Following the Department of Public Works’ efforts earlier this month to clear hazardous tent encampments in some parts of the city, an encampment growing in size near an office building on the outskirts of the Mission is drawing complaints from some employees there.
“We have entertainment venues here that nobody wants to come to if they have to fight through the homeless to get in and worry about their car being parked and broken into,” said Joel Thollander, assistant controller with Landmark Realty and the building manager at Showplace Square West, a three-story office building at 550 15th Street.
“Nobody wants to come up.”
For the past year, Thollander has managed the building that provides space to a number of design firms, entertainment venues and tech companies.
The building’s tenants were wedged between two sprawling tent encampments along Utah Street and San Bruno Avenue for months. Then, two weeks ago, the Department of Public Works cleared both areas in an abrupt effort to address a growing number of public complaints.
Kron4 reported on Wednesday that several companies operating in the building plan to relocate at the end of the month if the remaining campers aren’t addressed, but Thollander said the homeless weren’t the sole reason for the exodus.
“I think people are more thinking of moving because they’ve outgrown our space,” he said.
Still, the building’s homeless neighbors, who are now just around the corner, are a “detriment to leasing,” he said, adding that he is worried that the current tenants may leave.
“I’m sure they want to leave – they are tired of it,” said Thollander.
Thollander said that incidents in which campers “break in” to use the building’s restrooms are common, and that he’s found the bathrooms “trashed” on numerous occasions.
“They love to get in to use our restrooms – someone leaves, they come into building after them,” he said. “Or [they come in] just to get their living supplies, toilet paper and stuff like that. We are a source for them if given the opportunity to the wrong person.”
Randy Quezada, spokesperson for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said that he is aware of the complaints from the building and that the area will soon be targeted by the department’s encampment resolution team.
That team’s process is to work with campers in an effort to remove encampments permanently by transitioning their inhabitants into shelters and supportive housing.
Though the building’s problems may have eased up after the recent removal of the Utah Street and San Bruno Avenue encampments, they haven’t gone away, said Thollander.
The campers simply moved onto the side streets along 15th street and Alameda Street.
Those who have been displaced say they are left with few options of where to go next.
“We were told to move across the street,” said a 23-year-old woman named Melissa, who camped on Utah Street prior to the removal. “They gave us a list of places we can’t go.”
For the past week, Melissa has camped directly outside of Showplace Square’s entrance on 15th Street.
“When they moved us over here there were all these [Public Works] trucks and employees, but for what? So we can move over here, ten feet away?” She wanted to know.
Some employees in the building said they do not take issue with the campers outside.
“The problem is not that they are living out here, it’s that they don’t have homes,” said an employee of a tech firm located inside the building. The man said he is not bothered by the campers’ presence, but knows that it is a problem for others who work in the building.
“People complain about them taking up too much space, it being dirty, all this kind of stuff. But where else are these people going go?” he said. “At least here there is the freeway [underpass] that provides some shelter from the rain.”
After being displaced from Shotwell street a year ago, Ortego Flowers has set up his tent near the underpass and behind Showplace Square, on the corner of Alameda Street and San Bruno Avenue.
Flowers said he has a hard time understanding the employees’ complaints. The campers, he said, rarely interact with them.
“They come to work, they leave. I don’t see anybody out there begging them for change or food,” said Flowers, adding that he “tries to stay as far away from businesses” as he can to avoid displacement. “They’re really pushing us against the fence.”
Kelly Cutler, of the Coalition on Homelessness, said she calls the recent encampment clearings authorized by Public Works “sweeps” because the homeless were not offered services or shelter.
“[Homeless Outreach workers] didn’t seem to be as actively connected with that effort. That was straight [Public Works],” said Cutler.
While the sweeps may remove people temporarily, Cutler said that they are a band-aid at best for business owners and residents as the campers tend to return, and often detrimental to those shuffled out of sight.
Most encampments, she said, have established communities that offer inhabitants a sense of protection from the streets. Utah Street, for example, had become somewhat of a refuge for a community of homeless seniors.
“Within their community there they come up with certain rules,” said Cutler. “There’s somewhat of self-regulation. When there are sweeps going on and people are shuffled around, that breaks that up.”
Flowers, for his part, said that he is willing to go anywhere the city puts him, as long as it’s off the streets.
“It could be the Tenderloin, or Sunnydale –just put me somewhere,” he said, explaining that his attempts to get into shelters have been largely unsuccessful. “It’s that big old waiting list, 250 pages of people waiting on a list to get housing.”
As of March 22, the city shelter waitlist reached 1,196 people.
As an interim solution to addressing the immediate crisis, Cutler said that her coalition is researching the benefits of a “safe sleep” policy modeled after cities like Portland, which temporarily allowed homeless camping in select areas until more permanent housing becomes available.
That idea, however, has been met with some pushback from the city, she said. “The city doesn’t want to do it because they think it will be saying they approve of encampments,” she said, adding that the current alternative are sweeps.
Quezada, of the Department on Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said he has not seen the coalition’s proposal, but that the department is open to “any number of ideas.”
Thollander, the building’s manager, agreed that sweeps aren’t the answer but is nonetheless thankful for the movement.
“Sorry if they just move on to the next [block] but it’s so detrimental that we are just happy to see them moved,” he said, adding that his company has to “do what we can to keep our building prosperous and making money.”
“They just can’t stay here. People want to rent here and if they are stepping over people and looking out for needles, it doesn’t happen,” he said.
where is SFfixit Team when you need them??? Mayor Ed Lee???
Why do we allow people to store automobiles for free curb side of the streets, – while criminalising using that same curb space for sleeping and shelter – action necessary for the continuation of life.
The Department of Homelessness is a plugged toilet that is overflowing and leaving a mess.
Frankly, I think there need to be permanent encampments installed and supervised by a separate City based security team, and/or outsourced to a private firm. The fact is these groups of homeless individuals are not going away no matter where you push them; so why not try to accommodate their housing needs by offering them unused spaces to cohabitate with their own tent shelters, and provide basic sanitation services for restroom facilities (e.g. portable honeybuckets & washrooms, etc.).