August 22, 2007
Homeless Kerfuffle, One Month In
We were on the 7 a few days ago and four gutterpunk types were complaining about how the city had taken their stuff from camps in Golden Gate Park. One of them, a long-haired fellow with a small backpack and very large pants, went on and on about how he was going to get a grant to put GPS chips in all of his things so he could get them back. Who, exactly, would pay for this grant was unclear. The conversation then descended into an irony-free discussion about restaurants on 6th Street that accept food stamps.
This reminded us of last month, when CW Nevius caused a ruckus and the city started to sweep the homeless out of the park. Nevius went back the other day, and found some things better, and some more-of-the same. A fact-ish article in the Chron takes some numbers from the city, which claims that the sweeps have removed 167 homeless camps, provided services to 164 people, and bussed away 25 people. The usual advocates chimed in, as well. If our bus eavesdropping is any indication, something's definitely going on.
We went running through the park this morning, taking the trail that parallels Fulton and eventually hits Park Presidio. Usually there's a tent or two along that route, visible peeking over the bushes from the trail that parallels the road, but the only human evidence we saw was a discarded pair of jeans and socks. The area around Stanyan and Haight was nearly deserted, despite the nice weather.
So...election-year pandering that will go away soon? Is everyone moving from the Park to the Presidio? The Mayor's office claims that the Park effort will be ongoing. What do you think?
Update: Gavin's changed the parks code, making it possible to be arrested for using obvious camping equipment (tarps, sleeping bags, etc.) even in the daytime.
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The Needle and The Damage
uuummmm, the smell of crusty junkie butt. What will I do without it? Please come back to San Francisco with a flower in your buttcrackhair. I love you junkies!!!
Hey el Greco --
You know we quite like you around these parts, but you need to actually make a comment in your comments, or we'll start considering them to be spam.
We don't mind the link back to your site, but, c'mon, man, one sentence with a point you are trying to make won't kill you. And it may actually convince people to click thru.
Thanks.
i think we should make it illegal to sell cigarettes or alcohol to the homeless in this city. they don't need them and they might actually get their shit together if we stopped. worst case, they'll go to some other town that doesn't impede their quality of life.
;)
I liked someone's idea about next year having the Summer of Tough Love, i.e, get in treatment, get in a shelter, get on a job program clearing up your own shit, or get the fuck back to Oregon, Santa Cruz, or where ever the fuck you come from.
I think it's such a complicated issue to solve. Like a lot of people, I'd like to know exactly how NYC handled the same issue, they seem to have really fixed the homeless problem, and specifically, cleaned up Central Park. Of course the milder weather here makes our park more appealing.
The kid's statement about the GPS and grants makes me sad. I think the majority of the people on the streets have a form of mental illness like this kid clearly does, whether it's substance-related or not.
I think SF leads the way on so many other issues in this country, I'd love to see us tackle the problem of caring for our mentally ill folks in a caring, productive way, while at the same time no longer making living in our parks or on our streets an option.
Anonymous #6: I don't think most of them have a mental illness, I think most of them are just not very bright, a bunch of thickies, if you will. And it's not a complicated issue to solve, that's the myth sustained by all the full-time homeless activists in order to keep themselves in gainful employment at our expense. Just got to make this place a lot less attractive to the moochers.
Yes, let's determine who needs a job, who is homeless, then tell them how to live their lives. No, let's force them, even better. Everyone must work. Work! Consume! Buy!
Let's tell people who to worship while we are at it. I like how you folks think!
Now let's get down to real solutions: Camping in the park is illegal without a permit, the police should enforce this every single time, no exceptions. Loitering should be enforced. Police should respond to vagrancy calls in a timely manner. Repeat offenders should be punished by the law of the land and/or exiled.
So in source, please do your job SFPD. There's some juicy OT in it for ya...
Good .. maybe the 3-4 folks making camp at postage stamp size Rincon Park will find a bigger place to hide, I mean camp.
