Mayor Breed wants to spend $1B on homelessness in San Francisco over next two yrs

[Pedestrian]

Trisha Thadani
June 1, 2021
Updated: June 1, 2021 12:57 p.m.

Mayor London Breed is proposing more than $1 billion in new funding to address homelessness over the next two years — a staggering amount that she hopes will finally make a dent in the city’s most vexing problem.

That proposal, announced Tuesday as part of her wider plan for the city’s upcoming $13.1 billion budget, is on top of the $300 million or so already spent directly on homelessness each year. The historic investment reflects the intense pressure Breed and other city leaders are under to address the thousands living on the streets, in shelters and in unstable housing.

Breed said at a Tuesday press conference that the investment includes “more housing more placements, more people living indoors” . . . .

She said the city will try to assist people struggling with addiction to get into recovery, but “for those exhibiting harmful behavior, whether to themselves or to others, or those refusing assistance, we will use every tool we have to get them into treatment and services, to get them indoors. We won’t accept people just staying on the streets, when we have a place for them to go.”

It’s unclear exactly how many homeless people are currently in San Francisco, but the number has certainly swelled over the past few years. The city’s official count in 2019 logged more than 8,000 homeless, a 30% rise from two years prior. Other counts have suggested there may be as many as 17,000 homeless in the city.

At the same time, homelessness funding has also significantly increased. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s budget has increased by 80% since it was created in 2016, to $364 million in the most recent fiscal year. Meanwhile, Prop. C., a 2018 ballot measure that taxes big businesses for homeless services, is expected to raise $250 million to $300 million per year.

Indirect spending on homelessness is likely much higher, as the crisis touches many different parts of the city — from police officers responding to reports of people sleeping on the streets to Department of Public Works cleaners who sweep away tents, human feces and trash . . . .

The majority of Breed’s proposed homelessness investment comes from $800 million collected by Prop. C, which she did not support in 2018. The rest would come from the city’s general fund, a 2020 bond measure, state funding and one-time funding from the federal American Rescue Plan, which helped erase a massive, pandemic-induced budget deficit earlier this year.

Under her proposal, the money would go toward initiatives like capping all permanent supportive housing rent at 30% of a resident’s income, funding two new RV parking sites and continuing a 40-bed emergency shelter for families. The mayor also wants to create 6,000 new housing placements by June 2022, which includes buying new hotels to convert to housing, purchasing or leasing new permanent supportive housing units, housing vouchers or buying people bus tickets back to family and friends of town . . . .

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics...n-16217231.php

Let's hope she means it when she says she won't accept people sleeping on the street if the city can offer them shelter.

Here's what it looks like now in the worst parts of town (my pictures):

[Camelback]

Where do you (an SF taxpayer) walk in these homeless zones in high density urban areas, or do you just avoid the area all together? If you avoid the area, how do businesses in the area survive?

[bnk]

That should attract some more. Homeless communicate too.

A Billion here a Billion there and pretty soon its some real money.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Camelback

Where do you (an SF taxpayer) walk in these homeless zones in high density urban areas, or do you just avoid the area all together? If you avoid the area, how do businesses in the area survive?

If you use Google Maps to navigate (on foot) around SF, they direct you away from these neighborhoods. We learned the hard way when it gave us a circuitous to some place nearby and we just went straight.

Right through the Tenderloin.

[LAsam]

Originally Posted by JManc

If you use Google Maps to navigate (on foot) around SF, they direct you away from these neighborhoods. We learned the hard way when it gave us a circuitous to some place nearby and we just went straight.

Right through the Tenderloin.

That's interesting... didn't know that Google Maps curates walking routes based on anything other than efficiency.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Camelback

Where do you (an SF taxpayer) walk in these homeless zones in high density urban areas, or do you just avoid the area all together? If you avoid the area, how do businesses in the area survive?

In the street (or a bike lane if there is one). I do it all the time and have done it many times in the areas I shot the photos above. Sometimes I've even seen the police put out cones to take a lane of traffic for pedestrians.

