A new piece by Rob Waters from SF Public Press: San Francisco has begun rolling out a new technology platform that officials say will better help the homeless population by giving priority for shelter and housing to those with the greatest need. But by formalizing who has priority — and who doesn’t — the system also functions as a form...
District Attorney George Gascón will make a decision in six to eight weeks on whether to charge the officers who fatally shot a homeless man in the Mission in April 2016, said Adriana Camarena, an advocate for the man’s family who met with Gascón on Wednesday. Camarena said that during the meeting, Gascón gave her and the family of Luis...
Hillary Ronen and Jeff Kositsky are three months late on their promise to close the Navigation Center at 1515 South Van Ness — but they swear they have a good reason. Instead of Feb. 28, the center will not close until June, at the latest. That allows its closing to be orchestrated with the May 15 opening of the new...
A new Navigation Center will be installed near 13th Street and Highway 101 this spring, and while Mission District residents shared their concerns at a meeting on Thursday, many had warmed up to the idea after the apparent success of the center at 1515 South Van Ness. When the 1515 Navigation Center was built, “there was a lot of fear...
Mission Station will be working with the District Attorney on issuing warrants to arrest homeless people who have been repeatedly cited for nuisance activities and who refuse services, said Captain Gaetano Caltagirone at a community meeting at Mission Station on Tuesday. He said that while there are fewer tent encampments, there are still individuals who are not accepting services. “It...
If you’re wondering how to help people living on the street this winter, and with the holidays maybe still fresh in your memory, here are some thoughts we’ve collected on what would be the most helpful: Donations can be dropped off at the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center at 165 Capp St. If you have items to drop off at the center,...
Mission Station is upping its homeless outreach and undercover operations, said Captain Gaetano Caltagirone at a community meeting Tuesday at the station. Caltagirone stepped in as head of the station two months ago with promises of better community relations and more “old-fashioned” policing, including foot patrols and undercover drug busts. He also seems to be taking a more participatory...
The Department of Public Works has installed $8,700 worth of boulders as a defense against homeless “re-encampment” underneath the tangle of freeway overpasses at Cesar Chavez and Potrero Avenue known as the Hairball. More boulders are on their way. “We put them in there to help deter re-encampment a bit and for aesthetics, just to change it up,” said Larry...
Homeless advocates last Wednesday asked the San Francisco Police Commission to reduce SFPD’s role in responding to homelessness. The commission seemed receptive to the recommendations, indicating that they’d assist in seeing most of them fulfilled. But no formal vote was taken. Moreover, it quickly became clear that police are often on the front lines of the homeless issue because they...
Officials from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive housing on Thursday laid out their ambitious five-year homelessness reduction strategy for a group of community members at Centro Latino, a Mission District community center. The 20-odd community members, while generally impressed, still wondered how the strategy would address mental illness, sweeps by police and easier access to shelters and...
On Monday morning around 11 a.m., as the sky began to drizzle, David G. was packing bike wheels and baby wipes into cardboard boxes under the overpass at Valencia and Duboce, where he has been camping for the last year or so. “They never used bother us here,” David said, explaining that that police and Department of Public Works crews...
Covering the Police is a collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Irvin Huerta had thoughts of becoming a police officer when he was younger. He wanted to give back to San Francisco, the city where he was born and raised. At first, he did other jobs, but when one of his best friends, Moises Frias Jr., was shot dead...
Perhaps you’ve seen John Ratliff, formerly a prolific journalist, at 16th and Mission streets, feeding the pigeons. Maybe you’ve come across his Daily Rag, which he still writes with keen self-awareness. Maybe you read our story by Julio Marcial about this enigmatic street dweller. School of the Arts students Kylie Villavicencio, Ashley Escobar, Queenie Li, Sarah Jones, Phoebe Milvy-Soloff and...
Covering the Police is a collaboration with U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. The Central Station police meeting Thursday evening was supposed to cover crime and homelessness throughout the entire police district. Instead, concerns over two people dominated the 75-minute session. One was a woman who hangs out around the 1700 block of Sacramento Street, allegedly offering drug-laced cigarettes to...
An homeless encampment resolution is underway at the snarl of freeway ramps and bike paths located at Cesar Chavez Street and Potrero Avenue. The so-called Hairball encampment is one of the last large encampments in the Mission District. In the next few weeks, homeless people won’t be allowed to camp under the freeway overpasses that have been used by...
