Tenderloin Housing Clinic edition.
update, aug4, 2010 > this ‘crackheads of the day’ section has a bunch of comments on Reddit
San Francisco has been fed a lie for a long time now by people like Randy Shaw and it goes like this, “San Francisco needs more affordable housing to get the homeless off the streets”. Everybody from Mayor Newsom, to the Chronicle, to Rob Anderson has bought the lie (note, this last link and quote has changed from the original. see comments here(in which he again praises Care not Cash). The original quotes here posted this morning came from here
In complementing Mayor Newsom on Care Not Cash in BeyondChron, Randy Shaw is unique among city progressives, probably because he’s had first-hand experience with the success of the program through the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.
Rob Anderson, from here
I could never understand why Rob said that, but to his credit, he did mention the Grand Jury Report on Homelessness which talks about this very subject. This report in 2008 came 4 years after Care not Cash was implemented in 2004, which was promptly ignored by the Board of Supervisors, resulting in cynical jokes in the press
Randy Shaw does NOT have first hand knowledge of any of his 16 SRO buildings because he visits them only once a year at most, however Shaw likely does have first hand knowledge of the dope fiends, including Tenderloin Housing Clinic staff because lawsuits suggest first hand knowledge because Shaw signed off on that settlement
This is a Care not Cash recipient and a current resident of Tenderloin Housing Clinic. She is currently housed. She used to live all over the alleys of South of Market and was funneled through Mayor Newsom’s Project Homeless Connect and finally housed in Randy Shaw’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic and is a current care not Cash recipient
This photo is from yesterday and you can see that she is still in the same South of Market alleys smoking crack, even though she is housed. So no, simply giving many homeless people affordable housing does NOT necessarily take them off the streets. There are no gates, no locks on the front door, nothing to prevent anyone of the thousands of homeless dope fiends who want to go outside at any time day or night and do what they did before they received housing. Furthermore, Randy Shaw’s own ‘harm reduction’ policies on drug abuse further perpetuates the problem by largely ignoring that there IS a problem. Randy Shaw, in fact, has personally intervened and stopped low level counselors in Tenderloin Housing Clinic who attempted to bring in outside groups like Narcotics Anonymous. Management is instructed to literally look the other way and deny there is even a drug problem to begin with, in order to reduce any liability for Randy Shaw. This inevitably results in lots of people who abuse this, including dope dealers who operate right under managements noses
Ironically, for all the bashing Willie Brown got, he was one of the few people I’ve seen who had something of a clue
“No one wishes to provide the resources,” Brown said. “Only in those cities where (homeless people are highly visible) is there any strong advocacy. . . . What you don’t get is a uniform, concentrated, massive resource attack or a change in laws of who can be restrained.”
As the economy drooped and tourism dipped, Brown was nagged by the tourist and restaurant industries to do more to keep panhandlers and the homeless off the streets.
But Brown says he can’t help people who refuse help — those who are mentally ill, paranoid about government aid or simply refuse to give up their outdoor lifestyle. Police, district attorneys and court officials must follow the state’s strict standards for when to arrest and hospitalize people against their will.
Brown said he underestimated the “irrationality quotient” of the homeless.
“When I came into office I assumed that making services available would and could cause a reversal of the situation for most people on the streets,” the mayor said. “I was wrong.”
Willie Brown
“Neighborhood people and the merchants and owners of homes and businesses detested the existence of homeless people or street people in close proximity to them,” Brown said. “. . . You want to do a shelter? You have no place to locate it.”
Willie Brown
You know that new Mid Market development called CityPlace promoted by the same Randy Shaw who houses this crackhead? That’s a whitewash and diversion tactic by Randy Shaw because unless CityPlace is able to build a parking garage for all of it’s customers, they will be parking right here in this alley, on Stevenson, just half a block away, where they will be promptly met with Randy Shaw’s own crackheads. Because this is the backside of 1035 Market st, about 500 yards from where CityPlace will be built
By the way, I don’t expect anything to change from posts like this. But to say nothing is worse