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- THREE MONTHS OF HELL
Francesca Pastine 1:07 PM (9 minutes ago) to Mandy, Hillary, connie.chan, Catherine.Stefani, Aaron.Peskin, gordon.mar, dean.preston, matt.haney, Ahsha.Safai, DPH, letters, Santiago, board.of.supervisors, Cityattorney, (POL), MelgarStaff, demian.bulwa, DHSH, Mission, myrna.melgar, rafael.mandelman, shamann.walton, taylor.brown, Jennifer.Li-D9, laura, Mayor, hknight, yesenia, tips, SFPDchief, stephanie.k.sierra, sam.dodge, Leo Dear Politicians and Bureaucrats, This weekend, it will be the third month since this encampment took root on Shotwell Street at 26th Street and across the street from the Safe Sleeping Area at 1515 South Van Ness. For three months, I have put in countless hours writing letters, organizing neighbors, reporting to 311, the SPCA, the Mayor's office, and Hillary Ronen on the condition of the encampment. This is the culmination of all that work: (the encampment is partly obscured by bushes) -The encampments extends across three property lines; -it has blocked the entire sidewalk for months; -my garden wall is now used as a latrine; - There are families with children living with this within feet of this encampments; -their dogs bark day and night and viciously lunge at people when they get too near; -they regularly deal and do drugs; -this encampment is a direct result of the Dolores Community Center kicking out its unruly residents from the SSA; -the woman in this encampment screams at me when I leave my house; -I have lived in this neighborhood since 1994. This is the first time I am afraid to leave my house in all that time; -if something happens to me or my property, you are accountable; -I have given up my art practice because my studio is in my garage and I cannot focus anymore when I am at home. I also started an art gallery in September, this situation takes time from me successfully operating this new business. I have been asking my supervisor, the mayor, the police, and any other city official I can contact: HOW IS THIS OK????? The silence I have received in the face of this question says it all: IT IS NOT OK. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine
- A Tree is a Metaphor
Dear Hillary Ronen, Et al., When you blocked and eventually killed the Lennar housing project at 1515 South Van Ness, you also prevented them from planting trees all along 26th Street between Shotwell Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Those trees would have been six years old now. Instead of a tree lined street with 157 units of housing and below market rate artisan ground floor studios, we now have a blighted block with construction netting around a Safe Sleeping (referred as SSA herein). The SSA regularly kicks out residents who do not follow their rules onto the sidewalks in front of our homes. There is now an encampment on the corner of Shotwell and 26th Street that started on December 7th when a woman was kicked out of the SSA. The encampment has completely engulfed a tree that was lovingly put there to beautify our neighborhood by the owners of this property with the help of the Friends of the Urban Forest and neighbors. The encampment now stretches across two property lines and regularly sprawls over the entire sidewalk blocking any access. It is a site of lawlessness where drugs are used and sold. Their dogs bark day and night, and one of them lunges at passersby. They are a textbook nuisance. Numerous calls have been made to the police and 311 over the past few months by me and my neighbors, but we inevitably come up against a bureaucracy that has no concern whatsoever for the needs of this community. We are shut out, made invisible, and thoroughly dismissed. This tree is part of our green space— our neighborhood canopy. This tree is now a metaphor for how you and the city of San Francisco are actively destroying any beauty in our community. It is a metaphor for the exploitation of the immigrant, working class, and POC families who you have forsaken. This tree is a potent symbol of who you are: a crass and uncaring politician that has degraded our community to advance your agenda. This tree is us, and it is a striking portrayal of how you absolutely do not care about our lives. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine, Captain Anne Burke, Co-Captain
- San Francisco Politicians Abandon Our Community: We are Exploited, Dismissed, and Disrespected
