Residents of a San Francisco condo building where units sell for $1million say they’re living in fear after an adjoining alleyway became the city’s biggest homeless encampment.
The massive tent city – occupied by a feces-hurling man and an assortment of other untoward characters – is paces away from The Artani, an eight-story Van Ness Avenue complex where residents say they’re being spooked by a growing number of vagrant neighbors.
Condo resident Amber Lusko stated that the COVID pandemic has aggravated the problem by attracting rats, thieves and mentally unstable people who have turned their neighbourhood into a place of bedlam.
‘It’s pretty consistently nerve-wracking,’ Lutsko told KPIX 5. ‘This just seems to be a safe space for chop shops, drug trafficking.’
Complaints are being lodged as new data indicates that San Francisco’s district attorney Chesa Boudin has charged people with theft in less than 50 percent of cases throughout his tenure.
Footage by KPIX 5 shows an alleyway near the condo complex lined with tents
You can see trash all over the streets, as well as tents scattered throughout the area.
According to reports, the city conducted an area sweep but tents returned the following day.
KPIX 5 reported that Artani units were sold for greater than $1million. 670,000 are the current listings for 1-bedroom units.
The building sits near Willow Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street, home to San Francisco’s most heavily-concentrated homeless encampment, the outlet reported.
Shannon, another resident, said police had done very little to stop violence and bad behavior.
‘I’ve seen people physically fighting, and I myself was leaving once and a man approached my car and yelling obscenities and threatening me, which was really scary,’ she told the station.
‘There was a guy who passed out in front of our door with a needle hanging out of his arm all day long. And our children had to walk past that.’
Those living at Artani told the station about vagrants who throw feces, prop up the building’s garage with empty bottles, steal packages, and more.
According to some reports, the city did a sweep at Willow Street in October but that night the tents returned.
In a statement issued to KPIX 5, the city’s department of emergency management said it was working to improve the situation by providing resources and services to those without homes.
It said it conducted ‘encampment resolutions,’ on 24 days this year that helped house 161 people in safe sleep sites, hospitals, residential treatment programs, and shelters.
A view from the air of an abandoned encampment located near San Francisco’s city hall illustrates the severity of the city’s homelessness crisis
The photo shows a woman sleeping rough in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
‘The resolution included the removal of 377 tents that were either empty, abandoned, or their owners accepted placement in alternate shelters,’ the statement said.
Because of an increase in property theft, businesses throughout San Francisco have been forced to reduce their hours or close entirely. The district attorney Boudin was criticized by the local community for ‘destroying our city’.
Safeway’s grocery store was the latest to be affected by rampant shoplifting. The company cited this as the reason it cut its 24 hour service down to 6am-9pm.
Boudin was elected to his post on the promise of a fresh approach to criminal justice by not prosecuting low-level crimes. To the dismay of many, he has kept to his promise by only charging those accused of theft in 46% cases.
According to new data, San Francisco’s awake District Attorney Chesa Bourdin has been bringing charges against people for theft in fewer than half of the cases he handled during his tenure.
In total, Boudin charged individuals with criminal offenses in 48% of reported cases. Gascon, however, has an overall charging rate of 54%
Boudin could be recall due to a petition that was launched in March and has received more than 83,000 signatures. That’s far higher than the 51,000 required to hold an election.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 62% of cases filed in 2018 and 2019 were similar to his predecessor George Gascon.
Boudin could be recall after just two years of his term. In March, his critics created a petition that had over 83,000 signatures. That’s far more than the 51,000 needed for an election.
Many of those who joined the recall were from his administration. 50 former lawyers quit their jobs or were dismissed since January 2020. This represents roughly one third of all the department’s prosecutors.
“He has pledged from the very beginning that he would not pursue quality-of-life crimes. The foundation of any society and city is quality of life. Richie Greenberg (an ex-Republican mayoral candidate who is now spokesperson for the Committee Supporting the Recall DA Chesa Boudin) said that if you don’t hold those responsible, you are essentially destroying the fabric in our city.
After being targeted by shoplifters, a 24-hour Safeway in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood (pictured) was forced to reduce its hours and is now open between 6am and 9pm.
Boudin’s petty crime rate is even lower than Gascon’s, with only 35% of cases being charged against him.
Boudin has also been convicted of far fewer of both offences than Gascon. It only convicts thieves for 79% thefts and 62% for petty steals. Gascon boasts an 82% theft conviction rate and 77% petty steal conviction rates.
Boudin was convicted of crimes in 48%, and Gascon is charged with 54%.
San Francisco’s overall crime rates were up 7.7 percent and larceny theft was up 12.5 percent for the week ending October 31.
According to San Francisco Police Department, assaults increased by eight percent.
California’s homeless population spiked by 17 percent between 2017 and 2020, according to The National Alliance to End Homelessness.
According to the report, there were over 160,000 homeless persons in Minnesota in 2020.