For the cynics among us who call this election year grandstanding, I guess my response is why so? It's not like anyone has a chance on earth of toppling the Gavster. I mean, there is always the basic embarassment about a problem being allowed to fester for so long being exposed by the media (remember when Mayor Brown was confronted with the video proof that, yes, there were encampments in the park!). And, unlike the murder rate this year, there are actually concrete steps to be taken to show that the Mayor is at work.
And although I think the Presidio may be a potential destination, it has one big deterrent that GG Park does not - people living there and businesses doing business there. Something tells me that if George Lucas spots an encampment marring his vista of the Golden Gate, something will be done apart from using digital effects to restore the view. One thing I'm sort of curious about is whether the original Nevius complaint about needle exchange and its effect on the area immediately surrounding the park is being addressed at all.
And to the poster who wonders how NYC dealt with this, I think my answer would be two fold: many more cops and a real winter.
And to the poster who wonders how NYC dealt with this, I think my answer would be two fold: many more cops and a real winter.
Not to mention the (alleged) policy of forcibly busing groups of homeless far, far outside New York City limits.
guliani got rid of the homeless in manhattan and he did it with style. he forced them out of the city at 4am every day on buses to the boroughs. they had something we are struggling with in this town. all of their drug addict and homeless shelters were outside the city, in the bronx, queens, etc. we have all of ours right across the street from our biggest hotels and other tourist desitnations. big problem! our only chance to replicate the remedy from nyc would be to give up treasure island to all of them and all their treatement facilities. give them one way bus tickets and don't let them come back.
i really don't see any solution besides this to get rid of them. it's quite sad. they are ruining our beautiful city.
NYC dealt with it by cutting their human & social services budget drastically, closing shelters except in the Bronx, letting loose the Dogs of War, AKA the NYPD to roust all the homeless and then force them to the outer boroughs (again, esp. the Bronx.)
Basically, they kicked them off the island and dumped them in the poorest neighborhoods in New York. The equivalent would be closing all the shelters and SROs in the Tenderloin, cutting all of the City funding for the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and other agencies, packing up all the homeless and dumping them into the middle of the Bayview & Hunter's Point.
I suppose, theoretically, if I was a gutterpunk and I got continually dumped into the middle of the Bayview projects, I might piss my pants and get out of dodge.
GG Park is vast, I've lived next to it for years and I'm still finding hidden areas. The notion of a few extra workers clearing it out is funny, in a sad sort of way.
They just move from point A to point B, usually.
NYC also makes it illegal to be in the parks after either sunset or 10pm (i cant remember because im never there after that time).
ditto to the person who said winters and to those who talked about the lack of shelters in the city. bums in nyc also dont make as much as the ones here do. seriously, check out some dudes cup in midtown sometime and compare it to a similar dudes cup in union square. people have realized that they can BE homeless in san francisco, whereas other places wont let them.
we've got to stop "letting" them be homeless in this city. then things will change.
This post would be much improved by a link to today's brilliant Don Asmussen strip. Genius!
What's wrong with kicking people without means of living into places that are cheaper? Maybe they can find there way?
What's wrong with getting people with the program and getting something to do? They will be happier.
Jeremy (post #3): You'll have to get in line to call my stuff spam. I've already been banned by Chris Daly, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, and, this is the saddest of all, Lindsay Lohan. I am proud to say that Homeland Security has not caught up with me yet, but I'm expecting a knock at the door any midnight now. Anyway, I will consider myself duly chastised and will make another ill-fated attempt at self reform. Has anyone seen my needle? I so need another fix.
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
-- Anatole France
THIS IS JUST ANOTHER SCAM. WHEN CITY HALL DECIDES IT IS TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT CLEARING THE PARK OF ENCAMPMENTS... MIGHT I SUGGEST:
- SPRINKLERS! SPRINKLERS! SPRINKLERS!
