The last time he was arrested, Miguel, who goes by “Pineapplez,” awoke to voices asking for his name. He remembers squinting up from his resting spot on the sidewalk as his eyes adjusted to the early morning light. Looming over him were not just police officers, but a circle of cellphones, recording his every move. He began to cry.
The officers gave him 10 minutes to grab what possessions he could.
“And then I looked and it was, like, 10, 15 people, all just staring at me, gawking at me with their phones out … ”
Pineapplez, who has been homeless for the last year, grew quiet after describing being handcuffed before an audience of police, paramedics, Homeless Outreach Team representatives and journalists. It’s particularly “demeaning” to have your worst moments captured on video, he sighed.
“Reporters come, with their phones and their cameras all on us.” It’s a vulnerable, embarrassing moment, he said. “But they don’t care.”
Pineapplez, 33, recalled these feelings on the morning of Aug. 1, the day Mayor London Breed’s “very aggressive” sweeps of encampments were set to roll through Bayview.
This time, though, Pineapplez was prepared for the spectacle.
By 8 a.m., he had mostly finished packing his own things. He put on gardening gloves and began cleaning the street so that Public Works employees wouldn’t have to. That, and he didn’t want onlookers to have more to criticize.
Silver pineapple charms dangled from his ears as he shook out a fresh garbage bag to collect scattered apples and scanned the street for authorities.
“I’m not letting them disrespect me and take the stuff that I’ve worked hard for,” he said.
Pineapplez agreed to let Mission Local photograph him, on the condition that I give him a minute to tidy up and fix his hair. To create a backdrop for a photoshoot, he propped a green folding table on the metal wall behind him, removing empty cans from the frame before striking a pose.
Their sidewalk only gets this messy when they’re moving, Pineapplez said, and he didn’t want readers to think he was unhygienic.
Pineapplez understands the power of appearance. He recounted another morning when he overdosed and woke up on the street to city authorities removing a bag that contained his cell phone and Mac computer — a donation, he said — as he was put into an ambulance. He tried to “dress up nice” and speak “professionally” when he went to reclaim his things, but says he never got them back.
The man knows he’s made “bad choices.” But he also knows what a life of independence and privacy is like, he said. That makes it challenging to return to the navigation center, where he has a bed but doesn’t feel in control of his own life.
“They have to understand, even if some of us have a shelter bed, we still are fighting for, like, a little bit of privacy, a little bit of alone time.”
While we waited for the 1 p.m. sweep on Monday morning, Pinapplez demonstrated how he uses the rotated rear view mirror of a friend’s car to see himself practice fitness and dance routines he’s invented. From bins of donated clothes, he conjures outfits styled to his friends’ tastes. One friend, who lives in an encampment out of town but arrived that morning to help Pineapplez and others pack, described Pineapplez as “immaculate.”
Pineapplez stopped indulging in these small moments of joy when he remembered the impending sweep. He gave his friend’s car, which would later be towed, a final polish and returned to picking up trash.
At 1 p.m., right on schedule, city authorities, journalists and camera crews descended on the encampment. They held microphones in front of Pineapplez and his friend. The latter, wanting to remain anonymous, wrapped a shirt around his face.
Pineapplez, whose plaid flannel was now replaced by an unbuttoned black shirt and matching pants, sprayed mist on his face and played jaunty music from his speaker to, he said, calm his anxiety. He wheeled a cart of his things, covered in a silky green dragon-printed fabric, away from the scene.
In the next hour, one of his friends who was living on the corner would be arrested as a crowd of about 20 officers and reporters looked on.
Four days later, on Aug. 6, Pineapplez kept busy at an encampment that had been rebuilt on Jerrold Avenue. He was preparing to wash a poncho he had gotten as a birthday gift for a friend living in the tent behind him.
He declined to be interviewed again, saying he hadn’t had a chance to shower since the sweep. And, he added, it made him sad that I had returned to see him in this condition.
Wow. If you’ve ever driven past the area then you know it looks like a complete pigsty. Enough is enough.
It’s not “their sidewalk.”
It’s a sidewalk for all of us. And we want them to stop defecating on it.
ML, along with most of the media, regularly portray the “homeless” as nothing more than ordinary people who have had some bad luck and for reasons beyond their control are without a place to live. They are “victims.” Why? It didn’t used to be like that. People without a place to live used to be relatively rare. It also wasn’t really tolerated. People had to take at least minimal responsibility for themselves. There were vagrancy laws. They were enforced. In many states, not to mention other countries, there are few homeless. It is not allowed. Something close to half the homeless in America are in California. Might that not have something to do with decades of well meaning but bad policies in California, both statewide and locally? Most of the “homeless” are bums, drunks, junkies, and the mentally ill. People are fed up with it, even in San Francisco. Look at the incredible amount of money wasted on the problem for years and years. Millions and millions and millions, much of it wasted on the “homeless industry.” Corruption. Nearly all of the “homeless” refuse a shelter bed, or other offers to get them off the street. People are sick of drug addicts bent over double on the street, pissing into the gutter, pitching tents on the street. The SFPD, and other city agencies, as far as I am concerned, cannot do the sweeps too fast and too hard. Sometimes bartenders say at closing time, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” So I recommend a policy of, “You don’t have go back to where you’re from, but you can’t stay here. If you are from here, either find a place to stay, or leave San Francisco. You can’t stay on the street. It’s also not up to the rest of us to feed and shelter you. Especially when you turn down offers. Enough is enough.” Sooner or later people have to face consequences for their actions. That is what too many people can’t accept, that is why our approaches to both homelessness and crime have been so ineffective. I’m sick of the streets of SF looking like something from some dystopian, cyberpunk novel or film. I met a man from Sudan and he told me you don’t see such problems there—in SUDAN, for god’s sake! Sure, I’m all for more housing (but not at taxpayers’ expense), and I’m all for reopening mental hospitals for those who are a danger to themselves and others, but come on, people have had enough of it! Either accept an offer of a bed and help to, step by step, to get your life together, or, if you can’t or won’t do that, get out of town. It’s that simple.
