City’s struggle with homelessness continues with city officials clearing away a homeless camp on Tuesday, while residents say they have nowhere else to go

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

They began arriving at 4.30am Tuesday at the homeless camp under the Central Freeway – broom-wielding sanitation workers, police officers, outreach workers – all aimed at dismantling a collection of tents and belongings.

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City officials called it a health hazard, a nasty stew of human excrement, rotting food, used needles, rats. Dozens of men and women with nowhere else to go called it home.

On Tuesday, it was eliminated in San Francisco’s latest official homeless sweep.

On 23 February, the city declared the sprawling encampment a “public health nuisance” and gave its residents 72 hours to depart. Many of those living in upwards of 200 tents gathered their belongings and left under their own steam. On Tuesday, what tents remained were cleared away.

For the last week and a half, the city’s Department of Public Works has been clearing debris along Division Street, and the health department has done “intensive outreach” with the 200 to 300 residents of this urban shanty town, said Rachel Gordon, San Francisco public works spokeswoman.

“We haven’t had rain for four years, but with the recent rains, people come under the freeway” for shelter, Gordon said, as the last holdouts folded tarps and packed up. “We have about 50 crew members to clean the streets and make them sanitary.

“Workers have cleaned up lots of urine, feces, discarded used needles, vermin. One of our crew members opened a tent about a week ago and about half a dozen rats ran out.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest City officials clear out the encampment in San Francisco Tuesday morning.

San Francisco has struggled with homelessness for decades; at the last biennial count in 2015, the homeless population was estimated at about 7,000, and mayor Edwin M Lee has pledged to continue spending $250m annually on “homeless prevention and solutions.”

The issue has gained increased attention lately, as Super Bowl events displaced many homeless people from Market Street, and a wealthy tech entrepreneur wrote an open letter to the city bemoaning the fact that he had worked hard and shouldn’t have to witness poverty on a daily basis.

“I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted,” Justin Keller, founder of a startup web business called Commando.io, wrote to Lee and police Chief Greg Suhr. “I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day.”

On Tuesday, 39-year-old Ashante Jones helped his wife and friends as they broke camp across from a Best Buy, as traffic whizzed along and police officers stood watch. He said he had been living on the sidewalk there for the past 70 days, as preparations for Super Bowl moved homeless people away from downtown.

As the cleanup bustled around her, a defeated-looking Jodie Coombes, 39, sat in front of a blue tent that had been pitched on a wooden platform and filled with belongings. She has been homeless since 2007, when her family moved out of state.

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“I stayed behind,” she said. “I was on parole and not able to leave the state. I’ve been here a year or so in this general location. It sucks. It really does. Where do they expect us to go? You know what I mean? It’s hard out here.

“They want us to move,” she continued. “The resources are there, but they don’t give them to everybody.”

When asked where she would go now that the latest city cleanup was rousting her encampment, she paused.

“Honestly?” she asked. “I don’t know.”