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February 6, 2021 Dear Supervisor Ronen, There is yet another large tent across the street from the Safe Sleeping Area that takes up the entire sidewalk. If it persists, I guarantee you, others will follow. Since 2016 the encampments in our neighborhood have been relentless. Allowing neighbors to use the 311 app to have tents removed alleviated the situation somewhat but now, since January, when JeffKositsky abandoned that policy there has been another explosion of encampments. I have spilled a lot of ink to try to help you understand what it is like to live in a neighborhood where your policies and neglect have created what can only be described as third-world conditions. You don’t seem to get it. This neighborhood started going down hill during Campos’ tenure, but you have only made it worse by neglecting it, blocking development, encouraging encampments, and allowing bad behavior to persist on our sidewalks. I believe that you forget that there are actual people who are working, trying to raise families, and struggling to live in a neighborhood that, thanks again to your policies, is completely blighted. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. My words over the years have not moved you so perhaps this altered image may give you an idea of what it is like when you allow encampments, garbage and illegal dumping, and out-of-control drinking in front of our homes. Imagine how you would feel if you had to confront these conditions every time you stepped out of your front door. Recently, the enormous encampment between Virgil and South Van Ness on 26th Street persisted for almost two months! You have again used the 1515 South Van Ness property to locate the wreckage of your failed homeless policy (a property that should have been developed in 2017). You steamrolled a city-developed nine-story building on a very narrow Shotwell Street at Cesar Chavez with no consideration of the neighborhood architecture or height limits (It looms over us like an oppressive monster. It could have been a nice six-story design that enhanced the area but...I guess we don't deserve better). We have asked you to start an educational campaign to help alleviate the trash and illegal dumping in our neighborhood to no avail. We have asked you to do an independent socio-economic study in the area but you prefer to blindly pursue your agenda. It has been the endless work of the Mission Neighborhood Association that has helped cap the damage that your policies create in our community. I don't want to have to write angry letters, it takes an enormous amount of my time and has actually hurt my career and financial situation, but it's either that or the neighborhood would be even worse. I again implore you to do what any other city official would do-- have some concern for the community that your constituents have to live their day-to-day lives in. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine

26th and Shotwell Francesca Pastine Thu, Jun 29, 2017, 4:30 PM to Randolph, Jeff, Hillary, (POL), Deirdre, Laura, Mayor, Rachel, bcc: Craig, bcc: Erica, bcc: roxanne Jeff Kositsky, et al.: After living intimately with an encampment at 26th and Shotwell since August 2016 it was finally cleared. I am not going to thank you yet since, in the past, this encampment was cleared a total of 2 times and was repopulated within days. I just listened to a podcast of Michael Krasny's program today with Jeff Kositsky and Daniel Carder. I particularly congratulate subsidizing market-rate housing, creating a comprehensive data base, and more rigorous treatment for mental health issues, as these strike me as real solutions. I was a little disturbed about Daniel Carder's dismissal of the effect homelessness has on neighborhoods. If the city takes a compartmentalized approach to solving homelessness, the problems for certain neighborhoods will be exacerbated. As always, the brunt of the solution will fall to neighborhoods like mine which have a majority of renters and are not as economically upward as others. At this time, the Mission has three Navigation Centers. My immediate neighborhood already has a lot of low-income housing and three separate towers for affordable/low-income/homeless housing are slated for development. I am hoping that all of San Francisco's districts are persuaded to step up to the plate so that there is an equitable mix of incomes spread throughout the city. Another disturbing comment was made on the Michael Krasny show concerning the Navigation Center in the Civic Center. A caller stated that, since the navigation center there opened, there has been a glut of new tent encampments with a lot of chop shops, drugs, as well as other issues such as trash and needles, around that center. This has been my number-one concern with the Navigation on 26th and South Van Ness. I have yet to been told how the city plans to prevent this from happening. It's all very well to say there will be a zone around the center that tents will not permit tents but, if the city is unwilling to enforce it, or if it's just empty talk. Yesterday, KALW's Cross Currents had a show on homelessness in which Laura Waxman stated that the time limit in the 26th and South Van Ness center will only be 30 to 60 days. Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition for the homeless stated is SFish that 30 days was not enough time to address many of the severe problems of the unsheltered. The Episcopal Community report for the navigation center at 16th and Mission says that most people needed 90 days to transition into housing. At the neighborhood meeting concerning this center held at the Mission Community Center I brought up the inadequacy of the 30 day time-line and Hillary Ronen said point-blank that the South Van Ness navigation center will have a 90 day transition. It is of great concern to me that the Navigation Centers are trying to rush people through to get better success rates while abandoning those that can't transition in a set time frame. I applaud the creativity and great efforts that Jeff Kositsky and Daniel Carder are putting into solutions for finding housing for the unsheltered. I feel that in the case of the South Van Ness navigation center that the neighborhood community was unfairly ignored. It started with no community outreach or education. There were two contentious meeting held after the fact which did little to enlightened and, instead, pitted neighbors against each other. The Episcopal Community report on the 16th and Mission navigation center website states that more and smaller centers are better than a few larger ones. According to their report, once a navigation center is too large, more restrictions need to be put in place to control it which defeats the purpose of a navigation center. The navigation center in the Dog Patch, according to Laura Waxman, is in an industrial area. I know from talking with a Dog Patch community leader that their supervisor worked with the neighborhood association to find an appropriate site for the center. I fear that the South Van Ness center was rushed, ill planned, and has and will continue to have a negative impact on my community. It is my hope that the Department of Homelessness, Supervisor Hillary Ronen, and Mayor Ed Lee's office reach out to our community and work with us since the success of this centers is a success for everyone involved. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine

Politicians promised to keep encampments off our sidewalks when the 120 bed Navigation Center was established on Lennar's property at 1515 South Van Ness. David Campos originally blocked the project then Hillary Ronen forced Lennar to use the property for the NC. Since then, nothing has changed only it is now a Safe Sleeping Area and we still have encampments all over then neighborhood: there are encampments in front of and attached to the property, there are encampments on every block on 25th Street from Shotwell to Mission Street. Francesca Pastine Jun 28, 2017, 4:39 PM to Randolph, jeff.kositsky, deirdre.hussey, SFPDMissionStation, mayoredwinlee, Hillary.Ronen, rachel.gordon, Laura, bcc: cpatax, bcc: erica This is what incompetence and broken promises looks like. This is right next to navigation center. (see above images)

Shotwell at 26th Street Francesca Pastine Sun, Jun 25, 2017, 7:41 PM to Randolph, jeff.kositsky, deirdre.hussey, SFPDMissionStation, mayoredwinlee, Hillary.Ronen, rachel.gordon To Randy Quesada, et al., The situation on Shotwell and 26th deteriorates further. There are active chop shops, drug use and drug dealing, trash, and safety issues as people are forced to walk in the street at a blind curve. The incompetence of the city to allow this condition to exist right next to the new navigation center is a stunning betrayal to the neighborhood. Where are the extra police patrols? The people occupying this street are openly involved in criminal activity while the city and police could care less. It's beyond belief.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED: MY LIFE SINCE 2016: Francesca Pastine Tue, Jun 13, 2017, 10:28 AM to Randolph, Jeff, SFPDMissionStation, deirdre.hussey, mayoredwinlee, Hillary.Ronen, rachel.gordon, laura.wenus Yesterday, people were doing drugs at this site. Today they are running a chop shop. These are not just homeless people, they are criminals. I was at the police station all last night trying to make a report to no avail because the police could care less. I can't focus on the class I'm suppose to teach tonight because I am so upset that criminals are wheeling and dealing outside my front door. You people are now going to introduce 120 homeless in my neighborhood, many of whom will be criminals, drug addicts, alcoholics, and have mental conditions. This is day 4 of this regrouped encampment with no response from the city or the police. It is totally unacceptable. I demand accountability. You have an obligation to to the immediate neighbors of the proposed navigation center to get your sorry asses down here and meet with us. You are acting like trump republicans too scared to meet with their constituents. Your absolute dismissive conducts in regards to the people who live and work in the Inner Mission is absolutely reprehensible. We have no rights to basic security and quality of life. What is the problem with you people?

