San Francisco Case Study
San Francisco, located on the coast of California in Western USA, has one of the highest per-capita rates of homelessness in the USA so unsurprisingly much research is devoted to homelessness in the city (Murphy, 2009). For many years, San Francisco has struggled to address its homelessness problem. Until 2004, the city relied on ‘revanchist’ strategies, designed to drive the homeless out of public spaces through laws against camping, sleeping on benches and other typical homeless behaviours (Murphy, 2009).
However, in 2004, newly-elected Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced ‘kinder and gentler’ policies, which focused on more compassionate help for the homeless (Murphy, 2009). A central policy was the introduction of Proposition N, more commonly known as 'Care Not Cash' (Murphy, 2009). This strategy reduced homeless allowance by 85% but offered more stable housing and improved support services instead (Bogen et al., 2015).
Why are levels of homelessness in San Francisco so high?
San Francisco is one the USA’s most expensive metropolitan areas, with thousands precariously sheltered in substandard housing (Murphy, 2009). As always, drug addiction and alcoholism are often cited as factors, leading to bad choices. Other factors are more unique to San Francisco. The city’s weather is mild, so is more comfortable for homeless people during winters. It has a reputation for tolerating ‘counter-cultural’ movements, and provides higher cash assistance than other cities (Murphy, 2009) (although this could be a product of the number of homeless people there).
Statistics
Bogen et al. (2015) found that 6,686 people were homeless in San Francisco in 2015 - an increase of 250 (3.8%) on 2013. As indicated in Figure 1, 2013's number was lower than 2011's, which in turn was lower than 2009's, indicating a dramatic rise in homelessness between 2013 and 2015. However, Figure 1 also shows that youth (defined as people under the age of 24) homelessness actually declined by 61 between 2013 and 2015, from 914 to 853.
Pier 80
In February 2016, the new Pier 80 shelter was opened in San Francisco. The shelter is located in the Pier's shed, and consists of a 9,900-square-foot tent with mattresses and pillows spread across the ground along with showers, restrooms and office space for social and health workers (CBS SF Bay Area, 2016), shown in Figure 3. Costing San Francisco $1 million per month (Matier, 2016), it is the city's response to El Nino and the heavy storms that were predicted for late winter (CBS SF Bay Area, 2016).
Figure 1: Progression of the number of homeless people in San Francisco between 2005 and 2015, and the number of young homeless people in San Francisco between 2013 and 2015 (Bogen et al., 2015).
Figure 2 shows how homeless people are distributed in San Francisco. District 6 has far more homeless people than any other district, with 4,191. District 10 has the second-most with 1,272, while District 4 has the fewest, with just 7 homeless people residing there.
Figure 2: The spatial distribution of homeless people throughout the districts of San Francisco (Bogen et al., 2015).
Figure 3: San Francisco's Pier 80 shelter (Knight, 2016).
With residents of San Francisco's homeless camps having been told that must leave, Mayor Ed Lee said that Pier 80 is the answer, and he wants to keep it open for as long as possible. Margi English, executive director of the society that runs the shelter, said she was "impressed with the calmness", and pointed out that everyone who arrived at the shelter has stayed (Knight, 2016).
But the picture painted by officials is in stark contrast to the opinions of some of the residents. Lindsey Boynton said "it's like prison". She was told she would need to check in with someone every 48 hours or she would lose here place, she was forced to sleep on an uncomfortable mat and the bathrooms were porta-potties. Her belongings were also moved without consent after she missed her check-in time. Arianna Jordan summed it up by saying, "Why would I want to sleep on a mat in a gym guarded by barbed wire fences with a bunch of bums I don't know?" (Rosen, 2016).
It appears that San Francisco homeless are being pressured to move to Pier 80 against their will. A notice was issued to homeless on Division Street, the infamous 'tent city', saying that homeless had to vacate the area by 26th February. Pier 80 is where officials want them to end up (Rosen, 2016).
References
Bogen, H., Brutschy, S., Burr, J., Caras, S., Coneway, C., Connery, J., Connery, C., Espino, M., Ko, K., Salcedo, J., Strong, K. and Taylor, E. (2015). San Francisco Homeless Point-In-Time Count & Survey.
CBS SF Bay Area. (2016). Pier 80 Homeless Shelter Is Open. Online at http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/05/pier-80-homeless-shelter-opening/, accessed 27 February 2016.
Knight, H. (2016). Mayor touts Pier 80 shelter as 'good thing' for S.F.'s homeless. Online at http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mayor-touts-Pier-80-shelter-as-good-thing-6850229.php, accessed 29 February 2016.
Matier, P. (2016). San Francisco's Pier 80 Homeless Shelter Comes With Staggering Cost. Online at http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/10/san-franciscos-pier-80-homeless-shelter-comes-with-staggering-cost/, accessed 27 February 2016.
Murphy, S. (2009). "Compassionate" strategies of managing homelessness: Post-Revanchist geographies in San Francisco. Antipode. 41 (2), 305-325.
Rosen, M. (2016). San Francisco’s homeless complain about ‘prison’-like conditions at the new Pier 80 shelter. Online at http://fusion.net/story/272448/san-francisco-homeless-pier-80-shelter/, accessed 27 February 2016.