Email sent February 27, 2022 Dear Bureaucrats and Politicians, It took David Campos and then Hillary Ronen six years to destroy my community. We bought this house in 1994. It was a stretch. Since then, we have touched every square inch of it with love. Sadly, Campos and Ronen have exploited the community around it in order to advance their misguided ideologies and now the neighborhood is no longer livable. In fact, it is harming our health and well being. My husband, at 82, is gifted with tremendous health and vitality. Part of this extends from the fact that he walked everywhere. One of the reasons we moved into this neighborhood is that we could walk to everything and we rarely had to drive. Now, we put on our blinders when we leave the front door, rush into the car, and drive out of the neighborhood to walk, go to work, or go shopping. Why? Our neighborhood has become choked with encampments since 2016. The squalor from encampments and the sheer amount of trash on the streets from illegal dumping and littering generated by San Francisco policies that promote these conditions have turned our streets into what can only be described as third-world-slums. There is no joy in walking in our neighborhood. For years, we have contributed our talents to the betterment of San Francisco. My husband and I work in the arts. I have been an arts educator since 1997, teaching at The San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, City College, and now UC Berkeley Extension. I am an artist and work in my home studio. I have shown work nationally and internationally in museums and galleries. I have now opened an art gallery that champions older artists that are at the height of their artistic output. My fourth exhibition at the gallery will be on March 11. My husband is an architect and has run his own architect office for forty-eight years. He has been a leader on outdoor trips through the Sierra Club for over twenty five years. He is also an educator and has taught at the University of Oregon, the City University of New York, and UC Berkeley Extension. We have five children and seven grandchildren. San Francisco policy, for six years, is at cross purposes with communities. In 2016, we thought that San Francisco’s goal was to shelter and house the homeless. It has become apparent, however, that San Francisco’s policy is to use our public sidewalks as a holding area for the un-housed. This has created intolerable conditions in neighborhoods like mine that have high populations of immigrants, low-income people, and people of color-- populations that lack the political and financial clout to successfully fight for the environmental justice they deserve. I am a two time cancer survivor. Even thoughI have taken dance classes, danced professionally, and eat well, my genetic makeup is prone to cancer. My recovery and survival depends on not sustaining high levels of stress. Long walks in the neighborhood and yoga have helped keep me on an even keel. However, the deterioration in my neighborhood has put me in an acute and constant state of stress. I now have high blood pressure. I am angry all the time. I can’t sleep through the night. Within the last month, the woman in the encampment in front of my house has yelled at me twice (including yelling at me yesterday). Their dogs bark through the night. I feel that I can no longer sustain the level of stress caused by living in the severely compromised conditions in my neighborhood. More infuriating, is that these conditions are perpetuated by the failed policies of Hillary Ronen and the city of San Francisco. I recently walked to a doctor appointment at CPMC on Valencia and Cesar Chavez (about six blocks) and this is only a fraction of the squalor I had to walk through (three people I passed were completely zoned out on god knows what): But worse is the complete abandonment by Ronen, the mayor, the Board of Supervisors, and the police, of myself, my husband, and my community at large. We have been dismissed, disrespected, and treated like we are a nuisance. We are expected to put up, shut up, and to tolerate the people taking over our sidewalks along with their trash, drug selling and usage, drinking, dogs, and bad behavior. We are supposed to embrace the poorly managed Self Sleeping Area that Ronen forced into our community and is now a half a city block of trash and graffiti. We are expected to keep our mouths shut when this same Safe Sleeping Area kicks out their unruly residents that then set up enormous encampments on the sidewalks in front of our homes. If we complain, like I have for the last six years, we are blacklisted. Hillary Ronen and her assistant do not answer my phone calls or emails. Even when I reported to her the brutal beating of my husband from a deranged person in June of this year, she said nothing. I have been complaining to the Mayor's office for years through 311. The office is supposed to respond within seven days. I received one email in all those years but it led nowhere since they did not follow up. I ask you, how are we supposed to exist here when you have completely degraded our community? How do we exist in a place where we have become invisible? How do we exist in a community where the politicians don't care about our health and safety? This is not a