To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

By Magaly Muñoz

Encampment sweeps are not a new method of action to evict people from living and sleeping on the streets in San Francisco. However, recent reports indicate that city staff are not following proper policy, exacerbating the problems for unhoused people.

Homeless advocates and allies held a press conference on Thursday at City Hall, condemning staff workers for destroying people’s property during encampment evictions and asking officials to ensure that important documents and medication are not being stripped from these individuals.

“By destroying the very items that could help people regain stability, the city is not just punishing people for being poor, but actively making it harder for them to escape homelessness,” Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, said.

Friedenbach criticized the city for not fixing their housing problem or finding new ways to shelter people, instead they are further adding to the harm of the “humanitarian crisis that San Francisco is facing.”

The press conference was held before the monthly Homelessness Oversight Commission (HOC) meeting, where commissioners discussed a draft resolution to submit to city staff highlighting the importance of not separating people from their items as this might cause further distress.

The resolution lists ssential items that workers should be cautious of not destroying or throwing away including medical documents and medication, work permits, identification, and survival gear, such as blankets or tents.

Trending

IN MEMORIAM: Wilfred Cyprian Harvey, 88

City policy instructs workers to “bag and tag” items left behind after an encampment sweep. These items are labeled by Public Works and kept at their operations yard for 90 days before being discarded.

But according to several reports and videos of the sweeps, the city has not always followed this policy and has on numerous occasions thrown away people’s medications or tents, leaving individuals without their essentials.

During the meeting, commissioners suggested adding school records and family related support items, such as diapers, to the resolution because of the increasing number of families living on the streets.

Virginia Taylor, senior policy advisor for Safe & Sound, said 531 families are waiting for housing in San Francisco. Many of these families are living out of their cars or in RVs, yet the city has limited safe parking spots where people can situate themselves.

Along with not throwing out people’s belongings, advocates are also continuing to ask the city to stop the encampment sweeps because all they are accomplishing is moving unhoused folks block to block without solving the root problem of lack of consistent housing.

“We need urgent action, more family shelter beds, a stop to vehicle sweeps, expanded safe parking programs and housing solutions that keep our multi-generational families together. Our children’s futures depend on it. Let’s build a San Francisco where no family falls through the crack and every child has the opportunity to thrive,” Taylor said.

Speakers referenced the RV sweep conducted in early August on Zoo Road, where dozens of people, many of them non-English speaking immigrants, were asked to leave the parking lot or else their vehicles would be towed and they would be cited.

While people were offered shelter beds or housing vouchers, some worried about where they would stay while the city processed their applications. This drew criticism of San Francisco’s method of not always having immediate options for people yet continuing to sweep unhoused folks with nowhere to go.

Commissioners of HOC agreed that the city is not trying to exacerbate the issue and the resolution is one of many steps to ensure that there are no setbacks in the progress to ending homelessness in San Francisco.

The HOC will approve the resolution at a later meeting once amendments and changes are made.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

By Magaly Muñoz

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao issued an executive order on Monday directing all city departments to enforce the 2020 encampment management policy and begin a much more diligent approach to homeless encampment sweeping.

“Being homeless is not a crime in Oakland, but it doesn’t give the right to break other laws,” Thao said in a video statement.

The order comes months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v Johnson decision to allow local municipalities the right to close encampments even if no shelter is available.

The encampment policy prohibits camps in “high sensitivity areas” such as schools, businesses, walkways, recreational centers, and parks.

Thao said that prioritizing which camps will close down immediately will come down to where they are located, such as the high sensitivity areas, and the public safety concerns the camps attract, such as fires, violent crimes, and illegal dumping.

Oakland joins other California cities, including their Bay Area neighbors San Francisco and Berkeley, in a calculated approach to cracking down on the homelessness crisis.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has been vocal in her decision to increase sweeping and get people off of the streets, which many have criticized as a political ploy as she seeks reelection this fall.

Thao followed up her executive order with another video Tuesday afternoon, where she and Assistant City Administrator Harold Duffey walked through the Martin Luther King Way encampment, stating the city recently cleared out 40 tons of debris from the littered area.

The city began clearing out the encampment early last week with some reports saying that staff threw away people’s personal belongings, including a wheelchair.

The mayor’s office did not respond for comment at the time of publication.

About 40 people were living in the camp, according to the City. Sixteen people received shelter, nine enrolled in a county medical respite program, and 12 individuals declined offers of shelter and self-relocated. An individual with two broken legs was also taken to the hospital.

In the video, Duffey explained that two weeks prior to an encampment closure, outreach teams are asked to visit the site and pair people with services and offer temporary housing.

Although there are offers of shelter being made at sweeps, Thao’s executive order states that in no way will “emergency or urgent closures be delayed for shelter unavailability,” meaning sites can be closed down and people will have to disperse even if they have nowhere else to go.

Duffey clarified that although workers cleared out a massive amount of debris from the MLK site, the city is aware that the illegal dumping is often coming from individuals targeting encampments to litter the area because it’s easier to place blame on the people already living there.

Thao shared her experience of homelessness in both video statements, saying she lived in her car with her son after she escaped an abusive relationship. She added that she never once thought about “pitching a tent on the streets.”

Advocates are upset at the recent order, arguing it will exacerbate the harm to unhoused Oaklanders.

Talya Husbands-Hankin, founder of Love and Justice in the Streets, said the order will force these vulnerable residents into unsafe conditions because of the failure to provide permanent housing. She added that this action is aligning itself with values of a Trump-appointed Supreme Court and is “contrary to the values of justice and equity that Oaklanders want to uphold.”

“We know that sweeps are not the answer, and we urge Mayor Thao to redirect all resources into immediately opening public land for community-led solutions and funding permanent housing to uplift human rights for all Oakland residents,” Husbands-Hankin said.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post