San Francisco is shunning its homeless community amid the pandemic
The city’s unhoused residents don’t have access to protective measures against the coronavirus. But the mayor doesn’t seem to care.
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors approved an emergency ordinance to provide 8,250 hotel rooms for the city’s most vulnerable populations on April 14. This extended to the homeless community, those living in densely populated apartment buildings and frontline emergency responders.
Shortly after the resolution was voted on by the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Mayor London Breed claimed the figure was too ambitious, stating “it’s not going to happen,” citing staffing concerns.
The deadline to fill the leasing for these rooms passed on April 26. Only 2,741 leases were filled. Just over 1,600 of those rooms are occupied.
There are over 8,000 homeless individuals in San Francisco.
“As I have said time, and time, and time and time again, there is a difference between a goal and what we all desire to do and what reality is,” Breed said on April 27.
But the Board insisted that despite all the barriers raised, Breed still has the ability to comply with their legislation.
“No matter how you slice it or dice it, the city has been halting in this effort,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin.In response to the lacking effort to fill rooms, the Board provided a memo detailing mechanisms by which the hotels could be properly leased and staffed, including employing the support staff in shelters into hotels, echoed by local organizations like the Coalition on Homelessness.
Coronavirus’ impact on the unhoused community
There are an estimated 567,715 homeless individuals in the United States; San Francisco has the sixth highest population in the country.
The first unhoused COVID-19 patient was reported on April 2: He was staying — and was tested — at the Division Circle Navigation shelter in San Francisco.
“And the response from the city is, ‘well we don’t have enough support services inside the hotels so we are not going to move people into those empty hotel rooms.’ Well people aren’t getting services on the streets now, so what exactly is the difference here? Why would you leave hotels empty? Why would you allow thousands of San Franciscans to sleep on top of each other?” said Jennifer Friendenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness.
In a joint statement, the Board of Supervisors agreed that the individual who tested positive as well as hundreds of others should have been moved into hotels weeks before.
And the city was initially planning on converting the Moscone Center, San Francisco’s largest convention hall, into a homeless shelter. But on April 6, the conversion plans were dashed after they drew criticism from the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Matt Haney likened the environment to a “World War I Flu Hospital.”
Shortly after, on April 10, San Francisco’s largest homeless shelter, Multi-Service Center South, reported an outbreak. 70 residents and staffers tested positive for the virus. The shelter was promptly cleared out, forcing residents to shelter in tents on sidewalks. Upon reintegration into the shelter two weeks later, there were reportedly over 100 positive COVID-19 test results.
Otherwise, the city’s COVID-19 response has been rather good
Breed has been praised for her office’s early action in the fight against the virus. She declared a state of emergency on February 25, followed by a shelter in place order on March 17. She banned gatherings of 1,000 people or more, ultimately preventing the Golden State Warriors from hosting home games in the newly built Chase Center before the N.B.A. suspended their season.
San Francisco has seen 1,498 positive cases and 23 deaths so far, according to city records — every life lost is tragic, but those figures are remarkably low considering that San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the nation. It maintains regular testing centers throughout its neighborhoods for essential workers and residents with barriers to health care. The city has also preemptively taken steps to extend their shelter in place order through the end of May.
But inadequate accommodations of unhoused communities will continue to negatively affect the city’s rates.
“Ultimately, it comes down to whether we view every single person’s life as having value … for this population, the city is willfully putting them in grave danger and, as a result, putting everybody else in grave danger,” Haney said earlier this month.
Questions? Ask us at contact@govsight.co.
Like what you read but prefer to learn with your ears? Listen to The Insight Podcast by GovSight on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean every Monday.
Follow GovSight on Twitter @GovSight1, Instagram @govsight and Facebook @GovSight. Go to govsight.com to see how GovSight is making “Citizenship. Simplified.”
