{"id":3706,"date":"2023-07-18T09:14:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T16:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/?p=3706"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:20:40","slug":"the-tenderloin-downzone-doom-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/18\/the-tenderloin-downzone-doom-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tenderloin downzone doom loop"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is to show that an entire city department, The San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) has been actively concentrating addicts and active criminals into the Tenderloin<\/a>, Mid Market and SOMA for two decades. This is also related to a recent federal lawsuit holding the city accountable for nuisance<\/a>. This is related to a 2010 article on then police chief George Gascon describing the Tenderloin as a containment zone<\/a>. In 2010, San Francisco had an estimate 4000 drug addicts. In 2022, that number exploded to 24,500 addicts<\/a> with over 13,000 of those living in city subsidized units, mostly in the Tenderloin<\/a>.\u00a0 Update 37,500 addicts in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

update 3.11.25 Vancouver recognizes that supportive housing is destroying their entertainment district,\u00a0moves to close supportive housing buildings<\/a><\/p>\n

update 4.1.26\u00a0residential real estate losing value as well<\/a><\/p>\n

update 4.2.26\u00a0 A 2004 article by Matt Smith in SF Weekly now archived<\/a><\/p>\n

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The government agencies and the nonprofit groups supposedly dedicated to helping the denizens of Skid Row have created an unchanging political economy that in some ways provides something for everybody: political activists, slumlords, developers, petty politicians, bureaucrats, mercenary merchants, drug dealers, government agencies, and nonprofit groups \u2014 all of whom would lose out if this part of downtown were ever changed into something other than a dangerous, dehumanizing slum<\/span><\/p>\n

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update 12.11.25 map created 11.24 by Alex Ludlum showing HSH shelters, housing plus DPH facilities across San Francisco\u00a0link here<\/a> also embedded at bottom<\/p>\n

New testimony that\u00a0drug dealers follow the addicts to wherever the city places the addicts<\/a><\/p>\n

update 11.20.25 ““The Mission has become a magnet for drug dealers and drug addicts for the same reason the Tenderloin did: because of the high concentration of social services for homeless people there.”<\/span>\u00a0San Francisco’s Revolt of Center – Leighton Woodhouse Nomverber 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

update 12.3.25\u00a0Vancouver fights back against mayhem caused by supportive housing<\/a><\/p>\n

and\u00a0HSH admits it has to hire street ambassadors due to it’s own impact of supportive housing<\/a><\/p>\n

Also related is a previous post on Housing First evictions in SF with links to studies showing most are addicts<\/a>. The Criminal Order Beneath the ‘Chaos’ of San Francisco’s Tenderloin<\/a> update July 2025 In 2015, 25% of the housing in the Tenderloin was non profit controlled and publicly subsidized. In 2025 it’s now 60% link with sources<\/a>. Now with some of the lowest real estate prices in the Bay Area 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Update. One prime example of tenants being displaced in favor of subsidized HSH clients<\/a><\/p>\n

update April 2025 new ongoing list of how HSH subsidizes crime and the collapse of downtown <\/a><\/p>\n

update August 2025, the blame game\u00a02025, shelters ruined the Tenderloin, 2023, supportive housing SROs ruined the Tenderloin<\/a><\/p>\n

Wall Street Journal article on San Francisco’s\u00a0doom loop<\/a><\/p>\n

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One of the hundreds of examples of businesses closing in the Tenderloin and Mid Market area, the Argentum Project, a Greek cafe on 6th street closed because of drug dealers and users harrassing them. Here’s the letter they wrote before they left in 2020<\/p>\n

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Also, a member of the Central Market Community Benefits District recently testified<\/a> that surrounding city subsidized SRO residents are causing problems around 6th and Market<\/p>\n

This Tenderloin doom loop was described back in 2011 during the Twitter tax break hearings in 2011<\/a>
also on Civic Center Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

With this quote by H Brown
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The Tenderloin downzone doom loop started in the 1980’s with the goal of preserving housing for low income tenants, but over time has become corrupted and completely skewed from it’s original intent. This centers on two laws from that era, the SRO Demolition Ordinance and a planning commission code limiting height in the Tenderloin area. Both of these are linked here<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2011, the writer of these two laws, Randy Shaw, spoke at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and bragged about downzoning the Tenderloin<\/a>. This was followed by H Brown saying that Randy Shaw has displaced the original working poor in Tenderloin SROs and replaced them with addicts. This is because Randy Shaw and other non profits contract with the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing which has a policy of prioritizing addicts for these SROs. Randy Shaw admits this in his own blog<\/a> and also admits developing this policy prioritizing addicts. This means that the intent was not to preserve low income housing as has been claimed , but to replace low income working people with hardcore drug addicts from around the country. Update, a recent SFPD report in 2024 says that 91% of arrested drug users in SF are not from SF<\/a><\/p>\n

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The large scale replacement of low income people with hard core drug addicts is now described in a lawsuit involving the Granada hotel at 1000 Sutter<\/a> charging there is a long term business plan to replace low income tenants with more profitable supportive housing tenants which are all primarily hardcore substance abusers, which has been the primary stated mission of supportive housing non profits since at least 2001<\/a>. This happened at the same time tourists were declared a nuisance<\/a> with the purpose of replacing them with drug addicts<\/p>\n

Update – another thread displacement thread<\/a><\/p>\n

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This has resulted in maps like this<\/a> which is causing the destruction of downtown. The highest vacancies in San Francisco are now in the Mid Market area, in the middle of these maps. Vacancies are now at 45% according to research<\/a> This happened despite the 2011 Twitter Mid market tax breaks<\/a><\/p>\n

In his new book The Least of Us, author Sam Quinones posits that meth contributes to urban decay<\/a><\/p>\n

San Francisco’s 2004 homeless 10 year plan specifically says that the goal is to house people in the Tenderloin primarily those with chronic substance abuse problems<\/a>. In fact, San Francisco officials claimed there was a voter referendum to convert Care not Cash into Housing First<\/a> when there wasn’t. The original 10 year Plan is located here<\/a>. Another 2006 article says the same thing<\/a>. The city’s own 2009 landmark study on SROs<\/a> admitted the city’s own polcies concentrated chronic substance abusers into SROs which were almost all in the Tenderloin and SOMA. The same Landmark Study on SROs<\/a> shows the city knew they were concentrating addicts into the Tenderloin as early as 1998, a policy which has only expanded for almost 30 years through 2024<\/p>\n

In 2014, KQED television broadcast a segment on the Tenderloin<\/a> that included interviews with the police chief and this author<\/p>\n

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Cool Gray City of Love” author Gary Kamiya blames ‘progressive forces and non profits for impeding progress and creating a museum of depravity in the Tenderloin<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Further reading on the decades long eviction cycle in the Tenderloin known as The Churn<\/a><\/p>\n

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Post script. Jennifer Friedenbach, head of the Coalition on Homelessness admits that the UN Plaza night drug market exists because of nearby supportive housing residents<\/a><\/p>\n

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