Around 10:30 a.m., a three-person city homeless outreach team was trying to offer shelter to a man on 15th Street between Julian Avenue and Caledonia Street, near the 16th and Mission BART Plaza.
The man had been told to leave the nearby Gubbio Project, an organization that offers help during the day to unhoused people. The Gubbio Project could not confirm, due to confidentiality, whether anyone had been asked to leave that morning.
But the nonprofit’s general policy is that if someone is partaking in violent or abusive behavior, destruction of property or using drugs or alcohol on site, they may be asked to leave, said Lydia Bransten, the executive director of the Gubbio Project. If a person were deemed to be a danger to themselves or the neighborhood, then staff would call emergency services.
This morning, the city’s Homeless Outreach Team followed up with the man as he was sleeping on the sidewalk on 15th Street, said Santiago Lerma, who leads the Mission Street Team, part of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management.
A member of the team crouched down near the man; he was young, and seemed to be struggling to speak. He sat in a low-slung outdoor chair on the sidewalk. The member of the team asked, in Spanish, if she could offer him shelter. She offered him packaged snacks, which he took.
Lerma stood nearby. He’d already tried to speak to the man, but he’d refused. Lerma hoped the outreach worker would have better luck.
An area resident, Todd Eng, pulled up to the curb on 15th Street on his bike. He recognized Lerma.
“I appreciate your work,” Eng called out. “Just to let you know, it’s crappy as ever on Julian.”
Lerma asked a follow-up: What time is he seeing problems on Julian Avenue?
“Around 5:30 p.m.,” Eng said. Last evening, he had to call the police after he spotted 15 people using drugs on his doorstep and the street as he left his house.
We’re noticing that’s a “trouble time,” Lerma replied.
Eng has lived in the area for about 20 years. He and other longtime residents of Julian Avenue, which is around the corner from the 16th Street BART Plaza, say street conditions in the area have been getting worse for the past six months or so. Crackdowns on drug use and homelessness in other parts of the city drove people to the Mission, they say.
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s decision to park a police mobile command unit on the 16th Street BART Plaza has cut down on troublesome behavior to some extent, at least on the plaza. Indeed, on Thursday morning, an employee at a nearby family business said he’d never seen the plaza so clean.
But the crackdown has also driven some activity further into the neighborhoods, nearby residents say.
After a brief chat with Lerma, and a “thanks again for your work,” Eng cycled off.
Lerma turned back to the man on the sidewalk. After at least half an hour of trying to offer him shelter, the homeless outreach team left.
The next step, Lerma said, is to call a paramedic to get a health assessment. Depending on the paramedic’s evaluation, city staff may be able to loop in other organizations to help get this man off the street.
So the Gubbio Project attracts addicts to their site and often times addicts are ejected from Gubbio for behaviorial issues onto residential Julian Avenue. Maybe this will happen while seniors are queueing for food at Centro Latino.
If this is what happens outside of an addict respite site, then safe consumption sites are not going to happen.
Thanks for reporting
Interesting that Supervisor Fielder is concerned now .
This mess has been going much worse for years in other neighborhoods but now that is in her backyard the city cannot act fast enough
Hopefully she and all the supervisors scan their environment and the whole city and shown concern for all who live here .
Fragmentation is not good .
To bad supervisors will not represent all instead of just their areas.
A house divided cannot stand