rhetorical question. It is the same question I have been asking since 2017 and every year after. How is it ok that we have to put up with sprawling and squalid encampments in front of our houses and businesses, under our windows, and attached to our homes? How are we supposed to co-exist with the mentally ill and substance addicted people who inhabit our sidewalks when we have no experience or training in public health? Why do politicians and bureaucrats not care that the majority of people in my neighborhood no longer feel safe? I have never received an answer. And, after all these years, things have only gotten exponentially worse. It is crystal clear to me that people like myself and my husband are no longer appreciated or wanted in San Francisco. We are long-time San Francisco constituents who have, for years, brought value in their communities through service, education, arts, culture and the sustainment of small businesses. We are no longer seen as an asset. San Francisco has now shifted its business model to that of a homeless industrial complex. It no longer needs the mom-and-pop stores, the artists, the small businesses, or entrepreneurs, because there is plenty of money to be made off the backs of the less fortunate through the funding of nonprofits and city agencies that are perfectly content with the status quo. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine
- 3 YEAR OLD AND FATHER FORCED TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE ENCAMPMENT TO GET INTO THEIR HOUSE
Right now, this is in front of my house. On March 7, it will have been here for 3 months. They smoke drugs, generate tons of trash, BLOCK THE WHOLE SIDE WALK FROM CURB TO THE HOUSES THEY ARE IN FRONT OF! The father and his three year old son have to circumnavigate it in the street to track backwards in order to enter their house. The police will do nothing. My supervisor, Hillary Ronen, will no longer respond to my phone calls or emails, 311 will do nothing. There is a Safe Sleeping Area across the street (see the green plastic fencing). The people in this tent are an extension of the SSA. HILLARY RONEN promised tents would be in the SSA, not on our sidewalks. We have had out-of control encampments on our street for the two years since they set the Safe Sleeping Area up as a result of the SSA kicking out residents on to our sidewalks. These residents of the SSA were kicked out because they did not follow the rules. Hillary Ronen feels it is perfectly fine for these lawless people to now inhabit our public sidewalks and making our under-served neighborhood. to deal with them. How is this fair to the low income, poc, immigrant, residents in my community? It is, in fact, progressive San Francisco criminal environmental injustice. These pictures are from this week. (pictures taken from my driveway)
- letter to a friend
to Lucy, Mandy, Hillary, connie.chan, Catherine.Stefani, Aaron.Peskin, gordon.mar, dean.preston, matt.haney, Ahsha.Safai, DPH, letters, Santiago, board.of.supervisors, Cityattorney, (POL), MelgarStaff, demian.bulwa, DHSH, Mission, myrna.melgar, rafael.mandelman, shamann.walton, taylor.brown, Jennifer.Li-D9@sfgov.org, laura, Mayor, hknight, yesenia My neighbor, Lucy, asks politicians (above) why she has to pick up human feces all the time. Here is my response to her and said politicians: Hi Lucy, et. al. Sadly politicians do not care about you or your life. Obviously, the policy of taking 12 to 24 hours to remove human feces puts people and pets in our neighborhood at risk, but they just don't care. We are collateral damage in their failed agenda. I just walked down 26ht between Mission and Shotwell and it's a disaster. Trash everywhere. I took BART today and the plaza is filled with criminals fencing stolen goods. The encampment on Shotwell and 26 is growing every day. The encampment dweller stacks a ton of trash at the corner every day to be picked up by dpw in the event someone calls 311. Many people hang out there and do drugs and deal drugs. She has dogs that bark and whimper for hours and through the night disrupting everyone's sleep. This is a person who was too disruptive to stay in the Safe Sleeping Area across the street and the city and our supervisor thinks it's perfectly fine for them to be in front of our houses. The encampment is a complete nuisance, but me and my neighbors don't fit into San Francisco's unsheltered persons policy. They only care about the people who decide to appropriate our sidewalks-- these are the sacred cows of San Francisco. Laws don't apply to them and they have free reign to do whatever they want outside of directly and violently hurting people. The Encampment on 25th and Shotwell is growing too. This encampment is attached to a house and could go up in flames taking the house with it. It often blocks the sidewalk. In fact, encampments surround the blocks