Category: Crisis updates

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S.F. homeless families to be evicted despite reassurance from Lurie

By Xueer Lu : missionlocal – excerpt

Update: Hours after publication, both families won another temporary extension, meaning they will not face eviction again until mid-April…

 

 

 

Two steps forward and four steps back. How do we get back through the looking glass?

In last-minute reversal, S.F. homeless families avoid eviction — for now.

Two San Francisco families who were set to be evicted from their homeless shelters on Monday night have won a reprieve following protests by advocates and several press stories highlighting their plight, according to Matt Alexander, an advocate working with the families.

The families of Vilma Arias and Maria Flores, two in a group of some 30 families who are facing eviction after San Francisco reintroduced a cap on the number of nights families can stay in city-contracted homeless shelters, were told to be out of their rooms at St. Joseph Family Center by 5 p.m. tonight.

If not, shelter staff told the families, the police would be called…(more)

Whiplash politics from Washington to SF! What gives? Why don’t they do us all a favor and DO NOTHING! That is the cheapest least chaotic way to end this mind-bogging confusion we are in. Did something happen to our leaders? Did power go to their head or what? Who said we wanted mass change? I thought the public voted for border security and safe streets and an end to inflation. Nothing they are doing is gong to fix those problems!

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Can one man help wipe out S.F.’s drug markets? City officials want to find out

By Maggie Angst : sfchronicle – excerpt
 

David Kennedy has devoted his life to developing new approaches to curb gun violence and dismantle open drug markets.

In Boston, interventions adopted under Kennedy’s direction led to a 63% decline in youth homicides. And in High Point, N.C., the city almost entirely eliminated open drug use and dealing over three years and saw a steep decline in violent crime, according to studies.

So could Kennedy — a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and founder of the National Network for Safe Communities — help San Francisco eradicate its relentless open-air drug markets?

Some city officials want to find out. …

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, with the support of Board President Rafael Mandelman and Supervisor Matt Dorsey, will make a formal request to Mayor Daniel Lurie and the board on Tuesday to hire Kennedy as an independent contractor to analyze San Francisco’s open-air drug markets and create an intervention plan tailored to the city. …

Dorsey also plans to introduce legislation Tuesday to codify that the city’s “primary objective” of its drug policies is to stop illicit drug use and help people attain long-term recovery from addiction. The legislation, in part, is meant to address concerns from some residents and city leaders that it is too focused on harm reduction and not enough on treatment. Dorsey made a request in late 2022 to bring in Kennedy, and the professor developed a proposal to address the city’s illicit drug markets, but the deal was never finalized. The estimated cost of the two-year initiative at that time was about $550,000, according to city records…

Kennedy’s strategy — referred to as “Drug Market Intervention” — calls for disrupting the supply of drugs into the market and creating a maintenance plan to ensure the market stays closed. His team saw success in cities like High Point, N.C. and Nashville during the crack epidemic, but he told the Chronicle that addressing San Francisco’s current markets, which are dominated by the sale of the cheap, highly addictive synthetic opioid fentanyl, will likely require its own unique approach.

“I’m not presuming that any of the particular tactics that worked for the crack era markets will work here,” Kennedy said in an interview. “But I wouldn’t be agreeing to work with the city if I didn’t think that there was real promise here.”…

To guide Kennedy’s work, Mahmood is proposing to expand the city’s Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, a public safety interagency task force started under Breed, to a 24/7 operation to arrest more overnight drug dealers. He also wants to see the city add more street ambassadors to deter drug markets from popping up in new areas and increase support for workforce and youth development programs to prevent young people from getting pulled into the drug trade. … (more)

RELATED:

In SF’s Move to Give Mayor Daniel Lurie Extra ‘Fentanyl’ Powers, This One Phrase Stood Out, “‘The will of the voters.’ Crime is down, drug deaths are lower, but a so-called emergency measure continues a rollback of permissive policies.”

It was be good see a critique of Kennedy’s work. How successful has his strategy been?

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SFPD converting SoMa parking lot into one-stop shop for arrests, drug treatment, and homeless busing

By Abigail Van Neely : missionlocal – excerpt

‘Street fair’-like tents proposed for site where drug-users could be offered choice of jail, treatment — or bus journey

A third of a parking lot at 469 Stevenson Street will become a temporary law enforcement and treatment center to curb drug use on Sixth Street.

Hours after the Board of Supervisors voted in support of giving Mayor Daniel Lurie expanded powers to mitigate the city’s drug, mental health and homelessness crises, San Francisco police held a town hall to address part of their contribution to the effort: a parking lot.

Specifically, a parking lot at 469 Stevenson St., a stone’s throw away from the notoriously chaotic Sixth Street corridor, which Lurie has focused on as an early priority for his administration.

