By Mary Rees, KALW Crosscurrents
Last fall, I went to Fifth and King streets in San Francisco, just under the on-ramp to Interstate 280. A group of tents inhabited the space then. The ground around the tents was swept, and bicycles stood in neat lines. Residents, such as Jessica Prater, knew one another and felt safe there.
“I can trust pretty much everyone down here,” Prater said. “If for some reason something does come up missing, somebody has my back. I was a single female out here at one point, you know, and I never had worries. I never carried a knife; I never carried pepper spray or any personal weapon.”
A month ago, flyers went up, warning that the encampment would have to move, that CalTrans construction would begin on March 11. And right on schedule, on Monday of last week, police officers and the city’s Homeless Outreach Team put wristbands on the camp residents and helped them load their belongings onto trucks.
Read the complete story at KALW Crosscurrents.