1997-11-07 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Franciscans have grown used to seeing Mayor Willie Brown look confident, in charge, pleased with himself. This week, in an unusual turn of events, they've seen the mayor strike a whole new pose -- confused, angry and even apologetic.

The subject that has Brown off his game is homelessness and how the city should deal with it. The mayor has joined his two most recent predecessors in being stymied by the issue, and now it has put him on the spot.

Brown yesterday announced a new show of force against homeless campers in Golden Gate Park, promising helicopter flyovers to find campsites and more ground sweeps. The plan caps a week where the mayor has gone back and forth on the issue, alternately calling the problem an exaggeration or a crisis.

The confusion is nothing if not endemic to the homeless policies the city has adopted over the years. "Policy" is a rather organized-sounding term to use for the convoluted web of services and law enforcement that the city uses to deal with its homeless people.

"Policy? Ha!" said Paul Boden, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and a vocal critic of many city initiatives on the issue. "They don't have one."

Instead of a well-orchestrated symphony, San Francisco's homeless plan is more like chaos theory in action. What actually happens, at the street level, is mostly emergency triage carried out by several city agencies, which use programs and ideas created by mayors long gone from City Hall.

The Department of Human Services oversees more than 20 social service programs that provide everything from shelter to counseling for the homeless. The police keep street people from sleeping in homeowners' doorways or being too aggressive in seeking spare change.

Fire Department paramedics pick up homeless people who may have passed out on the sidewalk. The Department of Public Health tries to help overcome the addictions to drugs or alcohol that keep many homeless people on the street. City gardeners, hired to trim hedges and nurture flowers, have had to deal with homeless camps in parks. The Housing Authority would like to help more homeless people, but it has little housing to spare -- its occupancy rate is about 98 percent.

The scattered approach is, in some part, due to necessity. Regardless of where they live or how often they move around, many homeless people require the same range of city services as anyone else.

But there are also three mayoral administrations at work in the city's approach to homelessness, each leaving behind programs with lives of their own.

Former Mayor Art Agnos was publicly embarrassed by "Camp Agnos," the tent city that hundreds of homeless people built just outside the door to City Hall. He broke up the camp in 1990 and created two large homeless shelters and service centers to try to appease critics.

"Camp Agnos" disappeared, but the man it was named for could not shake the image that he was too soft on street people. In the end, it helped cost him re-election. The homeless service centers, however, lived on.

Next came former Mayor Frank Jordan, whose promises to get tough on homelessness propelled him toward City Hall. He was good to his word, creating the Matrix program. Matrix sent teams of police and social workers to get homeless people off city streets and out of parks, either by persuasion, citations or a strong dose of "Move it along!"

Police wrote thousands of citations for low-level crimes such as camping and blocking sidewalks. Opponents tried to kill the program in court and failed.

But Jordan's approach also had a softer side. Under his watch, a team of planners drafted the "Continuum of Care," a long-term approach to the issue that was long on good solutions but short on money. He also created a program to find low-rent hotel rooms for people on welfare with no place to live.

Still, Jordan was labeled too harsh. He lost his office to Brown.

Now, Agnos' service centers are still running -- and are in such demand that one turns away about 40 shelter-seekers a night. Jordan's hotel program is also still going and is equally strapped.

"There is no room anywhere," said Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which manages the program. "We used to find rooms for about 150 people a month, and now it's more like 35 or 40. There are no vacancies."

Matrix also lives on under Brown, who dropped the name but has had police keep on writing citations. The "Continuum of Care" plan, the closest thing to an overall policy, still looks great on paper, and Brown recently described it as a model for other cities. The only thing lacking is money.

Brown also has added a few contributions to the mix, including his latest plans to clear homeless camps from Golden Gate Park, a new 50-bed shelter and a $100 million affordable housing bond. But, observers say, the city's approach remains hodgepodge and doesn't seem likely to end confusion over the issue -- even the mayor's -- any time soon.

