San Francisco officials, like those in other cities around the country, continue to struggle to come up with a plan for what to do with homeless RV dwellers living on congested city streets.
First city officials chased the RVs out of the Sunset and Richmond Districts. Then they were rolled off Potrero Hill and squeezed out from underneath the “Hairball,” a series of interconnecting freeways in the southeast.
Now, in the latest effort to discourage people who say they have nowhere else to go to sleep and live, Supervisor Ahsha Safai is seeking an oversize vehicle ban for a tiny street tucked behind Alemany Boulevard, a stone’s throw from Cayuga Playground, reports the SF Examiner.
In a hearing Friday morning a handful of people met to discuss the future of the destitute and homeless. In that hearing room a woman who lives in an RV along De Wolf Street spoke to hearing officers in Spanish — though the officers could not speak or understand Spanish, and no translator was immediately available.
“Please, I need to explain,” she said in Spanish. “I have a mobile home that’s parked there. I live there, I sleep there. I take care of my (disabled) son and only daughter. Where will I move? I’m (disabled).” She began to sob midway through and in English said, “Please, help me.”
Within the last two years, the SFMTA Board of Directors, which gives final approval for such street changes, told SFMTA staff it would no longer pass oversize vehicle restrictions because those restrictions aren’t permanent solutions.
“We weren’t really solving anything,” said SFMTA Board of Directors Chair Cheryl Brinkman, “by putting these block by block restrictions on, we were simply moving the problem of vehicularly housed residents around The City.”
Those vehicles were shuffled around to new neighbors who then would ask for their own ban. And on, and on, and on.
On De Wolf Street Friday, a man living in an RV said police had “gotten rid of the folks who use drugs.” He came to live in his RV after he could no longer afford his apartment.
The MTA Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on vehicle restrictions to De Wolf Street Sept. 18.
Ok, let’s look at this logically people. The history of this country was partly made by hard working immagrants who broke their collective backs, trying to make a better life for their families. That being FACT, let’s fast forward to today. Illegals are rampant, they think they are above the law, by entering our country by other means, than regular ports of entry. Why, because they would be politely told, to request and instructed to file the proper documentation for a green card, and possible citizenship down the road. You know, like the immagrants who landed in places like Ellis Island, and did it proper.
So, California is to expense, MOVE (If your a citizen, or legal alien holding the proper credentials). If your illegally here, you are guilty of a crime, subject to deportation.
The whole argument about the poor people are just looking for a better life for their families has been played out for over 200 years by guess who, most of all of ancestors, who did it the right way.
Let me tell you how this is going to play out. California is turning into a poop hole. Their public servants are not going to even receive the amounts of pensions they think, because CALPERS is vastly underfunded. Soon, they will be asking you to fund their pensions, that will be a hoot politically.
Gas up your RVs and enjoy the fruits of your labor. After all, YOU EARNED it.
Finally, the Ninth Circuit makes ONE decision that makes sense. Force the cities to do something to address the problem … but billing large corporations is not the answer like the Prop C that is to be on the ballot. Maybe the Ninth Circuit will have the homeless park in front of their courthouse … ??
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/ninth-circuit-ruling-challenges-s-f-s-anti-homelessness-laws/
If the problem were limited to simply folks who need less expensive ‘housing’ … the issue would not be compounded by an abundance of used hypo-needles, feces in the gutters and on sidewalks. Folks who cannot afford to live in California need to leave. There is no ‘right’ to live in Calif … it just makes a great place where so much is handed out and now cities want to ‘pay’ people a ‘wage’ just for holding their hand out. This is going to go downhill faster and faster.
Roy, Where do you want them to move to?
Yes Doug, if she is an illegal immigrant, she is part of the problem, and should leave, instead of beg to be taken care of by a welfare state that she has never contributed to. However, there are countless people living in that area of California that are working, and they can not afford to pay for their house, apartment, and some even, an RV. As a result they are homeless. They work, they earn money, but because of how outrageous the cost of living has been allowed to get there, the middle class and lower can no longer keep a roof over their heads. A place to start would be shutting the borders down, then usher in a completely new set of leaders, starting at the city levels all the way up to Washington. Other wise, the United States and California are looking to have a very sad repeat of our own history. We are standing at the gates of the next civil war folks.
I am sorry to have crossed the social taboo of topics to and not to talk about in conversations, but I feel it needs to be said. California is very near and dear to my heart. I was born a block from Disney where my uncle was working as an Imaginear. The greatest loves of my life are anchored to that state. I even get emotional when they talk of splitting in to 3 states. All of that is not to mention the great, majestic beauty that calls to the nomad in each of us.
There are so many brilliant minds in California. Can’t they put aside the tech long enough to find a solution to the problem that is killing their state?
The problem in the Bay area is that housing is so expensive that even people who have jobs may not be able to afford a place to live. My son in Berkeley lived and had his business in a building for over 20 years. When the landlord decided that he wanted the building for something else, The only thing he could afford to do was move his workshop into a shipping container and go live with his girl friend. Not everyone living on the street is a lazy bum.
They are once again missing the real point here.
These folks are not homeless as they currently are living in a RV with kitchen, bath, dining table and sleeping areas.
The real problem is they lack money….perhaps they could get a job and then move their RVs to a campground or RV Park on a seasonal long term site ( which costa money you get from employment )….GET A JOB !…..problem solved.
If the woman in the article is an “undocumented immigrant”, tell her to park her RV in her own country.
Rough as that sounds, Doug, I agree. Too many illegal aliens causing too many problems. But I’m guessing the problem is mostly just indigents who ARE legal.