The first time Drew Dirschell visited the place in West Oakland that would eventually become his home, the Realtor unlocked the padlock and chain on the fence securing the property — and left it there — as they took a 20-minute look inside.

When they came out, the padlock and chain were gone.

“At the time, I had no idea why anyone would want to steal a small segment of chain,” said Dirschell, a 43-year-old computer technician, thinking back.

It didn’t take long for him to figure it out.

As soon as he moved into his Union Street home in December 2011, metal things began disappearing from the yard — a shovel, garden pruner, part of a shoring post and any number of other metal objects left unattended. It was as if a powerful magnet was pulling them away.

It’s no coincidence that a metal recycling center — Alliance Metals — stands nearby at 34th and Peralta streets.

For years, the city considered Alliance a public nuisance — a place that paid thieves for stolen metals, often from the surrounding neighborhoods. The money earned would go toward the purchase of drugs at a park across the street, according to the city, which piled on warnings and fines. Just recently, the city reached an agreement with Alliance in which the metal recycler will close its doors in August 2016 — or face daily $1,000 fines.

I can’t condone the stealing — nobody can. But the center also serves a purpose: It has been a source of income for a legion of homeless recyclers, not all of whom are drug users. Some of them are just mentally ill or down and out.

Rena Rickles, an attorney representing Alliance owners Joe Zidac and Lance Frankel, said a new location has not been identified, but should be — and I completely agree.

This is Oakland, not Oklahoma, and in city neighborhoods it’s considered insensitive to the point of inhumane to penalize society’s most vulnerable citizens for gathering scraps of metal and plastic to try and survive — even if sometimes the scrap is a shovel in someone’s yard. The irony of what’s happening isn’t lost on longtime residents or newcomers like Dirschell, who has seen his investment quadruple in four years.

Alex Miller-Cole, a longtime resident, community activist and a former City Council candidate, said the recycling center is the economic generator at the center of a vicious cycle that has gripped the neighborhood for more than a decade.

As head of a neighborhood garden project a few years ago, Miller-Cole hired local denizens as day workers. One of his employees described a typical day in the life: Collect and sell metal, purchase heroin from a nearby drug den, then head to St. Andrews Park to get high for the rest of the day — and repeat.

“I took him to the (drug) house,” Miller-Cole said. “I’ve seen this for 15 years, and it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.”

Still, some neighbors credit homeless recyclers with helping clean up a community on the short end of city services. Others say the recyclers bring in as much trash as they do recyclable materials; piles of sorted-through trash sometimes pile up in Franklin Park, across the street from the company.

It’s clear as a ringing bell that Alliance cannot remain where it’s located. New development is encroaching on the single-story brick building from all sides. In a neighborhood where homes are being purchased and rehabilitated, Alliance no longer fits. The only parts of the neighborhood left untouched are the homes adjacent to Alliance. It’s like a contaminated blast radius from a bomb.

Gibson, a landlord who owns a property near Alliance and would identify himself only by his last name, said the displacement in the community is deja vu all over again.

“I was born in San Francisco, in the Fillmore, so I’ve seen this before, back in the ’70s,” said Gibson, 52, as he worked on his rental property on Haven Street. “These (homeless) people aren’t doing nothing wrong, and it ain’t their fault.

“We are caught up in the system. What’s a black man supposed to do?”

I urge city officials to find an adequate, accessible industrial spot where homeless recyclers can continue to ply their trade legally — with little impact to the surrounding community — because it’s unfair to deny anyone willing to work for his keep the opportunity to do so.

Chip Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His column runs on Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: chjohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @chjohnson