close to the Safe Sleeping Area. Hillary Ronen blocked housing on 26th and Shotwell Streets with no plan what to do in its stead. She then turns this property into shelters and promises we will have tents in the shelter not on the sidewalks. She then allows enormous encampments to proliferate on the sidewalks all over our neighborhood. Our community has been exploited and lied to. We have had our sidewalks trashed, shit on, and peed on. We have had to endure huge encampments for years, and when we protest, we are dismissed and our voices are blocked (I am blacklisted-- she has not responded to emails or phone calls from me for months). I have been blacklisted because I don't tow the party line. Instead, I ask questions. Questions that for years, I have never gotten answers to. For example, why are the ordinances on San Francisco's city government website not enforced? Enforcing these is not perfect, but it would go a long way in making the lives of exploited neighborhoods like mine better. Why are the CDC recommendations on not removing tents enforced, but the Safe Sleeping Guidelines mentioned above not? People in encampments move around, they don't wear masks, they have people coming and going, they do drugs in front of our homes and children, yet they can't be touched.They can put an encampment anywhere: under your window, attached to your house, and they can take over your block without restrictions. But more importantly, why is it ok for San Francisco and Hillary Ronen to destroy the fabric of communities by allowing people to squat on our sidewalks? How is this not seen as degrading a neighborhood, causing harm to residents, and disrespecting the dignity of people trying to raise their children, go to work, and live in what any American deserves-- a well functioning and clean neighborhood where politicians try to improve our lives instead of throwing us under a bus of failed policies. Here are some photos in my neighborhood I took while running errands today. This is what we confront everyday when we step out our front door. It is no less than criminal negligence on the part of the mayor and supervisor Hillary Ronen. Huge encampment on Cesar Chavez and South Van Ness just a half a block from Safe Sleeping Area: Drug users on Cesar Chavez and South Van Ness 1/2 a block from Safe Sleeping Area. There is another encampment directly across the street from the SSA not shown: encampment at 25th and Shotwell abuting a wooden house: A huge encampment at Shotwell and 26th Street that has now taken over the public street (taking a whole parking space) as well as sidewalk. Check out the mattress that was arbitrarily thrown on top of the whole thing: BART plaza has become a fencing bazaar for stolen goods: Cypress Ally and 26th Street: trash all over sidewalk (26th Street) trash on corner from Shotwell and 26th Street encampment (pictured above): Sincerely, Francesca Pastine Hillary Ronen's Mission
- ENCAMPMENT KEEPING MY SICK NEIGHBOR UP ALL NIGHT
Francesca Pastine 12:23 PM (5 hours ago) to Mandy, Hillary, connie.chan, Catherine.Stefani, Aaron.Peskin, gordon.mar, dean.preston, matt.haney, Ahsha.Safai, DPH, letters, Santiago, board.of.supervisors, Cityattorney, (POL), MelgarStaff, demian.bulwa, DHSH, Mission, myrna.melgar, rafael.mandelman, shamann.walton, taylor.brown, Jennifer.Li-D9, laura, Mayor, hknight, yesenia Dear Supervisor Ronen, et. al., My neighbor had a botched gallbladder surgery a month ago. He is very very sick. He has had multiple surgeries to put in stents and take out stents; he has had infections; he is in incredible pain because when bile touches organs it is excruciating. Their bedroom is in the front of the house. They have not been able to have a decent night sleep because all night the dogs at the encampment on 26th and Shotwell are barking; the people living there are yelling ‘shut up” all night; they then apparently hit the dogs and the dogs yelp in pain for hours. Since February 7, this unruly out-of-control filthy eye-sore encampment has been in front of our houses. The person in this encampment was kicked out of the Safe Sleeping Area and is now on the sidewalk across the street from it. Your assistant, Paul Monge, tried to sell us on the idea that tents will be in the Safe Sleeping Area not on our sidewalks. We knew from the start this was a lie and sure enough it was just that-- another broken promise from your office. I have been asking you since 2016 how is it ok to enable enormous encampments to flourish directly in front of peoples homes? I have been asking for six months why San Francisco has not been enforcing the ordinances on their website: https://sfdem.org/safe-sleeping-guidance yet they do enforce the CDC 'recommendations' on not removing tents. By the way, the people in the encampment at 26th and Shotwell move around all the time. For a while the encampment was abandoned leaving all their stuff on the corner, now they are back. They have many visitors coming and going. They are crowded with the day laborers at that corner and no one is wearing masks. Their activity demonstrates how ludicrous the CDC 'recommendations' are. But it is typical of your politics: it is not based on reality, it is based on ideology. I honestly don’t know how to make you understand that having huge encampments clogging our public sidewalks, attaching themselves to our houses, and being a complete and obvious nuisance to the residents in our community, causes REAL HARM. Honestly, what is wrong with you people? Francesca