Originally Posted by JManc

If you use Google Maps to navigate (on foot) around SF, they direct you away from these neighborhoods. We learned the hard way when it gave us a circuitous to some place nearby and we just went straight.

Right through the Tenderloin.

"Right through the Tenderloin" is the direct route from my condo to Union Square and downtown and when I decide to walk it I don't deviate to avoid the deviates. Mostly they are harmless, at least in daylight. Many of them are nodding on opiates (used to be heroin, now fentanyl) and totally out of it. I do worry a bit about the drug dealers but again, they usually stick to business and I avoid eye contact. I'm a sizable person and wearing my usual street garb of a hoodie pulled over my head they don't know how dangerous I might be so they leave me alone.

The good news in SF lately has been the concentration of these encampments in the center of the Tenderloin. Seems like 6 months ago they were more spread out and scattered well beyond the Tenderloin but it's getting rare to see a sidewalk tent now in other neighborhoods while the 'Loin is much worse than it used to be even.

[Camelback]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

In the street (or a bike lane if there is one). I do it all the time and have done it many times in the areas I shot the photos above. Sometimes I've even seen the police put out cones to take a lane of traffic for pedestrians.

You walk in a "bike lane" to avoid the sideWALK to avoid the homeless?

In some cities, we've built:

Sidewalks for Camping.
Bike Lanes for Walking (around camp sites).
Reduced car lanes to hopefully dodge bikes, scooters, pedestrians and homeless people.
+Pay police to put out cones for pedestrians to walk in traffic in areas where "homeless" have taken over safe spaces for pedestrians (sidewalks)?

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Camelback

You walk in a "bike lane" to avoid the sideWALK to avoid the homeless?

Absolutely. Sometimes you have no choice--the sidewalk is completely blocked (which is completely illegal but we have one of those "restorative justice" DAs who won't prosecute misdemeanors or even some felonies so the cops don't even try to keep sidewalks clear).

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Camelback

In some cities, we've built:

Sidewalks for Camping.
Bike Lanes for Walking.
Car lanes for dodging bikes, scooters and homeless people.

No, no--the scooters are mostly on the sidewalks (also illegal) except when those are blocked in which case they are in the bike lanes with the pedestrians. Some of the bikes are also on the sidewalks even where there are bike lanes.

The new plan is to lower the speed limit in the Tenderloin to 20 mph because there are so many people walking in the street.

THE TENDERLOIN BECOMES A 20 MPH ZONE
BY CLAIRE AMABLE ON MARCH 22, 2021

For the first time ever, a San Francisco neighborhood has implemented a neighborhood-wide speed limit! On March 16, in an effort to advance street safety in the Tenderloin, the SF Municipal Transportation (SFMTA) Board unanimously approved a 20 mph pilot that turns the entire neighborhood into a 20 mph zone in addition to a No Turn on Red pilot that restricts vehicles from making turns at 54 intersections.

https://sfbike.org/news/tl-becomes-20-mph-zone/

I expect one day they'll ban cars there entirely. They've done that already in other streets:

Slow Streets are temporary traffic restrictions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco. These restrictions are authorized to continue 120 days beyond the lifting of the State of Emergency.

Many Slow Streets have become community gathering places and safe spaces for people to share the roadway. The SFMTA is currently evaluating all Slow Streets corridors to determine recommendations for a post-pandemic future.

https://www.sfmta.com/projects/post-...c-slow-streets

[Camelback]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Absolutely. Sometimes you have no choice--the sidewalk is completely blocked (which is completely illegal but we have one of those "restorative justice" DAs who won't prosecute misdemeanors or even some felonies so the cops don't even try to keep sidewalks clear).

I get it, in the upside down world of some Hollywood movie.

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by bnk

That should attract some more. Homeless communicate too.

A Billion here a Billion there and pretty soon its some real money.

Unfortunately there’s no choice as Martin v. Boise ties the hands of cities and counties that fall under the 9th Federal Circuits’s jurisdiction. Cities cannot evict or cite homeless from occupying public spaces unless there is an open shelter bed. Proving that there’s a shelter bed for every unsheltered person is going to be tough when there are tens of thousands of homeless in California alone.