homeless encampment on 26th and Shotwell Francesca Pastine Jun 10, 2017, 8:35 PM to Randolph, Hillary, Jeff, (POL), Deirdre, Mayor, Laura, Rachel Dear Randy, After our last email correspondence on June 9 regarding the homeless encampment on the SW side of the corner of Shotwell and 26th, the homeless there were asked to move and they complied. I appreciate the swift response, however, now they are on the NE side on Shotwell and 26th. I think this illustrates the intractable situation of tent encampments in which the Department of Homelessness and the city of San Francisco really don't have a clear strategy for dealing with. The individuals that moved across the street from the SW side are the same individuals who have been there for almost 10 months. Considering all the calls that were made to 311, I would deduce that these people were offered beds or services numerous times. The fact that San Francisco does not have clear strategy to clean up homeless encampments, even after the people who are living there are offered services, is a real concern to me vis-a-vis the-120 bed proposed navigation center at South Van Ness and 26th. The police were called yesterday by numerous neighbors after the encampment re-set up on the NE side of Shotwell and 26th. My husband and I talked with the officer and was given the same story that we always get when we talk with the police-- that the police have no power to do anything to move these encampments unless someone is being a danger to themselves or someone else or in the act of committing a crime. I am enclosing the images of the current situation as well as a sidewalk garden in front of the garage on the NW side of Shotwell and 26th Street. That garage keeps these sidewalk plots very clean so this garbage accumulated in just a day. Obviously, these people do not have bathroom facilities and so are using peoples' side yards and Horace ally to defecate. They are cooking on the street. There is a woman in this group who has become very familiar to everyone in our neighborhood. She has obvious drug and mental problems and behaves erratically. The one thing I have not heard from officials or from the Department of Homelessness literature is how the city plans to deal with the homeless population who does not submit to services. In Short, I am not convinced that our neighborhood will not suffer a negative impact from the proposed navigation center until the city decides that tent encampment will not be tolerated, especially if there are services and beds available. I don't think I am being unreasonable since I have been dealing with a city that has not been able to effectively clear this area of tent encampments since August 2016, particularly after my neighbors and I have put in an enormous effort into calling 311 constantly, calling and talking with the police, writing letters, going to meetings, etc. I am happy that San Francisco and the Department of Homelessness are putting money and resources into the problem of homelessness, however, I have yet to see that any of this has had any real effect on the streets in the Mission. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine ps: images were taken today on the NE of Shotwell Street two houses down from my front door.

Dear Hillary Ronen, et. al., An ever-growing tent encampment moved in front of my house on December 6. Today, close to the tent and in front of my next door neighbor's house, is a massive liquid dump of diarrhea. It is raining and the diarrhea is permeating through the sidewalk where families walk, children walk, and people walk their dogs. This diarrhea can be tracked into the house unknowingly where kids and pets can then carry it to furniture and food surfaces. This is the consequence of having tents on our public sidewalks and in front of our houses. Because of a San Francisco policy that prioritizes encampments on public sidewalks rather than building shelters the health of my community is put at risk. I know this is the direct result of this encampment because of the proximity of the tent to the diarrhea and because the last time we saw diarrhea on the sidewalk was when there were encampments on our streets. The below photo is of a 157 unit project with ground floor artisian studios that should have been built in 2017 on the SW corner of Shotwell and 26th, but you killed the project. Instead of having a stable building housing people invested in our community, this block has had to deal with out-of-control encampments, illegal dumping, trash, graffiti, and other urban blight. The graffiti-covered Safe Sleeping Area that now exists there is a half-block of blighted territory that has encouraged encampments and crime. On the NE corner of Shotwell and 26th (directly opposite the above tent), the owner moved out because of deteriorating conditions in the neighborhood. It cannot be sold because of the same deteriorating conditions in the neighborhood. When places are abandoned, more blight is encouraged. I just walked by the hollowed out shell of Walgreens on Mission and Cesar Chavez the other day. It's only a matter of time when more encampments, trash, etc. occupies the vacuum that exists there. My neighborhood is spiraling out of control, has been for years, because of your failed policies. And here is another ugly truth: the Hot Team that now is tasked with persuading people to move into shelters, instead, actively aids their continuing presence on our sidewalks. I have seen it and I experience it with the ever increasing tents in my neighborhood. Sidewalk squatters are San Francisco's sacred cows. Communities are sacrificed and our health is compromised so that they can proliferate on our sidewalks untouched. For years, San Franciscans thought that the problem of huge encampments could be solved only to realize that huge encampments are the City's solution. In short, there is not a so-called homeless problem, there is a political problem. My husband called 311 about the diarrhea only to be told it will take 12 to 24 hours for someone to come out. How many people will be exposed to potentially dangerous pathogens by then? But whatever, if you are a resident in this city your health and wellbeing means nothing to Hillary Ronen, her colleagues, or the mayor. Sincerely, Francesca

