{"id":16988,"date":"2021-06-18T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=16988"},"modified":"2022-10-09T06:19:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T10:19:04","slug":"san-francisco-chooses-handcuffs-over-housing-homeless-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/san-francisco-chooses-handcuffs-over-housing-homeless-people\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Chooses Handcuffs over Housing Homeless People"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Advocates say San Francisco has chosen to increase enforcement of ordinances punishing homelessness over providing housing for its growing homeless population.<\/p>\n

Mayor London Breed has pledged to make the city “tent-free” through a combination of services and increased shelter options. However, her administration has gone as far as to remove<\/a> the portable restrooms that people experiencing homelessness use. San Francisco Chronicle.<\/p>\n

City officials put out over three dozen restrooms for people experiencing homelessness at the beginning of the pandemic. Some officials are concerned that the services are “attracting more people experiencing homelessness” to the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

“While I do not believe that the porta-potties cause homelessness, I think that San Francisco attracts unsheltered people to our City due to a lack of real enforcement and the many amenities we provide to folks,” said Jeff Kositsky, the manager of the city’s Healthy Streets Operation Center (HSOC).<\/p>\n

At the same time, extreme poverty is becoming as prevalent as the city’s challenging hills and eclectic architecture.<\/h4>\n

According to the latest Point in Time (PIT) Count, 64 percent of the over 8,000 people experiencing homelessness in the city live unsheltered.<\/p>\n

Kelley Cutler, an organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness, a San Francisco-based outreach organization, says the tactic is part of a broader push by some city officials to get rid of “visible homelessness.”<\/p>\n

Recently revealed emails between Kositsky and Alaric Degrafinried, the Director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, show the two discussing which “encampments” would be the best to clear ahead of a February tent count by San Franciso\u2019s Heathy Streets Operation Center.<\/p>\n

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Here’s head of homelessness response in SF telling the Mayor’s office and DPW they plan to sweep 3 encampments “by 2\/16 as we do the tent count the following day.” Definitive evidence that SF conducts sweeps before tent counts to make the numbers look good. pic.twitter.com\/nEPS065m6d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 HDizz (@dizz_h) June 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n