- OUTSIDE FIRE AT MISSION & 16 DISPLACES 22 RESIDENTS
https://therealdeal.com/sanfrancisco/2021/11/11/mission-residents-blame-homeless-encampments-for-surge-in-outdoor-fires/ Dear Ronen, et. al., Below is a letter written by an acquaintance regarding a recent outside fire on Mission and 16th. This is the epicenter of encampment fires (see above link). On my Street, we have huge encampments abutting the BW garage on Shotwell and 26th, another enormous encampment that abuts a house on 25th and Shotwell, and yet another huge encampment that spans almost two properties on the other side of the BW building on Shotwell and 26th. This particular encampment has swallowed up the fire hydrant. One of these encampments has persisted for two months, the other has been there for over a month, and one just went up tonight. All of the encampments are within a block of the Safe Sleeping Area. When the Safe Sleeping Area went in over a year ago, Paul Monge from your office promised us the tents would be inside the site, not on our sidewalks. Well, that was a lie. Allowing large and dangerous encampments to exist demonstrates a complete disregard for the safety and well being of your constituents. All of these encampments pose a fire hazard. All of these encampments endanger the health of residents as they are stressful to live next to and generate unhealthy conditions. They are the epitome of urban blight-- and worse, they are city sanctioned slums that are put in low-income, POC, and immigrant neighborhoods that are already under-served and stressed. They are loud, have barking dogs, regularly pile their trash up on our curbs, and the unmasked people who live in them have no regard for Covid restriction. The Mission has always been a hot-spot for Covid, and day laborers and homeless now crowd each other on the corners of 26th and Shotwell. Attached are the current conditions at the corner of Shotwell and 26th.Yet again, there is trash piled up right next to the filthy and poorly managed Safe Sleeping Area. It is shameful, it is a complete dereliction of your elected office, and it is no less than criminal negligence. It's a disaster waiting to happen. There has already been deaths by fire associated with these encampments. Like the hundreds of people who have died from your failed drug policies, their blood is on your hands. If something happens to one of my neighbors because of your complete abandonment of any responsibility to the people who live in this neighborhood, know you are directly responsible for that harm. Francesca LETTER TO MANDELMAN FROM CAROL YENNE ABOUT RECENT FIRE ON MISSION AND 16TH. From: Carol yenne Date: 2/3/22 12:09 PM (GMT-08:00) To: Rafael Mandelman , Jacob Bintliff , Hillary.Ronen@sfgov.org, "Breed Mayor London (MYR)" , London.Breed@sfgov.org, "Breed Mayor London (MYR)" Subject: Fire on 16th/Mission last night. When I woke up to the news report of the fire at16th/Mission it made me sick. The fire department reported this fire was believed to have started outside the building that has now put 13 families out of their apartments. Neighbors have been complaining for months about the tent dwellers who have been setting fires, dealing drugs, selling stolen merchandise on the sidewalks all over the Mission including on 16th/Mission. As recently as this week an enormous 15 foot high bbq fire was observed at 19th/Mission and called into the fire department for fear it would spread to a building adjacent to the outdoor bbq. Why don’t we have the political gumption to demand the enforcement of the laws on the books that don't allow people to live on sidewalks next to buildings when, at the same time, there is gobs of money being thrown at navigation centers to house people? If people are too belligerent or mentally ill or drugged out to accept housing offered and chose a life style on the street that is tolerated by you all, then the message is law abiding citizens don’t matter in San Francisco. This is nuts. Carol Yenne
- RONEN LIES: "TENTS WILL BE IN THE SAFE SLEEPING AREA, NOT ON SIDEWALKS"
