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"content": "\u003cp>The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is scheduled to consider pausing the collection of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11930303/should-sf-and-berkeley-tax-empty-homes-following-oaklands-lead\">a tax on vacant homes\u003c/a> amidst ongoing litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://thefrisc.com/its-high-time-to-slay-the-myth-of-all-those-vacant-san-francisco-homes-2efd50728d8/\">Supporters\u003c/a> of the tax \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/skw0ub/more_than_40000_vacant_homes_in_san_francisco_20/\">often\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DDkWzxxv1qQ/\">point\u003c/a> to vacancy rates as a contributing factor to the city’s high home prices. And in 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11931327/heres-every-bay-area-housing-measure-on-the-ballot-tomorrow\">voters approved\u003c/a> the \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/empty-homes-tax-eht\">Empty Homes Tax\u003c/a> to open vacant units for new renters and owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would have \u003ca href=\"https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A218071?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=baca753a092dbebb3e9b&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0\">levied stiff penalties \u003c/a>for owners holding units vacant, ranging between $2,500 to $5,000 per unit, depending on its size. If the apartment was kept vacant for three or more consecutive years, an owner could pay up to the maximum penalty of $20,000 per unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first filings were slated to be due at the end of April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a few months after voters approved the tax, \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/small-realty-vs-san-francisco-complaint-.pdf\">groups representing property owners sued the city\u003c/a>, claiming it violated their constitutional rights. And, in November, a superior court judge agreed, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/jnswire/jns-media/2e/60/19799276/NORCAL_PropM_unconstitutional_ruling_11-26-24.pdf\">ruling the Empty Homes Tax is unconstitutional\u003c/a> and violates \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&division=7.&title=1.&part=&chapter=12.75.&article=\">California’s Ellis Act\u003c/a>, which bars any public entity, including a city, from forcing a property owner to offer accommodations for rent or lease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The right to exclude people from your property has long been considered one of the most fundamental aspects of property ownership,” said Jeremy Talcott, a property rights attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation. “In essence, this forces people to open up their private property to a third party.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031680\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031680\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view looking west from the 100 Van Ness building rooftop in San Francisco on June 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The court ordered the city to stop enforcing or administering the tax. In a statement, Alex Barrett-Shorter, a spokesperson for City Attorney David Chiu, said the city was “disappointed by the trial court’s decision.” Last year, the city \u003ca href=\"https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/dockets.cfm?dist=1&doc_id=3119880&doc_no=A172067&request_token=NiIwLSEnTkw%2BWzBFSCFNWE5IIEw6UVxfJCI%2BRzxSQCAgCg%3D%3D\">appealed\u003c/a> and is scheduled to \u003ca href=\"https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/scheduledActions.cfm?dist=1&doc_id=3119880&doc_no=A172067&request_token=NiIwLSEnTkw%2BWzBFSCFNWE5IIEw6UVxfJCI%2BRzxSQCAgCg%3D%3D\">present opening arguments\u003c/a> in April, even as opponents have vowed to keep fighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors was scheduled to consider pausing the tax until a year after a final decision is made on the tax’s legality, but Supervisor Jackie Fielder asked to continue the item until this week’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her staff told KQED she wanted to understand whether the city could start collecting the tax if a lower court ruled in the city’s favor but ultimately decided against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11930303 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59672_017_KQED_BerkeleyMeasureM_10262022-qut-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, a vocal proponent of the tax, said it was meant to target large corporate landlords and real estate spectators who might purchase homes but hold them off the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concern of all the advocates behind [the tax] was these properties where the homes just aren’t being used as homes for people,” he said. “They’re being used like shares of stock in the stock market for real estate investors to buy them and hold them for years and then resell them at higher values for profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to an October 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://56a418ca-94d2-476c-9a45-f491ca4a0387.usrfiles.com/ugd/56a418_8ba58b3bef6543b0ad09ce81a0ef037c.pdf\">city report\u003c/a>, which used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there were more than 60,000 San Francisco housing units considered vacant in 2021, though that statistic includes homes that are temporarily vacant because a tenant hasn’t moved in yet, the home is undergoing repairs or the property is caught in legal proceedings, among other reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tax \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasurer.org/file/empty-homes-tax-presentation/download?inline\">would have applied to\u003c/a> buildings with three or more units if the unit was kept vacant for more than 182 days in a calendar year. Single-family homes, duplexes and units occupied by travelers or vacationers would be exempt. And it allowed for vacancies during periods of construction, repairs, disasters or if the owner died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031683\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031683\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"857\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-800x343.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-1020x437.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-160x69.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-1536x658.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-1920x823.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A row of homes on Capp Street, between 22nd and 23rd streets, in San Francisco’s Mission District. \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/BLA.Residential%20Vacancies.013122_final.pdf\">In an earlier report from January 2022 (PDF)\u003c/a>, the city assumed fewer than a fifth of San Francisco’s vacant homes would be subject to the tax, and it could collect a little more than $61 million per year in net revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents argued the tax would ultimately \u003ca href=\"https://www.smallprop.org/press/supervisor-prestons-proposed-vacancy-tax-measure-would-place-a-hefty-tax/\">apply to fewer units\u003c/a> than the city predicted and \u003ca href=\"https://tsfaction.org/prop-m\">wouldn’t address\u003c/a> barriers to constructing new housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, said the tax was an “unfair punishment on homeowners disallowed by the courts.” The organization was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The solution at hand is not the right one because the courts said so,” he said. “The right move should be to go back to the drawing board and craft something that actually solves the problem rather than going down a path that they’ve been told is not the right one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty streets in downtown San Francisco on April 7, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Out of the homes that were considered vacant in 2021, the city found that \u003ca href=\"https://56a418ca-94d2-476c-9a45-f491ca4a0387.usrfiles.com/ugd/56a418_8ba58b3bef6543b0ad09ce81a0ef037c.pdf\">more than 16%\u003c/a> were occupied seasonally or recreationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are truly pied-à-terres,” said Sarah Karlinsky, research director with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. She authored \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/2014-10/SPUR_Non-Primary_Residences.pdf\">a study on vacancy rates (PDF)\u003c/a> almost a decade before San Francisco voted on the Empty Homes Tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In it, she found that there were nearly 900 homes that were sold but unoccupied in 2012. By 2021, that number had grown to more than 10,270, representing about 2.5% of the city’s total housing stock at the time, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://56a418ca-94d2-476c-9a45-f491ca4a0387.usrfiles.com/ugd/56a418_8ba58b3bef6543b0ad09ce81a0ef037c.pdf\">city’s report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a ton of units, but it’s also not insignificant during a period where we’re having a housing crisis,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s tax was modeled after one Vancouver voters passed in 2016, which reduced the vacancy rate by more than 20% and generated more than $20 million for affordable housing in its first year, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/voter-guide/2022-11/sf-prop-m-vacant-homes\">an analysis\u003c/a> by the urban planning think tank, SPUR. The following year, SPUR researchers found that the percentage of vacant homes in Vancouver continued to decrease, albeit at a much lower rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031689\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bicyclist rides by a row of homes on Feb. 18, 2014, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, when it came to the tax’s impact on housing affordability, Vancouver officials found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-08-16/taxing-the-rich-do-housing-prices-fall-when-empty-second-homes-are-taxed\">there were fewer vacant units\u003c/a> than they had initially expected, and it didn’t have an impact on housing costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Bay Area cities, including Berkeley and Oakland, have passed similar taxes. \u003ca href=\"https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/laws-regulations/city-berkeley-ordinances-affecting-rental-properties/empty-homes-tax\">Berkeley\u003c/a>’s tax, which voters approved the same year as San Francisco’s, has not been billed to property owners yet, though the \u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Measure%20M%20-%20November%208%2C%202022%20Election.pdf\">city estimated (PDF)\u003c/a> it could generate up to $5.9 million annually. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/vacantpropertytax\">Oakland’s tax\u003c/a>, which voters approved in 2018 and covers all properties, levies an annual tax of up to $3,000 per vacant home and $6,000 per parcel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6722176&GUID=40CFF307-9BED-4270-A81A-301C09FE9FD6&Options=&Search=\">As of June 2024\u003c/a>, Oakland had collected an average of $5.53 million per year in revenue, but it has \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6854943&GUID=0A065116-182B-4C8C-A135-1D1BCA26E210&Options=&Search=\">not resulted in a decrease in vacant properties\u003c/a> since 2019, when the city began collecting the tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the legal proceedings, San Francisco hasn’t been able to test whether the tax could impact home prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if a lower court allows the city to start collecting the tax, Amanda Fried, a spokesperson for San Francisco’s Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector, said the process would still be complicated because many property owners would have to file paperwork for the tax, even if their property isn’t vacant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Similar to your income taxes with the IRS, you’re required to file every year, even if you don’t owe anything,” she said. “It would have been difficult to implement this tax without a lawsuit, but if there’s still uncertainty, trying to convince 80,000 property owners that they need to go online and file a piece of paper that their property isn’t vacant is a lot. It’s hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In 2022, San Francisco voters approved a tax meant to open up housing units that were otherwise vacant. But the tax has been held up in litigation, and city officials haven’t been able to implement it yet. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is scheduled to consider pausing the collection of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11930303/should-sf-and-berkeley-tax-empty-homes-following-oaklands-lead\">a tax on vacant homes\u003c/a> amidst ongoing litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://thefrisc.com/its-high-time-to-slay-the-myth-of-all-those-vacant-san-francisco-homes-2efd50728d8/\">Supporters\u003c/a> of the tax \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/skw0ub/more_than_40000_vacant_homes_in_san_francisco_20/\">often\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DDkWzxxv1qQ/\">point\u003c/a> to vacancy rates as a contributing factor to the city’s high home prices. And in 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11931327/heres-every-bay-area-housing-measure-on-the-ballot-tomorrow\">voters approved\u003c/a> the \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/empty-homes-tax-eht\">Empty Homes Tax\u003c/a> to open vacant units for new renters and owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would have \u003ca href=\"https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A218071?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=baca753a092dbebb3e9b&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0\">levied stiff penalties \u003c/a>for owners holding units vacant, ranging between $2,500 to $5,000 per unit, depending on its size. If the apartment was kept vacant for three or more consecutive years, an owner could pay up to the maximum penalty of $20,000 per unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first filings were slated to be due at the end of April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a few months after voters approved the tax, \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/small-realty-vs-san-francisco-complaint-.pdf\">groups representing property owners sued the city\u003c/a>, claiming it violated their constitutional rights. And, in November, a superior court judge agreed, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/jnswire/jns-media/2e/60/19799276/NORCAL_PropM_unconstitutional_ruling_11-26-24.pdf\">ruling the Empty Homes Tax is unconstitutional\u003c/a> and violates \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&division=7.&title=1.&part=&chapter=12.75.&article=\">California’s Ellis Act\u003c/a>, which bars any public entity, including a city, from forcing a property owner to offer accommodations for rent or lease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The right to exclude people from your property has long been considered one of the most fundamental aspects of property ownership,” said Jeremy Talcott, a property rights attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation. “In essence, this forces people to open up their private property to a third party.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031680\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031680\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-22_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view looking west from the 100 Van Ness building rooftop in San Francisco on June 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The court ordered the city to stop enforcing or administering the tax. In a statement, Alex Barrett-Shorter, a spokesperson for City Attorney David Chiu, said the city was “disappointed by the trial court’s decision.” Last year, the city \u003ca href=\"https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/dockets.cfm?dist=1&doc_id=3119880&doc_no=A172067&request_token=NiIwLSEnTkw%2BWzBFSCFNWE5IIEw6UVxfJCI%2BRzxSQCAgCg%3D%3D\">appealed\u003c/a> and is scheduled to \u003ca href=\"https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/scheduledActions.cfm?dist=1&doc_id=3119880&doc_no=A172067&request_token=NiIwLSEnTkw%2BWzBFSCFNWE5IIEw6UVxfJCI%2BRzxSQCAgCg%3D%3D\">present opening arguments\u003c/a> in April, even as opponents have vowed to keep fighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors was scheduled to consider pausing the tax until a year after a final decision is made on the tax’s legality, but Supervisor Jackie Fielder asked to continue the item until this week’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her staff told KQED she wanted to understand whether the city could start collecting the tax if a lower court ruled in the city’s favor but ultimately decided against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, a vocal proponent of the tax, said it was meant to target large corporate landlords and real estate spectators who might purchase homes but hold them off the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concern of all the advocates behind [the tax] was these properties where the homes just aren’t being used as homes for people,” he said. “They’re being used like shares of stock in the stock market for real estate investors to buy them and hold them for years and then resell them at higher values for profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to an October 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://56a418ca-94d2-476c-9a45-f491ca4a0387.usrfiles.com/ugd/56a418_8ba58b3bef6543b0ad09ce81a0ef037c.pdf\">city report\u003c/a>, which used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there were more than 60,000 San Francisco housing units considered vacant in 2021, though that statistic includes homes that are temporarily vacant because a tenant hasn’t moved in yet, the home is undergoing repairs or the property is caught in legal proceedings, among other reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tax \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasurer.org/file/empty-homes-tax-presentation/download?inline\">would have applied to\u003c/a> buildings with three or more units if the unit was kept vacant for more than 182 days in a calendar year. Single-family homes, duplexes and units occupied by travelers or vacationers would be exempt. And it allowed for vacancies during periods of construction, repairs, disasters or if the owner died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031683\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031683\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"857\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-800x343.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-1020x437.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-160x69.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-1536x658.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Houses_in_San_Francisco_qed-1920x823.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A row of homes on Capp Street, between 22nd and 23rd streets, in San Francisco’s Mission District. \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/BLA.Residential%20Vacancies.013122_final.pdf\">In an earlier report from January 2022 (PDF)\u003c/a>, the city assumed fewer than a fifth of San Francisco’s vacant homes would be subject to the tax, and it could collect a little more than $61 million per year in net revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents argued the tax would ultimately \u003ca href=\"https://www.smallprop.org/press/supervisor-prestons-proposed-vacancy-tax-measure-would-place-a-hefty-tax/\">apply to fewer units\u003c/a> than the city predicted and \u003ca href=\"https://tsfaction.org/prop-m\">wouldn’t address\u003c/a> barriers to constructing new housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, said the tax was an “unfair punishment on homeowners disallowed by the courts.” The organization was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The solution at hand is not the right one because the courts said so,” he said. “The right move should be to go back to the drawing board and craft something that actually solves the problem rather than going down a path that they’ve been told is not the right one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_KQED_SanFrancisco_Covid19_04072020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty streets in downtown San Francisco on April 7, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Out of the homes that were considered vacant in 2021, the city found that \u003ca href=\"https://56a418ca-94d2-476c-9a45-f491ca4a0387.usrfiles.com/ugd/56a418_8ba58b3bef6543b0ad09ce81a0ef037c.pdf\">more than 16%\u003c/a> were occupied seasonally or recreationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are truly pied-à-terres,” said Sarah Karlinsky, research director with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. She authored \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/2014-10/SPUR_Non-Primary_Residences.pdf\">a study on vacancy rates (PDF)\u003c/a> almost a decade before San Francisco voted on the Empty Homes Tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In it, she found that there were nearly 900 homes that were sold but unoccupied in 2012. By 2021, that number had grown to more than 10,270, representing about 2.5% of the city’s total housing stock at the time, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://56a418ca-94d2-476c-9a45-f491ca4a0387.usrfiles.com/ugd/56a418_8ba58b3bef6543b0ad09ce81a0ef037c.pdf\">city’s report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a ton of units, but it’s also not insignificant during a period where we’re having a housing crisis,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s tax was modeled after one Vancouver voters passed in 2016, which reduced the vacancy rate by more than 20% and generated more than $20 million for affordable housing in its first year, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/voter-guide/2022-11/sf-prop-m-vacant-homes\">an analysis\u003c/a> by the urban planning think tank, SPUR. The following year, SPUR researchers found that the percentage of vacant homes in Vancouver continued to decrease, albeit at a much lower rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031689\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/470165429_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bicyclist rides by a row of homes on Feb. 18, 2014, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, when it came to the tax’s impact on housing affordability, Vancouver officials found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-08-16/taxing-the-rich-do-housing-prices-fall-when-empty-second-homes-are-taxed\">there were fewer vacant units\u003c/a> than they had initially expected, and it didn’t have an impact on housing costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Bay Area cities, including Berkeley and Oakland, have passed similar taxes. \u003ca href=\"https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/laws-regulations/city-berkeley-ordinances-affecting-rental-properties/empty-homes-tax\">Berkeley\u003c/a>’s tax, which voters approved the same year as San Francisco’s, has not been billed to property owners yet, though the \u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Measure%20M%20-%20November%208%2C%202022%20Election.pdf\">city estimated (PDF)\u003c/a> it could generate up to $5.9 million annually. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/vacantpropertytax\">Oakland’s tax\u003c/a>, which voters approved in 2018 and covers all properties, levies an annual tax of up to $3,000 per vacant home and $6,000 per parcel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6722176&GUID=40CFF307-9BED-4270-A81A-301C09FE9FD6&Options=&Search=\">As of June 2024\u003c/a>, Oakland had collected an average of $5.53 million per year in revenue, but it has \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6854943&GUID=0A065116-182B-4C8C-A135-1D1BCA26E210&Options=&Search=\">not resulted in a decrease in vacant properties\u003c/a> since 2019, when the city began collecting the tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the legal proceedings, San Francisco hasn’t been able to test whether the tax could impact home prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if a lower court allows the city to start collecting the tax, Amanda Fried, a spokesperson for San Francisco’s Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector, said the process would still be complicated because many property owners would have to file paperwork for the tax, even if their property isn’t vacant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Similar to your income taxes with the IRS, you’re required to file every year, even if you don’t owe anything,” she said. “It would have been difficult to implement this tax without a lawsuit, but if there’s still uncertainty, trying to convince 80,000 property owners that they need to go online and file a piece of paper that their property isn’t vacant is a lot. It’s hard.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A First Look at SF Mayor Lurie’s Yearlong Plan on Homelessness Response",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:37 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Daniel Lurie\u003c/a>’s plan to reshape San Francisco’s homelessness and mental health response begins to take form, he is set to sign an executive order on Monday aimed at restructuring the street outreach teams, consolidating bureaucracy in city services and potentially scaling back some harm reduction programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The yearlong plan announced Monday comes on top of Lurie’s earlier promises to build at least 1,500 shelter beds within his first six months in office, as well as the first major legislative effort of his term — a law \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">passed in February\u003c/a> giving him expanded authority to cut through bureaucracy and more quickly hire and contract out both homelessness and drug treatment services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie had made reducing San Francisco’s homeless population, estimated at more than 8,000 people, a key priority on the campaign trail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the heart of my administration’s strategy for improving conditions on the streets are our efforts to help people move into the treatment and care that they need,” Lurie said at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting where board members questioned his long-term plan for addressing street conditions, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030060/after-2-raids-sf-police-say-theyll-follow-drug-markets-from-block-to-block\">two overnight law enforcement raids\u003c/a> at public spaces known for open drug use and sales. “We must strengthen and expand our behavioral health and homeless systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dubbed “Breaking the Cycle,” the mayor’s new blueprint will first aim to consolidate the city’s 10 street outreach teams within the next 100 days. The teams provide critical services, including emergency medicine professionals responding to overdoses and outreach workers helping people into shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029042\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029042\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/123_1-scaled-e1740692245681.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"900\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Police officers carried out a sweeping drug market raid on the evening of Feb. 26, 2025, in Jefferson Square Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Sebastian Luke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to overhaul how the city organizes our street outreach efforts, replacing a fragmented structure with neighborhood-based teams that have the tools to connect people to treatment while keeping our public spaces clean,” Lurie said at a press conference on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/110723%20Performance%20Audit%20of%20San%20Francisco%20Street%20Teams.pdf\">city audit published in 2023\u003c/a> found that the rapid expansion of the teams during the pandemic lacked coordination and consistent messaging. The audit also found that in the vast majority of cases, first responders are unable to connect people to services, the reason is a lack of shelter and housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Resource referral, connection, and transportation are distinguishing and essential functions of the city’s street teams, but the ability of street teams to fulfill this function is inherently limited by the underlying system of services to which street team members can refer clients,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the blueprint announced Monday, Lurie is still aiming to reach his 1,500-shelter bed goal within six months. However, the effort has already hit a few snags — the 116-resident Cova Hotel that opened during the pandemic for homeless residents recently shuttered, and other plans to expand shelter beds in two Tenderloin hotels have met backlash from neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12030060 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240830-SFSideshowLegislation-21-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next year, the city aims to use state and federal funding to increase shelter and other homeless services, according to Lurie’s announcement, as well as to overhaul data systems used to track clients and measure outcomes for the city’s homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie is also looking to review the city’s harm reduction services, an approach to health care \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11911092/from-the-underground-to-public-health-policy-a-history-of-harm-reduction-in-san-francisco\">the city adopted after the HIV/AIDS crisis\u003c/a> that involves preventive efforts such as handing out cleaner supplies to reduce infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While harm reduction is supported by public health officials and advocates as a life-saving method for reducing overdose risk and connecting drug users to service providers, it has become a polarizing fixture in the city’s debate over drug treatment and law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are two people a day dying of overdose in our city. By any standard that is unacceptable, and what we’re doing is not working,” Lurie said Monday. He did not say which programs could downsize in particular. “Everything is going to be looked at, and things will change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kunal Modi, chief of health, homelessness and family services for the mayor’s office, recently posted on social media platform X that the city is also looking to invest in more sober living options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some recovery advocates have celebrated the push for more sobriety housing, saying it gives residents space to distance themselves from drug use, while others have pointed to state laws requiring permanent supportive housing to accept residents regardless of their drug use status. The idea is based on research showing people are more successful in their recovery if they have access to housing first rather than as a reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/kunalmodi/status/1878458417033228372\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the Board of Supervisors passed Lurie’s Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance last month to expand his powers, the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026575/a-new-triage-center-opened-in-san-francisco-but-questions-remain\">set up a walk-in triage center\u003c/a> in the South of Market neighborhood to connect people to government programs and provide a police command station. The results, however, have been stunted by the city’s inability to provide longer-term treatment or shelter, city officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its successes, Modi posted, were “improved street conditions, cross-department collaboration, service placements and arrests.” But he said what didn’t work was that the city ran out of shelter and treatment beds daily, and outdoor drug markets were not eradicated but only displaced to other neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie is now planning to open up a second center at 822 Geary Street where first responders can drop off people in need of medical care, slated to open this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "A First Look at SF Mayor Lurie’s Yearlong Plan on Homelessness Response",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:37 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Daniel Lurie\u003c/a>’s plan to reshape San Francisco’s homelessness and mental health response begins to take form, he is set to sign an executive order on Monday aimed at restructuring the street outreach teams, consolidating bureaucracy in city services and potentially scaling back some harm reduction programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The yearlong plan announced Monday comes on top of Lurie’s earlier promises to build at least 1,500 shelter beds within his first six months in office, as well as the first major legislative effort of his term — a law \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">passed in February\u003c/a> giving him expanded authority to cut through bureaucracy and more quickly hire and contract out both homelessness and drug treatment services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie had made reducing San Francisco’s homeless population, estimated at more than 8,000 people, a key priority on the campaign trail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the heart of my administration’s strategy for improving conditions on the streets are our efforts to help people move into the treatment and care that they need,” Lurie said at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting where board members questioned his long-term plan for addressing street conditions, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030060/after-2-raids-sf-police-say-theyll-follow-drug-markets-from-block-to-block\">two overnight law enforcement raids\u003c/a> at public spaces known for open drug use and sales. “We must strengthen and expand our behavioral health and homeless systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dubbed “Breaking the Cycle,” the mayor’s new blueprint will first aim to consolidate the city’s 10 street outreach teams within the next 100 days. The teams provide critical services, including emergency medicine professionals responding to overdoses and outreach workers helping people into shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029042\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029042\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/123_1-scaled-e1740692245681.