In a press conference on May 6, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a block-by-block assessment plan, aiming to address challenges in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The plan will focus initially on 13 of the 49 blocks most highly impacted.
The plan comes just days after the UC Hastings School of Law, along with some of its neighbors in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, filed a federal lawsuit to force city leaders to clean up the area.
Rhiannon Bailard, director of operations for UC Hastings, said that since the shelter-in-place order was issued in March, conditions in the neighborhood have worsened. The lawsuit demands that the city enforce laws against drug dealing, provide support for homeless residents by installing hand washing stations and port-a-potties and moving people into permanent supportive housing.
âThe challenges of unsheltered homelessness have grown exponentially during the COVID-19 crisis,â said Jeff Kositsky, manager of San Francisco’s Healthy Streets Operations Center during the press conference. “Forcing the city to thin out shelters and follow CDC guidance to not disrupt homeless encampments.”
Kositzky also noted that there has been an increase in tents counts in the city from 385 in April 2019, to 1200 in April 2020, and a 300% increase since January 2020. âThis is not acceptable,â he said.
The Tenderloin is one of the cityâs densest neighborhoods.
â Erin Baldessari (@e_baldi) and Lakshmi Sarah (@Lakitalki)
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