San Francisco, CA
SF claims homeless individuals decline shelter 60% of the time but some say that’s inaccurate
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — San Francisco Mayor London Breed is reporting that in November 60 percent of the time when the city’s Street Outreach team offered shelter to homeless individuals they were rejected.
ABC7 News reporter Luz Pena went to the Tenderloin where some disagreed with the claim and wanted the city to do more.
In San Francisco’s Tenderloin, we met Jimmy Thomas. He’s been homeless for two years. Thomas and others have turned two tents on Turk Street into a shared home where at least 10 people sleep every week.
VIDEO: A look at SF’s struggle to clear homeless encampments as hundreds wait for shelters
As demand grows, waitlists for San Francisco’s housing and emergency shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness get longer.
“We all take turns sleeping in a tent. It’s a lot more of us too. We come and go,” said Thomas.
Mayor Breed said city data shows that in November, 60 percent of the time unhoused individuals were offered shelter they refused to accept help and move indoors.
Pena: “Have you been offered shelter out here?”
Thomas: “No, no. I’ve been looking for shelter and housing because I’ve been trying to find resources.”
The mayor went on to expand on city data saying, in October, shelter was refused in 65 percent of the encounters. In September, 60 percent.
VIDEO: Where did SF’s homeless population go during APEC? Here’s what we uncovered
Where did San Francisco’s homeless go during the APEC summit? Here’s what we uncovered.
Sam Dodge, is the Director of SF Street Response team. They go out twice a day to the city’s homeless hot spots offering shelter and keep track of who rejects it.
“Right now we have more shelter available than ever in the history of San Francisco. We have over 3,000 shelter beds available every night,” said Dodge.
Pena: “If you have so much shelter why are people still out here?”
Dodge: “We have a lot of shelter but we have more people that are homeless than we have shelter beds. That is a reality. “
During our town hall ABC7 Take Action San Francisco, Mayor Breed blamed the homeless crisis in part on a lawsuit by the Coalition on Homeless.
TAKE ACTION SF: Mayor, city leaders to answer questions about future of city
“After the Ninth Circuit court decision happened and there was clarity from that case, because we were not able to move people the way that we are able to move people now, so we offer someone shelter or any type of housing so they are no longer involuntarily homeless. What we are doing is being as aggressive as we can to get people off the streets and get them an ultimatum,” said Mayor Breed.
Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director for the Coalition on Homelessness disagrees with the latest numbers.
“The overwhelming majority of people that the mayor is saying are refusing shelter they actually did not have a shelter bed for them. The other folks is because it’s not accessible from a disability perspective. It is not the correct gender. Someone has a severe mental health illness,” said Friedenbach.
The city’s outreach team confirmed that when people are offered a type of shelter they don’t want they are counted as rejecting shelter that day.
“Every time we do an encampment abatement operation we bring more than enough shelter beds so that everyone has a shelter option. It’s legally and morally right that we have that when we are engaging people,” said Dodge.
Smiley has been homeless for six years and has refused shelter in the past.
“I don’t do shelters. I’ve heard too many horror stories of people going into shelters. So, I just choose not to go,” said Smiley.
Despite the city saying they have the highest number of shelter beds available, currently, there are 436 people on the shelter waitlist.
If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Giants Predicted to Spend This Offseason in Free Agency
The San Francisco Giants are heading into free agency and the offseason as a very interesting team to watch.
It was another disappointing season for the Giants in 2024, as they finished under .500 once again and missed the playoffs for the third straight year.
The struggles in San Francisco resulted in a change in the front office, as Buster Posey took over as the President of Baseball Operations.
With the decision to add Posey to the front office, the hope is that he will be able to lure in some of the top caliber free agents that they have been missing out on in recent years.
The Giants haven’t been shy about spending money, but that money hasn’t always went to the right places.
Recently, Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report ranked teams in different tiers based on what they will spend this offseason. For San Francisco, he placed them in the tier that will be spending this winter.