PAUL MONGE, HILLARY RONEN'S FORMER ASSISTANT, PROMISED THIS NEIGHBORHOOD TENTS WILL BE IN THE SAFE SLEEPING AREA, NOT ON SIDEWALKS. Well, Ronen and her assistant, Monge lied to us. Today, and through the whole pandemic, huge encampments persist around the 1515 South Van Ness Property and our neighborhood at large! LETTER WRITTEN IN DECEMBER 2020: Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:38 AM to info@rmcsf.com, Cityattorney, Mayor, Norman, Davin, Hillary, DHSH, Mission, julian.mark@missionlocal.com, metrodesk@sfchronicle.com, Paul, tthadani@sfchronicle.com, Jeff, MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org, Sandra.Fewer@sfgov.org, Aron, Catherine.Stefani@sfgov.org, marstaff@sfgov.org, prestonstaff@sfgov.org, Haneystaff, waltonstaff@sfgov.org, Ahsha.Safai@sfgov.org Dear Supervisor Hillary Ronen, et al., In June of this year, many tents and campers 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 that "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)." Mr. Monge, your assistant, PROMISED our community that the encampments will be in the parking lot area, not outside of it, but this is not the case. We now have a particularly huge vehicle encampment taking over the whole sidewalk on 26th Street between Virgil Alley and South Van Ness Avenue. 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. There are now two vehicles camping across from the Safe Sleeping site on 26th Street. Included in that encampment are a lot of bicycles and bicycle parts, large storage sheds, a cooking grill, and a lot of tarps and boxes among all manner of stuff scattered around the sidewalk. They are receiving electricity (a possible fire hazard) from an apartment porch through an extension cord running across the sidewalk that the public uses. People from this encampment/van now sleep in the doorways of the residential property on that block. This site has also become a place where people congregate and party, play loud music, drink, and other behavior that can clearly be characterized as being a public nuisance and, furthermore, is a likely source of further Covid spread in our community. The Inner Mission Neighborhood Association has been complaining about this vehicle encampment now for months but Supervisor Ronen, in typical form, has ignored us. The result is that the situation is now becoming a threat to the safety of people in the vans, the building adjacent to them, and the community at large. Supervisor Ronen and the City of San Francisco have actively implemented policy that has exponentially made worse the lives of people in our neighborhood. Our community has invested their lives in making San Francisco a better place. We have contributed much to the city through our hard work, our innovation, and our creativity. Supervisor Hillary Ronen, not only ignores us, but is hostile to us in her neglect. Her dismissal of our concerns has now permitted and, in fact, encouraged the enormous encampment directly across the street from the Safe Sleeping area. This is, clearly, a dereliction of duty to her constituents. It also demonstrates that she lies when necessary at the expense of her constituents. This is just not acceptable and we demand a resolution. Sincerely Francesca Pastine AROUND SAFE SLEEPING AREA, NAVIGATION CENTER: JUNE 2017 THRU JANUARY 2021 DECEMBER 2020 JUNE 2017 JUNE 2017 2021 2020 MAY 2018 MAY 2018
- YEARS OF FAILED HOMELESS POLICY TRASHES NEIGHBORHOOD
Dear Hillary Ronen, Et. Al., Here is the situation today in front of my house. Encampments have persisted on this block since 2016. Below is a letter with my concerns written on June 10, 2017. Nothing has changed. We have had persistent encampments throughout the 2017 Navigation Center, before the Navigation Center, after the Navigation Center, and now during the whole time that the Safe Sleeping area was forced onto the residents of this block. The people you have put in charge of dealing with homelessness have failed-- for years. My neighborhood has to live every day with your failure. We have had enough. WE DEMAND THAT YOU REMOVE ENCAMPMENTS FROM OUR NEIGHBORHOOD-- NOW!! Sincerely, Francesca Pastine Encampment in front of my house persists-- I took this photo today. This is the first thing I see when I leave my house in the morning. illegal dump in front of my house this morning because, hey, why not, the whole blocks a dump anyway. This encampment has now been in front of our homes, across the street from the safe sleeping site, since December 7, 2022 LETTER WRITTEN JUNE 10, 2017: From: Francesca Pastine Date: Sat, Jun 10, 2017 at 8:35 PM Subject: homeless encampment on 26th and Shotwell To: Quezada, Randolph (HOM) , Ronen, Hillary , Kositsky, Jeff (HOM) , SFPD Mission Station, (POL) , Hussey, Deirdre (MYR) , Lee, Mayor (MYR) , Laura Wenus , Gordon, Rachel (DPW) 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 a 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. encampments in front of our homes, across the street from Navigation Center, June 10, 2017
- BLACK-LISTED!!!!!