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"900\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Police officers carried out a sweeping drug market raid on the evening of Feb. 26, 2025, in Jefferson Square Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Sebastian Luke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to overhaul how the city organizes our street outreach efforts, replacing a fragmented structure with neighborhood-based teams that have the tools to connect people to treatment while keeping our public spaces clean,” Lurie said at a press conference on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/110723%20Performance%20Audit%20of%20San%20Francisco%20Street%20Teams.pdf\">city audit published in 2023\u003c/a> found that the rapid expansion of the teams during the pandemic lacked coordination and consistent messaging. The audit also found that in the vast majority of cases, first responders are unable to connect people to services, the reason is a lack of shelter and housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Resource referral, connection, and transportation are distinguishing and essential functions of the city’s street teams, but the ability of street teams to fulfill this function is inherently limited by the underlying system of services to which street team members can refer clients,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the blueprint announced Monday, Lurie is still aiming to reach his 1,500-shelter bed goal within six months. However, the effort has already hit a few snags — the 116-resident Cova Hotel that opened during the pandemic for homeless residents recently shuttered, and other plans to expand shelter beds in two Tenderloin hotels have met backlash from neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next year, the city aims to use state and federal funding to increase shelter and other homeless services, according to Lurie’s announcement, as well as to overhaul data systems used to track clients and measure outcomes for the city’s homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie is also looking to review the city’s harm reduction services, an approach to health care \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11911092/from-the-underground-to-public-health-policy-a-history-of-harm-reduction-in-san-francisco\">the city adopted after the HIV/AIDS crisis\u003c/a> that involves preventive efforts such as handing out cleaner supplies to reduce infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While harm reduction is supported by public health officials and advocates as a life-saving method for reducing overdose risk and connecting drug users to service providers, it has become a polarizing fixture in the city’s debate over drug treatment and law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are two people a day dying of overdose in our city. By any standard that is unacceptable, and what we’re doing is not working,” Lurie said Monday. He did not say which programs could downsize in particular. “Everything is going to be looked at, and things will change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kunal Modi, chief of health, homelessness and family services for the mayor’s office, recently posted on social media platform X that the city is also looking to invest in more sober living options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some recovery advocates have celebrated the push for more sobriety housing, saying it gives residents space to distance themselves from drug use, while others have pointed to state laws requiring permanent supportive housing to accept residents regardless of their drug use status. The idea is based on research showing people are more successful in their recovery if they have access to housing first rather than as a reward.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>After the Board of Supervisors passed Lurie’s Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance last month to expand his powers, the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026575/a-new-triage-center-opened-in-san-francisco-but-questions-remain\">set up a walk-in triage center\u003c/a> in the South of Market neighborhood to connect people to government programs and provide a police command station. The results, however, have been stunted by the city’s inability to provide longer-term treatment or shelter, city officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its successes, Modi posted, were “improved street conditions, cross-department collaboration, service placements and arrests.” But he said what didn’t work was that the city ran out of shelter and treatment beds daily, and outdoor drug markets were not eradicated but only displaced to other neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie is now planning to open up a second center at 822 Geary Street where first responders can drop off people in need of medical care, slated to open this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Report: Unhoused Man Seen Alive Before Being Crushed During Vallejo Cleanup",
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"headTitle": "Report: Unhoused Man Seen Alive Before Being Crushed During Vallejo Cleanup | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>An unhoused man was seen alive on the morning he was crushed to death during a city-run trash cleanup in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vallejo\">Vallejo\u003c/a> on Christmas Eve, according to a death investigation report released to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Solano County Coroner’s Office late last month identified the man as 58-year-old James Edward Oakley II, originally of American Canyon. Local advocates for unhoused residents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028660/unhoused-man-killed-vallejo-trash-cleanup-christmas-eve-city-acknowledges\">said they knew him\u003c/a> as a longtime member of the homeless community who had for some time lived in the area bordering Vallejo and American Canyon, where he was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New details revealed by the death investigation report shed light on what happened that day and raise questions about how city workers handled the cleanup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just shows more and more the ineptitude of the city, how they just botched the whole thing,” said Sean O’Malley, an unhoused Vallejo resident who was a friend of Oakley’s. “It’s just crazy. It’s horrible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray said the city is “deeply saddened by this tragic accident” and is in the process of reviewing its policies and procedures. The mayor and council members did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment, but at a Tuesday meeting of the City Council, Mayor Andrea Sorce called for a special session on homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031110\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Friends and supporters of James Oakley deliver speeches during a demonstration outside of Vallejo City Hall on March 11th, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A participant of a rally outside of Vallejo City Hall for James Oakley holds up a homemade sign on March 11, 2025. Right: Kathryn Salm delivers words of support to a small crowd gathered in front of Vallejo City Hall to protest the death of Oakley on March 11th, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the report prepared by Solano County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Dew, who responded to the scene, waste collection workers with the company Recology told police they had approached the site to pick up trash earlier that morning but opted against it when they saw a man among the items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials described the area as an “illegal dumping” site. People who knew Oakley said he was living there after being asked to leave a nearby shed.[aside postID=news_12028660 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241217_UnhousedDemonstration_GC-19_qed-1020x680.jpg']When a Vallejo public works crew arrived to clear the trash later that morning, they reported seeing a mattress covered with a “tarp,” along with several tote bags, a shopping cart and bags of trash. Workers reported kicking the mattress and calling out, asking if anyone was there, according to the death investigation. When they didn’t get a response, they started clearing the items without lifting the “tarp” covering the mattress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dew clarified in her report that she did not see a tarp but noted that blankets and clothing were piled on the mattress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The backhoe operator then used the machine’s front bucket to crush the mattress before scooping it up. As the driver moved it toward a nearby dump truck, another worker spotted a human leg hanging from the bucket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Dew got to the site, Oakley’s body had been taken out of the backhoe bucket and Dew noted blood inside. Oakley and the mattress were both in the roadway, next to a dump truck. Dew noted the trash pile “appeared to have a void where the mattress was previously sitting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muteado Silencio performs a traditional dance in honor of James Oakley on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dew wrote in her report that she found a wallet next to Oakley containing his California ID card. In his back pocket, he had $1.59.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An autopsy and death investigation by the coroner’s office determined that Oakley died from multiple blunt force injuries caused by the backhoe crushing the mattress he was lying on. The toxicology report showed Oakley had methamphetamine but no alcohol in his system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a high school student in the ’80s, Oakley had been a celebrated athlete. He later served prison sentences for manslaughter and drug charges and struggled with drug addiction, according to court records and articles in the Napa Valley Register.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Malley first met Oakley a couple of years ago when his car broke down, and Oakley offered him a jump. “I thought it was really cool. I didn’t even know him,” he said, describing Oakley as “a gentle giant.” The two went on to play dice together regularly.[aside postID=news_12028502 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/Evelyn-Alfred-3-1020x765.jpg']“He said my dice were loaded because he always lost,” O’Malley said, laughing at the recollection. “That’s what I say, too, when I lose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the death investigation report, Oakley is survived by his father, sister and two adult children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Vallejo Police Department investigated the death and found no indication of “intent to cause harm, bodily injury or death,” city officials said, and the district attorney’s office found there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time of the incident, Vallejo officials said only that a dead body had been discovered during a cleanup at an illegal dumping site. Two months later, the city acknowledged Oakley had been crushed by city workers, calling it a “tragic accident.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a vigil for Oakley outside Vallejo City Hall on Tuesday, O’Malley and other activists called on the city to reconsider its approach to clearing homeless encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re out here saying James should never have died,” said Tiny Gray-Garcia, co-founder of POOR Magazine. “We have to change [this] policy of hate because more of us are going to die.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants of a rally outside of Vallejo City Hall for James Oakley hold homemade signs on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She suspects similar deaths often go unreported. “The case of James is just one that we saw, and they can’t deny it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Malley said he and other advocates are working on a slate of guidelines to give the city around handling encampment removals and debris cleanups. The recommendations include providing dumpsters so garbage doesn’t pile up and offering services before clearing camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If anything comes from this, it’ll be them changing their policies,” O’Malley said. “How many more people need to die?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>An unhoused man was seen alive on the morning he was crushed to death during a city-run trash cleanup in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vallejo\">Vallejo\u003c/a> on Christmas Eve, according to a death investigation report released to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Solano County Coroner’s Office late last month identified the man as 58-year-old James Edward Oakley II, originally of American Canyon. Local advocates for unhoused residents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028660/unhoused-man-killed-vallejo-trash-cleanup-christmas-eve-city-acknowledges\">said they knew him\u003c/a> as a longtime member of the homeless community who had for some time lived in the area bordering Vallejo and American Canyon, where he was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New details revealed by the death investigation report shed light on what happened that day and raise questions about how city workers handled the cleanup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just shows more and more the ineptitude of the city, how they just botched the whole thing,” said Sean O’Malley, an unhoused Vallejo resident who was a friend of Oakley’s. “It’s just crazy. It’s horrible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray said the city is “deeply saddened by this tragic accident” and is in the process of reviewing its policies and procedures. The mayor and council members did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment, but at a Tuesday meeting of the City Council, Mayor Andrea Sorce called for a special session on homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031110\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Friends and supporters of James Oakley deliver speeches during a demonstration outside of Vallejo City Hall on March 11th, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-12-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A participant of a rally outside of Vallejo City Hall for James Oakley holds up a homemade sign on March 11, 2025. Right: Kathryn Salm delivers words of support to a small crowd gathered in front of Vallejo City Hall to protest the death of Oakley on March 11th, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the report prepared by Solano County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Dew, who responded to the scene, waste collection workers with the company Recology told police they had approached the site to pick up trash earlier that morning but opted against it when they saw a man among the items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials described the area as an “illegal dumping” site. People who knew Oakley said he was living there after being asked to leave a nearby shed.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When a Vallejo public works crew arrived to clear the trash later that morning, they reported seeing a mattress covered with a “tarp,” along with several tote bags, a shopping cart and bags of trash. Workers reported kicking the mattress and calling out, asking if anyone was there, according to the death investigation. When they didn’t get a response, they started clearing the items without lifting the “tarp” covering the mattress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dew clarified in her report that she did not see a tarp but noted that blankets and clothing were piled on the mattress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The backhoe operator then used the machine’s front bucket to crush the mattress before scooping it up. As the driver moved it toward a nearby dump truck, another worker spotted a human leg hanging from the bucket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Dew got to the site, Oakley’s body had been taken out of the backhoe bucket and Dew noted blood inside. Oakley and the mattress were both in the roadway, next to a dump truck. Dew noted the trash pile “appeared to have a void where the mattress was previously sitting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muteado Silencio performs a traditional dance in honor of James Oakley on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dew wrote in her report that she found a wallet next to Oakley containing his California ID card. In his back pocket, he had $1.59.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An autopsy and death investigation by the coroner’s office determined that Oakley died from multiple blunt force injuries caused by the backhoe crushing the mattress he was lying on. The toxicology report showed Oakley had methamphetamine but no alcohol in his system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a high school student in the ’80s, Oakley had been a celebrated athlete. He later served prison sentences for manslaughter and drug charges and struggled with drug addiction, according to court records and articles in the Napa Valley Register.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Malley first met Oakley a couple of years ago when his car broke down, and Oakley offered him a jump. “I thought it was really cool. I didn’t even know him,” he said, describing Oakley as “a gentle giant.” The two went on to play dice together regularly.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“He said my dice were loaded because he always lost,” O’Malley said, laughing at the recollection. “That’s what I say, too, when I lose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the death investigation report, Oakley is survived by his father, sister and two adult children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Vallejo Police Department investigated the death and found no indication of “intent to cause harm, bodily injury or death,” city officials said, and the district attorney’s office found there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time of the incident, Vallejo officials said only that a dead body had been discovered during a cleanup at an illegal dumping site. Two months later, the city acknowledged Oakley had been crushed by city workers, calling it a “tragic accident.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a vigil for Oakley outside Vallejo City Hall on Tuesday, O’Malley and other activists called on the city to reconsider its approach to clearing homeless encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re out here saying James should never have died,” said Tiny Gray-Garcia, co-founder of POOR Magazine. “We have to change [this] policy of hate because more of us are going to die.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250311-VALLEJO-HOMELESS-DEATH-VIGIL-MD-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants of a rally outside of Vallejo City Hall for James Oakley hold homemade signs on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She suspects similar deaths often go unreported. “The case of James is just one that we saw, and they can’t deny it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Malley said he and other advocates are working on a slate of guidelines to give the city around handling encampment removals and debris cleanups. The recommendations include providing dumpsters so garbage doesn’t pile up and offering services before clearing camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If anything comes from this, it’ll be them changing their policies,” O’Malley said. “How many more people need to die?”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "United Way Bay Area Raises Alarm Over Federal Funding Pause for Hunger, Homelessness",
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"content": "\u003cp>United Way Bay Area is warning that a federal funding pause could worsen hunger and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030088/why-californias-homeless-shelters-are-a-bridge-to-nowhere\">homelessness across the region\u003c/a>. Under a budget approved last April, California was set to receive $18.3 million in federal aid, with $2.5 million allocated for the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That funding is now indefinitely paused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the federal level, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (FEMA) oversees the funds, which are then distributed to United Way. From there, United Way awards grants to local nonprofits, typically supporting 100 to 110 organizations each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Escobar, vice president of Safety Net Resources at United Way Bay Area, describes her role as a bridge between government funding and the communities that rely on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Usually, we get double the amount of requests than we have funding for. So we know the need is out there. We know the nonprofit sector needs these funds,” Escobar said. “We see the impact that these funds have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Way Bay Area distributes funds across seven Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a nonprofit receives a grant from United Way, it can allocate the funds to best serve its community’s specific needs. In each county, a local board made up of experts from various organizations, including city and county programs, helps determine how the money is most effectively used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12030273 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2202530063-1020x715.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, services vary, but in the Bay Area, they often focus on rent relief and financial assistance for groceries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food is Free Bay Area is an organization that works to bridge food insecurity by providing free food distributions. Executive director Heather Pierini worries about the domino effects the federal funding pause could have on those who rely on these services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For something to be funded that long, through so many administrations, and become an integral piece of how we fund services for people in need, and then to be just similarly dismissed, is horrific,” Pierini said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pierini emphasizes the growing demand for Food is Free Bay Area’s services, noting that in 2024, more than 500 families sought assistance during a three-day distribution period. By February 2025, that need increased, extending distributions to five consecutive days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The need is growing immensely, and I’m terrified for what’s happening for our funding,” Pierini said. “How I’m going to be able to continue making food stretch for the people that we serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding from United Way allows Food is Free Bay Area to provide fresh groceries, which is not common as most of their usual supplies are near the end of their freshness cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The community greatly appreciates fresh produce, Pierini said, but she remains uncertain how much longer they’ll be able to provide it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Executive director Ronda Kogler of Children’s Network of Solano County, an organization dedicated to bridging service gaps for families, shared that in 2024, they received $47,000 to directly assist 49 families, benefitting a total of 167 household members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have received this funding for several years and every dollar we receive goes directly to help low-income families with emergency rental or mortgage assistance,” Kogler said in a statement. “The pause in this funding will negatively impact our ability to help families in need in Solano County, at a time when the need is great and growing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Way Bay Area is urging people to contact their local representatives to advocate for this issue at the congressional level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>United Way Bay Area is warning that a federal funding pause could worsen hunger and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030088/why-californias-homeless-shelters-are-a-bridge-to-nowhere\">homelessness across the region\u003c/a>. Under a budget approved last April, California was set to receive $18.3 million in federal aid, with $2.5 million allocated for the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That funding is now indefinitely paused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the federal level, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (FEMA) oversees the funds, which are then distributed to United Way. From there, United Way awards grants to local nonprofits, typically supporting 100 to 110 organizations each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Escobar, vice president of Safety Net Resources at United Way Bay Area, describes her role as a bridge between government funding and the communities that rely on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Usually, we get double the amount of requests than we have funding for. So we know the need is out there. We know the nonprofit sector needs these funds,” Escobar said. “We see the impact that these funds have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Way Bay Area distributes funds across seven Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a nonprofit receives a grant from United Way, it can allocate the funds to best serve its community’s specific needs. In each county, a local board made up of experts from various organizations, including city and county programs, helps determine how the money is most effectively used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, services vary, but in the Bay Area, they often focus on rent relief and financial assistance for groceries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food is Free Bay Area is an organization that works to bridge food insecurity by providing free food distributions. Executive director Heather Pierini worries about the domino effects the federal funding pause could have on those who rely on these services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For something to be funded that long, through so many administrations, and become an integral piece of how we fund services for people in need, and then to be just similarly dismissed, is horrific,” Pierini said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pierini emphasizes the growing demand for Food is Free Bay Area’s services, noting that in 2024, more than 500 families sought assistance during a three-day distribution period. By February 2025, that need increased, extending distributions to five consecutive days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The need is growing immensely, and I’m terrified for what’s happening for our funding,” Pierini said. “How I’m going to be able to continue making food stretch for the people that we serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding from United Way allows Food is Free Bay Area to provide fresh groceries, which is not common as most of their usual supplies are near the end of their freshness cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The community greatly appreciates fresh produce, Pierini said, but she remains uncertain how much longer they’ll be able to provide it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Executive director Ronda Kogler of Children’s Network of Solano County, an organization dedicated to bridging service gaps for families, shared that in 2024, they received $47,000 to directly assist 49 families, benefitting a total of 167 household members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have received this funding for several years and every dollar we receive goes directly to help low-income families with emergency rental or mortgage assistance,” Kogler said in a statement. “The pause in this funding will negatively impact our ability to help families in need in Solano County, at a time when the need is great and growing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Way Bay Area is urging people to contact their local representatives to advocate for this issue at the congressional level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why California’s Homeless Shelters Are a ‘Bridge to Nowhere’",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An investigation by CalMatters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found that homeless shelters are dangerous, chaotic, and ineffective at getting people into permanent housing. The lead reporter behind the investigation, Lauren Hepler, spoke with KQED’s Political Breakdown about what’s gone wrong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC7219890057\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:02:46] Hey everybody from KQED in San Francisco, this is Political Breakdown, I’m Scott Shafer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:02:51] And I’m Marisa Lagos, today on The Breakdown, emergency shelters are often the first stop for unhoused people living on the streets. But a new investigation by our media partner, CalMatters, found shelters to be unsafe and unsuccessful at getting most residents into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:03:06] Their comprehensive review of shelter incident reports, police records, and interviews with dozens of residents found a system often mired in chaos and scandals. The lead reporter on that CalMatters report, Lauren Hepler, joins us to talk about what they found. Lauren, welcome to Political Breakdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:03:23] Thanks so much for having me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:03:24] Well, I know this was a very comprehensive report. So first of all, why don’t you just tell us what you and your colleagues at CalMatters did in investigating this, the documents you reviewed, and so on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:03:35] Yeah, this really grew out of about 10 years I’ve been covering homelessness in California and talking to people on the streets. You know, if you’re living in a tent or a shanty, kind of an obvious question is why are you out here? Like, this is a difficult way to live when we know that there are these shelters that at least maybe have a bunk bed, some hot meals, but over and over again I heard that people felt like they were treated like an animal in shelters. Women told me about sexual assaults. So we really wanted to see what’s the paper trail like here, how widespread are incidents like this. So we filed Public Records Act requests with every county in California. And what we got back was pretty shocking. It really showed kind of disarray across the state. So we got records from Salinas internal emails that showed all these complaints about staff stealing donations, helping friends and family jump the line for housing. In LA, court records showed that a nonprofit hired a man convicted of attempted murder to work security. He then went on to commit three sex crimes in one day against women at the shelter. And then there were just dozens of other reports about stabbings, about black mold, about rotten food, and I could go on, unfortunately, so we found that these are systemic and widespread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:04:50] So it sounds like you really did look at the entire system, not just specific providers or specific, you know, individual shelters. Were there any through lines though here? I mean, I imagine there’s only a certain number of nonprofits operating in this space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:05:07] Yeah, it’s interesting. There are a few sort of much bigger nonprofits that we found, like the one I mentioned in Los Angeles, Hopix is part of this bigger nonprofit called Special Service for Groups or SSG. And they brought in like $170 million in revenue in 2023. That’s a nine figure jump, you know, in just recent years. So they’re an example of a large nonprofit that operates lots of different homeless services programs, shelters being one of them. Another we looked at is Bay Area Community Services. They saw revenue climb 1 ,000 % in the decade up to 2023. They’re now bringing in like $98 million a year. So you see these big players getting a lot of grants. And then in some places, there are also much smaller nonprofits that operate one -off programs. And that’s sort of the variety that we saw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:05:58] You did note that scandals seem to have plagued the fast-growing shelter operators in particular. You mentioned ones in Oakland and LA. They ramped up too fast. Is that just because they couldn’t kind of keep up with their own growth, or were they fundamentally flawed in some other way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:06:15] I think the one through line is the staffing here. So you have the nonprofits at an administrative level that are bringing in millions of dollars in grants to address what is a really complicated, difficult issue. But that money doesn’t always trickle down to the frontline workers who have to kind of deal with the chaos day in and day out. These jobs pay just over minimum wage a lot of times in shelters. So you’ll hear that there’s a lot of churn, and it’s difficult to recruit for these jobs. Sometimes there’s allegations, like I mentioned, of staff stealing if they themselves are maybe struggling or their families. So it’s a complicated issue that unfortunately doesn’t have, you know, easy solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:06:56] And one of the reasons, Lauren, you all dug into this is that this has been a boon, right? I mean, we’ve seen you actually calculate it because the government didn’t apparently have a number for you, but that, you know, governments have invested over a billion dollars in recent years since 2018, and the number of shelter beds has more than doubled. And yet there’s still three times as many homeless people. So I guess stepping back for a second, like, what is it that the governor and public officials and these shelter operators say is meant to be the function of these shelters? Are they supposed to be a bridge to other housing or just a way to kind of get the problem off the streets and out of our visible line of sight?