A group of some 15 people living underneath the 101 freeway underpass at Brannan and Division Streets say they were “stood up” by Public Works cleaning crews who first instructed them to clear their encampment temporarily for a routine cleanup and then failed to appear for the actual cleaning, according to some of the encampment’s residents.
“We worked through the night to get this ready so that we would be abiding by what they wanted and they left us hanging and basically made us feel stupid,” said Couper, a resident of the encampment who on Friday afternoon lugged her belongings from the parking lot of a fitness gym near the intersection back onto the Division Street adjacent sidewalk.
Cooper said that she and the other campers had spent the previous night reluctantly sorting through their belongings, discarding trash and dismantling their tents in anticipation of the city-cleaning crews for what they were told would be a routine cleaning of the sidewalk around 5 a.m.
The sidewalks were to be powerwashed, Couper said, and the crews said that afterward, the campers would be allowed to return to their campsite. A spokesperson for the Department of Public Works did not immediately return requests for comment.
Although the campers cooperated, the crews failed to show up, leaving the former waiting in mounting frustration, said Couper, who called the waiting game a drag.
Proposition Q, passed by San Francisco voters in November, makes tents on sidewalks illegal but mandates that a 24-hour notice be given to encampment residents before their removal. Six Public Works trucks arrived on Thursday and tried to clear the camp said Cooper, adding that they had not been given 24-hour notice so the trucks backed off and warned they would return on Friday morning.
“We were very adamant about not moving and that bought us time until today,” Couper said. “We moved all our stuff [overnight], because I promised them [Public Works] that we would have everything squared away.”
But on Friday morning, no one came.
“People out here already have a hard enough time with just holding on to their belongings. But then when someone of authority says, ‘hey we are coming out here at this time and you have to move,’ and we get prepared for that like today – It’s just a let down,” said Couper.
Since last summer, the city has been mulling over humane and sustainable strategies to moving the some 300 people living in tents on the streets of the Mission District into shelter and supportive housing.
The city’s Department on Homelessness and Supportive Housing has over the past year targeted large scale encampments for a methodical, month-long removal process in which their residents are connected to services and prepped for placement in Navigation Centers .
Sweeps, in which campers are forced to clear a certain area permanently and often dispersed into the surrounding area, have been largely deemed ineffective in that process.
While the Brannan Street campers waited for Public Works to arrive, a city-sanctioned encampment resolution was underway a few blocks over at a much larger encampment on San Bruno Avenue. Service providers handed out snacks and water to the some 100 campers living in that area, and the CIty’s Encampment Resolution Team was sighted counseling campers and preparing them to move out of the area and ideally, off the streets.
It is unclear what prompted Friday’s planned cleanup, but Couper speculated that it was likely due to complaints from surrounding businesses.
When asked if calls for service and complaints have been made in regard to the campers directly outside, a receptionist at the a fitness studio located at the intersection said “plenty.”
A broken wooden dresser, several deflated cardboard boxes and other discarded items were sorted into a “trash pile” on a piece of the sidewalk closest to the Division street side.
The campers had placed the items there to be trashed by the city’s cleaning crews.
As one of the encampment’s residents added to the pile of trash, Couper yelled at her to move off the sidewalk to make room for oncoming pedestrians.
“We keep it clean and try to be respectful and try to step out of the way when people walk down the sidewalk. We are doing the best we can. People have to go to work. It’s not fair for us to be fucking shit up,” said Couper.
By 2 p.m, some eight hours after the sidewalk maintenance was scheduled to take place, the Brannen Street campers continued to wait for the Public Works dump trucks to arrive.
i wish someone would write the biographical article to accompany this really great photo of couper.
the story of the city’s staggered and stalled effort to address urban camping and the homeless is much less interesting and could likely benefit from and illuminate more by trying to answer the question “how did couper end up on the sidewalk with a couch and a dresser and a support group of 15 like living adults?”
having lived at the bottom of potrero hill for a time and having walked in the streets to avoid these sidewalk engulfing sprawls many a time, i would really like this analyzed publicly. i’m tired of everyone’s assumptions, including my own.
perhaps some deeper reporting?
is it bad luck, lack of education, poor health, mental illness, substance abuse, a combination, or something else?
couper looks like a dozen other people i interact with daily in coffee houses and stores, at farmers markets, in UPS uniforms, driving MUNI, painting a mural….basically keeping the city running like a city.
but she’s not; or is she?
how did she get where she did?
if we don’t answer that we will just continue to have her work through the night, feel stupid, and be forced to move again.
“Proposition Q, passed by San Francisco voters in November, makes tents on sidewalks illegal”
Prop Q did not make “tents on the sidewalks illegal”. Tents on the sidewalks have ALWAYS been illegal as is the obstructing of any public way or thoroughfare without a permit. Prop Q was a mandate at the ballot box by the voters of the city that they want the city to enforce the laws passed by the city that it has flagrantly and willfully ignored over the last three to four years. Laws that were mandated for the health and safety of all of it’s citizens.
§ 22. OBSTRUCTING ANY STREET, SIDEWALK, PASSAGEWAY OR OTHER PUBLIC WAY PROHIBITED
a. No person shall wilfully and substantially obstruct the free passage of any person or persons on any street, sidewalk, passageway or other public place.
§ 63. OBSTRUCTIONS ON STREETS AND SIDEWALKS
a. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, occupying or having charge or control of any premises, to place or cause to be placed, or suffer to remain upon the sidewalk, or upon the half of the street in front of such premises, any Article or substance which shall obstruct the passage of such street or sidewalk.
b. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to enter into a lease, rental agreement or contract of any kind, written or oral, with or without compensation, for the use of any street or sidewalk.