"What's going on with homeless programs? Who knows?" said Royce Wilson, who waited outside a South of Market shelter yesterday to see if he had won a space in the nightly bed lottery. "Nobody knows the answer to that one."

WHO'S DONE WHAT

San Francisco's homeless policy is actually the

result of three different mayors of the '90s at work. They've

all sparred publicly over how the others handled the homeless

problem, but they've also been happy to make use of what programs

their rivals came up with.

ART AGNOS

Cleared "Camp Agnos," a tent city built by

several hundred homeless campers, from the plaza in front of

City Hall in 1990. Homeless people dispersed through the downtown

and South of Market areas.

-- Opened two big "multiservice

centers," where homeless people could find shelter, counseling

and other aid.

-- Was beaten up by election rival Frank

Jordan and other critics for his homeless policy, which was

labeled too soft. Lost a bid for re-election in 1992.

FRANK JORDAN

Kept Agnos' multiservice centers.

-- Created the Matrix program to make San Francisco's streets

and parks less hospitable to the homeless and loiterers. Under

Matrix, police officers issued thousands of citations for low-level

crimes such as sleeping outside or blocking sidewalks, and routinely

moved people along. Social service workers also did street-level

outreach with the homeless.

-- Drafted the "Continuum

of Care" plan to provide long-term solutions to homelessness,

such as substance abuse treatment and permanent housing.

-- Created a program to help people on welfare find rooms

in low-rent hotels.

-- Matrix pushed homeless people from

downtown areas toward Golden Gate Park. Matrix followed, busting

up camps in the park.

-- Was beaten up by election rival

Willie Brown for his homeless policy, which was labeled too

harsh. Lost a bid for re-election in 1996.

WILLIE BROWN

Kept Agnos' multiservice centers.

-- Dropped the "Matrix" label but otherwise kept Jordan's

law enforcement efforts against vagrancy.

-- Kept Jordan's

"Continuum of Care." Program still needs money. Kept Jordan's

welfare hotel program, which is running out of rooms for homeless.

-- Created a new program to close down camps in Golden Gate

Park. This week, vowed a bigger crackdown on living in the park.

-- Got an affordable housing bond measure passed.

--

Scheduled a summit on homelessness, then canceled it.

FICTION ... AND FACTS

San Francisco's tangled web of homeless

services is stretched thin, with some pretty big holes. That

can make big-picture summaries of the homeless problem tough,

even when you're the mayor. Here are some statements by Mayor

Willie Brown -- and how they match up to reality.

-- "There are never more than 20 or 30 people

on any given night who will tell you they can't find a place"

to sleep.

San Francisco has about 1,400 shelter beds, and

between 5,000 to 8,000 homeless people. An informal Chronicle

survey of shelters found that at least 250 people are turned

away from shelters on an average night because of lack of space.

One large Tenderloin shelter averages about 1,200 turn-aways

each month.

-- "You're not supposed to be in (Golden

Gate) Park after 10 o'clock. You are, in fact, violating the

law."

When it comes to sleeping in the park, the city

has laws in conflict with each other. On one side is the long-established

rule that prohibits sleeping in parks or loitering after 10:00

p.m. On the other is a newer policy that allows park campers

to get 72 hours' notice before they are moved. That guideline

was created by politicos trying to thwart former Mayor Frank

Jordan's crackdown on park camping -- only now it's their friend

Brown that they've tripped up.

-- San Francisco's homeless

program "is the model for the nation."

The city's official

homeless program, Continuum of Care, was created under Brown's

predecessor, Jordan. The program, created in 1994 as part of

a pitch for federal funding, looks great on paper, offering

long-term solutions such as substance abuse treatment and permanent

housing. But there hasn't been money to implement much of it.

In reality, the city's homeless program is a mix of different

departments, each tackling a piece of the problem, usually on

an emergency basis. That's a situation many other cities share

but don't exactly try to emulate.