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:07:36] Yeah, that’s an interesting question because you’ll see it very clearly on the non-profit’s websites that say like, our goal is to obtain permanent housing as rapidly as possible. Very clearly stated. When you go to the governor’s office, sometimes there’s a little bit of waffling like, well, you know, the solutions have to work together. These are shorter term. But what we found is that when it comes down to it, these shelter operators often have, you know, specific targets in their contracts, like house at least 30% of people here all the way up to like house 70% of the people here. And there’s lots of different ways people do the math, but even in the most generous way we found that fewer than one in four people move on to permanent housing across the state and the rest kind of keep churning through our jails, our hospitals, tents, other shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:08:25] You found that chaos, I’m quoting here, chaos often breaks out in the shelters. What does that look like? I mean, you mentioned a couple of specific incidents, but what does like chaos look like?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:08:35] Yeah, one shelter operator described it as, we’re putting out two or three dumpster fires every day. So that can be like a brawl, a fight between either people living at a shelter, sometimes staff get involved. It sometimes escalates to real violence, like I mentioned stabbings, I interviewed women outside of a shelter in LA, one literally had a black eye and staples still in her head from a beating. so unfortunately it sometimes escalates to violence. And then there’s also kind of just the sanitation and public health issues, a lot of reports of black mold, of rotten food, illnesses that spread very rapidly in these kind of group settings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:09:18] I mean, I know that you talked to a lot of people, I think more than 80 residents in the shelters. And we have some tape from one person you met. Can you talk a little bit about Katherine Moore and the story you heard from her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:09:31] Yeah, so Katherine lives down in Orange County, you know, sort of like a famously sunny, expensive place to live, but her experience there, she ended up living in an RV with her husband when she lost her waitressing job during the Great Recession. and it ultimately they split up. So she was left with nothing and ultimately ended up homeless, living on the streets in and around Anaheim. And in that period, she was very honest and said, I started using meth to stay up at night when physical attacks and robberies were most common and it just led to this kind of spiral of addiction. She ended up in jail where she got clean. And then as she left jail, she moved to a city funded shelter in Anaheim. And here’s what she had to say about that experience and why it can. make people hesitant to accept offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Moore \u003c/strong>[00:10:22] I feel without the proper education and training, you are just traumatizing the people more. And that’s why you have so many homeless people who are shelter resistant. It’s because they’ve been in the shelter, they’ve been treated really poorly, and most of them don’t have a voice to stand up for themselves. They don’t feel like they deserve anything better just because of how poorly they’ve been treated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:10:46] And Lauren, where is Katherine Moore now and how is she doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:10:50] Katherine defied the odds. She eventually got permanent housing through a housing voucher. That only came after she ended up back on the streets and actually joined a class action lawsuit over issues she experienced in the shelter, including finding drugs on the floor while she was in recovery, sexual harassment from security guards, bloody toilets, again, kind of a sadly long laundry list of issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:11:16] Lauren, one of the things you wrote is that nearly all of California’s 500 -plus cities and counties have ignored a state law that requires them to document and address dangerous shelter conditions. How is that? I mean, that’s just mind-boggling. Was there just no accountability? Who was supposed to be following up to make sure that they followed the law?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:11:39] Yeah, this issue really gets at the blame shifting and the finger pointing you see around homelessness in California, where the governor and state officials are often saying, hey, this is a local problem. We send money to cities and counties for them to deal with encampments, issues with their shelters. So back in 2021, there was a state law that was supposed to kind of try and put those pieces together. The cities and the counties were supposed to report on just the basics as the author, Sharon Quirk-Silva told me, you know, how… how are these facilities operating in terms of like the buildings, the mold, any habitability issues, and if there are any major complaints. but when we asked for those reports from this law that was passed in 2021, we found that it’s like four counties and five cities out of, again, hundreds of counties and cities in California had actually filed those reports. So the state since then has put out a bulletin to be like, hey, everyone needs to be filing these reports. And there’s actually a bill that was just introduced to kind of strengthen that oversight. So that’s one thing we’ll be looking at really closely to see if the state gets serious about either threatening funding or at least following through on that oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:12:51] I mean, clearly the state and local governments should have a role here, but I also do wonder about these shelter operators, and do you think they’re like almost promising too much? I was really struck by one of the quotes in your piece by the CEO of Mercy House, Larry Haynes, who he said, you know, if we’re forced to act as psychiatric wards, sort of housing people who might have criminal histories, mental health problems, other health issues. families, single people. Like, what do you think is gonna happen here? So I don’t know, like, was he one of the only ones that took responsibility there? Because it does seem like part of this whole process is all these nonprofits bid on these to get this money, right? So they’re making pretty clear promises in writing about what they think they could do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:13:37] Yes, Larry Haynes was probably the most candid about this, but I heard variations of this from a lot of shelter operators. The nonprofits did not create the housing crisis. It is not entirely their fault that there are not affordable apartments to move people into after they end up at a shelter. Things like housing vouchers often have years-long waits in California, so that’s one issue. And then, like Larry said, you have kind of these human -level problems where shelters kind of become a dumping ground for like all of our issues in society, like my editor said public schools often are kind of similar, but in this case it’s like you have failing health care systems. If people can’t get psychiatric care you get dumped in a place like this. People with intense, I met a woman with an incurable brain disease in Orange County, a kind of Parkinson’s-like condition that had been in and out of a lot of facilities. So that one of the big problems seems to be that we use shelters as like a one -size -fits -all type of solution when really people have drastically different needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:14:41] That description, you know, we can’t be psychiatric wards and solve everybody’s problems, sounds a lot like the jails at the county level. And as you point out in your reporting, the number of people who died in the shelters is actually higher than in jails in California. You know, what does that tell you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:15:00] Yeah, this was the first time we had seen this number, so the state tallied it up and said more than 2,000 people have died in shelters since 2018, and like you say, that’s nearly twice as many as died in California jails during the same period as just one point of comparison. We’re doing more work right now to get those coroner’s reports and understand exactly what is going on, but so far it appears similar to jails, that you’ve got kind of a mix of. spillover from the drug crisis, there are a lot of overdoses, but also a lot of chronic health issues, people dying of heart conditions, lung conditions, and then very sadly you have occasional suicides or homicides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:15:42] Yeah, and I mean in some ways it makes sense, right? Because jails are more tightly controlled in terms of who can come in and out, what can come in and out. But one of the other findings is, and we’ve sort of hit on this before, but I want you to dig into it longer, which is shelters are kind of a dead end, right? Like you say that maybe a fifth of residents over the past six years actually ended up in housing. And then in some cases, they tend to kick out more people than they help get housed. So what does that tell us? And were you surprised by those findings?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:16:13] Yeah, honestly, it was kind of most jarring to see this in person, like I think of a shelter, the one we looked at in Salinas, where there were all these complaints about mismanagement and staff stealing donations. But when I got there to interview people, what I immediately noticed was there were a bunch of people living in the woods right outside this homeless shelter, literally like 70 yards away, and they had all been kicked out of the shelter. And they were just like, well, we’re here. We have nothing. So they just kind of make a go of it, living outside there. And we saw that in Anaheim, other parts of the state as well. And it’s born out in the data. Like if you look at this provider Mercy House in Orange County, they house about 11 % of their residents last year, but about eight times that many were exited, which means getting kicked out for a whole variety of reasons. And so again, I think what it shows when you pan out is kind of how we’re stuck in this self -defeating cycle on homelessness. We’re trying to pump money into solutions, but people just end up cycling through these different types of institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:17:21] You know, obviously, Governor Newsom and his administration have made a real push toward dealing with homelessness. They’ve spent a lot of money on this. And he touts, you know, sometimes the results he did during COVID. And I’m wondering, like, what does the governor’s office say about this? Have they been forthcoming or have they kind of punted?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:17:40] The governor’s office refused to give us an interview directly about our findings. We were directed to two state housing and homeless services agencies. And what they said was basically that shelters are part of a system. We know it’s not the be all end all, but they’re one solution that the state has invested in. and that’s certainly true, but I think it’s also worth asking what are the conditions in these places? Is anyone paying attention? And what’s being done about it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:18:12] I mean, when you talk to these residents, like I know some people say, I could get a shelter bed, but I feel safer in my car or on the street. How much of that, you heard that, and is that more common from women or families, or is that kind of across the board in terms of the threats to somebody’s personal safety they might feel in some of these facilities?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:18:34] Yeah, so I definitely heard from an array of people. Yeah, like what comes to mind of a man in his 50s who was living outside on the streets in a dangerous part of East Oakland who told me, I know it’s risky out here, but I’m not going back in one of those places. They treated me like a dirty animal. And then the women that I mentioned who had experienced sexual assaults in shelters. So you do get a broad cross section of people who say, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’m not going back. But the thing that makes it so confusing and messy to deal with is that there’s also lots of people who are in line trying to get into these places. So it’s like, you’ve got a scarcity issue, there’s not enough beds to go around, but then once people get in, they have this negative experience and it makes them mistrustful of the whole system. And that is very hard to unwind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:19:23] I know you talked to experts outside of California who are very critical of what California is doing. Do they point to any other states that are doing it better?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:19:33] The big point of comparison is in New York City where they have what’s called a right to shelter. There are the kind of parity between shelter beds and the number of homeless people in New York, but they have their own issues obviously right now apart from issues they’re having with capacity because of so much influx of folks coming from different countries right now. They also have issues in New York with the psychiatric needs going untreated and kind of these one size fits all shelters not leading to housing. So there’s a different approach there, but I think a lot of folks say it’s not necessarily better than what we have here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:20:11] What about things sort of outside of, you know, government funded housing or government run housing and support? I’m thinking about things like income support, rental assistance. What do we know about, you know, the success of those types of programs and if we’re trying them at all here in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:20:29] Yeah, that’s a big issue where there’s a lot of experimentation going on right now. So we’ve seen pilots recently in San Francisco, in LA, one in 2023 in San Francisco found that 70% of homeless people surveyed said they could have stayed housed with an additional $300 to $500 in monthly income. And a pilot in LA paid people $750 a month and found that within six months only almost 30% of those people got back into housing. So experts say this is important for a couple reasons. One, rent assistance or income could help us turn off the spigot of people falling into homelessness and adding pressure on these systems and obviously preventing them a lot of personal upheaval and trauma. But also you could potentially use this to rehouse some of people who are on the street. But it’s a question of how do you prioritize those programs versus these other things we’re investing in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:21:29] It seems like some local governments, I’m thinking like San Jose, are beginning to turn away from shelters. Is that something that’s widespread? I mean, is there a broader sense that this system of shelters just isn’t? Congregate shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:21:43] Congregate shelters, right? You’re talking about, like, tiny homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:21:46] Yeah, like tiny homes. Yeah, so that, you know, you really have more independence, more security, more, you know, individual, like personal space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:21:54] We’re doing more reporting on this right now, but I gotta say, in the complaints and incident reports we got, there were also a lot of violent attacks happening in the COVID motels, in the tiny homes, a lot of overdoses when you have the locked doors. So it’s an issue where ultimately you need like these supports in place, whether it’s a big facility with bunk beds or a smaller space where people have more private areas, which certainly a lot of people say privacy is extremely important. I don’t want to understate that, but you can’t just kind of store folks away and hope that things get better. You need to have that real hands-on support. But like you say, we are seeing a huge variety across the state right now. San Diego recently debated a huge 1,000 bed shelter that ultimately… got defeated. In places like Long Beach, I just toured an old public hospital that they’re morphing into a campus with shelter, drug detox, medical services, all on one site. So there is a lot of experimentation and it will be interesting to see how that goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:23:02] What’s been, besides not any reaction from the governor’s office, what have you heard from policymakers, lawmakers, maybe local officials, like what’s the reaction been since this piece came out last week?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:23:16] Yeah, so we were pointed to one state bill, actually a couple state bills, but one AB 750 was just proposed and that would strengthen kind of the state oversight here, add some teeth to that 2021 law we mentioned where the cities and the counties are supposed to be telling the state how everything’s going at the shelters. So we’ll see if that passes. There’s another bill that kind of deals with the funding side of things, asking the local governments to more specifically report on how they’re using state money for different homeless services solutions. So both of those will definitely be interesting to watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:23:52] I want to come back to something you said earlier, which is you gave this specific example of the security guard that was hired by a shelter in Los Angeles. He had been convicted of murder and went on to assault three women, I think, in one day. What happened to him? I mean, is he gone? I mean, are the shelters, like, even after the fact, are they taking steps to, like, resolve and fix and address some of the problems after they happen at least?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:24:16] Yeah, this one, so the security guard had previously been convicted of second -degree attempted murder and robbery and then he was hired at the shelter in south LA just before the pandemic. Like we say, there were three counts of sexual battery in one day against women staying at the shelter. The specifics of the attacks kind of vary but groping, unwanted touching, these types of things. But no one at the shelter called police that day. In fact, another staffer actually gave him a ride home. We later read in the court records that one of the women said she was kicked out of the shelter when she came forward. Police were eventually brought in and months later the DA charged the case and he was eventually convicted and went to prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:25:07] So is that, I think this is another thing you documented before you let go, which is that it’s not unusual for if shelter residents bring up problems or crimes that they actually themselves are punished. Is that another thing that needs more oversight?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:25:23] Yeah, we heard that from multiple people that they’re discouraged from calling police, from calling ambulances because, you know, neighbors obviously are very wary of issues of criminality around shelters or homeless services sites. So that becomes its whole, own issue. But yes, I think in general folks feel that even if they complain, a lot of times those complaints aren’t dealt with or they certainly aren’t kept updated on the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:25:52] Well, some very, very important investigative reporting. Thank you so much, Lauren Hepler from CalMatters. Appreciate your sharing it with us. Political Breakdown is a production of KQED. Our engineer is Jim Bennett. Our producer is Dana Cronin. I’m Scott Schaeffer here with Marisa Lagos. Thanks for listening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:26:15] That was CalMatters reporter Lauren Hepler speaking with Scott Schaeffer and Marisa Lagos on the Political Breakdown podcast. This episode was produced by Dana Cronin. You can hear Political Breakdown wherever you listen to The Bay. The Bay team is me, Jessica Kariisa, Alan Montecillo and Mel Velasquez. We get support from Jen Chien, Katie Springer, Maha Sanad and Holly Karnan. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. I’m Ericka Cruz-Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you next week.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Why California’s Homeless Shelters Are a ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ | KQED",
"description": "An investigation by CalMatters found that homeless shelters are dangerous, chaotic, and ineffective at getting people into permanent housing. The lead reporter behind the investigation, Lauren Hepler, spoke with KQED’s Political Breakdown about what’s gone wrong. This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors. Scott Shafer Hey everybody from KQED in San Francisco, this is Political Breakdown, I'm Scott Shafer. Marisa Lagos And I'm Marisa Lagos, today on The Breakdown, emergency shelters are often the first stop for unhoused people living on the streets. But a new investigation by our media",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An investigation by CalMatters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found that homeless shelters are dangerous, chaotic, and ineffective at getting people into permanent housing. The lead reporter behind the investigation, Lauren Hepler, spoke with KQED’s Political Breakdown about what’s gone wrong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC7219890057\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:02:46] Hey everybody from KQED in San Francisco, this is Political Breakdown, I’m Scott Shafer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:02:51] And I’m Marisa Lagos, today on The Breakdown, emergency shelters are often the first stop for unhoused people living on the streets. But a new investigation by our media partner, CalMatters, found shelters to be unsafe and unsuccessful at getting most residents into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:03:06] Their comprehensive review of shelter incident reports, police records, and interviews with dozens of residents found a system often mired in chaos and scandals. The lead reporter on that CalMatters report, Lauren Hepler, joins us to talk about what they found. Lauren, welcome to Political Breakdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:03:23] Thanks so much for having me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:03:24] Well, I know this was a very comprehensive report. So first of all, why don’t you just tell us what you and your colleagues at CalMatters did in investigating this, the documents you reviewed, and so on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:03:35] Yeah, this really grew out of about 10 years I’ve been covering homelessness in California and talking to people on the streets. You know, if you’re living in a tent or a shanty, kind of an obvious question is why are you out here? Like, this is a difficult way to live when we know that there are these shelters that at least maybe have a bunk bed, some hot meals, but over and over again I heard that people felt like they were treated like an animal in shelters. Women told me about sexual assaults. So we really wanted to see what’s the paper trail like here, how widespread are incidents like this. So we filed Public Records Act requests with every county in California. And what we got back was pretty shocking. It really showed kind of disarray across the state. So we got records from Salinas internal emails that showed all these complaints about staff stealing donations, helping friends and family jump the line for housing. In LA, court records showed that a nonprofit hired a man convicted of attempted murder to work security. He then went on to commit three sex crimes in one day against women at the shelter. And then there were just dozens of other reports about stabbings, about black mold, about rotten food, and I could go on, unfortunately, so we found that these are systemic and widespread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:04:50] So it sounds like you really did look at the entire system, not just specific providers or specific, you know, individual shelters. Were there any through lines though here? I mean, I imagine there’s only a certain number of nonprofits operating in this space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:05:07] Yeah, it’s interesting. There are a few sort of much bigger nonprofits that we found, like the one I mentioned in Los Angeles, Hopix is part of this bigger nonprofit called Special Service for Groups or SSG. And they brought in like $170 million in revenue in 2023. That’s a nine figure jump, you know, in just recent years. So they’re an example of a large nonprofit that operates lots of different homeless services programs, shelters being one of them. Another we looked at is Bay Area Community Services. They saw revenue climb 1 ,000 % in the decade up to 2023. They’re now bringing in like $98 million a year. So you see these big players getting a lot of grants. And then in some places, there are also much smaller nonprofits that operate one -off programs. And that’s sort of the variety that we saw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:05:58] You did note that scandals seem to have plagued the fast-growing shelter operators in particular. You mentioned ones in Oakland and LA. They ramped up too fast. Is that just because they couldn’t kind of keep up with their own growth, or were they fundamentally flawed in some other way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:06:15] I think the one through line is the staffing here. So you have the nonprofits at an administrative level that are bringing in millions of dollars in grants to address what is a really complicated, difficult issue. But that money doesn’t always trickle down to the frontline workers who have to kind of deal with the chaos day in and day out. These jobs pay just over minimum wage a lot of times in shelters. So you’ll hear that there’s a lot of churn, and it’s difficult to recruit for these jobs. Sometimes there’s allegations, like I mentioned, of staff stealing if they themselves are maybe struggling or their families. So it’s a complicated issue that unfortunately doesn’t have, you know, easy solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:06:56] And one of the reasons, Lauren, you all dug into this is that this has been a boon, right? I mean, we’ve seen you actually calculate it because the government didn’t apparently have a number for you, but that, you know, governments have invested over a billion dollars in recent years since 2018, and the number of shelter beds has more than doubled. And yet there’s still three times as many homeless people. So I guess stepping back for a second, like, what is it that the governor and public officials and these shelter operators say is meant to be the function of these shelters? Are they supposed to be a bridge to other housing or just a way to kind of get the problem off the streets and out of our visible line of sight?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:07:36] Yeah, that’s an interesting question because you’ll see it very clearly on the non-profit’s websites that say like, our goal is to obtain permanent housing as rapidly as possible. Very clearly stated. When you go to the governor’s office, sometimes there’s a little bit of waffling like, well, you know, the solutions have to work together. These are shorter term. But what we found is that when it comes down to it, these shelter operators often have, you know, specific targets in their contracts, like house at least 30% of people here all the way up to like house 70% of the people here. And there’s lots of different ways people do the math, but even in the most generous way we found that fewer than one in four people move on to permanent housing across the state and the rest kind of keep churning through our jails, our hospitals, tents, other shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:08:25] You found that chaos, I’m quoting here, chaos often breaks out in the shelters. What does that look like? I mean, you mentioned a couple of specific incidents, but what does like chaos look like?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:08:35] Yeah, one shelter operator described it as, we’re putting out two or three dumpster fires every day. So that can be like a brawl, a fight between either people living at a shelter, sometimes staff get involved. It sometimes escalates to real violence, like I mentioned stabbings, I interviewed women outside of a shelter in LA, one literally had a black eye and staples still in her head from a beating. so unfortunately it sometimes escalates to violence. And then there’s also kind of just the sanitation and public health issues, a lot of reports of black mold, of rotten food, illnesses that spread very rapidly in these kind of group settings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:09:18] I mean, I know that you talked to a lot of people, I think more than 80 residents in the shelters. And we have some tape from one person you met. Can you talk a little bit about Katherine Moore and the story you heard from her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:09:31] Yeah, so Katherine lives down in Orange County, you know, sort of like a famously sunny, expensive place to live, but her experience there, she ended up living in an RV with her husband when she lost her waitressing job during the Great Recession. and it ultimately they split up. So she was left with nothing and ultimately ended up homeless, living on the streets in and around Anaheim. And in that period, she was very honest and said, I started using meth to stay up at night when physical attacks and robberies were most common and it just led to this kind of spiral of addiction. She ended up in jail where she got clean. And then as she left jail, she moved to a city funded shelter in Anaheim. And here’s what she had to say about that experience and why it can. make people hesitant to accept offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Moore \u003c/strong>[00:10:22] I feel without the proper education and training, you are just traumatizing the people more. And that’s why you have so many homeless people who are shelter resistant. It’s because they’ve been in the shelter, they’ve been treated really poorly, and most of them don’t have a voice to stand up for themselves. They don’t feel like they deserve anything better just because of how poorly they’ve been treated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:10:46] And Lauren, where is Katherine Moore now and how is she doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:10:50] Katherine defied the odds. She eventually got permanent housing through a housing voucher. That only came after she ended up back on the streets and actually joined a class action lawsuit over issues she experienced in the shelter, including finding drugs on the floor while she was in recovery, sexual harassment from security guards, bloody toilets, again, kind of a sadly long laundry list of issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:11:16] Lauren, one of the things you wrote is that nearly all of California’s 500 -plus cities and counties have ignored a state law that requires them to document and address dangerous shelter conditions. How is that? I mean, that’s just mind-boggling. Was there just no accountability? Who was supposed to be following up to make sure that they followed the law?