DECEMBER 7 Dear Hillary Ronen, There is now yet another tent that is set up in front of my house. It is most likely another person that has been kicked out of the Safe Sleeping site because I see her hanging around with the residents there. I am tired of my neighborhood being negatively impacted by out of control encampments for the last SIX YEARS. My health and income have been adversely harmed by it. I am forced to live day in and day out surrounded by enormous out-of-control encampments, trash, petty crime, and the horrors of seeing people shoot-up or having to witness scenes like a mentally disturbed person ranting down the street covered in their shit, or having to roll up my sleeves to clean up a horrible case of diarrhea in my driveway-- not for a day, not for a month, but for six straight years. All of this takes its toll. Politicians like you, beholden to special interest groups like the Coalition for the Homeless, do not have to live on a daily basis with the consequences of your reckless policies. It is the people in neighborhoods like mine, generally low-income, poc, immigrants and the working class, in short, vulnerable communities, that are burdened with the brunt of absorbing the squatters, Navigation Centers, and Safe Sleeping Sites. You have thrown your constituents in my neighborhood under the bus because we don't have the financial or political clout to stop you. This is not progressive, it is not compassionate, it does not solve the problem. Right now, in addition to the tent in front of my house, we have a mentally ill person who has attached a cardboard structure to a neighbor's house. He has been hanging out in our neighborhood for months trespassing, screaming misogynist rants, and exposing himself to young women in the neighborhood. He has already started a fire large enough to warrant a response from SFFD, yet he continues to light candles in his structure. The people in the building have been working with the HOT team to get him placed but he does not want help. The situation is a failure for both the mentally ill man who is languishing unhelped on the street and for the community that is put in danger because of him. This tragic failure is also the result of hypocritical progressives like you who live in wealthy white neighborhoods; you wring your hands about homelessness but do not participate in the problem. And it is constant because you and other San Francisco politicians don't care if residents in my neighborhood have a very mentally disturbed person loose on our sidewalks who is also a sexual criminal that could potentially burn the building down that he has attached his structure to. This is only one such example of years of horrible situations my community has had to absorb. My health has deteriorated because you and other politicians feel it's ok to allow these situations to fester in front of my house, on my block, and in the community I live in. The Coalition for the Homeless should advocate for the unsheltered. However, it is the politicians responsibility to find a balance. When the politicians turn their back on poor under-served communities, when they take advantage of us because they know they can, this is not compassion-- it is environmental injustice. I don't buy into a mock-compassionate stance that helps no one and, instead, hurts people-- and particularly those with the severe issues that go unchecked because you and other supervisors find it easier to enable them than to help them. When you create policy based on ideology, not reality, you get failed policy. You only need to walk in certain neighborhoods to see that San Francisco policy is a colossal failure. You only need to read the statistics of overdose deaths in SF compared to those in NYC or West Virginia to see that we are failing the very people your progressive politics purport to care about. Stop pretending to care about the people in my neighborhood and, instead, do something that actually helps us. Remove the graffiti covered Safe Sleeping Area that contributes to urban blight and attracts other squatters that set up their encampments around it. Start enforcing the ordinances that are on the SF.gove website: Safe Sleeping Guidelines for Unsheltered Individuals. Better yet, bring up a vote for Mandleman's A Safe Place for All that would positively impact neighborhoods like mine. Your failures are my realities. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine

FOLKS, WE DO NOT HAVE A HOMELESS PROBLEM, WE HAVE A POLITICAL PROBLEM. Our streets, in the Mission, are a mirror of our political leaders' actions. The streets can be improved. The people on Nextdoor SE Mission have come up with a multitude of solutions that could work. There is no political will to improve the condition on the streets because our city is beholden to activist groups like the Coalition for the Homeless. I would really like to live in a city where my community and peoples lives in that community were respected. But politicians like Hillary Ronen are only concerned with the people who keep them in power and it's not someone like me: a constituents who has lived in SF since 1976, contributed to the culture of San Francisco, has worked hard to make a place for myself in (what was) a wonderful mixed neighborhood that I could afford. The sidewalks in my community no longer belong to the public, they have been taken over by the Coalition for the Homeless (with the complete backing of San Francisco and Supervisor Ronen). Our public sidewalks now function as city shelters for drug addicts and the mentally ill. Because the Coalition for the Homeless does not believe in temporary shelters, San Francisco does not have an adequate supply. Because of the Coalition's unworkable Housing First ideology the unsheltered persist on our sidewalks instead going into shelters where they have access to resources. It's a self perpetuating disaster.