All my letters to Hillary Ronen, Et. Al., go unanswered. However, when two of my neighbors re-sent my letters, they were answered immediately!!! Here is a correspondence from Santiago, Hillary Ronen's assistant, to a friend who posted my letter. It is in regards to the current encampment at 26th and Shotwell. I have been alerting Ronen to the infractions going on with this encampment like covering up the fire hydrant, stealing pg&e signs to block street parking, and stealing people's trash bins. Note: another friend who got a phone response to this encampment was told by Santiago to "bug 311." As we all know, that is a failing strategy. Here it is my third party correspondence with Santiago: LETTER FROM SANTIAGO ON JANUARY 11 IN RESPONSE TO ENCAMPMENTS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD Lerma, Santiago (BOS) 4:00 PM January 11 Dear Hi Aisling, (I blocked out neighbors name for her privacy) I hope you are well and thank you for the email. I have spoken with the Safe Sleep site and these folks sleeping on Shotwell are not from the safe sleep site, but the city did promise the neighbors we would keep the area clear. I will call HSOC and the homeless department and continue to push them to resolve this encampment right now. Also to be clear the Board of Supervisors does not determine the details or rules of the Health Order. This is the job of the Chief Health Officer and the Mayor. The Board may vote up or down on the Health Order but does not have the authority to decide what the Health Order says. Further there are not district by district rules on homelessness or obstructing the sidewalks, but certainly some districts do have more severe issues than others. There are several city departments charged with finding people housing, keeping them healthy and cleaning the street. I have engaged all of these departments to prioritize Shotwell and the surrounding areas. I will continue to press them until the site is resolved. Thank you. Santiago Lerma J.D. Legislative Aide Office of Supervisor Ronen District 9 Dear Santiago, MY LETTER IN RESPONSE: Dear Santiago, In response to your letter to Aisling stating that the Shotwell and 26th encampment was not generated by the Safe Sleeping Area, I have actually talked with the occupants at the 26th and Shotwell encampment. The woman, I believe she is nick-named Shorty, in this encampment was kicked out of the Safe Sleeping area according to her and her friend, Rick. Her boyfriend, at the time I talked with them, was still in the SSA. Between her and her boyfriend, they have two dogs. The dogs may be the reason Shorty is not in the SSA. I am not sure if the boy friend is still there or not at this point. The situation in front of our homes is unacceptable. The enormous and entrenched encampments that have persisted for years in our neighborhood present a clear and harm to us and our community. If there is an imbalance in how these encampments are distributed it is our representatives responsibility to remedy that. When it comes to these encampments, the city professes no agency in their creation or existence .Yet, in a two block radius, I count at least four encampments. So whose responsibility is it if not Hillary Ronen, the mayor, and Board of Supervisors? Whose policy is it that has created out-of-control and persistent encampments in our community since 2017? I can assure you, it is not the Health Department. There are clear guidelines on the San Francisco government website for where encampments can be set up: https://sfdem.org/safe-sleeping-guidance. Can you please explain to me why this is not enforced, yet the 'recommendation' not to move encampments is (and 'recommendations' is a key word here)? Clearly, our supervisors, mayors, and city agencies have to balance the harm to communities with that of people who chose to use our public sidewalks as living spaces. Right now, the people in our community are treated as if we don't exist. Furthermore, our sidewalks are treated like they're the property of the Coalition for the Homeless to do with what they want. For our community, that means people can come into our neighborhoods and set up encampments anywhere they want and do anything on the sidewalks that they want with impunity. Supervisor Ronen does have a responsibility to keep our neighborhood free of encampments considering they are a result of her anti-housing policies that left the 1515 South Van Ness property a blighted and empty lot that she has used as Navigation Centers and, recently, a Safe Sleeping Areas. (Please see my letters from 2017 to the present-- they are just a fraction of letters I've written over these years and I intend to put all of them up.) I realize that Ronen and her office have black-listed me for speaking the truth without using Orweilian party-line speak. I apologize for being outspoken and harsh. This is not my true nature but I have been pushed to the brink and I am tired of years of failed policy that has negatively impacted my quality of life and health. I value my home, my neighborhood, and my community too much to sugar-coat the abuse this neighborhood has endured under David Campos and Hillary Ronen's failed tenures. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine Ps: current encampments: South Van Ness and 26th; Shotwell and 26th; 25th and Shotwell; South Van Ness and 24th Street. Encampment on 26th and Shotwell: It is now going on month 2 and counting that this encampment generated by the Safe Sleeping Area has been in front of our houses!
