tents in the Tenderloin since the beginning of the year.

“I will tell you that when Mayor Breed travels in the Tenderloin, which is often, my phone starts ringing almost immediately to try to address some of the concerns that the mayor is seeing as she travels through this neighborhood — that we’re all seeing as we travel through these neighborhoods,” Kositsky said.

Recommendations for various blocks include opening 24-hour bathroom stations, closing parking lanes to allow for foot traffic and social distancing, and relocating encampment residents to approved sites where they can maintain social distancing. The city also plans to improve trash removal, clean more frequently and add hand-washing stations for public use. Outreach workers have already been distributing masks and food in the neighborhood, and water manifolds were installed to improve access to drinking water. Kositsky said there will be an increased police presence in the area to address crime, but not to address social problems, which would be handled by nonprofit and outreach workers.

“Everyone has to be held accountable, it’s not just the city’s responsibility,” said Mayor London Breed of conditions in the Tenderloin. “It’s the people that are part of that community, whether they are housed or not, in protecting and serving and supporting this particular community.”

Other topics discussed at the press briefing:

  • Breed said that deaths from COVID-19 are still increasing, so San Franciscans should be wary of reopening society too quickly (5:10)
  • Breed spoke about the plan for the Tenderloin (10:15)
  • Director of the Department of Public Health, Dr. Grant Colfax, thanked nurses for their work on National Nurses Day (19:55)
  • Colfax said the city had tallied 1,754 cases of COVID19, and among those, 31 people had died. He gave an update on the city’s testing capacity and said that in recent months, about 8% of those tested for COVID-19 have tested positive. (22:52)
  • Colfax said that non-essential businesses are not permitted to conduct curbside pickup operations (34:27)
  • Kositsky outlined the recommended action for the 13 top-priority blocks of the Tenderloin (45:45)
  • Police Chief Bill Scott offered year-over-year crime statistics, noting a decrease in most crimes but an increase in the number of homicides compared with this time last year (56:17)
  • Scott said the plan to improve conditions in the Tenderloin would include enforcement against drug dealing (1:01:59)
  • Breed said the city has been doing its best to help homeless people during the pandemic, and challenged “anyone to name any other city that’s doing better than San Francisco as it relates to getting homeless into hotel rooms.”(1:04:45)
  • Colfax described how the city is managing the supply of alcohol, opiate replacements and nicotine to hotel residents who have substance use disorders (1:11:16)
  • Colfax said the World Health Organization has issued a warning against the use of “immunity passports” for those with coronavirus antibodies. (1:13:28)
  • Trent Rhorer, director of the Human Services Agency, said leaving hotel rooms the city has acquired empty is by design, to ensure capacity to accommodate a surge of people who need to self-isolate but cannot in the case of another outbreak. (1:25:28)

 

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