JULY 2017 After Ronen forced Lennar to host a Navigation Center for close to two years in a building that was suppose to have been completed in 2017. Dear Hillary, The Navigation Center at 1515 South Van Ness has barely shut the door and already the sidewalks are starting to be populated by tents and trash. Because the endless delays in the Lennar building project that was proposed in 2014,  this area has, yet again, become an empty lot attractive to illegal encampments and worse. After delaying the Lennar project for two years, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on November 2016 to further delay the  project keeping 157 units out of the housing market. At best, this was shortsighted. At worse, it reeks of unfair influence by a small group of political activist who do not represent me or my neighbors.  The result of stalling this much needed housing for close to five years resulted in an out of control homeless situation on that block for ten months. This decision, along with further negotiations, and another twelve-month delay  to enable  a temporary Navigation Center at South Van Ness, has sorely compromised my neighborhood. Because of the gross mishandling of the Lennar project, this area is yet again a vacant space subject to vagrancy, squatting, trash accumulation, crime, drinking and drug use. I believe you, the Board of Supervisors, and the SFPD owe it to us to keep this area clean and livable (such as it would have been for the past five years if the Supervisors were actually concerned with improving my neighborhood rather than catering to their narrow self-interests). It was the office of Supervisor Campos that initially delayed this project, but you are now our Supervisor and, I would argue, further delayed the project with the Navigation Center.  Now our neighborhood is right back to square one, a vacant and blighted one-half of a city block. Unfortunately, this has been a hellish few years for me and my neighbors. My experience, on this one block, clearly illustrates to me why San Francisco is in the mess it is in now.  City politics is hostage to activist groups that have no interest in the holistic well being of the City.  Thanks to housing activist and groups like Calle 24, projects that can better neighborhoods are delayed.  Thanks to the Coalition for the Homeless, tents are allowed to proliferated in public spaces. (I realize that, with the homeless situation, there are larger forces at play. However, after spending a half-a-year serving on the Advisory Committee on Homelessness at the SFPD, it is apparent to me that the hands-off approach to tent encampments advocated by the Homeless Coalition (and  San Francisco's acquiescence to that policy) is a large factor in the stubborn entrenchment of homeless encampments.  I strongly believe the homeless need advocacy and that groups calling for affordable housing serve an important role in keeping the city affordable.  I would argue, however, that you and the Board of Supervisors, plus the Mayors Office, have a responsibility to work for the health and well being of all San Francisco citizens.  Thus far, considering the current crises, San Francisco government has failed us miserably. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine PS: I just checked the building department records for the Lennar cite and it indicates that Lennar filed for a building permit in July 2017 . On February 2018 this project was put on hold.  I would like to know if the City  is continuing to discourage this project and how the City plans to facilitate it as soon as possible.

Dear Dennis Herrera, City Attorney, et. al. In June of this year, many tents started to proliferate around the 1515 South Van Ness property on Shotwell at 26th Street.  I had asked Paul Monge to have them moved since I didn't want a repeat of what happened in 2016 when a huge tent encampment surrounded this property. Paul Monge wrote to me on July 1: "Francesca, the Emergency Operations Center is currently looking at city owned properties that could be temporarily activated to help relocate individuals whose tents are set up on public walkways and in front of other resident's homes. One thought that was proposed was opening up the outdoor parking space at 1515 South Van Ness to move the tents around the property and within the immediate vicinity within the bounds of the property (similar to what was done in 2016 but at a much smaller scale). I wanted to get your thoughts on that proposed measure." I asked my neighbors what they thought of this proposal and got a resounding no. Their instincts were correct. Mr. Monge promises, in his email, that tents would be inside the property, not outside. He refers to 2016 but what he means is 2017 when Supervisor Hillary Ronen persuaded Lennar (who owned the property and was in the process of getting city approval for a 157 unit housing project there) to use the property as a Navigation Center since construction was constantly delayed because of  San Francisco's bad-faith manipulations. At that time, the Inner Mission Neighborhood negotiated with Supervisor Ronen to have a tent-free zone around the vicinity, among other demands.  This was particularly important because, after reading about the first Navigation Center at 1950 Mission Street, it was clear that the homeless put up their tents around the NC only using it as a 'watering hole' and for services.  At the time, good friends of mine lived on Stevenson Street and I saw first hand how the neighborhood deteriorated when the Navigation Center was installed.  