A SoMa business owner is fed up with the homeless camped near his business, and has printed flyers urging his customers to contact San Francisco elected officials in order to demand some sort of response.
Sebastyn Jacovics owns the Fitness SF located at 9th and Division Street, a location in the news recently for the large homeless encampment that has sprung up under the overpass on Division. In an interview with KTVU, Jacovics shared his frustration regarding the people living on the streets near his business.
"Every intersection, wherever you look is just overrun with homeless people," he told the channel. "What's going on is just not acceptable. We need a plan. We need a plan of action that works."
Jacovics, perhaps skeptical of city officials' efforts to effectively get those living on the streets into shelters, has taken action to step up the pressure on City Hall.
"ATTENTION MEMBERS," a sign he has posted in his business reads. "The homeless encampments surrounding our gym, neighborhood, and community are a public health and safety crisis. The City of SF has refused to address this crisis in a meaningful and permanent manner."
The flyer continues that "[we] need your help in bringing this emergency to the immediate attention of our elected officials. Please contact them," it instructs, before listing the phone numbers and emails of the Mayor, all eleven Supervisors, the Assistant District Attorney, the DPW Director for Operations, an SFPD Captain, and the Deputy Director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services.
Whether Jacovics's efforts will result in increased calls to City Hall, and a resulting response from elected officials, remains to be seen. Furthermore, what said response might even look like is unclear — San Francisco's efforts to open a new “low-threshold shelter" shelter on Pier 80 have so far been more or less shrugged off by area homeless.
However there is one response, we surmise, that Jacovics is not in favor of: Buying the homeless more tents.
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