Police plan to operate 469 Stevenson as a hub for directing drug users to services and offering to bus them out of San Francisco — or putting them in jail. The site was the subject of an infamous fight when the Board of Supervisors temporarily blocked hundreds of housing units there in 2021, which led the state to investigate the city’s housing laws.

The city is “keeping expectations low” as it tries “doing something different,” San Francisco Assistant Police Chief David Lazar said on Tuesday evening. But, Lazar said, “If the model works, we can copy and paste it.”… (more)

How will the SFPD determine if the experiment is working? If neighbors are feeling better about the streets’ conditions, users are taking advantage of the services, and 911 calls are down, Lazar said the city would consider the project a success.

RELATED:
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Homeless families sent eviction notices from S.F. shelters

by XUEER LU : missionlocal – excerpt

Karina Ortiz, a 26-year-old living in the Salvation Army Harbor House homeless shelter with her husband and seven-year-old daughter, will be evicted in March — the same month that she is due to give birth to a baby boy.

On the morning of Jan. 21, Ortiz stood in Room 200 of City Hall, joined by a half dozen other families also facing eviction. The group handed a staffer a letter demanding a meeting to address their urgent needs and asking the mayor to rescind the evictions.

These families all received an eviction letter with the operative date of Feb. 8 or 10 — about three weeks away. Ortiz managed to get a one-month reprieve.

The eviction notices came as a result of a change in policy from the San Francisco Department of Homeless and Supportive Housing in December. Under the new policy, homeless families are now only permitted to stay in city shelters for 90 days; previously, they could stay indefinitely. For families unable to get housing subsidies, this will put them back onto the street…

San Francisco has 405 families — 1,103 people — experiencing homelessness, according to the city’s point-in-time count report in 2024. However, the count is not accurate and tends to be an undercount…

“I’m very worried because we don’t have any place to go,” said Maria Zavala, a 37-year-old mother of three children in tears. Zavala’s family is living off of her husband’s biweekly garbage collector salary of $1,300. The family of five is cramped in a room with two sets of bunk beds. She said she can’t work because she needs to take care of her disabled six-year-old daughter full-time. … (more)

If San Francisco Department of Homeless and Supportive Housing can’t take care of 405 families by resending a decision to evict them, it is hard to believe that department will do much for the thousands of homeless who are living on the street. This seems like something our new mayor could fix in a flash by resend that decision.

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Lurie Rolls Out Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance, But Supervisors’ Dissent Already Brewing

By Joe KuKura : sfist – excerpt

New SF Mayor Daniel Lurie introduced his “Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance” on Tuesday, but there’s already some pushback, as it hands out no-oversight money to department heads to create potential for Mohammed Nuru-type self-dealing.

When San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie was inaugurated last Wednesday, Heather Knight’s New York Times dispatch had a scoop. “His declaration of a fentanyl emergency,” Knight wrote, “will speed its way to the Board of Supervisors, akin to a City Council, on Tuesday for what is expected to be swift approval.”

But that’s not exactly what happened. The legislation was not ready for a Board of Supervisors vote Tuesday (there may have been pushback from the City Attorney on some if its specifics, we’ll probably never know). It was merely “introduced” on Tuesday with no vote. And the Board’s response indicates this “swift approval” may not be as swift as hoped…

But Lurie’s ordinance already has opponents on the board.

“I guess we’re doing something kind of new at Roll Call today and expressing our support for initiatives — or in my case lack of support,” Supervisor Shamann Walton said. “During COVID, we gave emergency powers to the mayor with the presence of a specific plan. Right now we have legislation that requests waiving processes and allowing for swift decision-making, but we don’t have a plan in front of us.”…

Mission Local has been stressing for a couple months that, legally speaking, this is not an actual “Fentanyl State of Emergency.” They point to the language defining SF state of emergency orders, which notes that “The situation must be something that the City could not have specifically anticipated and prevented, such as an earthquake or a terrorist attack.” We’ve known fentanyl has been here for years, which is why London Breed’s 2021 attempt to declare a fentanyl state of emergency was renamed as a “Tenderloin state of emergency.”… (more)

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Laguna Honda Call to Action Week January 8

Tuesday, January  17, 1 PM
SF gray Panther Zoom event
Here’s the next event in which we can all participate in: Save the date for this SF Gray Pather Zoom Event: Tuesday, Jan 17, 1 PM: Zoom Town Hall/Update on Laguna Honda Hospital and the intersection with treatment and shelter for San Franciscans in need….What’s happening? What promises are being kept? What promises are being broken? How can San Francisco be the best for all of us? All are welcome at this SF Gray Panthers January Meeting. Stay tuned for more. FOr more background, see bit.ly/LHH-ACTION Letters and comments are appreciated.
UPDATE:   https://westsideobserver.com/news/longTermCare.htm     
The Feds have NOT postponed the deadly discharges at Laguna Honda they are scheduled to begin again on February 2, 2023.

