SF safe sleeping site becomes “living hell” for locals

A safe sleeping site for homeless residents in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood is poorly run, clogged with double-parked cars, full of trash and beset by unsafe conditions, neighbors say.

Two years after it was opened by the United Council of Human Services, the officially sanctioned encampment at 2111 Jennings Street is a public nuisance, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing neighbors who want to shut it down.

Frustrated business owners and residents say the nonprofit organization and the city broke their promises the site would be safer and cleaner than unmonitored encampments, with security, trash pickup and other services.

The site lease – which includes a fenced-off block with about 20 tents, plus toilets and showers – was recently extended by a year.

“They’ve been terrible neighbors,” said Zachary Eisenberg, vice president of Anresco Laboratories, a food and cannabis testing laboratory next to the homeless village.

The clash with neighbors over the extension comes as the United Council of Human Service faces renewed scrutiny. Two scathing city audits, including one last month, questioned its operations and financial practices and led officials to notify the FBI of “criminal activity.”

This year, California suspended the charity’s nonprofit status. Its CEO, Gwendolyn Westbrook — once convicted of stealing collections from public parking lots — recently admitted that some tenants of UCHS’ housing program were her relatives.

The controversy raises questions about UCHS’ ability to handle the challenges of running multiple programs for Bayview’s homeless residents — and the city’s ability to oversee an organization it continues to stand by.

The city defends its practices, arguing that it is increasing security at the site to alleviate potential problems.

After a community meeting this year raised concerns about the homeless camp, officials convened a neighborhood working group. Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose District 10 includes the Bayview, did not respond to requests for comment by the Chronicle.

The safe sleeping site on Jennings was among six created during the pandemic to shelter homeless residents in tent encampments across the city. It’s located in an industrial area, with tents just feet from warehouse loading bays for businesses.

Since the city closed the block in mid-2020, business owners say they and their employees have had a hard time getting to their properties. They’ve also encountered numerous problems, including being assaulted or harassed by the soup kitchen’s clients.

At Evergood Sausage, owners grew so exasperated at one point that they considered moving to a new facility in Stockton. “It has been living hell since they closed the street down,” Vice President Don Miller said. “Living hell.”

David Eisenberg, the testing lab’s president and father of Zachary Eisenberg, said he filed a police report after he was threatened by a man inside the safe sleeping site. The Police Department took no action, he said.

Eisenberg and other business owners said residents who use the nonprofit’s services defecated or urinated on the street in front of the business or nearby homes.

They said the street’s closure led to loitering, open-air drug dealing, proliferation of litter and other problems. Their entreaties to UCHS, they say, went unanswered. Several residents echoed business owners’ concerns about neighborhood safety, trash and other issues, but declined to be identified, saying they were concerned about retaliation.

UCHS officials declined a Chronicle reporter’s request for an interview and did not respond to written questions.

Emily Cohen, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, countered the complaints, saying the city funded round-the-clock safety staffing at the sleeping site, with workers monitoring the inside of the site and the immediate perimeter.

— Dana Bartholomew

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