In fact, my friend's block got so bad that, even though they lived there for over twenty years and wanted to stay in San Francisco, they were forced to sell their property and move to the suburbs. Laura Wenus interviewed a resident from the 1950 Mission Street Navigation Center in the Mission Local on December 8, 2016. Wenus quotes him as saying: “I don’t sleep here…I have stuff out there,” he said. “I’ve been on the streets for eight years, it’s hard to break the cycle. This is what I do. A lot of folks there were placed there but they were still in the encampments. Either their partner didn’t get in or [they did and] there was some kind of rule violation,” he said. Or, “People had excess of stuff so they have storage…They had a lot of stuff they had accumulated over years of being on the streets.” The articles goes on to say: Though allowing possessions is one of the navigation center’s distinguishing characteristics, Glass said it’s not always possible for the center to store everything a resident may come in with...Randy Quezada, a spokesperson for the Department of Homelessness, said while the shelter does try to accommodate belongings and doesn’t have a specific limit to how much an individual can bring, some come in with hoarding disorders, or people may simply want more space. It can also be hard to adjust to a new lifestyle, he said. “To the extent that you may have some people who will slip out and go back to the tents at night, that happens, and that’s part of the engagement process.” Quezada said. “For some people … that have been living on the streets a long time, it’s hard to re-acclimate to being indoors.” For the people in my community, it was critical that the 1515 South Van Ness Navigation Center not make our dense, immigrant, POC, and predominantly low-income neighborhood worse. We pressured Supervisor Ronen to agree to a tent-free zone and other provisions. Still, there were residents in the  South Van Ness Navigation Center that brought a lot of drug use and unstable behavior to our community. Fast forward to December 2020 and Mr. Monge, as I said above, intimates that tents will be in the parking lot area, not outside of it. Paul Monge and Supervisor Hillary Ronen are representative of the type of city behavior that demonstrates an absolute lack of concern for the people who are negatively impacted by their agenda. We now have a particularly huge vehicle encampment taking over the whole sidewalk between Virgil Alley and South Van Ness Avenue (this vehicle has appropriated huge parts of our sidewalk way beyond its perimeters. San Francisco pandemic parking rules state that  "Parking enforcement [be] suspended for the following: 72-hour overtime parking limit and towing, except for towing in Temporary Emergency Transit Lanes." This exemption does not say that people in cars parked permanently during this time can also take over huge swaths of public sidewalks. Included in that encampment are a lot of bicycle parts and other belongings that clearly belong to the residents of the Safe Sleeping site.  We have supermarket carts full of stuff that belong to residents at the Safe Sleeping area on Shotwell Street between Cesar Chavez and 26th Street. We have a burgeoning tent community on 26th Street and Shotwell, also directly across the street from the Safe Sleeping site. A month ago, this encampment started with one tent and has now expanded to three. If the city would remove tents before they attract other tents and, therefore, establish large encampments, it would probably be easier to get those people help. Instead, they allow tents to languish and expand until the situation traumatizes our communities.  This encampment is also particularly messy and their trash is often strewn all over the sidewalk and the street. The sidewalk there is very narrow and it is impossible to get around the encampment.  In fact, I watched a mother with a small baby have to veer out into traffic to get around it. Horace Alley between 26th and 25th now has the beginnings of an encampment and it is being used as a latrine. During a SF SAFE meeting on December 8, we walked through the alley so that the SAFE consultant could recommend how to keep our garages and yards more secure.  There were large piles of human feces everywhere, plus a lot more graffiti than I had ever seen there. Clearly, Paul Monge was disingenuous when he told us that tents, etc. would be inside the 1515 South Van Ness Property not outside.  As I have stated before,  creating a no-tent zone that extended a few blocks lessened the impact of the 120 bed NC in 2017.  The Navigation Center was only tolerable because our community studied the failures of the 1950 Mission Street Navigation Center and, therefore, organized and made demands that minimized its impact.  As always,  Supervisor Ronen was not interested in the impact of this NC on our neighborhood and hadn't we organized the narrative would have been very different. I am including a picture of the proposed Lennar project for this site to give you a framework of how malignant bad-faith policy and mismanagement has deprived our neighborhood of this positive outcome in our community. Apparently, in the view of Supervisor Ronen and the city of San Francisco, our community does not deserve better than trash, encampments, and shelters. After much neglect and blight, San Francisco, yet again, forces the result of their failed homeless policy on our community, a policy that, after six years of not moving the needle of the unsheltered occupying our streets, is an absolute failure. We did not want the Safe Sleeping Site here but now that Supervisor Ronen has forced it on us. The least the city can do is manage the surrounds in order to minimize the impact and suffering of our community. We have devoted much of our time and creative energy fighting to keep the streets of this small part of the Mission up to the standard that any normal, minimally well-run city would provide their constituents. As we have said over and over,  Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who obviously cares nothing about living standards and only focuses on those things that fit into her ideological framework, has emphatically failed us.  We are asking that the City of San Francisco begin working in the interest of their constituents and that Dennis Herrera, City Attorney, Supervisor, Norman Yee, President of the Board of Supervisors, step in to protect our vulnerable community. Sincerely Francesca Pastine Squatters on 26th Between Virgil and South Van Ness bring two huge commercial storage units onto the sidewalk. Across from Safe Sleeping Area. Not the stove, propane, huge storage units, chop shop operations. These people slept, drank, & used drugs in the doorways of this apartment building. The encampment persisted for almost a year. Safe Sleeping Area residents use the sidewalk to store their stuff.

