To answer homeless 311 complaints, officials wield a new tool: a 4-foot measuring stick

San Francisco’s latest tool for responding to the growing homelessness crisis? A literal measuring stick.

Outreach workers responded to at least a dozen encampment-related service requests to the city’s 311 complaint hotline last week by taking pictures of tents, or people lying on sidewalks, next to a heavy-duty 4-foot contractor’s level.

In some cases, the city-hired nonprofit outreach workers used the stick to resolve 311 complaints about sidewalk access, presenting the photos as evidence that pedestrians were able to pass.

In response to other complaints, the city-dispatched crews moved tents before placing the stick on adjacent sidewalks, photographing it for evidence and closing the 311 cases.

It seems like outreach workers found a relatively effortless way to ensure right-of-way access in response to citizen concerns. But almost as soon as The Standard reached out to learn more, the city stopped using the sticks — and offered only vague reasons why.

According to the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, the measuring stick was used in “good faith efforts to address complaints of blocked sidewalks” by the nonprofit Urban Alchemy’s Homeless Engagement Assistance Response Team, or HEART.

Kirkpatrick Tyler, Urban Alchemy’s chief of government and community affairs, affirmed that outreach workers were testing the sticks to ensure Americans with Disabilities Act-required clearance, but have since stopped the practice.

“HEART teams tested the use of meter sticks in an effort to address complaints of blocked sidewalks,” Tyler said. “However, we have found more effective ways to maintain ADA compliance for neighbors in need and continue to maintain strong relationships with unhoused neighbors and discontinued the practice.”

Tyler didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the more effective approach.

Based on feedback The Standard elicited from the neighborhood, some felt the measuring sticks reduced people to obstructions and treated a humanitarian issue as a technicality.

Chip, a 51-year-old homeless man smoking on a recent afternoon on Willow Street, said he thinks the practice is dehumanizing.

“That’s not cool,” said Chip, who refused to provide his full name. “I’d be pretty upset if I woke up to that. It’d make me feel like a pawn in the game.”

The timing is sensitive, too.

Mayor London Breed’s recent promise to ramp up encampment sweeps has only heightened concerns by advocates for the homeless about the city deputizing outreach teams for code enforcement.

The city didn’t say when HEART started using the measuring sticks.

But on Friday morning, after The Standard quizzed San Francisco’s emergency management division about the practice, a spokesperson said the department had stopped using the stick.

Just two hours earlier, a case was closed with the help of a measuring stick. There were no further examples of the tool’s use by publication time.

Advocates for homeless people have alleged that HEART is more focused on clearing sidewalks than on connecting people to services.

In March, the most recent data immediately available, HEART responded to 1,303 incidents and placed one person in a shelter, referred four to an emergency shelter and placed two in a triage center.

The city defended the outreach teams as well-intentioned, explaining that they have to balance multiple pressing issues at once.

“[HEART] goes above and beyond the engagement to demonstrate they also did an assessment of American Disability Access,” the city’s emergency department spokesperson told The Standard in an email. “HEART takes a compassionate and informed approach to understanding needs and quickly triaging them, whether or not a call is specifically about ADA sidewalk access.” 

During a debate earlier this month, the mayor said the city plans “very aggressive” homeless sweeps — capitalizing on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows states and local governments to enforce anti-camping laws without offering shelter.

As of Monday, the city’s waitlist for dormitory shelters was 147 people long. The city contends many of the people on the list have been offered beds, but did not respond or refused a bed.

Meanwhile, all of the city’s shelters were at 93% occupancy, as some beds are intentionally left open in case of emergency admissions from hospitals and jails. 

Ali Abdu — a manager at the Tenderloin’s New York Tobacco smoke shop, which lies near some of the places the outreach teams deployed the measuring stick — said the city should focus on getting people housed instead of circumscribing them to the perimeter of public walkways.

“This is not enough,” he said, pointing to a picture of the stick shown to him by The Standard. “They need to get them housed.”