In the wake of Mayor London Breed’s push for “very aggressive” homeless sweeps, complaints about encampments have spiked in several neighborhoods across the city, 311 data show.
Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 17, the city received 24 complaints about encampments in the Apparel City neighborhood next to the Bayview — a jump of 300% from the first half of July, according to The Standard’s analysis of the data. Bernal Heights also saw an increase of 300%, registering 28 complaints in the first two weeks of August after seeing just seven in the first half of July. The number of complaints more than doubled in the Bayview, Cathedral Hill, and Corona Heights. Meanwhile, complaints rose by 75% in the Mission and 49% in SoMa. The city as a whole saw a more modest increase of about 20%.
In Lower Nob Hill, the Mission, the Bayview, and Apparel City, more complaints were made in the first half of August than in the first two weeks of July and August last year.
The increases came after Breed announced late last month that encampment sweeps would be conducted without the warnings that were previously the norm, and the city would offer bus tickets out of town before providing any other services.
The Standard spoke Tuesday to nine homeless people in the Mission and Apparel City; two had recently arrived, suggesting complaints aren’t increasing because of more encampments popping up. Others interviewed by The Standard said they had been camped on the same street for anywhere from three months to four years.
‘Hey, don’t camp here’
Liz Norse and her partner were camped on 15th Street near Shotwell Street. The couple said they moved to the Mission from an Ellis Street encampment in the Tenderloin roughly three weeks ago.
Norse believes the rise in complaints is because people feel emboldened to report camps in the wake of the Grants Pass U.S. Supreme Court decision, which the mayor says enabled the city to aggressively clear encampments.
“I think since they’re like, ‘Oh, this is illegal now,’ complaints have gone up,” Norse said. “People have said as they walked past us, ‘Oh, I thought this was illegal now.’ That’s happened twice since we moved here. I think they were trying to say, ‘Hey, don’t camp here.’”
After four months of living on Ellis Street, Norse and Cali grew tired of city workers telling them to move their belongings for sidewalk cleanings — sometimes twice a day — and decided to move to the Mission.
“It was the harassment that made us move,” Norse said. “We wanted a quiet place without tents. We just kinda drifted over here.”
Ayman Farahat, who lives on Showell and 21st streets, said he has been reporting encampments to the city more in the past two weeks because he’s seen more pop up in his neighborhood after returning Aug. 6 from a trip abroad.
Farahat said he’s seen new encampments on Folsom between 16th and 20th streets, on 19th Street between Folsom and Harrison streets, and on 16th Street between Bryant and Folsom streets. He said he’s been reporting encampments to 311 since before the SCOTUS decision.
“It’s been the same reason as before: I document encampments and I happen to see more of them,” Farahat said. “I saw the surge of encampments around Aug. 7 or 8.”
Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association president Diana Taylor said she has heard more complaints about homeless people from businesses in the Financial District within the past two weeks, including from the Safeway and Starbucks on Jackson Street, and on Monday saw a new row of eight tents pitched near Sue Bierman Park, across from the Ferry Building.
“That’s our bellwether,” Taylor said. “When we see people cropping up there, we know they’ve been moved from elsewhere.”
Cristin Evans, who sits on the city’s Homeless Oversight Commission, believes people are complaining about encampments in the wake of the court ruling, pointing to the new public stance on conducting aggressive sweeps.
“It’s in the media that the mayor is out there actively promoting her policies of ‘We’re gonna make them uncomfortable.’ It’s no surprise that more people are making complaints to 311,” she said.
The mayor’s office, asked for comment on the rise in complaints, said it is proud of its robust network of outreach workers who respond to 311 calls.
Meanwhile, in Apparel City, 43-year-old Ronny Haggard was forced by city workers to move his makeshift home three blocks away just two weeks ago. He has lived on the streets in the industrial neighborhood for four years.
“They move us here and there,” Haggard said.