These are people. Period. You and I do not know their individual stories. There are many among them that are not on drugs and/or have actually are unhoused due to some unfortunate circumstances that have nothing to do with them making poor choices, doing drugs or mental illness. Now let’s touch on the topic of mental illness….those suffering/experiencing mental health crisis cannot be villainized for something that is not within their abilities to control. And any person that says cruel thoughtless and blame oriented things about them being out on the streets is ignorant. Next they’ll be expecting the person with no legs to sprout some and walk. We have been seeing those suffering mental illness wandering the streets since the government closed the mental hospitals. That is an issue that needs to be addressed by the government. If you have a problem with it take it to them. Remember there are innocent people among those you choose to persecute. The elderly, those with physical limitations and children to name a few. When you point your finger at the entire population of unhoused people and make accusations true or not, these innocent suffer along with them. Being thoughtful in how you approach, speak on and conduct any rallying against anyone is crucial to both, how you are recieved and how it can affect the portion of people that your opinions do not apply to. And I’d like to add that you are not perfect. Just as I am not perfect. Having shelter, regular meals, a career/job, a vehicle and other things that most of the unhoused don’t have DOES NOT make you a better or more important person than any of them. It does not mean that your word is more important than theirs. It doesn’t make you smarter or more capable. It doesn’t give you more value a person than they have. And it DEFINITELY DOES NOT make you an authority on homelessness or on other people’s lives. Let me finish by saying that when a person lacks compassion, patience or the ability to understand then they need to be more concerned about doing some self reflection than trying o talk about what’s going on outside of themselves. Ignorance is solvable through education and research. Just start out with admitting that you don’t know everything and until you do it’s best to continue learning. I get that you don’t like seeing the addicts nodding out in public, the disgusting foul sight and scent of garbage and feces or the fear of being robbed etc. I hate these things also. But when we treat people a certain way that is what lends to those behaviors. It’s not just the drug use or general mindset of individuals that are on a downward spiral personally etc. When people are treated a certain way they almost always act accordingly. When those reactions are out of spite for being perceived as less than you’re going to see people rebel against what society deems acceptable. And they will do it barbarically and as blatantly as possible. The more you oppose the more that they will resist your opposition. You see, in there minds, regardless of whether you agree or understand they are just being people down on their luck. When the public looks down on them for something that they feel they cannot fix then they are stuck in that position. No one wants to be looked down on. After so long of that it’s going to get to them and because there is no logical reason why anyone who hasn’t been done harm by them should feel such malice or disgust about them simply because of their own misfortune then they will give you reason. You have made yourself their enemy and the only way that they can retaliate is to do what bothers or causes you discomfort as to both l, throw it in your face and at the same time show you that they know how not to give a fuch as much as you. Does that put into perspective how your perception, reaction and overall treatment of them can actually back fire? People that we are thoughtful of act accordingly. And how long it takes with each person depends on the history of mistrust that has been built.
This guy is a completely unsympathetic figure and it is beyond strange that he’s getting spotlight treatment.
I wish every day ,that I could get some alone time too, Mr Pinapplez. I am not privileged to have that either.
-Single Mom w/ Kids, and 2 jobs in S.F.
Miguel “Pineapplez’ already has a shelter bed but prefer to setup camp on the street? He is wasting city resources that someone else can use to improve their lives.
“They have to understand, even if some of us have a shelter bed, we still are fighting for, like, a little bit of privacy, a little bit of alone time.”
Mr. Pinapplez has to understand, we’re tired of having to reclaim our public spaces and neighborhoods from people who don’t want to deal with their mental health and substance abuse problems. I get it, we all have demons we have to wrestle with, and some of us have demons that are bigger. But why should “Pinapplez” be exempt from the rules that everyone one eles has to follow simply because he doesn’t like his accommodations at the navigation center? If you want to do something nice for your neighborhood, like put a little free library with some planters out on the sidewalk in front of your house, you’re not allowed to do that unless you apply for a permit with the city and pay an application fee. Then maybe, eventually, someone will get back to you and let you know if your proposed plan meets the city’s guidelines for sidewalk encroachments. If somebody tags your house with graffiti, you better clean it up ASAP or someone from the Department of Public Works will issue you a citation with a fine. If you want to open up a brick and mortar business in one of the city’s many vacant storefronts, then you better have some deep pockets, a little bit of moxie, and lots of patience to deal with all of the regulatory hurdles you’ll have to clear before you’ll be allowed to open up your doors to the public for business.
‘Sounds like this guy meets the definition of “voluntarily unhoused.”
Thank you for getting these people out of here! Enough already with this BS. Shelter relocate, or MOVE ON. What a joke we have become letting a once beautiful city turn into a human toilet bowl
Pineapplez likes “a life of independence and privacy” ? So many of these young homeless folks are so misguided opting to live on the streets “free and unfettered” not obligated to be a “wage slave” in this horrible by a capitalist society. Be advised that stealing electricity out of sidewalks, receiving city services, food and and/or laptop “donations” is not living independent. I don’t see living amongst mounds of trash on public sidewalks is somehow private. It seems to me that many, many of the young “homeless” folks in SF are freeloading drug addicts that are too immature or unwilling to follow rules or lack a basic sense of impulse control to comport themselves in public. SF needs to wake up to this and call it for what it is.
Dignity and respect, such a small request.
Thank you Abigail and Mission Local for enlightening us about who is being snagged in the sweeps.
I wish all the best for Pineapplez.