- NIGHTLY! NIGHTLY! NIGHTLY!
.... DUH! DUH! DUH!
start calling 311 on any of the encampments or the hostile homeless you see on the street anywhere in the city. i did and it seems to be working. they transfer you to the non-emergency number at the sfpd, they log the call that came in, they respond and force them to move along.
i'm all for dumping the homeless in the bayview or hp. let the frustrated teens beat the shit out of them there to get their hostility out on the man.
it's a win-win.
Since they're all on drugs, how about going after their dealers?
It makes more sense than just going after users.
Yes they are leaving the park. Do you know where they are going? Into the surrounding neighborhoods. Since the recent "clean up" efforts one can see even more homeless wandering around the Sunset pushing their carts. I heard there was a fight at 19th & Judah between two groups both of whom wanted to "park" at that location for the day, sit on the steps of the building at the corner and panhandle. There used to be one or two who sat on the sidewalk all day between 19th and 25th. The other day I counted six. One very scary guy was sitting next to an ATM. There were four hanging around the Safeway at 31st Avenue, hassling patrons - of course the rent-a-cops just stood there while one screamed at an elderly Asian woman who did not give him money.
where are they getting all their smack? how about introducing a lethal dose into their population?
a) it's the toothpaste tube effect. squeezing them out of one area just sends them to another. then that area is unhappy and squeezes them back where they came from. it's a never-ending battle.
b) take one short walk up and down haight street and it's clear that these "homeless" kids choose to be homeless losers begging for your money, boozing it up on the street and being assholes. and they even have the nerve to have dogs! we should take their animals from them and send them back to mommy and daddy's house.
Here's some wonderful advice from the SF Needle Exchange people as seen at http://www.sfne.org/
Tips for smoking and shooting crack.
Smoking:
# Use a glass or metal stem with a mouthpiece. (You can get a mouthpiece during our exchange hours)
# If you don't have a mouthpiece, wrap the end of the stem with a thick rubber band or paper so you are less likely to burn your lips.
# Wipe the mouthpiece with an alcohol wipe to get rid of germs.
# Use clean choy, copper or steel wire. Pipe screens are the best (and you can find them at any hardware store).
# Change your screens often. They get brittle and break--which means you could inhale bits of metal. Ouch!
# Touch the flame to the pipe quickly. Instead of holding it in place, move the flame along the pipe to spread out the heat.
# Let the pipe cool down before you take another hit to prevent burning your lips.
# Wash your hands often with soap. Try and use antibacterial soap if you can get it!
# Clean your pipe often.
# File down broken edges of your stem to help prevent cutting yourself.
And remember...
# DON'T SHARE PIPES! And of course, don't go down on someone if you've got sores on your lips.
Shooting:
# Have your sterile cooker, water, cotton, syringe, citric or ascorbic acid and alcohol wipes ready.
# Put crack and citric or ascorbic acid (a pinch to a rock) in the cooker. Add plenty of water. Smash and mix well.
# Don't use lemon juice or vinegar. These contain nasty fucking bacteria that eat away at your veins and cause infections or abscesses.
# Add your cotton and draw up your shot.
# Tie off, find a vein and clean the area with an alcohol wipe.
# Insert the needle; make sure you are in the vein by registering (pull back the plunger a little to see if blood comes in).
# Before injecting take the tie off. Slowly push the plunger. This prevents damage to your veins.
# Withdraw the needle. Apply pressure with a clean tissue or cotton.
# Rotate your injection sites.
# And remember...DON'T SHARE RIGS and use a clean needle every time.
Take Care of Yourself!
# Drink plenty of fluids. Water, juice and Gatorade are best.
# EAT and SLEEP!
# Take vitamins.
# We have mouthpieces for your stem at SFNE.
# If you want to see a doctor and don't want to go to 4C at General (the wound care clinic) come to exchange, we have medical providers here.
# If you have and questions, call or come by site.