Dear Hillary, In February of this year there was a burgeoning homeless community on Shotwell Street between 26th and Cesar Chavez that abuts the 1515 South Van Ness city owned property. After months of letter writing concerning this encampment, the tents were finally removed a couple weeks ago. I felt tremendous relief that, perhaps, my neighborhood can once again be livable and that I made headway in convincing you, Supervisor Ronen, to finally have some concern for the well-being and mental health of my community.  I mistakenly thought that perhaps you finally decided that we, your constituents that live around this blighted block, should have their lives, if not drastically improved, at least be free of the problems that the homeless bring.  Without the oppressive feeling that the encroaching encampments brought, I felt like I could dream of what could be.  Looking out my window the other day I was thinking that I would try to organize a tree planting around the 1515 South Van Ness property to make it look less blighted.  I was even considering renewing my request that you and the board of supervisors start an education campaign to keep the Mission clean, particularly the 26th corridor, which gets particularly trashy. Tragically, you do not see our neighborhood as a place that deserves trees or clean streets. In fact, I doubt you rarely even think of it at all (which is reflected in years of filthy streets and rampant homelessness) unless it fits into your agenda of encouraging tent encampments, creating homeless shelters, or catering to the anti-building demands of Calle 24. The 1515 South Van Ness property (which is cater-corner to my house) has been a site of contention since 2014 when the Lennar development agency planned a 157-unit apartment building there. This development would have had ground floor below market rate artesian studios and 25% percentage of low income/affordable housing. You and Campos with the support of San Francisco supervisors cynically blocked Lennar’s efforts to break ground on this building. Finally, after you demanded a million dollars from Lennar to give to head of a Latinx Cultural organization, the developer cut their losses and put the property for sale. In March of 2016, reporter J.K. Dineen from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “In addition to the $1 million payment to a “cultural stabilization fund” run by Erick Arguello of the Calle24 Council, the former McMillan Electric building on the corner of 26th Street and South Van Ness will also be converted into a temporary homeless shelter until construction begins.” (Really Hillary?? A million dollar to a pet fund of Erick Arguello? This borders on extortion.) The temporary Navigation Center opened in June of 2017 and was supposed to be removed at the end of the year but was further delayed at a tremendous loss to the developer. Construction never began. Because you and Campos blocked and drained funds from this project for eight years, I have had to live cater-corner to a ½ city block with a vacant and dilapidated warehouse/parking lot. For ten months in 2016 it became an enormous homeless encampment that wrapped around the whole of this property. When the Navigation Center went in, my neighbors and I negotiated that only the homeless from the Mission be eligible (although I don’t think you kept to that promise), that the huge tent encampment on that block be serviced there first, and that there be a surrounding no-tent zone. Apparently, according to Mission Local, at the first Mission NC, homeless kept their tents in the area  and used the NC as a watering hole.  We did not want this trend to continue at 1515 South Van Ness. This center, again, sorely compromised the community, bringing into our neighborhood 120 homeless people, many of whom had mental and addiction issues. I would like to note that there were 120 beds but the homeless were cycled through every 30 or 60 days meaning countless people with severe issues were brought into our community. I had to become very politically active to make sure that the Navigation Center was run in a way to minimize negative effects on the neighborhood.  This personally took time away from my business and a severe stress on my mental health. No matter how well the Navigation Center was managed, it was still a disruptive influence in the neighborhood. The sidewalk planter in front of the B&W repair shop and directly across from my house became a favorite hangout of people to inject drugs and smoke crack. A lot of mentally compromised people roamed the neighborhood making threatening gestures, running around naked or half dressed, acting out in the streets, and generally being a disruptive presence. A Hispanic family who created an amazing fresh Mexican Seafood restaurant on 26th and South Van Ness, Rincon Nayarit, endured ten months of the homeless encampment and then over a year of the Navigation Center. I felt horrible for the restaurant owner and his family because they invested so much into their restaurant to make it really nice with wonderful décor and super fresh food. However, because their large plate-glass windows faced the homeless encampment, and then the entrance of the Navigation Center where often residents were acting out their addictions or mental problems, they had a hard time attracting business and ultimately folded. The Navigation Center was extended  months beyond their move out date drawing out the pain of the neighborhood’s residents and businesses.  