Excellent reporting! Very comprehensive. Thank you.

In reply to Mike.

Your beliefs don’t line up with empirical data and research that suggests otherwise: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/learning-about-homelessness-using-linked-survey-and-administrative-data/.

50% of sheltered homeless people were formally employed, whereas 40% of unsheltered homeless were also formally employed. That isn’t to say your supposition isn’t true in some capacity; but, also consider that drugs tend to be a coping mechanism to deal with one’s own deteriorating material conditions and circumstances. Furthermore, becoming homeless amplifies the decline to your mental health.

You and I are both closer to homelessness… and at its core, policy makers and realtor special interest groups have failed all residents of the Bay Area, homeless or not. Tangentially, and in light of the new housing / permitting bills and initiatives in San Francisco – are homeowners comfortable with not treating shelter as an investment vehicle? The answer to this ultimately guides policy making with respect to ending homelessness.

With all the poop on the streets, there will be no shortage
of manure.

In reply to missionresident.

MR,

I’ll post to you cause you seem very sensible and you got the most dislikes.

Real Politic is that y’all are staring at one tree and ignoring the forest.

Older I get the longer range and term is my view.

To seriously address the problem society must stop producing more Poor and Drug addicted.

Highest cost/benefit return is to give any willing adult $10k to get sterilized.

First in line would be Tweakers and Poor and do we really need more of these.

Numbers say that you then give your new eunuchs 1k a month for life.

On immediate housing options that are somehow condemned as too visionary …

First … Force (by ballot) SFUSD to provide night shelter for all of the City’s Homeless.

Second … While that pot comes to ballot in a boil build 4 large Campgrounds on TI and our Golf Courses which are far far away from Folsom Street.

All of these sites have readily accessible water and power and we have the portable toilets in storage collecting dust.

You wouldn’t have to fight SFUSD but I know one Saudi Prince with an American reporters head in cold storage who would resist losing 9 holes at Harding which by legal contract he controls thanks to PGA’s avarice.

Am I now somehow a visionary for connecting these obvious dots or are y’all ….

Some people here seem to want the money for the planters used to help the homeless. What about the homeless industrial complex run by the city? I think the number was $848 million for 2023. I would start there if you are looking to help the homeless and btw, where has this money gone AND how has it helped?

https://www.sf.gov/data/our-city-our-home-fund-6-month-report-fiscal-year-2022-2023#:~:text=The%20revised%20budget%20for%20FY22,revised%20budget%20by%20service%20area.

In reply to MTN.

No, it’s not. Urine has salt, among other things, in it and is acidic. Enough salt will kill anything on this planet.

In reply to Jay Martin.

Jay,

How about some shots of Parcel 36 ?

In reply to Mike.

Do you think there are more mentally ill and addicted people in California than in other states? Half of the country’s homeless population lives in California. It is absolutely directly related to the skyrocketing living costs. In addition, the stress being homeless makes you way, way more likely to develop mental health problems and drug addictions. It’s a vicious cycle.

And before anyone starts saying they moved here, 90% of SF’s homeless population lived in California becoming homeless, and 80% lived in SF before becoming homeless. https://sfstandard.com/2023/06/20/ucsf-california-homelessness-study/

In reply to Richard Perry.

“Getting back on his feet” means different things to different people. He might define having a consistent place to sleep at night as getting back on his feet.

In reply to tarniv.

Here in Portland, Oregon, the city was actually sued ada violations due to the number of impassable sidewalks packed with tents.

I agree with some of the comments. Having lived in the inner Mission for 30 years, must say how conditions have gone way downhill. I’d like to have enough $$ to live in a safer and cleaner part of the city.
I hate having to look down when walking to not step in human shit. And be hyper vigilant of daily activities all around . You can’t walk on many sidewalks; many are blocked with camps, illegal selling of stolen goods, drug use. This is not in accordance with ADA compliance laws. If children and ADA people can’t navigate without having to walk on the street with cars flying by, it is dangerous. The planters are mostly ADA compliant. They don’t block the sidewalks
D9 supervisor Ronen has let the district down with false promises. Other neighborhoods should have their share of these and more social issues.
Recent stats mention how many homeless don’t want to be housed. They want to do drugs and keep their bicycle chop shops; many came here because it’s easy to score, and other reasons that give permission to behave badly.
If anyone lacks compassion it’s City agencies like the Homeless program. They have $$$ which misappropriated and lines pockets. A friend who works there tells me stories of corruption. If they wanted to solve the problems they’d be out if business, and all the managers would be out of jobs.

I agree with comments stating there are vacant properties around the City for those who want to move inside. Meantime ADA planters should be provided and paid for by the City. More oxygen and cleaner air so we all don’t have to smell daily smell feces and piss nor jump over debris. In our area fires started by campers have damaged low income working class buildings. Will Ronen, Breed, Jennifer Friedenbacker take in these people? On their residential block!! Or put out the literal and figurative fires? A complex situation with some answers . All people deserve dignity but also need to behave and keep a civil fabric together.

In reply to Loren.

