San Francisco: residents of wealthy area shout down mayor over homeless shelter

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

San Francisco: residents of wealthy area shout down mayor over homeless shelter

Attendees interrupted the mayor’s meeting on the shelter planned for an affluent waterfront neighborhood before walking out

Gabrielle Canon in San Francisco
Thu 4 Apr 2019 23.16 BST Last modified on Thu 4 Apr 2019 23.50 BST

A meeting to discuss a proposed homeless shelter in San Francisco devolved into chaos on Wednesday night, as attendees shouted, chanted, and heckled the mayor, London Breed.

“I’m sorry this issue has divided this community,” said Breed, as she tried to assuage local fears over her plan to build a 200-bed Navigation Center in the Embarcadero, a wealthy waterfront neighborhood. The crowd interrupted with remarks like: “Build it at city hall!” Some stood and chanted, “We live here,” before walking out. Meanwhile, proponents of the project waved signs with big block letters that read: “Hate has no home here.”

The clashes came amid tension in a city struggling to house its roughly 7,500 homeless residents. Breed, who campaigned on developing aggressive solutions to the crisis, was met with swift pushback from the affluent area after she proposed the shelter last month.

Jadine Cehand, a local nurse practitioner who went to the meeting to support the project, said she was shocked by the responses at the meeting. “Someone yelled at (the mayor) to go home,” Cehand said. “She says, ‘I am home. Born and raised’.”

According to a press release, the proposed site is currently a parking lot owned by the Port of San Francisco. Once built, the shelter is intended to serve local unhoused residents for four years, giving the city enough time to curb issues contributing to the crisis. It would allow “guests to bring their partners, pets, and belongings with them” while it connected them to city programs and resources.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/04/san-francisco-mayor-clashes-with-affluent-residents-homeless-shelter

[mr_lebowski]

1. The idea that there's not 200 homeless people milling about the Embarcadero area every day anyway

Is pretty ludicrous. I guarantee you there are. Sure, the beds being available might draw a few more people down, but right now? They're sleeping on the friggin' streets, and they're there anyways. Might as well give 'em a place to sleep.

[Karadeniz]

2. Lovely people, the best people.