When I recently attended a neighborhood meeting in the Mission District with Jeff Kositsky, director of the new Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, he started with the kind of generic statement we often hear from public officials.

“Let’s remember,” he said, “most criminals are not homeless, and most homeless are not criminals.”

“Disagree!” shouted a woman immediately. “Not in my neighborhood.”

Tough crowd.

But after a testy start, I found the ensuing dialogue encouraging. Kositsky didn’t pretend that violence, crime and drugs in the encampments aren’t serious neighborhood problems.

“If we don’t deal with the street crime issue,” he said, “we are never going to solve the problem.”

That’s exactly what people like Candace Combs wanted to hear. She’s been in the neighborhood since 1996, and her spa, In-Symmetry, has been in business five years.

“It’s the lawlessness,” she said. “I’m just sick of it. I’ve called the cops five and six times a day. We’re watching them stealing bikes, fighting, breaking car windows.”

Oh, well, you say, the homeless have always been with us in San Francisco. It’s been a difficult problem for years.

Not true, says Combs. Just ask her if things have gotten worse.

“Oh, God, yes,” she said. “Everyone is saying the same thing — the last year and a half has just been terrible.”

Significantly, Kositsky agrees.

“Those folks in that part of the Mission are experiencing a crisis,” he said. “Just like the homeless people are. Our department cares deeply about people who are homeless, but people in the community are our clients, too.”

He says there are two major factors in the increase in crime and violence in parts of the Mission District, which Kositsky says has more camping sites than anywhere else in the city.

First, as many have said, development in Mission Bay and South of Market has filled in much of the open land that traditionally had been used for camping. That’s pushed tent dwellers to areas where homes and businesses are located.

And second, he says the price of heroin on the street has dropped dramatically, making it a cheap alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, which are becoming harder to get.

“It is half the price it used to be,” Kositsky said. “There is a massive heroin epidemic in San Francisco.”

From there is it not hard to imagine the consequences. Heroin addicts need a daily dose, and they need cash to fuel the habit. Petty crime is a logical result.

That’s the kind of clear-eyed evaluation that we haven’t always gotten from our homeless services directors. We all loved former Supervisor Bevan Dufty, but when he headed the previous homelessness department and suggested it might be a good idea to give puppies to the homeless, it sounded like a fake news story from the Onion.

Kositsky is moving ahead with decisive steps. They begin with the tent encampments.

“There are 78 or 79 known encampments,” Kositsky said. “We mapped them based on how dangerous they are, their size and acuity.”

Directed by Jason Albertson, whom Kositsky calls “the best social worker I’ve ever worked with,” the department is breaking up the encampments. Albertson is an imposing-looking guy, but he’s got a knack for talking to the street campers. He gives them advance warning, stresses that he is there to help, and offers services.

But then they have to leave. And stay away.

“We have a plan to keep them from recurring,” Kositsky said. “We have put out the word on the street: This is not a place to camp.”

Easier said than done. The plan includes an increased police presence, barricades and, if possible, lights and video cameras. Still, it’s the right idea.

But the real issue is that there has to be a place for people in tents to go. Kositsky says his goal is a triage center that could process 100 people at a time.

“Once we have that we will be able to go at twice the pace,” he said. “But that will probably not open until February or March.”

There are also plans to open six more Navigation Centers over the next two years. The city says that more than 80 percent of those who entered the first Navigation Center at 1950 Mission St. either moved to supportive housing or “reunited with friends or family.”

Which is fine, but small consolation to those facing the daily chaos on streets near their home or office. Lucy Bartlett is a marketing manager for the online business network Townsquared in the Mission. She attended the neighborhood meeting looking for positive signs.

“I’ve been chased by crazy people,” she said. “I’ve had a skateboard thrown at me. We’ve had employees threatened.”

Kositsky listened to it all. At the end he thanked the group for their civility, but also made a point to let them know he was listening.

“I know that you’re pissed,” he told them. “And you have every right to be.”

Nice to hear someone finally say that.

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cwnevius