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:11:39] Yeah, this issue really gets at the blame shifting and the finger pointing you see around homelessness in California, where the governor and state officials are often saying, hey, this is a local problem. We send money to cities and counties for them to deal with encampments, issues with their shelters. So back in 2021, there was a state law that was supposed to kind of try and put those pieces together. The cities and the counties were supposed to report on just the basics as the author, Sharon Quirk-Silva told me, you know, how… how are these facilities operating in terms of like the buildings, the mold, any habitability issues, and if there are any major complaints. but when we asked for those reports from this law that was passed in 2021, we found that it’s like four counties and five cities out of, again, hundreds of counties and cities in California had actually filed those reports. So the state since then has put out a bulletin to be like, hey, everyone needs to be filing these reports. And there’s actually a bill that was just introduced to kind of strengthen that oversight. So that’s one thing we’ll be looking at really closely to see if the state gets serious about either threatening funding or at least following through on that oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:12:51] I mean, clearly the state and local governments should have a role here, but I also do wonder about these shelter operators, and do you think they’re like almost promising too much? I was really struck by one of the quotes in your piece by the CEO of Mercy House, Larry Haynes, who he said, you know, if we’re forced to act as psychiatric wards, sort of housing people who might have criminal histories, mental health problems, other health issues. families, single people. Like, what do you think is gonna happen here? So I don’t know, like, was he one of the only ones that took responsibility there? Because it does seem like part of this whole process is all these nonprofits bid on these to get this money, right? So they’re making pretty clear promises in writing about what they think they could do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:13:37] Yes, Larry Haynes was probably the most candid about this, but I heard variations of this from a lot of shelter operators. The nonprofits did not create the housing crisis. It is not entirely their fault that there are not affordable apartments to move people into after they end up at a shelter. Things like housing vouchers often have years-long waits in California, so that’s one issue. And then, like Larry said, you have kind of these human -level problems where shelters kind of become a dumping ground for like all of our issues in society, like my editor said public schools often are kind of similar, but in this case it’s like you have failing health care systems. If people can’t get psychiatric care you get dumped in a place like this. People with intense, I met a woman with an incurable brain disease in Orange County, a kind of Parkinson’s-like condition that had been in and out of a lot of facilities. So that one of the big problems seems to be that we use shelters as like a one -size -fits -all type of solution when really people have drastically different needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:14:41] That description, you know, we can’t be psychiatric wards and solve everybody’s problems, sounds a lot like the jails at the county level. And as you point out in your reporting, the number of people who died in the shelters is actually higher than in jails in California. You know, what does that tell you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:15:00] Yeah, this was the first time we had seen this number, so the state tallied it up and said more than 2,000 people have died in shelters since 2018, and like you say, that’s nearly twice as many as died in California jails during the same period as just one point of comparison. We’re doing more work right now to get those coroner’s reports and understand exactly what is going on, but so far it appears similar to jails, that you’ve got kind of a mix of. spillover from the drug crisis, there are a lot of overdoses, but also a lot of chronic health issues, people dying of heart conditions, lung conditions, and then very sadly you have occasional suicides or homicides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:15:42] Yeah, and I mean in some ways it makes sense, right? Because jails are more tightly controlled in terms of who can come in and out, what can come in and out. But one of the other findings is, and we’ve sort of hit on this before, but I want you to dig into it longer, which is shelters are kind of a dead end, right? Like you say that maybe a fifth of residents over the past six years actually ended up in housing. And then in some cases, they tend to kick out more people than they help get housed. So what does that tell us? And were you surprised by those findings?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:16:13] Yeah, honestly, it was kind of most jarring to see this in person, like I think of a shelter, the one we looked at in Salinas, where there were all these complaints about mismanagement and staff stealing donations. But when I got there to interview people, what I immediately noticed was there were a bunch of people living in the woods right outside this homeless shelter, literally like 70 yards away, and they had all been kicked out of the shelter. And they were just like, well, we’re here. We have nothing. So they just kind of make a go of it, living outside there. And we saw that in Anaheim, other parts of the state as well. And it’s born out in the data. Like if you look at this provider Mercy House in Orange County, they house about 11 % of their residents last year, but about eight times that many were exited, which means getting kicked out for a whole variety of reasons. And so again, I think what it shows when you pan out is kind of how we’re stuck in this self -defeating cycle on homelessness. We’re trying to pump money into solutions, but people just end up cycling through these different types of institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:17:21] You know, obviously, Governor Newsom and his administration have made a real push toward dealing with homelessness. They’ve spent a lot of money on this. And he touts, you know, sometimes the results he did during COVID. And I’m wondering, like, what does the governor’s office say about this? Have they been forthcoming or have they kind of punted?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:17:40] The governor’s office refused to give us an interview directly about our findings. We were directed to two state housing and homeless services agencies. And what they said was basically that shelters are part of a system. We know it’s not the be all end all, but they’re one solution that the state has invested in. and that’s certainly true, but I think it’s also worth asking what are the conditions in these places? Is anyone paying attention? And what’s being done about it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:18:12] I mean, when you talk to these residents, like I know some people say, I could get a shelter bed, but I feel safer in my car or on the street. How much of that, you heard that, and is that more common from women or families, or is that kind of across the board in terms of the threats to somebody’s personal safety they might feel in some of these facilities?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:18:34] Yeah, so I definitely heard from an array of people. Yeah, like what comes to mind of a man in his 50s who was living outside on the streets in a dangerous part of East Oakland who told me, I know it’s risky out here, but I’m not going back in one of those places. They treated me like a dirty animal. And then the women that I mentioned who had experienced sexual assaults in shelters. So you do get a broad cross section of people who say, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’m not going back. But the thing that makes it so confusing and messy to deal with is that there’s also lots of people who are in line trying to get into these places. So it’s like, you’ve got a scarcity issue, there’s not enough beds to go around, but then once people get in, they have this negative experience and it makes them mistrustful of the whole system. And that is very hard to unwind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:19:23] I know you talked to experts outside of California who are very critical of what California is doing. Do they point to any other states that are doing it better?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:19:33] The big point of comparison is in New York City where they have what’s called a right to shelter. There are the kind of parity between shelter beds and the number of homeless people in New York, but they have their own issues obviously right now apart from issues they’re having with capacity because of so much influx of folks coming from different countries right now. They also have issues in New York with the psychiatric needs going untreated and kind of these one size fits all shelters not leading to housing. So there’s a different approach there, but I think a lot of folks say it’s not necessarily better than what we have here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:20:11] What about things sort of outside of, you know, government funded housing or government run housing and support? I’m thinking about things like income support, rental assistance. What do we know about, you know, the success of those types of programs and if we’re trying them at all here in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:20:29] Yeah, that’s a big issue where there’s a lot of experimentation going on right now. So we’ve seen pilots recently in San Francisco, in LA, one in 2023 in San Francisco found that 70% of homeless people surveyed said they could have stayed housed with an additional $300 to $500 in monthly income. And a pilot in LA paid people $750 a month and found that within six months only almost 30% of those people got back into housing. So experts say this is important for a couple reasons. One, rent assistance or income could help us turn off the spigot of people falling into homelessness and adding pressure on these systems and obviously preventing them a lot of personal upheaval and trauma. But also you could potentially use this to rehouse some of people who are on the street. But it’s a question of how do you prioritize those programs versus these other things we’re investing in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:21:29] It seems like some local governments, I’m thinking like San Jose, are beginning to turn away from shelters. Is that something that’s widespread? I mean, is there a broader sense that this system of shelters just isn’t? Congregate shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:21:43] Congregate shelters, right? You’re talking about, like, tiny homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:21:46] Yeah, like tiny homes. Yeah, so that, you know, you really have more independence, more security, more, you know, individual, like personal space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:21:54] We’re doing more reporting on this right now, but I gotta say, in the complaints and incident reports we got, there were also a lot of violent attacks happening in the COVID motels, in the tiny homes, a lot of overdoses when you have the locked doors. So it’s an issue where ultimately you need like these supports in place, whether it’s a big facility with bunk beds or a smaller space where people have more private areas, which certainly a lot of people say privacy is extremely important. I don’t want to understate that, but you can’t just kind of store folks away and hope that things get better. You need to have that real hands-on support. But like you say, we are seeing a huge variety across the state right now. San Diego recently debated a huge 1,000 bed shelter that ultimately… got defeated. In places like Long Beach, I just toured an old public hospital that they’re morphing into a campus with shelter, drug detox, medical services, all on one site. So there is a lot of experimentation and it will be interesting to see how that goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:23:02] What’s been, besides not any reaction from the governor’s office, what have you heard from policymakers, lawmakers, maybe local officials, like what’s the reaction been since this piece came out last week?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:23:16] Yeah, so we were pointed to one state bill, actually a couple state bills, but one AB 750 was just proposed and that would strengthen kind of the state oversight here, add some teeth to that 2021 law we mentioned where the cities and the counties are supposed to be telling the state how everything’s going at the shelters. So we’ll see if that passes. There’s another bill that kind of deals with the funding side of things, asking the local governments to more specifically report on how they’re using state money for different homeless services solutions. So both of those will definitely be interesting to watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:23:52] I want to come back to something you said earlier, which is you gave this specific example of the security guard that was hired by a shelter in Los Angeles. He had been convicted of murder and went on to assault three women, I think, in one day. What happened to him? I mean, is he gone? I mean, are the shelters, like, even after the fact, are they taking steps to, like, resolve and fix and address some of the problems after they happen at least?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:24:16] Yeah, this one, so the security guard had previously been convicted of second -degree attempted murder and robbery and then he was hired at the shelter in south LA just before the pandemic. Like we say, there were three counts of sexual battery in one day against women staying at the shelter. The specifics of the attacks kind of vary but groping, unwanted touching, these types of things. But no one at the shelter called police that day. In fact, another staffer actually gave him a ride home. We later read in the court records that one of the women said she was kicked out of the shelter when she came forward. Police were eventually brought in and months later the DA charged the case and he was eventually convicted and went to prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:25:07] So is that, I think this is another thing you documented before you let go, which is that it’s not unusual for if shelter residents bring up problems or crimes that they actually themselves are punished. Is that another thing that needs more oversight?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lauren Hepler \u003c/strong>[00:25:23] Yeah, we heard that from multiple people that they’re discouraged from calling police, from calling ambulances because, you know, neighbors obviously are very wary of issues of criminality around shelters or homeless services sites. So that becomes its whole, own issue. But yes, I think in general folks feel that even if they complain, a lot of times those complaints aren’t dealt with or they certainly aren’t kept updated on the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer \u003c/strong>[00:25:52] Well, some very, very important investigative reporting. Thank you so much, Lauren Hepler from CalMatters. Appreciate your sharing it with us. Political Breakdown is a production of KQED. Our engineer is Jim Bennett. Our producer is Dana Cronin. I’m Scott Schaeffer here with Marisa Lagos. Thanks for listening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:26:15] That was CalMatters reporter Lauren Hepler speaking with Scott Schaeffer and Marisa Lagos on the Political Breakdown podcast. This episode was produced by Dana Cronin. You can hear Political Breakdown wherever you listen to The Bay. The Bay team is me, Jessica Kariisa, Alan Montecillo and Mel Velasquez. We get support from Jen Chien, Katie Springer, Maha Sanad and Holly Karnan. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. I’m Ericka Cruz-Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you next week.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> Mayor Matt Mahan is proposing that unhoused people who refuse multiple offers of shelter should face arrest, arguing that they have a “responsibility” to move indoors if the city has a bed available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan’s plan would make San José the latest Bay Area city to escalate criminal enforcement against people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed arrests for sleeping outside. With \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024327/san-jose-council-taps-engineering-executive-carl-salas-vacant-seat\">a new six-vote majority on the City Council\u003c/a>, Mahan will look to enact the enforcement measure as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026437/san-jose-mayor-proposes-permanent-shift-homeless-funding-from-housing-shelter\">ambitious budget proposal that also includes a shift in city funding\u003c/a> to pay for temporary housing and shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city is making historic investments in expanding interim housing and shelter options,” Mahan told KQED. “And as we do that, we also need to hold our homeless neighbors accountable for coming indoors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would direct the city attorney to expand the definition of trespassing in the municipal code to include occupying public space after three offers of shelter. Unhoused residents who decline shelter would first be issued a warning or a citation. If they refuse shelter after a third encounter with city staff, they would be subject to arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026580/this-bay-area-city-just-passed-the-most-extreme-encampment-ban-in-california\">the Fremont City Council passed an ordinance that banned camping for more than three consecutive nights\u003c/a>, punishable by a fine or jail time. Mahan said he was concerned that those outright bans on camping would push people experiencing homelessness into larger cities like San José. He emphasized that his plan was different because arrests would be preceded by multiple offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Simply banning camping does not end homelessness, but holding people accountable for accepting shelter and housing when it’s available can help us to ultimately end homelessness,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979482/san-jose-mayor-matt-mahan-calls-for-urgent-action-on-homelessness-in-city-budget-plan\">has made the construction of temporary housing and shelter\u003c/a> the centerpiece of his plan to reduce homelessness in San José. The city currently operates more than 1,000 shelter spaces — which include tiny homes, converted motels and parking lots for people living in their vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor said his enforcement proposal was motivated by difficulties he said city staff faced in convincing people experiencing homelessness in South San José to move into a new 204-unit interim housing site that opened last month on Monterey Road and Branham Lane. Under current city policy, people living outdoors near a new interim housing site are given first preference for beds when the facility opens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone is refusing a brand new apartment with an en-suite bathroom and a kitchenette, as is the case at Branham and Monterey — where we just saw roughly one-third of people encamped in the area say ‘no’ — we are probably beyond the point where the city has the tools to help that person,” Mahan added.[aside postID=news_12028615 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/GettyImages-1150473913-1020x765.jpg'] A report from city staff published in February found a much lower rate of so-called “service resistance” — just 541 people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026630/san-jose-has-an-idea-to-bring-street-homelessness-to-functional-zero-can-it-work\">out of the estimated 5,477 who are living without shelter in the city\u003c/a>. And the same report found a low vacancy rate of just 5% across all city and county-operated shelter spaces in San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For JD Marone, who lives in an encampment along the Guadalupe River in South San José, the barrier to moving indoors — even to a studio-sized tiny home — is the lack of space for his two large dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are used to being free, running and protecting my stuff,” he told KQED. “That’s probably why I still have my tools, is because of my dogs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marone would likely get preference for a spot in a nearby interim housing site on Cherry Avenue, which is set to open later this year. But he said he can’t decide between the dogs and a potential housing offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It stops me from getting work — when I go to work, that’s all I think about all day is ‘Are my dogs okay? It does limit me, it limits me a lot,” he said. “A lot of these people here have animals, so it’s going to be tough on all of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, many cities have adopted tougher approaches to reducing unsheltered homelessness. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that banning encampments, even if no shelter space is available, is not a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” because the laws target an activity, not someone’s personal status. In the months since the ruling, police in cities such as San Diego and San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015125/tentless-amid-encampment-crackdown-unhoused-san-franciscans-storms\">have arrested hundreds of people\u003c/a> for sleeping outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Democrat who represents Fremont and parts of San José, called Mahan’s initiative “immoral, ineffective and stupid,” adding that he would explore writing state legislation to “curb the criminalization of homelessness” on the city level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The choice is you go to this tiny home or you go to jail?” Lee asked. “It’s another clear indication that the mayor is more interested in making homelessness invisible than solving it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City Councilmember Pamela Campos said she was concerned that the policy would make “a challenging problem more challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With a criminal record, if this policy does pass, that’s only going to make it more difficult to find the jobs and the housing that are going to support self-sustainability,” Campos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campos told KQED she wanted to hear more details about how the policy would be implemented — and how it would affect existing police and fire response across the sprawling city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan expressed confidence that the enforcement plan would win support from the city’s police force. It was immediately embraced by police and fire union leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that increasing accountability and actually focusing on getting that population into shelter, housing or a treatment center, or detoxing in the county jail for 30 days, will ultimately save a tremendous amount of police and fire capacity to respond to other calls,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Council will debate the proposal, along with the rest of Mahan’s spending plan for the 2025–26 fiscal year, later this month. A final city budget will be voted on in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated at 2 p.m. Thursday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> Mayor Matt Mahan is proposing that unhoused people who refuse multiple offers of shelter should face arrest, arguing that they have a “responsibility” to move indoors if the city has a bed available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan’s plan would make San José the latest Bay Area city to escalate criminal enforcement against people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed arrests for sleeping outside. With \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024327/san-jose-council-taps-engineering-executive-carl-salas-vacant-seat\">a new six-vote majority on the City Council\u003c/a>, Mahan will look to enact the enforcement measure as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026437/san-jose-mayor-proposes-permanent-shift-homeless-funding-from-housing-shelter\">ambitious budget proposal that also includes a shift in city funding\u003c/a> to pay for temporary housing and shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city is making historic investments in expanding interim housing and shelter options,” Mahan told KQED. “And as we do that, we also need to hold our homeless neighbors accountable for coming indoors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would direct the city attorney to expand the definition of trespassing in the municipal code to include occupying public space after three offers of shelter. Unhoused residents who decline shelter would first be issued a warning or a citation. If they refuse shelter after a third encounter with city staff, they would be subject to arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026580/this-bay-area-city-just-passed-the-most-extreme-encampment-ban-in-california\">the Fremont City Council passed an ordinance that banned camping for more than three consecutive nights\u003c/a>, punishable by a fine or jail time. Mahan said he was concerned that those outright bans on camping would push people experiencing homelessness into larger cities like San José. He emphasized that his plan was different because arrests would be preceded by multiple offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Simply banning camping does not end homelessness, but holding people accountable for accepting shelter and housing when it’s available can help us to ultimately end homelessness,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979482/san-jose-mayor-matt-mahan-calls-for-urgent-action-on-homelessness-in-city-budget-plan\">has made the construction of temporary housing and shelter\u003c/a> the centerpiece of his plan to reduce homelessness in San José. The city currently operates more than 1,000 shelter spaces — which include tiny homes, converted motels and parking lots for people living in their vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor said his enforcement proposal was motivated by difficulties he said city staff faced in convincing people experiencing homelessness in South San José to move into a new 204-unit interim housing site that opened last month on Monterey Road and Branham Lane. Under current city policy, people living outdoors near a new interim housing site are given first preference for beds when the facility opens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone is refusing a brand new apartment with an en-suite bathroom and a kitchenette, as is the case at Branham and Monterey — where we just saw roughly one-third of people encamped in the area say ‘no’ — we are probably beyond the point where the city has the tools to help that person,” Mahan added.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> A report from city staff published in February found a much lower rate of so-called “service resistance” — just 541 people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026630/san-jose-has-an-idea-to-bring-street-homelessness-to-functional-zero-can-it-work\">out of the estimated 5,477 who are living without shelter in the city\u003c/a>. And the same report found a low vacancy rate of just 5% across all city and county-operated shelter spaces in San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For JD Marone, who lives in an encampment along the Guadalupe River in South San José, the barrier to moving indoors — even to a studio-sized tiny home — is the lack of space for his two large dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are used to being free, running and protecting my stuff,” he told KQED. “That’s probably why I still have my tools, is because of my dogs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marone would likely get preference for a spot in a nearby interim housing site on Cherry Avenue, which is set to open later this year. But he said he can’t decide between the dogs and a potential housing offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It stops me from getting work — when I go to work, that’s all I think about all day is ‘Are my dogs okay? It does limit me, it limits me a lot,” he said. “A lot of these people here have animals, so it’s going to be tough on all of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, many cities have adopted tougher approaches to reducing unsheltered homelessness. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that banning encampments, even if no shelter space is available, is not a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” because the laws target an activity, not someone’s personal status. In the months since the ruling, police in cities such as San Diego and San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015125/tentless-amid-encampment-crackdown-unhoused-san-franciscans-storms\">have arrested hundreds of people\u003c/a> for sleeping outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Democrat who represents Fremont and parts of San José, called Mahan’s initiative “immoral, ineffective and stupid,” adding that he would explore writing state legislation to “curb the criminalization of homelessness” on the city level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The choice is you go to this tiny home or you go to jail?” Lee asked. “It’s another clear indication that the mayor is more interested in making homelessness invisible than solving it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City Councilmember Pamela Campos said she was concerned that the policy would make “a challenging problem more challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With a criminal record, if this policy does pass, that’s only going to make it more difficult to find the jobs and the housing that are going to support self-sustainability,” Campos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campos told KQED she wanted to hear more details about how the policy would be implemented — and how it would affect existing police and fire response across the sprawling city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan expressed confidence that the enforcement plan would win support from the city’s police force. It was immediately embraced by police and fire union leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that increasing accountability and actually focusing on getting that population into shelter, housing or a treatment center, or detoxing in the county jail for 30 days, will ultimately save a tremendous amount of police and fire capacity to respond to other calls,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Council will debate the proposal, along with the rest of Mahan’s spending plan for the 2025–26 fiscal year, later this month. A final city budget will be voted on in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated at 2 p.m. Thursday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "‘Nowhere to Go’: Unhoused Residents Displaced as Oakland Seals Off Encampment",