“Perhaps the most interesting team on this list is the Giants, with former NL MVP Buster Posey now serving as their president of baseball operations. He’s talked about wanting to figure the shortstop position out, which is why we’ve projected the Giants as the landing spot for Adames. But San Francisco has had a hard time getting star players to sign on the dotted line in recent years, probably due in large part to Oracle Park being seen as a bad place to hit at 81 times a season.”
While the Giants have the desire to sign a superstar and the next face of the franchise, there have been some indications that they might not break the bank this offseason. However, at the same time, they have been linked to some of the top free agents this winter.
Currently, the biggest need for San Francisco is in their lineup. While Juan Soto would be a great addition, him going to the Bay Area seems unlikely. However, a player like Willy Adames or Alex Bregman might be a more realistic target. Neither one of those players would be cheap, but both would instantly upgrade the lineup.
In addition to trying to upgrade the lineup, the Giants also saw Blake Snell decline his player option to become a free agent. Considering how good Snell was in the second half of the season, it will be interesting to see what the plan is to either bring him back or replace him.
While San Francisco will certainly be spending this offseason, the real question will be how much the organization is willing to invest.
San Francisco, CA
Atmospheric river storm causes minor flooding in San Francisco
Some San Francisco roadways and neighborhoods experienced minor flooding Friday as the atmospheric river dumped heavy rain on the city.
Matthew Coric said he was inside his restaurant when all the sudden he noticed water rising outside.
“Water was coming over the curb already and Rainbow Grocery closed for the day because they flooded or started to flood, and the next two restaurants had water in their restaurant already,” said Coric.
Two years ago during another big storm, the entire block flooded with several feet of water.
Coric told KPIX he was determined to not let that happen again, so he and some of his employees grabbed brooms and anything else they could get their hands on and ran towards the flooding.
“These two drains right here on either side of the street, we literally couldn’t see them. This was up above the curb. We were just blindly scraping trying to get it unclogged until we could see the little tornado start,” said Coric.
He said they were able to unclog the drain just in time to stop the water from flooding his restaurant, and that it took about 30 minutes for the water to fully recede.
While he is happy they were able to avoid another crisis, he said he wishes the city would have been monitoring the area so that he and his employees didn’t have to fix it on their own.
“It flooded two years ago, and then last year the city was like high alert. They would park their trucks out here and make sure nothing happened. But now it’s been two years, they forgot about us again and same thing happened,” said Coric.
He said, from now on when it rains, he’s going to monitor the drains himself and step in anytime he sees them getting clogged.
He recommends that others in areas where flooding happens do the same.
“If you’re out on the street, anybody right, and you see the drain overflowing, I know if you can wait for the city that’s great, but it might not come. Just clean it yourself or get somebody that can just to save everybody a bunch of headaches,” said Coric.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco D.A. announces conviction in 2015 quadruple murder
SAN FRANCISCO – Nearly 10 years after a quadruple murder, drive-by shooting shocked the San Francisco Hayes Valley neighborhood, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Friday announced the conviction of the San Francisco man responsible.
The D.A.’s office issued a news release that said Lee Farley, 36, was found guilty by a jury on four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances when he opened fire on an occupied vehicle on the night of January 9, 2015.
According to evidence and testimony, four men were ambushed from behind on Laguna Street just south of Page Steet at around 10 p.m.
The jury found that Farley committed this act as a participant of a criminal street gang and that he was a felon in possession of a firearm.
Police arrested Farley in the summer of 2016. He was already serving time at a federal prison in Atwater on unrelated weapons charges when he was taken into custody.
The slayings of Manuel O’Neal, David Saucier II, Harith Atchan and Yalani Chinyamurindi left the victims’ families in turmoil as they waited for justice.
“I would like to thank the jury for their service in this trial,” said District Attorney Jenkins. “I would also like to thank the mothers and families of the murdered men for their patience, faith and trust in my office to get justice for their families. Our strong legal team fought hard, understanding that while nothing we do can bring back their loved ones, that hopefully this verdict brings them some comfort.”
The D.A. thanked her team and the San Francisco Police Department’s homicide unit for their work on this case.
Farley’s sentencing will be scheduled after a bench trial on priors. That date is set for Dec. 16, 2024.
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