- ENORMOUS ENCAMPMENT TAKES ROOT UNDER OUR WINDOWS
Dear Supervisor Hillary Ronen, Et. Al., This encampment has been in front of our homes for one month now.The encampment is now sprawled in front of two properties. The people in this encampment were kicked out of the Safe Sleeping Area at 1515 South Van Ness run by Dolores Street Community Service. This organization regularly kicks their residents out of their site and they set up encampments across the street and in front of our homes. We plan to alert other communities not to allow these Safe Sleeping Areas in their neighborhoods because they encourage huge encampments. This recent encampment has subsumed the fire hydrant on our block putting us at risk. People in the encampment have stolen PG&E signs from Horace and 26th and regularly block parking with them so they can store their stuff and park their own vehicle on the street adjacent to their encampment. They also steal Sunset Scavenger garbage bins. They own dogs that bark every time anyone walks by. They are a nuisance by any definition of the word. The occupants in this encampment regularly do drugs in the open. Children live in one of the houses this encampment is in front of. Two nights ago a woman in the encampment overdosed and an ambulance had to be called. San Francisco policy, and particularly the reckless policy of Hillary Ronen, has brought this dangerous health hazard into our neighborhood. Our community has, for years, been exploited by Ronen who has used the 1515 South Van Ness property to bring in people with severe addictions and mental illness to our community. The Lennar Corporation developers were set to build a 157 Unit housing complex that should have been completed in 2017 on this property. David Campos and, later, Hillary Ronen, delayed the project for years. In 2017, Hillary Ronen forced Lennar to use the property as a Navigation Center. We demanded a no-tent zone and Ronen agreed. Nevertheless, many people with severe issues were brought into our community and after cycling through the center, were forced out onto our streets. There were sporadic outbreaks of encampments, people regularly doing drugs in the open, and chop shops were set up on our sidewalks. The Lennar project was effectively killed by Hillary Ronan and the property lay vacant until the beginning of the Covid shut down when, again, this site was exploited to hold 40 tents and 60 people (one of the residents of the Safe Sleeping Site told me that Ronen plans to expand the capacity). There was zero discussion with the immediate neighbors as to how the Site would be managed to protect our community. Since then, encampments have been rampant in our neighborhood. Safe Sleeping residents that do not follow the rules of the Dolores Street Community Services are thrown out onto public sidewalks to act out anyway they want. Hillary Ronen has made no attempt to alleviate this disruption in our community. feces is regularly found on the sidewalk. It takes 12 to 24 hours after calling 311 to clean so we clean it ourselves as it's a health hazard to us and our neighbors The people in this latest encampment regularly defecate on our sidewalks and throw their feces in our garbage bins. They leave out food on the sidewalk that attracts rats. The sidewalk near their encampment is constantly strewn with trash. They deal and do drugs in front of our houses and expose our children to horrible sights. The consequences of a Francisco policy that enables addiction, overdoses, and death are now played out in front of our homes, our families, and our children. Diarrhea from person in the encampment left there for over 24 hours after calling 311 Hillary Ronen was alerted to the above encampment a month ago. She has now allowed the situation to get completely out of control. These are our homes, businesses, and apartments. Our taxes should be used to maintain our sidewalks and keep our neighborhood clean and safe. Our sidewalks should be reserved for public use, not privatized by San Francisco as sanctioned homeless shelters. No one in San Francisco should have this kind of health hazard forced on them by city policy and an inept supervisor. San Francisco has abandoned basic functions and duties of civic government: the right to clean and safe streets. Sincerely, Francesca Pastine ps: There are many other encampments surrounding the Safe Sleeping Site and within a few blocks of it. There is one at 25th and Shotwell that has been there a few months; encampments at Capp and Shotwell have existed in that area for at least four years; an encampment at 24th and South Van Ness, directly under someone's bay window, has been there at least three months; and an enormous encampment that has devoured the sidewalk at South Van Ness between Cesar Chavez and 26th Street (across from the Safe Sleeping Area) has been there since 2020.
- February 26, 2021: Encampments Surround Safe Sleeping Area
More Encampments Next to Safe Sleeping Area Francesca Pastine Feb 6, 2021, 12:40 PM to Hillary, Paul, Cityattorney, tthadani, DHSH, Davin, Norman, Jeff, Mayor, Mission, Gaetano, 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 Jeff Kositsky 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. Altered image of your neighborhood in Bernal Heights using trash and encampments photoshopped from images around the 1515 South Van Ness property on Shotwell and 26th Street: These are the actual conditions that you are privileged to have in your own neighborhood. 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