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"headTitle": "‘Nowhere to Go’: Unhoused Residents Displaced as Oakland Seals Off Encampment | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Gilberto Gonzales was one of the last holdouts on Tuesday, watching as a small army of workers cleared the encampment in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland’s\u003c/a> Fruitvale District, where he’s lived for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clad in a yellow safety vest and a brown fisherman’s cap, Gonzales said that after multiple warnings, the city had given him the final order to move his makeshift compound an hour before the clearing began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see nowhere to go,” he said, noting that the city had already confiscated his car. “Now I have to move to the other side of the street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales, 64, said he would gladly accept housing, but nothing the city has offered so far has been suitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a senior already, you know,” he said. “I see a lot of apartments for seniors, and I don’t know why I don’t get one of those apartments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029700\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029700\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilberto Gonzales, 64, stands outside his shelter on Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, before crews arrive to clear the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland last week began sweeping the large encampment that, for years, has occupied a privately owned vacant lot on Alameda Avenue, next to a Home Depot, under the shadow of Interstate 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after multiple failed attempts in recent years to remove inhabitants and fence off the area, the city is now partnering with the property owner and a local container business to install a barrier of double-stacked shipping containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents the neighborhood, told KQED the property owner has “re-fenced it five times, but the day or two after we put up the fence, somebody tears it down, breaks in and moves in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallo said nearby business owners and residents have long complained about the encampment, citing frequent drug activity, abandoned cars and other nuisances. The city, he said, sued the Los Angeles-based property owner multiple times to address the blight, even placing a lien on his property in 2023 for \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/4200-Alameda-Ave_lien.pdf\">failing to reimburse the city (PDF)\u003c/a> for $6,000 in abatement actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029703\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of an encampment on Alameda Avenue in Oakland is cleared on March 4, 2025. A shipping container barrier now surrounds the property. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029766\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A car sits on top of a shipping container barrier on property leased by Oakland Container Services. Right: A car is towed from an encampment on land leased by Oakland Container Services. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The condition and the environmental surrounding of it was out of control,” Gallo said, adding that people in the encampment were given several months’ notice and offered services and housing options. “And certainly we don’t wanna [see] Home Depot leaving Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vacant land, which was previously used as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/deed_restrict/docs/ekotek_4200alamedaave_oakland.pdf\">waste oil recycling facility\u003c/a> and is listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0901737\">Superfund site directory\u003c/a>, can’t be used for housing because of contamination issues, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move to use shipping containers comes as Oakland struggles to address its ongoing homelessness crisis. As of last year, the city counted 5,485 unhoused people, a nearly 9% increase since 2022, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda-county\">Alameda County’s\u003c/a> latest \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Alameda-County-2024-PIT-Homelessness-Report-FINAL-12.9.2024.pdf\">point-in-time count (PDF)\u003c/a>. Gallo said the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028114/audit-finds-overtime-waste-in-oakland-suggesting-a-widespread-spending-problem\">ongoing financial challenges\u003c/a> and its lack of available land for RV parking sites have only compounded the problem, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/View-Report-15.pdf\">dramatic proliferation of encampments\u003c/a> in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029696\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Itamar (left) speaks with Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, on a property along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025. The site, formerly an encampment, is now being enclosed by a shipping container wall built by Alberto and his team. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By Tuesday afternoon, a semi-completed wall of containers had already sprung up along Alameda Avenue as workers scrambled to remove the remaining debris, including a plastic baby swing still hanging from the lone tree on the property. A caseworker with a local homeless support group spoke with the few lingering former residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Alberto, who owns Oakland Container Services, the business supplying the shipping containers, said he hopes to finish the job on Wednesday. “The plan is to go all the way down [from the freeway entrance] to the end of the street,” said Alberto, who grew up in the neighborhood.[aside postID=news_12029619 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241217-UnhousedDemonstrations-JY-355_qed.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a scene reminiscent of People’s Park, which UC Berkeley \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989984/six-months-after-peoples-park-closure-many-former-residents-and-supporters-struggle-to-adjust\">fortified with shipping containers\u003c/a> last January after protesters tore down fencing and destroyed construction equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for providing the containers, Alberto is leasing the land from the property owner for his expanding container business. He partnered with Caltrans and the city to clear the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alberto said he also helped transport containers to People’s Park last year, in what has become an unexpected niche for his business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On my email signatures, it says, ‘We do it all,’” he said. “Like, we don’t say no to anything, especially to make it look better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029769\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, walks along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, toward the land he is leasing for his container business. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alberto doesn’t have any misgivings about blocking unhoused people from returning here. Most were offered housing, he said, but didn’t take it. Instead, they relocated a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had six years here to get their act together,” he said. “We shouldn’t suffer for all of this. I think it’s time for a change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Gilberto Gonzales was one of the last holdouts on Tuesday, watching as a small army of workers cleared the encampment in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland’s\u003c/a> Fruitvale District, where he’s lived for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clad in a yellow safety vest and a brown fisherman’s cap, Gonzales said that after multiple warnings, the city had given him the final order to move his makeshift compound an hour before the clearing began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see nowhere to go,” he said, noting that the city had already confiscated his car. “Now I have to move to the other side of the street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales, 64, said he would gladly accept housing, but nothing the city has offered so far has been suitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a senior already, you know,” he said. “I see a lot of apartments for seniors, and I don’t know why I don’t get one of those apartments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029700\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029700\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilberto Gonzales, 64, stands outside his shelter on Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, before crews arrive to clear the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland last week began sweeping the large encampment that, for years, has occupied a privately owned vacant lot on Alameda Avenue, next to a Home Depot, under the shadow of Interstate 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after multiple failed attempts in recent years to remove inhabitants and fence off the area, the city is now partnering with the property owner and a local container business to install a barrier of double-stacked shipping containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents the neighborhood, told KQED the property owner has “re-fenced it five times, but the day or two after we put up the fence, somebody tears it down, breaks in and moves in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallo said nearby business owners and residents have long complained about the encampment, citing frequent drug activity, abandoned cars and other nuisances. The city, he said, sued the Los Angeles-based property owner multiple times to address the blight, even placing a lien on his property in 2023 for \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/4200-Alameda-Ave_lien.pdf\">failing to reimburse the city (PDF)\u003c/a> for $6,000 in abatement actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029703\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of an encampment on Alameda Avenue in Oakland is cleared on March 4, 2025. A shipping container barrier now surrounds the property. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029766\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A car sits on top of a shipping container barrier on property leased by Oakland Container Services. Right: A car is towed from an encampment on land leased by Oakland Container Services. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The condition and the environmental surrounding of it was out of control,” Gallo said, adding that people in the encampment were given several months’ notice and offered services and housing options. “And certainly we don’t wanna [see] Home Depot leaving Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vacant land, which was previously used as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/deed_restrict/docs/ekotek_4200alamedaave_oakland.pdf\">waste oil recycling facility\u003c/a> and is listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0901737\">Superfund site directory\u003c/a>, can’t be used for housing because of contamination issues, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move to use shipping containers comes as Oakland struggles to address its ongoing homelessness crisis. As of last year, the city counted 5,485 unhoused people, a nearly 9% increase since 2022, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda-county\">Alameda County’s\u003c/a> latest \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Alameda-County-2024-PIT-Homelessness-Report-FINAL-12.9.2024.pdf\">point-in-time count (PDF)\u003c/a>. Gallo said the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028114/audit-finds-overtime-waste-in-oakland-suggesting-a-widespread-spending-problem\">ongoing financial challenges\u003c/a> and its lack of available land for RV parking sites have only compounded the problem, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/View-Report-15.pdf\">dramatic proliferation of encampments\u003c/a> in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029696\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Itamar (left) speaks with Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, on a property along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025. The site, formerly an encampment, is now being enclosed by a shipping container wall built by Alberto and his team. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By Tuesday afternoon, a semi-completed wall of containers had already sprung up along Alameda Avenue as workers scrambled to remove the remaining debris, including a plastic baby swing still hanging from the lone tree on the property. A caseworker with a local homeless support group spoke with the few lingering former residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Alberto, who owns Oakland Container Services, the business supplying the shipping containers, said he hopes to finish the job on Wednesday. “The plan is to go all the way down [from the freeway entrance] to the end of the street,” said Alberto, who grew up in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a scene reminiscent of People’s Park, which UC Berkeley \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989984/six-months-after-peoples-park-closure-many-former-residents-and-supporters-struggle-to-adjust\">fortified with shipping containers\u003c/a> last January after protesters tore down fencing and destroyed construction equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for providing the containers, Alberto is leasing the land from the property owner for his expanding container business. He partnered with Caltrans and the city to clear the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alberto said he also helped transport containers to People’s Park last year, in what has become an unexpected niche for his business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On my email signatures, it says, ‘We do it all,’” he said. “Like, we don’t say no to anything, especially to make it look better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029769\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, walks along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, toward the land he is leasing for his container business. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alberto doesn’t have any misgivings about blocking unhoused people from returning here. Most were offered housing, he said, but didn’t take it. Instead, they relocated a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had six years here to get their act together,” he said. “We shouldn’t suffer for all of this. I think it’s time for a change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "luries-nonprofit-giving-san-francisco-11-million-prevent-family-homelessness",
"title": "Lurie’s Nonprofit Is Giving San Francisco $11 Million to Prevent Family Homelessness",
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"headTitle": "Lurie’s Nonprofit Is Giving San Francisco $11 Million to Prevent Family Homelessness | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The nonprofit that San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> founded before entering City Hall is now investing millions of dollars to help the city combat homelessness, a key issue on which the mayor has vowed to make progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community on Tuesday announced it will donate $11 million to support a pilot program aimed at preventing family homelessness, which surged by 94% in San Francisco last year, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/reports--september-2024--2024-point-time-count\">latest point-in-time count\u003c/a> of the city’s homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This investment assists families in crisis today while we develop and scale a model to support families in need for decades to come,” Lurie said in a statement. “Creating lasting change in San Francisco requires all hands on deck, and I’m proud to launch this critical public-private partnership with Tipping Point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 18-month pilot program will run through June 2026 and will fund direct assistance to approximately 1,500 households to support back rent and other living expenses for families at risk of losing their housing. The money will also be used to create a database of the city’s homelessness prevention efforts in an attempt to streamline the city’s network of services, which can be a complicated maze for families seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Perhaps there’s a family member with undiagnosed mental health issues, and that is one of the issues that is putting the family’s housing at risk. These dollars can help pay for health services for the family so that they can stay housed,” Tipping Point CEO Sam Cobbs said. “Just about anything that a family needs to stay housed and to improve, increase their income, these dollars will be used to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelter beds are set up in an auditorium at Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School on June 10, 2024, which operates as one of San Francisco’s largest homeless shelters. The nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services runs the shelter after hours and during the summer when school is not in session for San Francisco Unified School District students and their families. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lurie \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999069/what-can-the-sf-mayor-actually-do-about-homelessness\">vowed on the campaign trail\u003c/a> to build 1,500 shelter beds and more affordable housing to significantly reduce homelessness, something many of his predecessors also attempted and struggled to achieve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of his first attempts to steer the homelessness response was a law expanding his powers as mayor to more quickly hire and contract services related to homelessness as well as the drug crisis. The Board of Supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">passed it last month\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ordinance also makes it easier for the city to solicit and receive private donations — known as behested payments — for such efforts. However, the mayor did not request the Tipping Point funding, according to Cobbs, who said it is not directly tied to his legislative efforts to cut red tape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12029248 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230911-MattieScottFreedomWest-019-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The donation is going directly to the nonprofits working on these issues; none of the dollars are going directly to the city,” Cobbs said, noting that all five of the nonprofits that will receive funds have contracts with the city. “Family homelessness is the fastest growing part of the homeless population in San Francisco, and this is really meant to prevent that from happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the donation has raised eyebrows by some government ethics watchdogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at California Common Cause, said there’s “potentially a slippery slope” around conflict of interest laws if donors close to Lurie see Tipping Point Community as a conduit for footing the city’s bills for contracts and services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lurie founded this organization and has recused himself; however, you can’t discount the fact that they are giving millions of dollars now after learning that Lurie wanted private enterprises to come in and help solve the homelessness problem,” McMorris said. “I hope the program is successful, but it does raise some new concerns for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding from Tipping Point will go toward five nonprofits working on homelessness prevention and services: Compass Family Services, APA Family Support Services, Booker T. Community Service Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers and Mission Economic Development Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1428\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-800x571.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1020x728.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1920x1371.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff at Compass Family Services pose for a portrait outside of the organization in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community will evaluate the results of the program after it concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For at-risk families in San Francisco, successfully preventing homelessness requires more than just financial support,” Compass Family Services CEO Erica Kisch said in a statement. “It requires childcare, stable employment, and ongoing wraparound support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $11 million donation is part of a broader $100 million fundraising initiative to address San Francisco homelessness that the Tipping Point Community started in 2017 when Lurie was still CEO. The organization donated $50 million to a program with similar goals in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point is still shy of meeting its $100 million goal, according to Cobbs. Meanwhile, the rate of family homelessness has increased in San Francisco in recent years, especially after the pandemic hit when many families were already struggling to afford the city’s high cost of living and lost employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The nonprofit that San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> founded before entering City Hall is now investing millions of dollars to help the city combat homelessness, a key issue on which the mayor has vowed to make progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community on Tuesday announced it will donate $11 million to support a pilot program aimed at preventing family homelessness, which surged by 94% in San Francisco last year, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/reports--september-2024--2024-point-time-count\">latest point-in-time count\u003c/a> of the city’s homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This investment assists families in crisis today while we develop and scale a model to support families in need for decades to come,” Lurie said in a statement. “Creating lasting change in San Francisco requires all hands on deck, and I’m proud to launch this critical public-private partnership with Tipping Point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 18-month pilot program will run through June 2026 and will fund direct assistance to approximately 1,500 households to support back rent and other living expenses for families at risk of losing their housing. The money will also be used to create a database of the city’s homelessness prevention efforts in an attempt to streamline the city’s network of services, which can be a complicated maze for families seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Perhaps there’s a family member with undiagnosed mental health issues, and that is one of the issues that is putting the family’s housing at risk. These dollars can help pay for health services for the family so that they can stay housed,” Tipping Point CEO Sam Cobbs said. “Just about anything that a family needs to stay housed and to improve, increase their income, these dollars will be used to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelter beds are set up in an auditorium at Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School on June 10, 2024, which operates as one of San Francisco’s largest homeless shelters. The nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services runs the shelter after hours and during the summer when school is not in session for San Francisco Unified School District students and their families. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lurie \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999069/what-can-the-sf-mayor-actually-do-about-homelessness\">vowed on the campaign trail\u003c/a> to build 1,500 shelter beds and more affordable housing to significantly reduce homelessness, something many of his predecessors also attempted and struggled to achieve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of his first attempts to steer the homelessness response was a law expanding his powers as mayor to more quickly hire and contract services related to homelessness as well as the drug crisis. The Board of Supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">passed it last month\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ordinance also makes it easier for the city to solicit and receive private donations — known as behested payments — for such efforts. However, the mayor did not request the Tipping Point funding, according to Cobbs, who said it is not directly tied to his legislative efforts to cut red tape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The donation is going directly to the nonprofits working on these issues; none of the dollars are going directly to the city,” Cobbs said, noting that all five of the nonprofits that will receive funds have contracts with the city. “Family homelessness is the fastest growing part of the homeless population in San Francisco, and this is really meant to prevent that from happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the donation has raised eyebrows by some government ethics watchdogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at California Common Cause, said there’s “potentially a slippery slope” around conflict of interest laws if donors close to Lurie see Tipping Point Community as a conduit for footing the city’s bills for contracts and services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lurie founded this organization and has recused himself; however, you can’t discount the fact that they are giving millions of dollars now after learning that Lurie wanted private enterprises to come in and help solve the homelessness problem,” McMorris said. “I hope the program is successful, but it does raise some new concerns for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding from Tipping Point will go toward five nonprofits working on homelessness prevention and services: Compass Family Services, APA Family Support Services, Booker T. Community Service Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers and Mission Economic Development Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1428\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-800x571.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1020x728.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1920x1371.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff at Compass Family Services pose for a portrait outside of the organization in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community will evaluate the results of the program after it concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For at-risk families in San Francisco, successfully preventing homelessness requires more than just financial support,” Compass Family Services CEO Erica Kisch said in a statement. “It requires childcare, stable employment, and ongoing wraparound support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $11 million donation is part of a broader $100 million fundraising initiative to address San Francisco homelessness that the Tipping Point Community started in 2017 when Lurie was still CEO. The organization donated $50 million to a program with similar goals in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point is still shy of meeting its $100 million goal, according to Cobbs. Meanwhile, the rate of family homelessness has increased in San Francisco in recent years, especially after the pandemic hit when many families were already struggling to afford the city’s high cost of living and lost employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San José leaders have announced a new and controversial plan as part of their efforts to end street homelessness. ‘Homeward Bound’ will offer to send unhoused residents to family or friends who are willing to take them in. Mayor Matt Mahan says it’s an additional tool to get people off the streets, while some homelessness advocates say it’s an ineffective and inhumane approach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028615/san-jose-adopts-controversial-plan-to-bus-homeless-people-out-of-the-city\">San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3422661440&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] Homelessness in San Jose is a major problem. Over 6 ,300 people counted as homeless in some of the latest numbers. Usually those counts are considered undercounts, so it’s a significant problem. People have a lot of different feelings about how it should be approached, but most people seem to agree that it’s a major problem that the city should be doing all it can to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:39] And so what has the city been doing about homelessness, especially the mayor, Matt Mahan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:46] So Mayor Matt Mahan, since taking office and even during his initial campaigns, you know, he’s been pushing for what he called basics, right? Back to basics was one of his campaign slogans about public safety and about homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] I want us to act with a greater sense of urgency. I think we have have a true humanitarian crisis on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And what he’s done now since having the governing power for a couple of years is really push things toward shorter term solutions. The city has said that with their current shelter space, both with places run by the county and by the city, but within the bounds of San Jose, there are several thousand people who still do not have places to go right now, even as the city plans to in the next several months and coming years more than triple its temporary shelter space, there’s still going to be a shortage for a long time, even in some very optimistic projections. And so in the past, while the city has kind of taken a mixed approach towards supporting things like permanent affordable housing and supportive housing with services, so people have a place to live forever, and also supported some short -term solutions like temporary shelters, Mayor Matt Mahan has really pushed it toward a focus almost entirely on short -term. like temporary shelters, like sanctioned encampments, like safe parking sites, and now this latest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] We’re talking now, Joseph, speaking of this latest program, because last Tuesday, the city of San Jose announced that it would be launching a pilot program called Homeward Bound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:26] Yeah, so the mayor and the city’s director of housing, Eric Solivan, came out and essentially told folks at a press conference that the city is putting up $200,000 of its housing funds to help support a pilot program to buy train or bus tickets for people who are unhoused in the city, so long as they have somewhere to go in another part of the city or another part of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:03:51] Homeward Bound offers one way out. If our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system for someone who truly doesn’t have anyone to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] The city is willing to help facilitate their transportation and get them to this place where they may become, you know, housed and more stable. And it’s not a new idea. Other cities have tried this, but in San Jose, this would be the first time the city is officially kind of supporting it from its own housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] I want to know about the details here. Like, how is that going to work? Are they going to take a survey? Like, hey, who has family that could take them in? Who is this intended for? How is this going to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:38] Yeah so technically anybody who’s currently unhoused is eligible. If you are one of the many thousands living on the streets of San Jose and trying to find a better situation you have the prerequisites already. Outreach workers who work for the city currently or who contract with the city through a non -profit who are already going out to talk to unhoused people on a daily or weekly basis and learn about their living situation and ask them about their needs well they’re essentially just going to be adding one more question into something that they might already be talking with them about, and that question’s going to be, hey, do you think you have a family member or a friend or someone from your past who would be willing to put you up? And if that conversation develops into, you know, the right opportunity being there, that outreach worker can verify some of those details with, like, a phone call to a family member or a friend and try to ensure that all that is correct and that there’s a person willing to accept someone on the other end. And then if that all lines up, they can help them buy a bus or train ticket right there on the spot, or maybe within a couple of days and get this person set up and on their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] And this would be a bus or train ticket to potentially anywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] Anywhere. Yeah, it sounds like anywhere that can be reached by bus or train up to a $1 ,000 limit is what the city said they will spend on each person. At least in the early going here, that’s going to be on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:01] You know, I know that you can, through this program, get transported to another part of San Jose. It’s not just to get people out of the area. But I do think embedded in this story is this idea that I hear a lot, which is that people come to cities in California, like San Jose, San Francisco, LA, from other parts of the country because it’s a better place to live outside. It’s warmer and there’s more resources to essentially take advantage of. How true is that in San Jose? Do we even know how many people living outside in San Jose are from out of town versus in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:06:40] It’s a common misconception that a lot of people who are unhoused might come to places like San Jose for, you know, more generous handouts or better weather, but the data doesn’t really support that. What we have seen in surveys from city and county officials who who work with the unhoused is that the large majority of people living on the streets of San Jose right now report that their last known physical address was in San Jose or in Santa Clara County, which is a broad place. but certainly they’re not necessarily, you know coming from afar before they became homeless they were living here or living in this region when whatever the circumstances were that occurred to make them lose their houses\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] As you said, this is new for San Jose, but isn’t new in general. And this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this idea. Do we have any examples, recent examples or otherwise, of this type of program in action?