Moving homeless people from streets to shelter isn't easy, San Francisco outreach workers say

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Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Members of the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team, Edgar Tapia , left, and Maria B., talk to a homeless person in the Mission District, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

SAN FRANCISCO ā€“ Outreach worker Edgar Tapia hit a San Francisco neighborhood on a mission to find people to take eight available shelter beds, including a tiny cabin perfect for a couple.

He approached a cluster of tents in the Mission District, calling out greetings and offers of snacks and water bottles. He crouched to chat with tent occupants and asked if anyone was interested in moving indoors. He reminded them city street cleaners would be by to clear the sidewalk.

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ā€œDo you have any more hygiene kits?ā€ asked a woman inside an orange tent with five friends. ā€œCan we get some socks?ā€

The job of Tapia and others on San Franciscoā€™s Homeless Outreach Team is to match eligible people with vacant beds. But it's not a straightforward process as was clear on this September day, despite more shelter beds than ever before and a mayor who says she will no longer tolerate people living outdoors when they've been offered a place to stay.

Sometimes a person is eager to move inside, but there are no beds. Other times, a spot is open but the offer is rejected for a host of reasons, including complications with drugs and alcohol. Outreach workers plug away, reaching out and building trust with the people they call their clients.

ā€œToday somebody wasnā€™t ready because they were hanging out with their friends. Theyā€™re not ready because they donā€™t like the options that we have,ā€ said Jose Torres, Homeless Outreach Team manager with the city's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

ā€œSometimes we get lucky and they accept the one thing we have available, and if that doesnā€™t work out, we try something else," he said. ā€œItā€™s that ā€˜try again, try againā€™ system.ā€

Tapia, 34, was excited because a man heā€™d been talking to for two months might be ready to accept a shelter spot. The first time they talked, Tapia said, the man asked no questions. But the next time, the man asked what the shelters were like.

ā€œIt just gives me the chills, because itā€™s progress,ā€ said Tapia. ā€œI want to see these people off the streets. I want to see them do good.ā€

The woman inquiring after socks, who gave her name as Mellie M., 41, said her group wants hotel rooms or an apartment. She wants a place with locked doors and a private bathroom because she was raped while homeless.

ā€œIn order for us not to live in tents anymore," she said, ā€œthey need to give us a place that we can call home.ā€

Torres, the manager, left to check in with other outreach workers, thrilled because Tapia had found a couple for the tiny cabin. There was more good news when he arrived in the Bayview neighborhood, where other outreach workers told him that a client, Larry James Bell, 71, was moving into his own studio apartment.

Ventrell Johnson got emotional thinking about the discouraged man he found living under a tarp eight months ago. Johnson eventually got Bell a bed in a homeless shelter, and now Bell was ready for his own bedroom and a shower he didn't have to share.

ā€œIā€™d like to have a house one day,ā€ Bell said, sitting on a chair with a plate of eggs and sausage on his lap, a walking cane nearby.

Bell's departure means a free bed at the shelter. Johnson said he's noticed that people are a bit more likely to accept shelter now that the city is cracking down on encampments.

ā€œThey know that itā€™s a little less tolerance,ā€ he said. ā€œItā€™s a little less leniency.ā€

By the end of the day, outreach workers had found seven people for seven shelter beds.

They returned to the Mission neighborhood encampment to tell the couple they could move into the tiny cabin. But when they got there, the couple had packed up and left.


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