Day 57 of the 16th St. Plaza crackdown: Barricades and makeshift camps

Just a five-minute walk northeast of the 16th Street Plaza, In Chan Kaajal Park at 17th and Folsom streets was calm Wednesday morning. A group of toddlers, led by two adults, walked in single file toward the playground. Sitting near the center of the park was Jonathan Rowe, who lives in an SRO nearby and walks his dog, Trigger, there every day.

“I like this park,” Rowe said, smiling as Trigger leaned against his leg. “I come here a lot — multiple times a day.”

Rowe has lived in the Mission for about a year and a half. In Chan Kaajal feels peaceful, he said, like “day and night” compared to the 16th Street BART Plazas.

“It’s a little safer now,” he said, referring to the city’s increased law enforcement presence in the plazas. “I don’t have kids, but I care about kids’ safety. On weekends this park gets packed. They even have drawing tables out here sometimes.”

Rowe was unhoused for more than 15 years after contracting West Nile virus, he said. Housing programs that ramped up after the COVID-19 outbreak helped him get off the streets, and gave him the stability to get clean. “Once I had a place to sleep, things started to change.” He’s now saving money and hopes to buy land in Colorado, where his girlfriend lives. “I don’t think I could ever afford anything here,” he said.

His dog, Trigger, a one-year-old pit bull, often draws uneasy reactions from other dogs near the 16th Street Plaza. “He gets sniffed at a lot because he looks scary, I think,” Rowe said. “But he’s a real sweetheart.”

Earlier that morning, at 9:53 a.m., two people slept on blankets at the corner of 15th and Caledonia streets. Around the corner, six others sat, stood, or lay along the Caledonia sidewalk. One man, wearing a plastic samurai sword, stood talking to himself near an orange trash bin. Another crouched beside a bicycle, which had a bag of folded blankets strapped to the handlebars. A third lay wrapped in fabric nearby.

By 10:15 a.m., on Julian Street, a worker wearing a green jacket with the logo of the Homeless Outreach Team, a city program that connects unhoused individuals to services, spent about 15 minutes speaking with several people who were sorting through their belongings on 15th Street between Caledonia and Julian.

Eventually, a yellow taxi pulled up. The HOT worker walked one of the men over to the cab, which then drove away. When asked where the man was headed, the worker said he couldn’t disclose that information.

Just down the block at 10:28 a.m., a Kailash Hotel employee hosed down the sidewalk, pausing briefly to let an older woman pass. Two men approached the hotel entrance while another stood nearby with a suitcase and a black backpack, drinking from a pint-sized cardboard container of milk.

At 10:31 a.m., six sheriff’s deputies stood in the center of the northeast 16th Street Plaza, talking to four DPW workers wearing high-visibility vests. A shirtless man sat alone on a concrete bench nearby.

By 10:39 a.m., the northeast plaza was nearly empty. Only two SFPD officers and two DPW workers remained.

On Capp Street at 16th, where groups of people often gather, piles of discarded furniture, including mattresses and doors tagged “Recology” in black spray paint, lay piled on the sidewalk.

At 10:54 a.m., a man walked down Wiese Street toward 16th, accompanied by a dog.

At 11:27 a.m., at the southeast corner of the 16th Street Plaza, an SFPD vehicle was parked beside the mobile command unit. A group of about 10 people sat on the plaza steps, most with backpacks and plastic bags by their sides. They chatted quietly among themselves.

By 11:40 a.m., Capp Street began to fill in. Four people gathered around the discarded furniture and arranged two wooden bed frames to form a makeshift enclosure, with a couch wedged between them. A man slouched on the couch, nodding off. A couple leaned against the frames with their arms wrapped around each other, holding the leash of their dog.

At 11:57 a.m., three sheriffs walked through the southwest side of the 16th Street Plaza, eyeing the group still seated on the plaza steps.

By 12:04 p.m., a metal barricade, part of the fencing that lines much of Wiese Street, now blocked off the entrance at 16th and Wiese. Workers repairing the shuttered Taqueria Los Coyotes nearby laughed and said, “Yeah, some homeless guy just moved it. It wasn’t the city.”

By 1:14 p.m., the northeast 16th Street Plaza had no visible SFPD or DPW presence. Around ten people sat quietly along the far edge of the plaza ledge.