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Absolutely. One of the best programs, I guess, to make a comparison for here in the Bay Area is San Francisco. In San Francisco, they had a program called Homeward Bound, which is the same name as the San Jose program that’s been running for about 20 years. That program was started by then -mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. The issue there is we’ve had some kind of mixed results in terms of understanding how successful it has been. Some of the issues might be, okay, so the person gets set up with this ticket, they end up where they’re going, and maybe even they call the back to let them know. that, yes, I’ve made it to so -and -so’s place, and things are going good. But who knows what happens to them a week, a month, three months, a year out? Are they becoming homeless in another city or another portion of the city? Are they struggling in some way? Is their life improving in a marked way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] The lack of a bus ticket home is not the root cause of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] I spoke with Dr. Jamie Chang, she’s an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, and she has raised some concerns about whether or not the program does enough to find out if it is a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] There is very, very little evidence as to the long -term success of these programs. We don’t really know what happens to people once they’re dropped off at their destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:03] And that’s why some people have concerns about whether or not the program is doing what it actually intends to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:09:09] While these programs might temporarily be effective at removing people from an area without a system in place to ensure their success elsewhere, I’m skeptical about its overall efficacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:27] Okay, so people like Mayor Matt Mahan say, this is just one tool in the toolbox. We’re trying a lot of things. If you have a loved one who can take care of you somewhere else, we will help you get there. People like Dr. Chang are warning that there’s not a lot of data or evidence that this really works, at least based on San Francisco’s experience. I gotta imagine there are critics based in San Jose as well who think that this is a bad idea, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] Yeah, one of the people I spoke with is Gail Osmer, and she’s a long -time advocate for people who are unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] I don’t agree with it. Some people do want to go home and it works for them and I think it’s a great idea, but I think mainly it’s going to be a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] But her biggest concern when I spoke with her about this is, you know, a few things. First of all, a trust element. She’s not really certain that folks who are in the unhoused community who might have a little bit of, you know, distrust of authority figures and stuff, or someone they may not know in an outreach worker very closely, that they’re just going to start spilling all these details about their friends or family or their past lives or somebody who might be able to take them in. You know, it may not be a subject they want to talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] Do you think the unhoused are going to trust a stranger or somebody they don’t really know to give them information or even talk to them about going home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] The second problem she had, of course, is just similar to Dr. Chang, is the verification of where they’re going to end up. And, you know, she raised an example, of course, that the city, even through its best efforts and good faith, may not actually be able to verify what kind of home environment people are going to be sent to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:04] But there’s a lot of problems that people have probably at home, you know, and we don’t know the home environment. What if somebody is clean and sober and they send them home or whatever, and they’re in a home where there’s, you know, alcoholism?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] The connotation with hearing about bus or train tickets being offered for unhoused people to essentially leave the area, it does sometimes strike people the wrong way. One of the concerns that Gail Osmer raised with us was that she believes the mayor might be doing this for the wrong reasons. She said essentially that he wants unhoused people out of sight and out of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:48] I think this is just a way to get rid of the unhoused from the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] So all that said, Joseph, what’s next for the program? I know it was just announced on Tuesday. What has the city said? How will we know if it’s working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Yeah, so, you know, as far as the city officials have told us, this can pretty much be implemented immediately and get started right away. The city did say it is going to emphasize that upfront verification. It’s gonna do all it can through its teams and its workers to ensure that the person or place that they are helping an unhoused person reach in the end is a good place for them. As far as whether the follow -up is actually going to be there, it sounds like the city is not going to put a lot of resources into that. So what kind of data and what kind of qualitative evaluation the city is gonna put into deciding whether or not to. continue or expand this program in the future after its initial run, it still kind of remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] We should say this is one of many things San Jose is doing. You know, it’s a $200 ,000 pilot program, which is not a lot of money for a city of San Jose size, definitely a lot of money for a regular person. But what does this story tell us about the city’s priorities when it comes to homelessness and housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:13] This program in particular, along with all these other efforts, will kind of fit into a larger picture, so to speak, of what Mayor Matt Mahon has really staked part of his reputation on is his approach to this issue. And I think he wants to be the mayor who says, I ended street homelessness in San Jose in my tenure. I got 5,000 plus people off the street in short order. But if it doesn’t end up working out in the long term, you know, there could be bigger questions. He doesn’t want, as he just said last week, he doesn’t want perfect to be the enemy of good. He openly admitted that it’s easy for folks to poke holes in some of these attempts or some of these programs. It’s easy to say there are problems with this approach or gaps in this approach or it may not be correct for everybody. But he’s saying because of the literal life and death stakes for the people living on the street, that something needs to be done now and the city is willing to try multiple efforts to reach this goal.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San José leaders have announced a new and controversial plan as part of their efforts to end street homelessness. ‘Homeward Bound’ will offer to send unhoused residents to family or friends who are willing to take them in. Mayor Matt Mahan says it’s an additional tool to get people off the streets, while some homelessness advocates say it’s an ineffective and inhumane approach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028615/san-jose-adopts-controversial-plan-to-bus-homeless-people-out-of-the-city\">San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3422661440&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] Homelessness in San Jose is a major problem. Over 6 ,300 people counted as homeless in some of the latest numbers. Usually those counts are considered undercounts, so it’s a significant problem. People have a lot of different feelings about how it should be approached, but most people seem to agree that it’s a major problem that the city should be doing all it can to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:39] And so what has the city been doing about homelessness, especially the mayor, Matt Mahan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:46] So Mayor Matt Mahan, since taking office and even during his initial campaigns, you know, he’s been pushing for what he called basics, right? Back to basics was one of his campaign slogans about public safety and about homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] I want us to act with a greater sense of urgency. I think we have have a true humanitarian crisis on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And what he’s done now since having the governing power for a couple of years is really push things toward shorter term solutions. The city has said that with their current shelter space, both with places run by the county and by the city, but within the bounds of San Jose, there are several thousand people who still do not have places to go right now, even as the city plans to in the next several months and coming years more than triple its temporary shelter space, there’s still going to be a shortage for a long time, even in some very optimistic projections. And so in the past, while the city has kind of taken a mixed approach towards supporting things like permanent affordable housing and supportive housing with services, so people have a place to live forever, and also supported some short -term solutions like temporary shelters, Mayor Matt Mahan has really pushed it toward a focus almost entirely on short -term. like temporary shelters, like sanctioned encampments, like safe parking sites, and now this latest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] We’re talking now, Joseph, speaking of this latest program, because last Tuesday, the city of San Jose announced that it would be launching a pilot program called Homeward Bound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:26] Yeah, so the mayor and the city’s director of housing, Eric Solivan, came out and essentially told folks at a press conference that the city is putting up $200,000 of its housing funds to help support a pilot program to buy train or bus tickets for people who are unhoused in the city, so long as they have somewhere to go in another part of the city or another part of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:03:51] Homeward Bound offers one way out. If our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system for someone who truly doesn’t have anyone to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] The city is willing to help facilitate their transportation and get them to this place where they may become, you know, housed and more stable. And it’s not a new idea. Other cities have tried this, but in San Jose, this would be the first time the city is officially kind of supporting it from its own housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] I want to know about the details here. Like, how is that going to work? Are they going to take a survey? Like, hey, who has family that could take them in? Who is this intended for? How is this going to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:38] Yeah so technically anybody who’s currently unhoused is eligible. If you are one of the many thousands living on the streets of San Jose and trying to find a better situation you have the prerequisites already. Outreach workers who work for the city currently or who contract with the city through a non -profit who are already going out to talk to unhoused people on a daily or weekly basis and learn about their living situation and ask them about their needs well they’re essentially just going to be adding one more question into something that they might already be talking with them about, and that question’s going to be, hey, do you think you have a family member or a friend or someone from your past who would be willing to put you up? And if that conversation develops into, you know, the right opportunity being there, that outreach worker can verify some of those details with, like, a phone call to a family member or a friend and try to ensure that all that is correct and that there’s a person willing to accept someone on the other end. And then if that all lines up, they can help them buy a bus or train ticket right there on the spot, or maybe within a couple of days and get this person set up and on their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] And this would be a bus or train ticket to potentially anywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] Anywhere. Yeah, it sounds like anywhere that can be reached by bus or train up to a $1 ,000 limit is what the city said they will spend on each person. At least in the early going here, that’s going to be on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:01] You know, I know that you can, through this program, get transported to another part of San Jose. It’s not just to get people out of the area. But I do think embedded in this story is this idea that I hear a lot, which is that people come to cities in California, like San Jose, San Francisco, LA, from other parts of the country because it’s a better place to live outside. It’s warmer and there’s more resources to essentially take advantage of. How true is that in San Jose? Do we even know how many people living outside in San Jose are from out of town versus in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:06:40] It’s a common misconception that a lot of people who are unhoused might come to places like San Jose for, you know, more generous handouts or better weather, but the data doesn’t really support that. What we have seen in surveys from city and county officials who who work with the unhoused is that the large majority of people living on the streets of San Jose right now report that their last known physical address was in San Jose or in Santa Clara County, which is a broad place. but certainly they’re not necessarily, you know coming from afar before they became homeless they were living here or living in this region when whatever the circumstances were that occurred to make them lose their houses\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] As you said, this is new for San Jose, but isn’t new in general. And this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this idea. Do we have any examples, recent examples or otherwise, of this type of program in action?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Absolutely. One of the best programs, I guess, to make a comparison for here in the Bay Area is San Francisco. In San Francisco, they had a program called Homeward Bound, which is the same name as the San Jose program that’s been running for about 20 years. That program was started by then -mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. The issue there is we’ve had some kind of mixed results in terms of understanding how successful it has been. Some of the issues might be, okay, so the person gets set up with this ticket, they end up where they’re going, and maybe even they call the back to let them know. that, yes, I’ve made it to so -and -so’s place, and things are going good. But who knows what happens to them a week, a month, three months, a year out? Are they becoming homeless in another city or another portion of the city? Are they struggling in some way? Is their life improving in a marked way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] The lack of a bus ticket home is not the root cause of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] I spoke with Dr. Jamie Chang, she’s an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, and she has raised some concerns about whether or not the program does enough to find out if it is a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] There is very, very little evidence as to the long -term success of these programs. We don’t really know what happens to people once they’re dropped off at their destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:03] And that’s why some people have concerns about whether or not the program is doing what it actually intends to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:09:09] While these programs might temporarily be effective at removing people from an area without a system in place to ensure their success elsewhere, I’m skeptical about its overall efficacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:27] Okay, so people like Mayor Matt Mahan say, this is just one tool in the toolbox. We’re trying a lot of things. If you have a loved one who can take care of you somewhere else, we will help you get there. People like Dr. Chang are warning that there’s not a lot of data or evidence that this really works, at least based on San Francisco’s experience. I gotta imagine there are critics based in San Jose as well who think that this is a bad idea, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] Yeah, one of the people I spoke with is Gail Osmer, and she’s a long -time advocate for people who are unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] I don’t agree with it. Some people do want to go home and it works for them and I think it’s a great idea, but I think mainly it’s going to be a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] But her biggest concern when I spoke with her about this is, you know, a few things. First of all, a trust element. She’s not really certain that folks who are in the unhoused community who might have a little bit of, you know, distrust of authority figures and stuff, or someone they may not know in an outreach worker very closely, that they’re just going to start spilling all these details about their friends or family or their past lives or somebody who might be able to take them in. You know, it may not be a subject they want to talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] Do you think the unhoused are going to trust a stranger or somebody they don’t really know to give them information or even talk to them about going home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] The second problem she had, of course, is just similar to Dr. Chang, is the verification of where they’re going to end up. And, you know, she raised an example, of course, that the city, even through its best efforts and good faith, may not actually be able to verify what kind of home environment people are going to be sent to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:04] But there’s a lot of problems that people have probably at home, you know, and we don’t know the home environment. What if somebody is clean and sober and they send them home or whatever, and they’re in a home where there’s, you know, alcoholism?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] The connotation with hearing about bus or train tickets being offered for unhoused people to essentially leave the area, it does sometimes strike people the wrong way. One of the concerns that Gail Osmer raised with us was that she believes the mayor might be doing this for the wrong reasons. She said essentially that he wants unhoused people out of sight and out of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:48] I think this is just a way to get rid of the unhoused from the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] So all that said, Joseph, what’s next for the program? I know it was just announced on Tuesday. What has the city said? How will we know if it’s working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Yeah, so, you know, as far as the city officials have told us, this can pretty much be implemented immediately and get started right away. The city did say it is going to emphasize that upfront verification. It’s gonna do all it can through its teams and its workers to ensure that the person or place that they are helping an unhoused person reach in the end is a good place for them. As far as whether the follow -up is actually going to be there, it sounds like the city is not going to put a lot of resources into that. So what kind of data and what kind of qualitative evaluation the city is gonna put into deciding whether or not to. continue or expand this program in the future after its initial run, it still kind of remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] We should say this is one of many things San Jose is doing. You know, it’s a $200 ,000 pilot program, which is not a lot of money for a city of San Jose size, definitely a lot of money for a regular person. But what does this story tell us about the city’s priorities when it comes to homelessness and housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:13] This program in particular, along with all these other efforts, will kind of fit into a larger picture, so to speak, of what Mayor Matt Mahon has really staked part of his reputation on is his approach to this issue. And I think he wants to be the mayor who says, I ended street homelessness in San Jose in my tenure. I got 5,000 plus people off the street in short order. But if it doesn’t end up working out in the long term, you know, there could be bigger questions. He doesn’t want, as he just said last week, he doesn’t want perfect to be the enemy of good. He openly admitted that it’s easy for folks to poke holes in some of these attempts or some of these programs. It’s easy to say there are problems with this approach or gaps in this approach or it may not be correct for everybody. But he’s saying because of the literal life and death stakes for the people living on the street, that something needs to be done now and the city is willing to try multiple efforts to reach this goal.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Look, There’s Nowhere Else to Go’: Inside California’s Crackdown on Homeless Camps",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-homeless-camps-grants-pass-ruling/\">fundamentally changed\u003c/a> how cities in California and beyond can respond to homeless encampments, allowing them to clear camps and arrest people for sleeping outside — even when there’s nowhere else to sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-homeless-camps-grants-pass-ruling/\">July ruling\u003c/a> in the case \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-175.html\">Grants Pass v. Johnson\u003c/a> upended six years of protections for unhoused people. It was a radical change, and it came as many Californians, from small business owners to Gov. Gavin Newsom, were fed up with regularly seeing tent camps that stretched for blocks, human feces smeared on sidewalks and people injecting drugs in the open. Once the Supreme Court gave the green light, even liberal strongholds such as San Francisco were quick to start removing camps — despite a collective outcry from activists supporting the rights of homeless Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What has that meant for people living outside?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spent four months interviewing experts, requesting data and making a dozen visits to encampments in San Francisco and Fresno to document enforcement efforts and follow the unhoused people displaced when their camps were cleared. Our public media partner, KPBS, did extensive reporting and visits to encampments in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts agree clearing or “sweeping” encampments alone can’t end \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/housing/homelessness/\">homelessness\u003c/a>. But here’s what we did see over and over as a result of sweeps in those cities: people becoming more likely to lose touch with support services, people losing essential items they need to get into housing (such as birth certificates) or to survive the elements (such as tents) and people still stuck on the streets — sometimes in new locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some cases, cities try to pair enforcement with \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">offers of a shelter bed\u003c/a> or other services. But shelter is generally in short supply, and the types of programs available often don’t work for everyone on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cities are continuing with enforcement, anyway. Here’s what that looks like.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Francisco\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Linda Vazquez sat cross-legged on the sidewalk during an afternoon last fall, with two dogs in her lap and her hands cuffed behind her back. A police officer stood over her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beside her, balanced on a camp stove, sat the pot of chicharrones she’d been cooking for lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vazquez, 52, was clearly upset. “Because I did \u003cem>so \u003c/em>bad,” she yelled sarcastically at the officer, who was citing her for “unauthorized lodging,” a misdemeanor under California’s penal code. “This is the biggest crime ever.”[aside postID=news_12028502 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/Evelyn-Alfred-3.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The police didn’t end up taking Vazquez to jail, and instead gave her a slip of paper with a date to show up in court. They did confiscate the tarp she was sheltering under as “evidence,” making it harder for her to survive on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/02/california-homeless-camping-citation-trials/\">citation \u003c/a>was Vazquez’s second in two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within hours, Vazquez was back, setting up camp in the same spot — a block that had essentially become hers. Vazquez was known throughout the neighborhood, always surrounded by dogs and friends. On any given day, you might find her cooking meals to share, giving away blankets and other provisions to her unhoused neighbors or hitting people who caused trouble on the block with a blast of water from her Super Soaker squirt gun. At night, she watched horror movies on a tablet in her tent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vazquez continued to camp there for the next three months and received at least one more citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said, ‘look, there’s nowhere else to go,’” Vazquez said. ‘“All the other places are doing the same thing. So where do you want me to go? Where do you want me to hide out?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A California native, Vazquez grew up bouncing between Modesto, Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Monterey and other places as her mother found work on different farms. Her life took a turn for the worse in her 20s when, she says, her former partner became abusive. She fled to San Francisco in 1998, and for the past few years has been bouncing between the street, shelters and subsidized housing placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Encampment removals in Vazquez’s neighborhood — a handful of alleys that run between Van Ness Avenue and Larkin Street at the edge of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood — have fallen into a predictable rhythm. There are sweeps nearly every Monday and Friday, regular as clockwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029253\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029253\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘It’s ridiculous because, if it was actually sweeping, then I’d understand, but since it’s not actually sweeping, the fuck are you moving me for? Then I got to deal with all this shit, then all the toppings you want to put on it, like getting citations, going to jail and all that. Why?’ said Linda Vazquez, 52. Above, Vazquez tidies her belongings outside of her tent on Cedar Street in San Francisco on Nov. 19, 2024. \u003ccite>(Jungho Kim for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029259\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029259\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Linda Vazquez holds a citation for ‘unauthorized lodging’ from the San Francisco Police Department in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2024. Right: An encampment on Cedar Street in San Francisco on Nov. 19, 2024. \u003ccite>(Jungho Kim for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CalMatters visited that area about twice a week for five weeks last fall. During that time, city outreach teams spoke with people camping there 138 times, according to Jackie Thornhill, spokesperson for the city’s Department of Emergency Management. They placed people in shelter 27 times, and placed one person in permanent housing. Police made 16 arrests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On most days during that five-week span, CalMatters saw several people camped on each block, despite the frequent sweeps. Their reasons for living on the street varied. Many couldn’t stand being in a shelter. One man said he once saw a fellow shelter resident get raped, and since then, he’s avoided those facilities at all costs. A woman CalMatters spoke with said she already had housing in a city-funded SRO, but she’s a victim of domestic violence, and her abuser found out where she lives. Now, she doesn’t feel safe going back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">CalMatters investigation\u003c/a> revealed that many California shelters are a purgatory — plagued by unsanitary and unsafe conditions, and operating with next-to-no oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people opt to sleep on the street and try to be gone in the morning before the city shows up to kick them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not uncommon for as many as a dozen city workers to participate in an encampment removal, including police, fire department paramedics and staff from the city’s Department of Emergency Management, Homeless Outreach Team and Encampment Resolution Team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That work is coordinated by Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the city’s Department of Emergency Management. The goal, she said, is to clean up and offer people services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes people will get up and move around and come back after,” said Carroll, who was on site as her team cleaned up encampments in Vazquez’s neighborhood on a Friday afternoon last fall. “But…it’s a matter of consistency, to just keep coming and addressing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that Friday, Carroll’s team spoke with 13 people camping in the alleyways between Van Ness and Larkin. None of them accepted a shelter bed. From January through early November 2024, her team engaged with people in that area 930 times, and referred people to shelter 180 times. In another 47 cases, the person already had housing or shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Typically, only between 20% and 30% of people accept a shelter bed when it’s offered, according to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those low placement numbers, and with people returning over and over to camp on the same streets, are the city’s efforts helping?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that it is helping, overall,” Carroll said. Clearing encampments is just part of a broader strategy that includes outreach and services, but it’s an important piece, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To David Schmitz, a 60-year-old photographer who lives in an apartment overlooking the street where Vazquez camps, the encampment sweeps have made a difference. When he first moved in, about four months earlier, it was common to see at least a dozen tents on the street. People frequently urinated against his garage door, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the November afternoon that he spoke to CalMatters, the city had just finished a clean-up that left the street spotless — not a tent or piece of trash in sight. Schmitz said he’d never seen it so clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029262\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029262\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An unhoused man carries a tarp and some of his belongings across Polk Street during a homeless encampment sweep in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2024. Unhoused people on Cedar Street are forced to move their shelters and belongings on a regular basis by San Francisco city workers. \u003ccite>(Jungho Kim for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was euphoric,” he said. “I was like, this is amazing. This is what it could be like, you know. If it were like this … I would see my neighbors more. It wouldn’t be such an apocalyptic feeling to come out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone caught camping gets cited or arrested. Police typically give people citations if they have pitched a tent or strung up a tarp, like Vazquez did, to use as shelter, but not if they are sleeping in the open on just a blanket, said Sgt. J. Ellison with the police department’s Healthy Streets Operation Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellison sees Vazquez frequently because many of the city’s shelter and transitional housing programs won’t allow all of Vazquez’s dogs. She has three, and she’s unwilling to give any up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t leave them,” Vazquez said, “because I’ve had them since they were the size of my hand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, nearly every Monday and Friday, Vazquez and her friends packed up everything they owned and moved around the corner, waiting there until the police and other city personnel left and they could return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent rainy Monday afternoon, Vazquez was sick, huddling in a small tent with a hairdryer on (using jumper cables to siphon power from a nearby street light) to keep warm. The city came three days earlier and took her larger, gray tent, tarps, portable heater and other belongings, she said. It was raining then, too, and Vazquez said she stood outside in the rain for hours until a friend could give her a new tent. All her clothes got soaked — as did the two paper camping citations that told her when she was supposed to appear in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city was coming again that afternoon to clear the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have no energy at all,” Vazquez said, sniffling and coughing. “But I have to move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after, Vazquez found a hotel in San Francisco that agreed to take her and her three dogs. A room there costs $70 a day — money Vazquez pays with her disability benefits. She found the place on her own, without the city’s help, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vazquez isn’t sure how long she’ll be able to keep up with the payments. But she has a more pressing concern: The hotel is making her leave temporarily, so that it doesn’t have to grant her tenant’s rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where will she go until she can return?