SF residents buy boulders, place them on sidewalk to thwart homeless tents

Residents of a San Francisco side street are so fed up with tents pitched on the sidewalk by homeless people that they have trucked in boulders to discourage camping.

About two dozen of the massive rocks, each weighing hundreds of pounds, create barriers on a half-block stretch of Clinton Park, a side street off Market and Dolores streets. The boulders don't block the sidewalk, but do limit the space available for tents.

Neighbor David Smith-Tan told KTVU that his family received a letter from the neighborhood about a month ago addressing the sidewalk problem.

"A bunch of my neighbors, we all chipped in a few hundred dollars and I guess this is what they came up with," he said.

Smith-Tan said the area is frequented by drug users who will "shoot up and stay overnight."

Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition On Homelessness, told KTVU the border installation is an example of "anti-homeless architecture."

"We have 1,200 people on the wait list for shelter. That's for tonight. People have nowhere to go," she said.

The city does not plan to remove the boulders because they don't block the sidewalk, San Francisco Public Works Department spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said Tuesday. She added that the department is looking into sanctioning the installation.

Gordon said she is not aware of any other grassroots efforts in San Francisco in which neighbors have pooled resources in order to pay for anti-tent barriers.

Tactics aimed at keeping homeless individuals off the street are nothing new in San Francisco.

A tent used by a homeless person blocks a San Francisco sidewalk in this 2010 file photo. A tent used by a homeless person blocks a San Francisco sidewalk in this 2010 file photo. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close SF residents buy boulders, place them on sidewalk to thwart homeless tents 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

In December 2017, the city positioned boulders under Highway 101 near Cesar Chavez Street in an encampment area called "the Hairball." The idea was to try to prevent the camp from being re-established after it was cleared out.

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"Not sure why they thought this would stop us, but it didn't," one of the campers, James Ayres, 36, told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. "Maybe they'll put more out here. I don't know. They've got lots of money to do it."

In the 1990s benches at Civic Center Plaza were removed to keep people from sleeping on them.

Sprinklers installed at the doorways of St. Mary's Cathedral in 2015 allegedly doused the homeless sleeping there. The sprinklers were removed after a public furor.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate.