San Francisco, CA
Counting San Francisco's unhoused — and why you never ask if they are homeless
![Counting San Francisco's unhoused — and why you never ask if they are homeless](https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/14376663_013124-kgo-sf-homeless-count-img.jpg?w=1600)
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — On a clear, mild night, groups of volunteers got ready to comb through the streets of San Francisco to find and count the number of people who are unhoused.
A reminder was given before they started to look for people on streets.
Each group was assigned a specific area.
The question “are you homeless?” was never asked. That’s not how the point-in-time count is conducted.
Instead, they do a sight inspection, at times offering resources. Then they write down whether they think the person is confirmed, suspected or if no one on the block is unhoused.
“I’m assuming that because she’s out there, she’s sleeping,” explained Edgar Diaz, from Code Tenderloin, as to why he counted a woman on the street as homeless.
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But it helps that many of the volunteers and people working for the nonprofit Code Tenderloin know many of the unhoused in the Tenderloin neighborhood or were once homeless themselves and know who’s who.
“Two weeks ago, I was homeless, sleeping on the concrete just like she was so a lot of them I do know,” Michael Hollins also from Code Tenderloin.
Del Seymour is out counting — himself once homeless for 18 years. He told the group how they should approach people on the street.
“No different than if you would approach someone if you were walking up the front stairs of their home. There is no such thing as encampments. Those are for Yosemite. These are dwellings,” insisted Seymour.
In San Francisco, the count runs from 8 p.m. to midnight because that’s when people are believed to be settled in for the night and less likely to be moving around.
People in cars and in city shelters were also counted.
MORE: Are SF’s navigation centers a magnet for crime? Here’s how data refutes public perception
The purpose of this nationwide count is to determine if the number of homeless people is going up or down. The results will impact services and federal dollars.
But no one is expecting the numbers to be entirely accurate.
For example, as the group of volunteers went by a closed tent, they could not determine how many people were inside, so they were counted as one individual.
Jordan Hartman of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive said the point-in-time count is the closest they can get to a perfect count. Yes, in no way this is the closest we can get to a perfect count.
As a result, some groups are undercounted.
Dr. Margot Kushel is with the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing initiative.
MORE: SF claims homeless individuals decline shelter 60% of the time but some say that’s inaccurate
“Homeless families do everything they can to stay out of the public eye because they are really worried, for good reason, that their children will be taken from them,” said Dr. Kushel.
Young people are also undercounted because many are couch surfing, or staying with friends.
“We know the numbers from last point-in-time count was a little over 1,000 youth experiencing homelessness and we know that number is much higher,” explained Karin Adams of the Homeless Youth Alliance.
That’s why volunteers in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood conducted their count in the mid-morning hours when young people are more likely to be hanging out on the streets.
Back in the Tenderloin, that evening, we counted between 6-21 unhoused people on each block, including Forrest Bine who had just claimed a spot on the sidewalk to set up his new tent.
“A lot of it has to do with addiction, the choices I made, how I live. I’ve learned a lot through being homeless and my journey is just as important as anybody else’s, I believe,” expressed Bine who has been homeless for 10 years.
In the spring, they will have the first set of number out but the full report is expected this summer. That’s when San Francisco will find out how many people are homeless.
If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
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San Francisco, CA
Shooting in San Francisco Mission District alley leaves 1 dead
![Shooting in San Francisco Mission District alley leaves 1 dead](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/06/03/a3ad5e12-ce0f-42af-9470-1efc8cf0c588/thumbnail/1200x630/a5f6a5b82545cd62248a61ea0d6a5048/gettyimages-1889004791.jpg?v=5842509bb796a146f9b20d3e8b03dac6)
A shooting in an alley in San Francisco’s Mission District left one person dead Saturday, San Francisco police said.
Officers responded to a report of a shooting about 4 a.m. on Wiese Street, an alley between 15th Street and 16th Street. The location is near Mission Street and BART’s 16th Street station.
The victim was taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department’s tip line at 415-575-4444 or send a text to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.
San Francisco, CA
The EndUp Turns 50 and They're Taking Over Union Square With a Dance Party Saturday
![The EndUp Turns 50 and They're Taking Over Union Square With a Dance Party Saturday](https://img.sfist.com/2024/06/endup-50th-flyer-main.jpg)
That venerable, inimitable, sloppy palace of bad decisions The EndUp was born 50 (and a half) years ago, and they’re now getting around to celebrating — appropriately kinda late — with a Union Square takeover dance party.
Once upon a time in an era of SoMa dominated by leather and country-and-western bars (The Stud, after all, began as a country-and-western themed bar, hence the double-entendre name), The EndUp was born. It was actually born in mid-November 1973, as a sibling establishment to The RoundUp, a western bar one block up 6th Street, owned by Al Hanken and Greg Loughner.
The bar was primarily gay from the 70s into the 90s, becoming known starting in 1974 for its Jockey Shorts Dance Contest — which was featured in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City column in the Chronicle and subsequently featured in the PBS mini-series based on the first book of those columns.
It was always known as a big dance bar with indoor and outdoor spaces, and as an after-hours club — and the latter has made it legendary in an IYKYK kind of way.
In the 90s, it was home to the legendary Club Uranus, which birthed such stars as Justin Vivian Bond, Heklina, Kitty Litter, and Trauma Flintstone. And Fag Fridays launched in 1996 and ran through 2008, featuring an array of LGTBQ club DJs from the Bay Area including Ellen Ferrato and resident DJ David Harness.
After a series of ownership changes and the demise of those weekly LGBTQ events, the club became more mixed and attracted various crowds to events like Sunrise Sunday. And some bad vibes arrived in 2016 with two separate fatal shooting incidents that could have threatened the club’s existence — one in June 2016 that took place inside the club, and one that took place outside in October 2016.
But The EndUp has endured, it was granted Legacy Business status by the city in 2019, and Saturday, June 15 will be a big 50th birthday bash in Union Square — potentially drawing a pretty huge crowd.
Given that the actual birthday was seven months ago, the Facebook invite just calls this party a “fashionably late” one.
“Known as San Francisco’s most legendary after-hours nightclub and premier day-club, @endupsf celebrates dance culture fifty years strong since 1973,” the club says.
DJs include Oscar G, Paul Goodyear, Dean Samaras, Brian Salazar, and Hawthorne. (See the DJ bios here.)
The free party in Union Square runs from 1 pm to 9 pm, Saturday — and, of course, the party continues at The EndUp after that, with DJ Oscar G doing an encore set, joined by DJs Hawthorne, Steve Fabus, and more.
San Francisco, CA
Rehabilitated pelicans released into San Francisco Bay
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