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess I’m going to be in a tent for three days,” she said. “And then I’m going to come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Diego\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Diego’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2023/07/31/san-diegos-unsafe-camping-ordinance-enforcement-begins\">unsafe camping ordinance\u003c/a> went into effect nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision. It prohibits tent camping in all public spaces if shelter beds are available, and near homeless shelters, schools, parks and transit centers regardless of shelter availability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also outlined the process for clearing encampments, reducing \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/homelessness-strategies-and-solutions/about/legal-settlements#:~:text=Isaiah%20Settlement%20(2011)&text=A%20one%2Dtime%20settlement%20payment,individuals%20could%20store%20personal%20belongings.\">a previous 72-hour\u003c/a> notice to just 24 hours. Part of the process includes the city’s Environmental Services Department posting neon green notices prior to clearing an encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aldea Secory has gotten used to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every other day, pretty much, they make us clean up and move,” she said. She and her husband found they could avoid the sweeps for a while if they stayed near the freeway, on state property the California Department of Transportation oversees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were on the side of the freeway for, like, a month,” Secory said. Then, she said, the California Highway Patrol swept that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the last time we lost all our stuff,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to come back to that. You have to start over again and again and again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty-four hours after the green notices get posted on fences, light posts, tents or nearby vegetation, city staff take photos of the site and look through any remaining bags, boxes and other items that might contain valuable belongings, such as paperwork or medication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1027\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-800x524.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-1536x1006.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flyer giving 24 hours’ notice before an encampment cleanup hangs in Downtown San Diego on Jan. 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Katie Anastas/KPBS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Franklin Coopersmith, deputy director of the Environmental Services Department’s Clean SD Division, said cleanup can take around 10 to 30 minutes in places with frequent sweeps, such as downtown surface streets. In more remote areas, like canyons, it can take several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Secory said she’s had valuable items discarded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve thrown brand new things away,” she said. “I had a brand new $35, $40 bag of dog food just thrown away. Beds, clothes, it doesn’t matter. Birth certificates, medication. Doesn’t matter. They just throw it away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Personal items can get discarded for a few reasons, Coopersmith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, he said, they’re in pockets or containers city employees might miss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of times, too, people are storing them with food that’s spoiled or bags that have gotten wet and they’ve turned moldy,” he said. “We’re not going to be searching a moldy bag that might have a birth certificate at the very bottom of it. If they’re putting their ID or something next to a meth pipe, our code officers aren’t going to be going through that stuff to figure it out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any remaining items soiled with moisture, food, human waste, pet waste, insect infestation, drug paraphernalia or in disrepair are then discarded,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/homelessness-strategies-and-solutions/services/abatement\">their policy reads\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12026580 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250210_Unhoused-Ban_DMB_00250.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people that are out there on the streets know that if it’s something important, they need to keep it close to them or in a place that’s easy for them to grab,” Coopersmith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the cleanup, the city posts a yellow flyer with information on how to get those non-discarded items back. Coopersmith said they put the notices close to where they found the items. They’ll keep things in storage for up to 90 days and deliver them back to the owner, according to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Secory and her husband now live in a tent at one of two campgrounds the city has created on vacant land. The sites, known as Safe Sleeping sites, are operated by Dreams for Change, a nonprofit that provides homeless services and food distribution. The\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/dfc-safe-sleeping-program.pdf\"> city provides restrooms and wash stations\u003c/a> and pays the nonprofit to provide outdoor sleeping arrangements, a daily meal and a snack. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/public-safety/2024/09/20/providers-city-leaders-and-researchers-say-safe-parking-fills-critical-gap-in-shelter-services\">asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u003c/a> to consider those sites as shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having somewhere to keep your stuff and not worry about it getting stolen or messed up, it’s a big help,” Secory said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego’s camping ordinance has made it more difficult for service providers like Jenni Wilkens to stay in contact with unhoused people. She manages the street health program at Father Joe’s Villages, a nonprofit that runs shelters and does outreach work. Staff from their Village Health Center visit encampments weekly to provide help such as wound care, substance use disorder counseling and prescription management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Prior to the ordinance going into effect, we had very, very tight relationships with the community members we were serving,” Wilkens said. “We always knew where we could find them. Follow-up was much, much easier. They knew where to expect us, and we just knew we were going to be able to find our folks. Since the camping ordinance passed, the abatement sweeps have been much more frequent and much more aggressive. So we have not been able to provide that quality follow-up care that we used to be able to provide, just because everybody is moving. We lose track of our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the patients, Lee Alirez, has high blood pressure. She’d been dealing with headaches, blurred vision and chest pain before she got diagnosed. Moving her camp frequently has made it hard to stay in contact with the health team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a couple of different times they couldn’t find me, and I was just literally across the street and around the corner,” Alirez said. “And that was in the midst of all that, trying to figure out what was going on with my blood pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029266\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lee Alirez sits with her dog on Jan. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Matt Bowler/KPBS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some cases, Wilkens said, the frequent movement has made people more likely to accept shelter. But many others have moved to state property — freeway onramps and offramps, overpasses and under bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My team can’t put themselves at risk to reach our patients,” she said. “We also can’t go to a location and ask them to cross back over the freeway to see us. So they’re just getting further and further away from resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Shebloski, a captain with the San Diego Police Department’s Neighborhood Policing Division, said the city’s police don’t have the resources or authority to enforce city ordinances on state land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I understand the frustration when people see an encampment go from city property, where it feels like officers are doing their job, and it goes right over the state property. That’s frustrating,” he said. “We can only do so much, and we have to focus on city property. And I don’t know if we can get into the world of policing 151 miles of state highways within the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Encampments-EO-7-24.pdf\">ordered state agencies (PDF)\u003c/a> to clear encampments from state property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Caltrans District 11, which includes San Diego, wrote in an email that they prioritize removing encampments that present “a threat to infrastructure or people.” The agency gives a 48-hour notice to people in an encampment before a sweep, unless there’s an imminent safety risk, and gives social service providers and local governments two weeks’ notice so they can reach out to people staying there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shebloski said SDPD has been meeting with California Highway Patrol on how they can work together. But while the city’s neighborhood policing division has been active since 2018, Newsom’s executive order is less than a year old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you look at Caltrans and CHP, they have commuters. We have residents,” he said. “I think this is kind of a new thing for them to dive into.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fresno\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s become less common these days to see large homeless encampments in and around downtown Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But spend any time there, and you’ll see something else: People walking the streets, pushing carts and strollers loaded with blankets and other necessities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12005898/fresno-rolls-out-one-of-californias-most-aggressive-camping-bans\">city\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article291219750.html\">county\u003c/a> banned camping on all public property last year, but the area still struggles with a shortage of shelter beds. Now Robert Fox, 32, sleeps on the ground with no tent because it makes it easier to leave when the police come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I gotta leave, all I gotta do is push the cart and get out of here,” Fox said. “Every morning we pack up and have our stuff ready to go. You can’t get attached to anything. You can’t get comfortable. You’re always on the move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fox ended up outside after getting kicked out of a drug treatment program. He said he was selling drugs to raise money for new lodgings as the program’s end date approached. He spent a few nights at the nearby shelters, but to get a spot, he has to get in line early and spend hours waiting. If he does get a bed, he can’t bring all his belongings with him — so he worries about someone stealing what he has to leave on the street. It’s not worth it for one night inside, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029269\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno Police and city workers conduct a homeless encampment sweep under a highway overpass in downtown on Feb. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, he now sleeps on an empty dirt lot behind the Poverello House and Fresno Mission shelters, next to a set of railroad tracks and beneath an overpass. It’s near the methadone clinic he visits daily to keep himself off heroin and fentanyl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I had somewhere else to go, I wouldn’t be here,” Fox said. “Because they don’t really want us here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 people used to camp in the area around the Poverello House and Fresno Mission, and police mostly used to leave them alone, said advocates and people who live on the streets of Fresno.[aside postID=news_12019944 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/241203-FresnoCampingBan-74-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']“Over time, people have gotten more scared to go down there,” said Dez Martinez, a formerly homeless advocate who founded the grassroots organization We Are Not Invisible. She said people worried about getting arrested as police began enforcing the new camping ordinance. “Ever since the ordinance went into effect, (there are) a lot less people. Now everybody’s going to ‘abandos’ (abandoned buildings).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, the city removed a large homeless encampment that had spread across streets surrounding the shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not a very healthy and safe place for those that were camping there and for those nearby,” said Phil Skei, assistant director of the city’s Planning & Development Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation received a lot of fanfare — Mayor Jerry Dyer attended and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mayorjerrydyer/p/DB2N_R0yFNq/?img_index=1\">posted about it\u003c/a> on Instagram — and the city held dozens of shelter beds for people displaced from that area. Skei said the city brought 52 people into temporary shelter that day. Another roughly 30 left before the clean-up, and the city doesn’t know where they went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Skei says the city had a bed for everyone who wanted one that day, that’s not always the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a common occurrence where we show up to a place where there’s one person camping or two people camping and we don’t have shelter beds available that day,” Skei said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029272\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029272\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Activist Dez Martinez uses her phone to record police officers as they detain an unhoused person for questioning off the highway in Fresno on Jan. 30, 2025. Right: A homeless encampment located on a dirt lot in West Fresno on Jan. 30, 2025. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By late January, three months after the Poverello House operation, the surrounding streets were still mostly clear. Martinez said she knows of people arrested after coming back to that area. Skei said in “a minority of cases,” the city does resort to arrests to keep areas from getting re-encamped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But though the streets were empty, Fox wasn’t the only one sleeping on the dirt lot behind the shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leron Bell, 39, said officers with the California Highway Patrol make him move every few days. They usually give a warning of up to 20 minutes, he said, and if he doesn’t move fast enough, they start confiscating things he hasn’t packed up yet. So far, he’s lost a tent, a bicycle, a gas stove, his ID and his birth certificate, which he’s still having a hard time replacing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I try to rush,” Bell said, “hurry up and try to put as much as I can in either my shopping cart or my wagon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once he’s packed, he goes to the other side of the railroad tracks and waits until the officers leave. He’s been in and out of shelters, but the strict rules make him feel like he’s in jail, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate having to start over,” Bell said, “but, it’s like, I’m doing my best as I can being homeless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four miles away, another group of tents, makeshift shelters and vehicles was scattered across an empty dirt lot behind a Family Dollar store. That’s where Roy Tellez, 62, was living when CalMatters spoke to him this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, the police told him to pack up and leave his campside, so he did, he said. HHe was thirsty and needed water for his dog, so he pushed his cart, loaded with his belongings, to a store across the street. But police found him there and arrested him for camping, Tellez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he spent about four hours in jail — just long enough for people to steal all his belongings from where he left them on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What was the whole point?” he asked. “What was the inconvenience about?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "CalMatters spent four months interviewing experts, requesting data and making a dozen visits to encampments in San Francisco and Fresno to document enforcement efforts and follow the unhoused people displaced when their camps were cleared. ",
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"title": "‘Look, There’s Nowhere Else to Go’: Inside California’s Crackdown on Homeless Camps | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/marisa-kendall/\">Marisa Kendall\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/katie-anastas/\">Katie Anastas\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-homeless-camps-grants-pass-ruling/\">fundamentally changed\u003c/a> how cities in California and beyond can respond to homeless encampments, allowing them to clear camps and arrest people for sleeping outside — even when there’s nowhere else to sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-homeless-camps-grants-pass-ruling/\">July ruling\u003c/a> in the case \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-175.html\">Grants Pass v. Johnson\u003c/a> upended six years of protections for unhoused people. It was a radical change, and it came as many Californians, from small business owners to Gov. Gavin Newsom, were fed up with regularly seeing tent camps that stretched for blocks, human feces smeared on sidewalks and people injecting drugs in the open. Once the Supreme Court gave the green light, even liberal strongholds such as San Francisco were quick to start removing camps — despite a collective outcry from activists supporting the rights of homeless Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What has that meant for people living outside?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spent four months interviewing experts, requesting data and making a dozen visits to encampments in San Francisco and Fresno to document enforcement efforts and follow the unhoused people displaced when their camps were cleared. Our public media partner, KPBS, did extensive reporting and visits to encampments in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts agree clearing or “sweeping” encampments alone can’t end \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/housing/homelessness/\">homelessness\u003c/a>. But here’s what we did see over and over as a result of sweeps in those cities: people becoming more likely to lose touch with support services, people losing essential items they need to get into housing (such as birth certificates) or to survive the elements (such as tents) and people still stuck on the streets — sometimes in new locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some cases, cities try to pair enforcement with \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">offers of a shelter bed\u003c/a> or other services. But shelter is generally in short supply, and the types of programs available often don’t work for everyone on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cities are continuing with enforcement, anyway. Here’s what that looks like.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Francisco\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Linda Vazquez sat cross-legged on the sidewalk during an afternoon last fall, with two dogs in her lap and her hands cuffed behind her back. A police officer stood over her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beside her, balanced on a camp stove, sat the pot of chicharrones she’d been cooking for lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vazquez, 52, was clearly upset. “Because I did \u003cem>so \u003c/em>bad,” she yelled sarcastically at the officer, who was citing her for “unauthorized lodging,” a misdemeanor under California’s penal code. “This is the biggest crime ever.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The police didn’t end up taking Vazquez to jail, and instead gave her a slip of paper with a date to show up in court. They did confiscate the tarp she was sheltering under as “evidence,” making it harder for her to survive on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/02/california-homeless-camping-citation-trials/\">citation \u003c/a>was Vazquez’s second in two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within hours, Vazquez was back, setting up camp in the same spot — a block that had essentially become hers. Vazquez was known throughout the neighborhood, always surrounded by dogs and friends. On any given day, you might find her cooking meals to share, giving away blankets and other provisions to her unhoused neighbors or hitting people who caused trouble on the block with a blast of water from her Super Soaker squirt gun. At night, she watched horror movies on a tablet in her tent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vazquez continued to camp there for the next three months and received at least one more citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said, ‘look, there’s nowhere else to go,’” Vazquez said. ‘“All the other places are doing the same thing. So where do you want me to go? Where do you want me to hide out?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A California native, Vazquez grew up bouncing between Modesto, Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Monterey and other places as her mother found work on different farms. Her life took a turn for the worse in her 20s when, she says, her former partner became abusive. She fled to San Francisco in 1998, and for the past few years has been bouncing between the street, shelters and subsidized housing placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Encampment removals in Vazquez’s neighborhood — a handful of alleys that run between Van Ness Avenue and Larkin Street at the edge of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood — have fallen into a predictable rhythm. There are sweeps nearly every Monday and Friday, regular as clockwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029253\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029253\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/111924_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_04-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘It’s ridiculous because, if it was actually sweeping, then I’d understand, but since it’s not actually sweeping, the fuck are you moving me for? Then I got to deal with all this shit, then all the toppings you want to put on it, like getting citations, going to jail and all that. Why?’ said Linda Vazquez, 52. Above, Vazquez tidies her belongings outside of her tent on Cedar Street in San Francisco on Nov. 19, 2024. \u003ccite>(Jungho Kim for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029259\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029259\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Linda Vazquez holds a citation for ‘unauthorized lodging’ from the San Francisco Police Department in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2024. Right: An encampment on Cedar Street in San Francisco on Nov. 19, 2024. \u003ccite>(Jungho Kim for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CalMatters visited that area about twice a week for five weeks last fall. During that time, city outreach teams spoke with people camping there 138 times, according to Jackie Thornhill, spokesperson for the city’s Department of Emergency Management. They placed people in shelter 27 times, and placed one person in permanent housing. Police made 16 arrests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On most days during that five-week span, CalMatters saw several people camped on each block, despite the frequent sweeps. Their reasons for living on the street varied. Many couldn’t stand being in a shelter. One man said he once saw a fellow shelter resident get raped, and since then, he’s avoided those facilities at all costs. A woman CalMatters spoke with said she already had housing in a city-funded SRO, but she’s a victim of domestic violence, and her abuser found out where she lives. Now, she doesn’t feel safe going back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">CalMatters investigation\u003c/a> revealed that many California shelters are a purgatory — plagued by unsanitary and unsafe conditions, and operating with next-to-no oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people opt to sleep on the street and try to be gone in the morning before the city shows up to kick them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not uncommon for as many as a dozen city workers to participate in an encampment removal, including police, fire department paramedics and staff from the city’s Department of Emergency Management, Homeless Outreach Team and Encampment Resolution Team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That work is coordinated by Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the city’s Department of Emergency Management. The goal, she said, is to clean up and offer people services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes people will get up and move around and come back after,” said Carroll, who was on site as her team cleaned up encampments in Vazquez’s neighborhood on a Friday afternoon last fall. “But…it’s a matter of consistency, to just keep coming and addressing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that Friday, Carroll’s team spoke with 13 people camping in the alleyways between Van Ness and Larkin. None of them accepted a shelter bed. From January through early November 2024, her team engaged with people in that area 930 times, and referred people to shelter 180 times. In another 47 cases, the person already had housing or shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Typically, only between 20% and 30% of people accept a shelter bed when it’s offered, according to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those low placement numbers, and with people returning over and over to camp on the same streets, are the city’s efforts helping?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that it is helping, overall,” Carroll said. Clearing encampments is just part of a broader strategy that includes outreach and services, but it’s an important piece, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To David Schmitz, a 60-year-old photographer who lives in an apartment overlooking the street where Vazquez camps, the encampment sweeps have made a difference. When he first moved in, about four months earlier, it was common to see at least a dozen tents on the street. People frequently urinated against his garage door, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the November afternoon that he spoke to CalMatters, the city had just finished a clean-up that left the street spotless — not a tent or piece of trash in sight. Schmitz said he’d never seen it so clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029262\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029262\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/111524_Anatomy-Of-A-Sweep-JK_CM_06-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An unhoused man carries a tarp and some of his belongings across Polk Street during a homeless encampment sweep in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2024. Unhoused people on Cedar Street are forced to move their shelters and belongings on a regular basis by San Francisco city workers. \u003ccite>(Jungho Kim for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was euphoric,” he said. “I was like, this is amazing. This is what it could be like, you know. If it were like this … I would see my neighbors more. It wouldn’t be such an apocalyptic feeling to come out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone caught camping gets cited or arrested. Police typically give people citations if they have pitched a tent or strung up a tarp, like Vazquez did, to use as shelter, but not if they are sleeping in the open on just a blanket, said Sgt. J. Ellison with the police department’s Healthy Streets Operation Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellison sees Vazquez frequently because many of the city’s shelter and transitional housing programs won’t allow all of Vazquez’s dogs. She has three, and she’s unwilling to give any up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t leave them,” Vazquez said, “because I’ve had them since they were the size of my hand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, nearly every Monday and Friday, Vazquez and her friends packed up everything they owned and moved around the corner, waiting there until the police and other city personnel left and they could return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent rainy Monday afternoon, Vazquez was sick, huddling in a small tent with a hairdryer on (using jumper cables to siphon power from a nearby street light) to keep warm. The city came three days earlier and took her larger, gray tent, tarps, portable heater and other belongings, she said. It was raining then, too, and Vazquez said she stood outside in the rain for hours until a friend could give her a new tent. All her clothes got soaked — as did the two paper camping citations that told her when she was supposed to appear in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city was coming again that afternoon to clear the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have no energy at all,” Vazquez said, sniffling and coughing. “But I have to move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after, Vazquez found a hotel in San Francisco that agreed to take her and her three dogs. A room there costs $70 a day — money Vazquez pays with her disability benefits. She found the place on her own, without the city’s help, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vazquez isn’t sure how long she’ll be able to keep up with the payments. But she has a more pressing concern: The hotel is making her leave temporarily, so that it doesn’t have to grant her tenant’s rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where will she go until she can return?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess I’m going to be in a tent for three days,” she said. “And then I’m going to come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Diego\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Diego’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2023/07/31/san-diegos-unsafe-camping-ordinance-enforcement-begins\">unsafe camping ordinance\u003c/a> went into effect nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision. It prohibits tent camping in all public spaces if shelter beds are available, and near homeless shelters, schools, parks and transit centers regardless of shelter availability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also outlined the process for clearing encampments, reducing \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/homelessness-strategies-and-solutions/about/legal-settlements#:~:text=Isaiah%20Settlement%20(2011)&text=A%20one%2Dtime%20settlement%20payment,individuals%20could%20store%20personal%20belongings.\">a previous 72-hour\u003c/a> notice to just 24 hours. Part of the process includes the city’s Environmental Services Department posting neon green notices prior to clearing an encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aldea Secory has gotten used to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every other day, pretty much, they make us clean up and move,” she said. She and her husband found they could avoid the sweeps for a while if they stayed near the freeway, on state property the California Department of Transportation oversees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were on the side of the freeway for, like, a month,” Secory said. Then, she said, the California Highway Patrol swept that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the last time we lost all our stuff,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to come back to that. You have to start over again and again and again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty-four hours after the green notices get posted on fences, light posts, tents or nearby vegetation, city staff take photos of the site and look through any remaining bags, boxes and other items that might contain valuable belongings, such as paperwork or medication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1027\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-800x524.