c.1997 San Francisco Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO—Mayor Brown, concerned about frightening thehard-core homeless who are beginning to trust city outreachworkers, says it may be better to let the homeless live underfreeways than roust them as the Department of Transportation isdoing.
Brown, speaking at his biweekly press conference Tuesday, saidhe would consider leasing the land beneath the freeways—site ofat least 13 encampments—to keep the homeless in places where thecity's outreach workers could continue to help them.
``If they are no threat to public health ... maybe the citycould take over the space where they are living under freeways anddeal with the issue effectively in that locale,'' Brown said.
Later, the mayor said the city might provide portable showersand toilets—if his homeless advisors agree that the lease plan isa good idea.
Brown's comments came hours after the state Department ofTransportation began evicting the homeless who had set up camps onstate-owned land beneath the freeways. City officials estimated 500people might be living in the 13 areas targeted by the department.
Transportation officials said the sweeps were necessary becausethe homeless caused security and maintenance problems.
The department gave the squatters 15 minutes to leave the sitesand targeted another camp for a Wednesday morning cleanup. Cityoutreach workers went to the camp Tuesday afternoon to warn thepeople living there of the impending sweep.
``There's a big difference giving 24 hours' notice rather than15 minutes,'' said Andy Olshin, the mayor's homeless coordinator.
Homeless advocates said giving more notice to the homelesswouldn't solve the problem.
``The reality is that whether they get two days' (notice) or twoweeks, we still have the same situation,'' said Marian Pena,director of the Health Department's Homeless Death PreventionProject. ``Where are we going to move 600 people?''
Brown has been criticized by homeless advocates for what theycall his failure to help alleviate San Francisco's protractedhomeless problem. They say The City continues to treat the homelessas criminals by relying on police rather than social programs.
Brown last year canceled a proposed homeless summit and, at onepoint, declared that the problem ``may not be solvable.''
In the wake of Tuesday's rousting, Olshin worked with advocatesand city outreach workers to devise a priority list for thedepartment's cleanup.
Paul Boden of the Coalition on Homelessness said Olshin and theadministration were moving too slowly. He said Department ofTransportation officials had told Olshin two months ago that theyintended to clean up the sites, but that the homeless coordinatorfailed to act on the information.
Olshin said it hadn't been clear that that's what the departmentintended to do.
Boden also said the department had misled city officials andadvocates at a meeting Monday to discuss alternatives to thesweeps.
``They had no intention of changing their plans,'' Boden said.``Caltrans (the Department of Transportation) met for no otherreason than to be able to say we had a meeting. You'd have to beblind, deaf and dumb not to get that.''
Jim Newman of the department said his agency would considerrevising its schedule.
``We'd have to have a mutual agreement on how it would occur,''he said. ``We certainly are caring. A lot of (homeless) issues needto be dealt with here, but I think we also can't ignore ourresponsibilities. But we're willing to work with the city to theutmost.''
Brown said he believed the city's outreach workers werebeginning to make progress with some of the toughest cases—thehard-core homeless ``who have not worked in years and years, havemultiple problems of substances abuse and are people who are at theend of the rainbow.''
Brown said the the Department of Transportation's plan wouldscatter those people and tear apart the rapport with city outreachworkers.
``We'll have to start the process all over again,'' Brown said.``They (the homeless) don't distinguish one city jurisdiction fromanother. With substance abusers you have to establish somecredibility before you can treat them. Our city agencies have madecontact, and some are relating.''
But Newman said the homeless in San Francisco's freewayencampments had caused numerous problems, including plugging drainswith debris, removing signs, destroying landscaping and committing``indecent exposure, harassment and assault.''
Newman added that the department had already delayed maintenanceat the 13 sites ``to avoid conflict.''
Homeless advocates, such as Boden, are pushing Brown to halt thedepartment's sweeps by using a bill he drafted in the Assemblyseveral years ago.
That bill, passed after the department removed 400 homeless fromthe Transbay Terminal, allows the city to lease land from thedepartment in order to house the displaced population.
Brown said The City was considering doing just that.
^Zachary Coile of The Examiner staff contributed to this report.
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