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City Ends Homeless Hotel Shelter Program With Controversial Legacy

by David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excerpt

The city’s “Shelter in Place” program—a Covid-era effort that transformed hotels into homeless shelters—ended in December, leaving a controversial legacy in its wake.

To many, the program was seen as a success for quickly housing thousands of people who would otherwise have slept on the streets or been at higher risk of catching Covid in crowded living conditions. But some say that a seeming lack of oversight led to poor outcomes for clients, damage inside of the hotels and turmoil in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The program temporarily housed over 3,700 people in two and a half years, according to the SF Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. The availability of the hotels increased the productivity of outreach efforts, according to Sam Dodge, the director of the Healthy Streets Operation Center. And medical outcomes among the program participants also improved, according to a study from UCSF…(more)

RELATED:

Ending Homeless in San Francisco Will Cost $1.4 Billion, City Says

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Should JFK Dr. be closed forever?

Rally on the SF City Hall steps this coming Thursday, March 10, 9 AM and then stay for public comments at the 10 AM Joint meeting where Rec and Park and SFMTA Board will consider how to handle the street closures in Golden Gate Park.

John Rothman Show on KGO 810 taped podcast:
https://www.kgoradio.com/johnrothmann/  with Megan Bourne de Young Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Trustees, and Richard Skaff, Executive Director of Designing Accessible Communities. Federal ADA issues are discussed and the public has some comments.

Supervisors are expected to have the final say.  According to and article in  SFist.com there are three Supervisors who support permanent closure. The Mayor has voiced support for permanent closure.

Thursday March 10 there is a rally to Re-open JFK Drive at 9 AM prior to a special joint meeting at 10 AM with Rec and Park and SFMTA. They are expected to vote on the closure after the public speaks on the matter. Stay tuned for more news as it developed. Please try to attend he meeitng and speak in person or call in to do so.

Remote Meeting Access: : http://www.sfgovtv.org/sfmtaLIVE or
https://www.sfmta.com/calendar/board-directors-special-meeting-march-10-2022 Please note the remote access call in numbers to join the meeting by phone: +1.415.655.0001

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Rent Payments to SF Public Housing Agency Plunged in Last Two Years, Spurring Eviction Fears

By , and : sfpublicpress – excerpt

Rent collections by San Francisco’s public housing agency fell precipitously in late 2019 and have continued to decline to less than half of what is owed, according to a San Francisco Public Press analysis — but the agency can’t explain why.

Only 47% of rent paid directly to the Housing Authority was collected this July, the latest month for which data is available. The 974 households whose units are managed by the agency — the rest pay rent to private management companies ­— pay roughly 30% of their monthly income, or $489 on average. These residents owe at least $4.5 million in back rent to the city.

Officials at the Housing Authority said they could not provide an explanation for why the shortfalls in rent collections began increasing in September 2019. Nor could they say why San Francisco’s Housing Authority has a far higher rate of delinquencies than parallel agencies in other big cities, some of which are collecting as much as 98% of the rents due.

“Prior to the onset of the pandemic, the authority robustly embraced local efforts to keep people housed and worked with households to enter them into payment programs if they were struggling to keep up with their overall expenses,” Rose Dennis, a Housing Authority spokeswoman, said in an email. “This may have impacted pre-COVID rent collection.”…(more)

 

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Facing ‘dire water shortages,’ California bans Delta pumping

By Rachel Becker, calmatters : sfexaminer – excerpt

In an aggressive move to address “immediate and dire water shortages,” California’s water board this week unanimously approved emergency regulations to temporarily stop thousands of farmers, landowners and others from diverting water from from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed…

The new regulations — the first to take such widespread action for the massive Delta watershed stretching from Fresno to the border with Oregon — could lead to formal curtailment orders for about 5,700 water rights holders as soon as Aug. 16. The decision comes on the heels of curtailment orders issued to nearly 900 water users along the drought-stricken Russian River, with 222 more expected next week.

The five water board members, who were appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom or former Gov Jerry Brown, approved the rule despite vehement opposition from representatives of Central Valley growers.

Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican from Bakersfield, said the regulation would “disrupt the critical production of essential food…Instead, the state should focus on expanding water storage and upgrading its existing water infrastructure, not punish local water managers.”

Assemblymember Adam Gray, a Democrat from Merced, called the curtailment orders for senior water rights holders “one of the most destructive measures possible.”

“The Board’s legal authority is by no means certain,” Gray wrote to the board. “Growers will have to risk significant fines and penalties just to find out whether the Board actually has the authority it claims. Either way, they lose.”…

Dwindling flows risk salty backwash from the Pacific tainting supplies for drinking, farmers and fish…

It’s just too fast, you’ve got to listen to stakeholders in this process,” said Valerie Kincaid, a water law attorney who represents the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, a coalition of irrigation districts and water agencies. “We now have a draft regulation that exceeds water board authority.”…(more)