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012125-NoticeSignEncampment-KPBS-CM-01-copy-1536x1006.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flyer giving 24 hours’ notice before an encampment cleanup hangs in Downtown San Diego on Jan. 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Katie Anastas/KPBS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Franklin Coopersmith, deputy director of the Environmental Services Department’s Clean SD Division, said cleanup can take around 10 to 30 minutes in places with frequent sweeps, such as downtown surface streets. In more remote areas, like canyons, it can take several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Secory said she’s had valuable items discarded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve thrown brand new things away,” she said. “I had a brand new $35, $40 bag of dog food just thrown away. Beds, clothes, it doesn’t matter. Birth certificates, medication. Doesn’t matter. They just throw it away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Personal items can get discarded for a few reasons, Coopersmith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, he said, they’re in pockets or containers city employees might miss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of times, too, people are storing them with food that’s spoiled or bags that have gotten wet and they’ve turned moldy,” he said. “We’re not going to be searching a moldy bag that might have a birth certificate at the very bottom of it. If they’re putting their ID or something next to a meth pipe, our code officers aren’t going to be going through that stuff to figure it out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any remaining items soiled with moisture, food, human waste, pet waste, insect infestation, drug paraphernalia or in disrepair are then discarded,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/homelessness-strategies-and-solutions/services/abatement\">their policy reads\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people that are out there on the streets know that if it’s something important, they need to keep it close to them or in a place that’s easy for them to grab,” Coopersmith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the cleanup, the city posts a yellow flyer with information on how to get those non-discarded items back. Coopersmith said they put the notices close to where they found the items. They’ll keep things in storage for up to 90 days and deliver them back to the owner, according to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Secory and her husband now live in a tent at one of two campgrounds the city has created on vacant land. The sites, known as Safe Sleeping sites, are operated by Dreams for Change, a nonprofit that provides homeless services and food distribution. The\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/dfc-safe-sleeping-program.pdf\"> city provides restrooms and wash stations\u003c/a> and pays the nonprofit to provide outdoor sleeping arrangements, a daily meal and a snack. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/public-safety/2024/09/20/providers-city-leaders-and-researchers-say-safe-parking-fills-critical-gap-in-shelter-services\">asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u003c/a> to consider those sites as shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having somewhere to keep your stuff and not worry about it getting stolen or messed up, it’s a big help,” Secory said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego’s camping ordinance has made it more difficult for service providers like Jenni Wilkens to stay in contact with unhoused people. She manages the street health program at Father Joe’s Villages, a nonprofit that runs shelters and does outreach work. Staff from their Village Health Center visit encampments weekly to provide help such as wound care, substance use disorder counseling and prescription management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Prior to the ordinance going into effect, we had very, very tight relationships with the community members we were serving,” Wilkens said. “We always knew where we could find them. Follow-up was much, much easier. They knew where to expect us, and we just knew we were going to be able to find our folks. Since the camping ordinance passed, the abatement sweeps have been much more frequent and much more aggressive. So we have not been able to provide that quality follow-up care that we used to be able to provide, just because everybody is moving. We lose track of our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the patients, Lee Alirez, has high blood pressure. She’d been dealing with headaches, blurred vision and chest pain before she got diagnosed. Moving her camp frequently has made it hard to stay in contact with the health team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a couple of different times they couldn’t find me, and I was just literally across the street and around the corner,” Alirez said. “And that was in the midst of all that, trying to figure out what was going on with my blood pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029266\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012825-MB_HOMELESS_MEDICAL-KPBS-CM-06-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lee Alirez sits with her dog on Jan. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Matt Bowler/KPBS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some cases, Wilkens said, the frequent movement has made people more likely to accept shelter. But many others have moved to state property — freeway onramps and offramps, overpasses and under bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My team can’t put themselves at risk to reach our patients,” she said. “We also can’t go to a location and ask them to cross back over the freeway to see us. So they’re just getting further and further away from resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Shebloski, a captain with the San Diego Police Department’s Neighborhood Policing Division, said the city’s police don’t have the resources or authority to enforce city ordinances on state land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I understand the frustration when people see an encampment go from city property, where it feels like officers are doing their job, and it goes right over the state property. That’s frustrating,” he said. “We can only do so much, and we have to focus on city property. And I don’t know if we can get into the world of policing 151 miles of state highways within the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Encampments-EO-7-24.pdf\">ordered state agencies (PDF)\u003c/a> to clear encampments from state property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Caltrans District 11, which includes San Diego, wrote in an email that they prioritize removing encampments that present “a threat to infrastructure or people.” The agency gives a 48-hour notice to people in an encampment before a sweep, unless there’s an imminent safety risk, and gives social service providers and local governments two weeks’ notice so they can reach out to people staying there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shebloski said SDPD has been meeting with California Highway Patrol on how they can work together. But while the city’s neighborhood policing division has been active since 2018, Newsom’s executive order is less than a year old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you look at Caltrans and CHP, they have commuters. We have residents,” he said. “I think this is kind of a new thing for them to dive into.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fresno\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s become less common these days to see large homeless encampments in and around downtown Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But spend any time there, and you’ll see something else: People walking the streets, pushing carts and strollers loaded with blankets and other necessities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12005898/fresno-rolls-out-one-of-californias-most-aggressive-camping-bans\">city\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article291219750.html\">county\u003c/a> banned camping on all public property last year, but the area still struggles with a shortage of shelter beds. Now Robert Fox, 32, sleeps on the ground with no tent because it makes it easier to leave when the police come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I gotta leave, all I gotta do is push the cart and get out of here,” Fox said. “Every morning we pack up and have our stuff ready to go. You can’t get attached to anything. You can’t get comfortable. You’re always on the move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fox ended up outside after getting kicked out of a drug treatment program. He said he was selling drugs to raise money for new lodgings as the program’s end date approached. He spent a few nights at the nearby shelters, but to get a spot, he has to get in line early and spend hours waiting. If he does get a bed, he can’t bring all his belongings with him — so he worries about someone stealing what he has to leave on the street. It’s not worth it for one night inside, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029269\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/020525-Homeless-Encampment-Sweep-Fresno-LV_CM_22-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno Police and city workers conduct a homeless encampment sweep under a highway overpass in downtown on Feb. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, he now sleeps on an empty dirt lot behind the Poverello House and Fresno Mission shelters, next to a set of railroad tracks and beneath an overpass. It’s near the methadone clinic he visits daily to keep himself off heroin and fentanyl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I had somewhere else to go, I wouldn’t be here,” Fox said. “Because they don’t really want us here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 people used to camp in the area around the Poverello House and Fresno Mission, and police mostly used to leave them alone, said advocates and people who live on the streets of Fresno.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Over time, people have gotten more scared to go down there,” said Dez Martinez, a formerly homeless advocate who founded the grassroots organization We Are Not Invisible. She said people worried about getting arrested as police began enforcing the new camping ordinance. “Ever since the ordinance went into effect, (there are) a lot less people. Now everybody’s going to ‘abandos’ (abandoned buildings).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, the city removed a large homeless encampment that had spread across streets surrounding the shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not a very healthy and safe place for those that were camping there and for those nearby,” said Phil Skei, assistant director of the city’s Planning & Development Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation received a lot of fanfare — Mayor Jerry Dyer attended and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mayorjerrydyer/p/DB2N_R0yFNq/?img_index=1\">posted about it\u003c/a> on Instagram — and the city held dozens of shelter beds for people displaced from that area. Skei said the city brought 52 people into temporary shelter that day. Another roughly 30 left before the clean-up, and the city doesn’t know where they went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Skei says the city had a bed for everyone who wanted one that day, that’s not always the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a common occurrence where we show up to a place where there’s one person camping or two people camping and we don’t have shelter beds available that day,” Skei said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029272\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029272\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-1-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Activist Dez Martinez uses her phone to record police officers as they detain an unhoused person for questioning off the highway in Fresno on Jan. 30, 2025. Right: A homeless encampment located on a dirt lot in West Fresno on Jan. 30, 2025. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By late January, three months after the Poverello House operation, the surrounding streets were still mostly clear. Martinez said she knows of people arrested after coming back to that area. Skei said in “a minority of cases,” the city does resort to arrests to keep areas from getting re-encamped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But though the streets were empty, Fox wasn’t the only one sleeping on the dirt lot behind the shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leron Bell, 39, said officers with the California Highway Patrol make him move every few days. They usually give a warning of up to 20 minutes, he said, and if he doesn’t move fast enough, they start confiscating things he hasn’t packed up yet. So far, he’s lost a tent, a bicycle, a gas stove, his ID and his birth certificate, which he’s still having a hard time replacing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I try to rush,” Bell said, “hurry up and try to put as much as I can in either my shopping cart or my wagon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once he’s packed, he goes to the other side of the railroad tracks and waits until the officers leave. He’s been in and out of shelters, but the strict rules make him feel like he’s in jail, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate having to start over,” Bell said, “but, it’s like, I’m doing my best as I can being homeless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four miles away, another group of tents, makeshift shelters and vehicles was scattered across an empty dirt lot behind a Family Dollar store. That’s where Roy Tellez, 62, was living when CalMatters spoke to him this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, the police told him to pack up and leave his campside, so he did, he said. HHe was thirsty and needed water for his dog, so he pushed his cart, loaded with his belongings, to a store across the street. But police found him there and arrested him for camping, Tellez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he spent about four hours in jail — just long enough for people to steal all his belongings from where he left them on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What was the whole point?” he asked. “What was the inconvenience about?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, February 26, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s homeless shelters are deadlier than the state’s jails and only a fraction of the people in them end up in permanent housing. Those are just a couple of the startling findings in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new investigation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> out this week from our California newsroom partner CalMatters. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 50,000 University of California workers are \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028446/tens-of-thousands-uc-workers-strike-disrupting-campuses-hospitals-labs\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">set to go on strike\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> statewide starting Wednesday.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Despite community concerns, LA County supervisors have \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/three-la-county-landfills-are-set-to-accept-wildfire-debris\">voted unanimously to allow\u003c/a> a county owned landfill in the city of Calabasas to receive ash and debris from properties destroyed in the recent L.A. fires.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"entry-title entry-title--with-subtitle\">\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">\u003cstrong>‘A Volunteer Jail:’ Inside The Scandals And Abuse Pushing California’s Homeless Out Of Shelters\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even if residents of the state’s roughly \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_State_CA_2024.pdf\">61,000 emergency shelter beds\u003c/a> endure the gauntlet, they’ll likely get stuck in housing purgatory. New state data obtained by CalMatters shows that fewer than 1 in 4 residents who cycle through shelters each year move into permanent homes, far below what many shelter operators promised in their contracts with public agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/\">homelessness rises\u003c/a> in California, state and local officials keep relying on shelters as the backbone of their \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/08/homeless-encampments-sweep-reax/\">increasingly aggressive efforts\u003c/a> to get people off the streets. But the conditions inside, combined with low housing rates, now have some experts and even shelter executives calling on governments to fundamentally rethink their approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To better understand what’s happening inside shelters, CalMatters requested and analyzed previously unreleased state performance data, reviewed thousands of police calls and incident reports, and interviewed more than 80 shelter residents and personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No state agency could provide an estimate for how much total taxpayer money is spent on shelters, so CalMatters analyzed local contracts and state funding data. The news organization found that governments have invested at least $1 billion since 2018. The number of emergency shelter beds in the state more than doubled, from around 27,000 to 61,000, \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2024-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html\">federal data\u003c/a> shows. There are still three times as many homeless people as there are shelter beds in California. Annual shelter death rates tripled between 2018 and mid-2024. A total of 2,007 people died, according to data obtained from the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. That’s nearly \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/03/death-in-california-jails/\">twice as many\u003c/a> deaths as California jails saw during the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028446/tens-of-thousands-uc-workers-strike-disrupting-campuses-hospitals-labs\">\u003cstrong>Thousands Of UC Workers To Strike, Disrupting Campuses, Hospitals And Labs\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027153/uc-workers-vote-to-strike-amid-federal-funding-threats\">University of California\u003c/a> health care, research and technical employees have begun a multiday strike on Wednesday, potentially disrupting daily operations at UC campuses, hospitals and laboratories statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 50,000 UC workers represented by the University Professional and Technical Employees Local 9119 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 could walk out over top union concerns such as low wages and severe understaffing, which the university disputes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contract negotiations between the two unions and UC — one of the state’s largest employers with over 200,000 workers — began months ago, but no agreements have been reached.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArticlePage-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/three-la-county-landfills-are-set-to-accept-wildfire-debris\">\u003cstrong>Three LA County Landfills Are Set To Accept Wildfire Debris\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>L.A. County supervisors cleared the way Tuesday for large amounts of wildfire debris to be disposed of at the Calabasas, Sunshine Canyon and Lancaster landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debris will come from \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://recovery.lacounty.gov/debris-removal/phase-2/#1738366770419-e248a618-6d7a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>Phase 2\u003c/u>\u003c/a> of the cleanup process, which includes ash, soil and the remnants of homes, including foundations and chimneys. Hazardous material such as asbestos, propane tanks, solvents and lithium batteries should have been removed as part of Phase 1 of the cleanup\u003ci>. \u003c/i>That should be wrapping up this week, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Eric Swenson, who spoke during the supervisors’ meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire ash and debris is in an uncontrolled state, and what is most important for the health of this community … is that we get it from an uncontrolled environment to a controlled environment as quickly and safely as possible,” Swenson said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, February 26, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s homeless shelters are deadlier than the state’s jails and only a fraction of the people in them end up in permanent housing. Those are just a couple of the startling findings in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new investigation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> out this week from our California newsroom partner CalMatters. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 50,000 University of California workers are \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028446/tens-of-thousands-uc-workers-strike-disrupting-campuses-hospitals-labs\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">set to go on strike\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> statewide starting Wednesday.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Despite community concerns, LA County supervisors have \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/three-la-county-landfills-are-set-to-accept-wildfire-debris\">voted unanimously to allow\u003c/a> a county owned landfill in the city of Calabasas to receive ash and debris from properties destroyed in the recent L.A. fires.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"entry-title entry-title--with-subtitle\">\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/california-homeless-shelters-purgatory/\">\u003cstrong>‘A Volunteer Jail:’ Inside The Scandals And Abuse Pushing California’s Homeless Out Of Shelters\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even if residents of the state’s roughly \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_State_CA_2024.pdf\">61,000 emergency shelter beds\u003c/a> endure the gauntlet, they’ll likely get stuck in housing purgatory. New state data obtained by CalMatters shows that fewer than 1 in 4 residents who cycle through shelters each year move into permanent homes, far below what many shelter operators promised in their contracts with public agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/\">homelessness rises\u003c/a> in California, state and local officials keep relying on shelters as the backbone of their \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/08/homeless-encampments-sweep-reax/\">increasingly aggressive efforts\u003c/a> to get people off the streets. But the conditions inside, combined with low housing rates, now have some experts and even shelter executives calling on governments to fundamentally rethink their approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To better understand what’s happening inside shelters, CalMatters requested and analyzed previously unreleased state performance data, reviewed thousands of police calls and incident reports, and interviewed more than 80 shelter residents and personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No state agency could provide an estimate for how much total taxpayer money is spent on shelters, so CalMatters analyzed local contracts and state funding data. The news organization found that governments have invested at least $1 billion since 2018. The number of emergency shelter beds in the state more than doubled, from around 27,000 to 61,000, \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2024-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html\">federal data\u003c/a> shows. There are still three times as many homeless people as there are shelter beds in California. Annual shelter death rates tripled between 2018 and mid-2024. A total of 2,007 people died, according to data obtained from the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. That’s nearly \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/03/death-in-california-jails/\">twice as many\u003c/a> deaths as California jails saw during the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028446/tens-of-thousands-uc-workers-strike-disrupting-campuses-hospitals-labs\">\u003cstrong>Thousands Of UC Workers To Strike, Disrupting Campuses, Hospitals And Labs\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027153/uc-workers-vote-to-strike-amid-federal-funding-threats\">University of California\u003c/a> health care, research and technical employees have begun a multiday strike on Wednesday, potentially disrupting daily operations at UC campuses, hospitals and laboratories statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 50,000 UC workers represented by the University Professional and Technical Employees Local 9119 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 could walk out over top union concerns such as low wages and severe understaffing, which the university disputes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contract negotiations between the two unions and UC — one of the state’s largest employers with over 200,000 workers — began months ago, but no agreements have been reached.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArticlePage-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/three-la-county-landfills-are-set-to-accept-wildfire-debris\">\u003cstrong>Three LA County Landfills Are Set To Accept Wildfire Debris\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>L.A. County supervisors cleared the way Tuesday for large amounts of wildfire debris to be disposed of at the Calabasas, Sunshine Canyon and Lancaster landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debris will come from \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://recovery.lacounty.gov/debris-removal/phase-2/#1738366770419-e248a618-6d7a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>Phase 2\u003c/u>\u003c/a> of the cleanup process, which includes ash, soil and the remnants of homes, including foundations and chimneys. Hazardous material such as asbestos, propane tanks, solvents and lithium batteries should have been removed as part of Phase 1 of the cleanup\u003ci>. \u003c/i>That should be wrapping up this week, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Eric Swenson, who spoke during the supervisors’ meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire ash and debris is in an uncontrolled state, and what is most important for the health of this community … is that we get it from an uncontrolled environment to a controlled environment as quickly and safely as possible,” Swenson said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "unhoused-man-killed-vallejo-trash-cleanup-christmas-eve-city-acknowledges",
"title": "Death of Man in Vallejo Cleanup Sparks Concerns Over Encampment Sweeps",
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"content": "\u003cp>A man was crushed to death in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vallejo\">Vallejo\u003c/a> during a city-run cleanup on Christmas Eve, city officials said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vallejo homeless advocate Eli Smith said she knew the man, James Oakley II, as a local unhoused resident. She said he was living in the area where workers were clearing debris. The Solano County Coroner’s Office confirmed Oakley’s name, identifying him as a 58-year-old American Canyon resident. Smith said he grew up there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disclosure comes two months after the Dec. 24 incident, during which officials said a public works crew “encountered” an injured man who was later confirmed to have been “compressed within the debris.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coroner determined the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries. In a press release, the city said those were “likely sustained accidentally by the heavy equipment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials did not immediately return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12028502 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/Evelyn-Alfred-3-1020x765.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith said accelerated efforts to clear encampments and remove unhoused people’s property have left them more vulnerable to incidents like this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are forced to become less visible because they no longer have tents. They are not in a community. They are no longer as noticeable because they don’t have shelter,” she said. “People will sleep under a tarp. People will try to find something to kind of get underneath.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Vallejo Police Department investigated the death and found no indication of “intent to cause harm, bodily injury or death,” city officials said, and the district attorney’s office found there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other people experiencing homelessness have been killed in similar incidents. A 33-year-old woman was \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-modesto-death-20180830-story.html\">killed in Modesto in 2018\u003c/a> when a frontloader hit her during a CalTrans cleanup. Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/homeless-atlanta-ebenezer-mlk-ff421e31ebc13dc53919190074931c42\">an Atlanta man\u003c/a> was crushed inside a tent by a bulldozer during a cleanup ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day festivities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cities across California and beyond have ramped up encampment sweeps since the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983492/how-a-pivotal-case-on-homelessness-could-redefine-policies-in-california-and-the-nation\">Supreme Court granted them more power\u003c/a> to enforce anti-camping laws last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city sends its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased person,” Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray said in a statement. “This was a tragic accident.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disclosure comes two months after the Dec. 24 incident, during which officials said a public works crew “encountered” an injured man who was later confirmed to have been “compressed within the debris.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coroner determined the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries. In a press release, the city said those were “likely sustained accidentally by the heavy equipment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials did not immediately return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith said accelerated efforts to clear encampments and remove unhoused people’s property have left them more vulnerable to incidents like this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are forced to become less visible because they no longer have tents. They are not in a community. They are no longer as noticeable because they don’t have shelter,” she said. “People will sleep under a tarp. People will try to find something to kind of get underneath.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Vallejo Police Department investigated the death and found no indication of “intent to cause harm, bodily injury or death,” city officials said, and the district attorney’s office found there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other people experiencing homelessness have been killed in similar incidents. A 33-year-old woman was \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-modesto-death-20180830-story.html\">killed in Modesto in 2018\u003c/a> when a frontloader hit her during a CalTrans cleanup. Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/homeless-atlanta-ebenezer-mlk-ff421e31ebc13dc53919190074931c42\">an Atlanta man\u003c/a> was crushed inside a tent by a bulldozer during a cleanup ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day festivities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cities across California and beyond have ramped up encampment sweeps since the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983492/how-a-pivotal-case-on-homelessness-could-redefine-policies-in-california-and-the-nation\">Supreme Court granted them more power\u003c/a> to enforce anti-camping laws last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city sends its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased person,” Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray said in a statement. “This was a tragic accident.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
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"soldout": {
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