https://www.stolenbelonging.org

With encampment sweeps in San Francisco becoming as common a sight as street dwellings themselves, some things are easily observed: large Public Works trucks pulling up, police officers enforcing the operations and unhoused residents scrambling to hold onto what’s left of their possessions that isn’t already thrown in the trucks. 

Video still of Diana Valentine by Jin Zhu

What’s less visible are the traumatic effects unsheltered San Franciscans suffer long after the streets are cleared of sidewalk habitation.

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In June, Teresa Sandoval woke up in her spot underneath the highway near 13th and Mission streets to the sounds of a San Francisco Public Works crew conducting another encampment sweep.

Sandoval had already gone through this drill: Public Works, often accompanied by San Francisco Police Department officers, arrived unannounced and ordered her to pack up her belongings and leave. As she moved in her wheelchair gathering her stuff, Public Works staff removed her tent,

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Unhoused San Franciscans in the Tenderloin will now have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, thanks to a successful pilot program at Glide, the neighborhood nonprofit announced.

Glide’s website said that the March 25 pilot will lead to a weekly clinic on Thursdays as part of the Tenderloin Community Resource Hub.

“It will be a pop-up, but the hope is [it will] be a recurring one — like the COVID testing site at Glide now,” Glide communications director Robert Avila said in response to a query from Street Sheet.

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In all senses of the word, there has been a lot of movement from homeless people on the West Coast.

There have been move-along orders issued by cities to unsheltered people, as well as unhoused people moving to advocate for themselves. 

But they have a long, tough road ahead. San Francisco police and other city workers continue to seize the property of unhoused and unsheltered residents, as we’ve documented in the Stolen Belonging project.

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The group of San Francisco city departments tasked with tackling street homelessness has been blasted by two city panels in the last month.

The Healthy Streets Operation Center (HSOC) gave progress reports at the request of the Police Commission and the Local Homeless Coordinating Board at the bodies’ meetings on August 7 and August 20, respectively.

After HSOC representatives gave presentations to both boards, the lead agencies of HSOC — the Police Department and Department of Public Works — were scrupulously questioned on just how successful they’ve been on their mission. 

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By TJ Johnston

Judging by the raucous community meeting about the proposed navigation center by The Embarcadero, it’s safe to assume nobody was satisfied.

The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing hosted the meeting on April 3 at the Delancey Street Foundation, less than a four-minute walk from the potential site on Port of San Francisco-owned property at Seawall Lot 330.

And the audience was divided into two camps as distinct as the separate GoFundMe campaigns related to the would-be shelter.

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By TJ Johnston

Who would have thought talking about the weather could be so intense?

San Francisco officials and community members weren’t just interested in small talk, though. The Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee held a three hour-plus hearing on March 7 about the cold and wet weather policy for homeless people.

But while the hearing was about the bad weather protocols, it didn’t take long for it to become a forum on the City’s heavy-handed practice of sweeping homeless encampments — especially during the recent heavy rainstorms.

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