Finally, the Lennar developers gave up building on the site. The city then bought the property in June of 2019 and promptly let it turn into a neglected blighted area with trash and human feces strewn sidewalks and where groups of men congregated (and still do) to get drunk. So, instead of having a building with people who are investing their efforts and resources into my neighborhood, I have had to live with, for the past eight years, a large blighted block, homeless encampments, and homeless shelters. The vacant city block also attracts crime such as gang shootings and car theft.  The one good thing is that the hard-core drug users and severely mentally ill who lived in the huge homeless encampment in 2016 and who were then brought into the subsequent Navigation Center  in 2017 no longer wandered the streets, although I expect that to change with the 'Safe Sleeping Area.' The Mission is suffering from overcrowding, one of the highest rates of Covit 19 in San Francisco, and, with a high percentage of people of color and immigrants, is already one of the densest neighborhoods in San Francisco.  Our neighborhood also has two solid blocks of low-income housing on 26th Street.  You pushed to get built a nine-story tower (four stories above the legal height limit here) for senior low income housing right next door to this blighted area. After the Covit 19 lockdown, Mayor Breed and you actively encouraged the homeless to take over our public sidewalks. Unconscionably, you never studied the socio-economic impact of either the Senior building or the Navigation Center to our already marginalized neighborhood. The zip code that you live in has been proven to influence your health. The stress of living in the middle of what can only be called city-government generated urban blight has taken a toll on my health and my income. The filth,  slum conditions, and the shelters add an additional burden on an already marginalized community. I hold you and Campos responsible for this ongoing fiasco that never seems to cease and has created horrible conditions in this area for eight years. It's easy to theorize about how to  govern, but what you don't realize is that your decisions have real-life consequences for people and your mismanagement and neglect of this site has been an enormous hardship to the constituents who live in this area. You call yourself progressive but you take advantage of marginalized neighborhoods like the Mission. You allow our public sidewalks to be taken over by encampments, you put the broken people from your failed policies into homeless shelters on our block, you turn a blind eye to slum lords, and you allow trash to accumulate on our streets. If I were to be kind, I would categorize your mismanagement of the my neighborhood as neglect, and it is true that you do neglect this area when it does not serve your purposes, but even worse than neglect, you are willfully using our community to warehouse San Francisco’s most desperately compromised people because we don’t have the power or financial clout to stop you. It is far easier, I am sure, to not care about the proliferation of tents in our community because you don’t get the pushback of more affluent neighboring communities such as Noe Valley, Potrero Hill, or Bernal Heights.  It is far easier to use our block for a Navigation Center than said neighborhoods.  It is far easier to use our block for a ‘Safe Sleeping Area’ than your own Portola neighborhood. But most egregiously, by stopping the development of housing on this site, you are directly responsible for this blighted block because you put your ideology over the interest of the people. Ours is a neighborhood of less affluent San Franciscans, people of color, and immigrants,  and so we can be used with little or no political sacrifice to you. In fact, we have been exploited for years by your neglect, mismanagement, and opportunism. Using the 1515 South Van Ness Avenue property to, yet again, bring in homeless from all over the city into our neighborhood,  is  one more notch in your deplorable record. The people in my community deserve better. You ask much of us but give nothing in return but empty symbolic nods to it being a Latinx  community. Has your neighborhood in Portola had its sidewalks used for housing the homeless? Has your neighborhood hosted a Navigation Center.  Is it going to host a safe sleeping area? Of course not. You destroyed the prospects of  permanent and stable  housing on this block and then you either neglect it or use it to solve the wreckage of San Francisco’s failed policies. If this is what you call good governance, you should take a good look at what you are burdening your under-privileged constituents with and, if that is ok with you, there is something profoundly not ok with your so called “progressive politics.” Sincerely, Francesca Pastine PS: It is already a done deal that you are going to use the 1515 South  Van Ness site as a ‘Safe Sleeping Area.’ That’s why you  removed the encampment on Shotwell Street, not because I wrote countless letters asking for its removal, because you had an agenda for the abandoned site and the tents were in the way of that.  I assume the encampment would still be on Shotwell Street, otherwise.  And here I thought my tiny little voice, and the voice of others that do not want slum conditions on their street, was heard. Now you’re going to set up a phony community meeting that will pit different factions against each other, the same shit-show you pulled when you decided to turn the building into a Navigation Center. But you have already decided on it with no community input so it’s just a useless dog and pony show designed to make you look good and waste everyone else’s time. Again, it’s all about you and not about your constituents. You really disappoint. Tens and car encampments quickly returned to the area. Ronen did nothing. Above: Car encampment on shotwell and 26th after Safe Sleeping Site was installed.