Pee is actually good for plants. I grew up being told to pee on compost piles.

Not poop though.

I have lived on Capp Street between 22nd and 23rd for 30 years. I used to have plants out front in small ceramic planters, but those all got smashed by people passing by during the night. So I replaced those with really really large ceramic pots that would require more than one person to tip over and smash. Amazingly, those got smashed, too, on more than one occasion. I have finally had to resort to the planters you describe in this article. I certainly did not do it to deter homeless people. not to dispute your overall point that many people may do so for exactly that, but I suspect I am not the only one in my situation either .

I wish the rich twats would move out of my city and give their homes to the homeless folks. 750 bucks for a fucking planter. Use that money to help end homelessness you psychos.

In reply to Seth.

They are literally are a spot for the homeless to pee. I’m sure the pissed off homeless people are peeing in them!! Poor plants:((

In reply to missionresident.

frankly, even assuming homeless people have been all housed, I welcome green sidewalks. more planters all over the city please

In reply to missionresident.

until all streets have planters. planters should be removed tho if the plants are let to die

Apparently good luck to anyone who drives and needs a wheelchair or a walker.

Regardless of any other argument, it feels like a pretty straightforward issue restricting access for people with disabilities.

In reply to cardinal.

I wondered the same thing. If I lost my income I would not continue to live in the 10th most expensive city on the planet. So why live here if housing is scarce and food so pricey? This is just anecdotal and I am sure DPH has the real answers, but I asked several homeless until I got 2 coherent responses. They were both from Denver. They learned that SF is generous to the homeless, no one minds if they take their dog on the bus, and the sidewalks don’t freeze in winter.

In reply to Matthew D.

Wow Mission Local. This is a the most graphic and visually appealing article I have seen in news media for a long time. 10+ years ago, I was upset with acquaintances who work in the BMR housing industry for installing planter tubs to deter the homeless in front of their York Street home. This Mission Local article has shown how friendly sidewalks can look with planters–inviting for pedestrians if not for campers. They beautify a sidewalk (Francesca Pantine’s for example) and helped Juan Gallardo find a solution for his restaurant (that makes my favorite Caldo de Res). Thank you, Xueer Lu and Kelly Waldron.

One gentleman said he’d been homeless for 20 years living on the streets and that these planters made it difficult for him to get back on his feet. WTF? You just admitted that you’ve lived on the street for 20 years it’s obvious getting back on your feet has never been a concern.

In reply to missionresident.

I don’t agree that there is a causal relationship there. Most homeless are on the streets because they are addicted to drugs and/or mentally ill. Many of these people refuse shelter, and they can barely tie their shoes, much less function as productive citizens. Yes sadly many will eventually die on our streets or another city’s streets.

In reply to missionresident.

It’s strange that people keep misinterpreting what the planters are a solution for. Obviously they’re not a solution for our larger economic/housing problems.

However, if people are smoking meth, being aggressive to passersby and residents in front of someone’s home, yelling and screaming all night next to the old drafty, single-pane mission apartment building windows that do not block out any sound…well, people are going to need a solution to that specific problem, too.

The “end game” is to be able to sleep and go to work the next day, to not be kept awake all night by the screaming outside your window. That’s it. It’s a short term solution to an immediate problem that many residents are facing, because there is absolutely no help available to residents who are dealing with this kind of problem.

Long-term problem that needs a solution:
Yes, the cost of living is too high and we don’t have enough housing, treatment, and shelters for unhoused people living on the streets. The city and state need to do something about this. Problems like this seem to be the domain of our government and elected leaders. It’s a big problem that requires big collective resources.

Short-term problem for which residents currently use planters as a solution: Apartment dwellers have daily responsibilities they need to attend to in order to raise families, work, and pay their rent. Drug induced anti-social behavior happening on one’s doorstep makes it incredibly difficult for people to function in day to day life. The government won’t help with this problem.

Any idea who is buying for the planters? They may rust and make a big mess that will have to be cleaned up. If they don’t have drainage some plants may die. And more important, could this money be used to support more people who are only short a small sum to pay their rents? A few extra dollars could keep some people housed and off the street.

In reply to Seth.

Thank you for putting my thoughts into words. I resent the choice the writers made in pitting Planters vs. Housing, as if people are choosing to install these planters instead of building shelters in their backyards or something…. like what????? The suggestion seems to be that individual businesses and residents are responsible for fixing the issue. But no actual recommendation or call-to-action is made — just a thinly veiled attempt at presenting both sides which anyone with a pulse can see for what it is — par for the course for this publication; shaming of those who “have”, coddling of those who “have not”, and SILENCE on the obligations of our various public agencies as well as the NGO’s who have been tasked with ameliorating the untenable homeless situation in our city.

In reply to missionresident.

If housing costs are causing homelessness then why do they insist on staying in the country’s most expensive city? There is the entirety of the rest of California along with 49 other states to choose from.

In reply to SFUSD Alumni.

SF’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing has $690 MILLION in the budget for fiscal year 2023-2024, and you want to complain about the hypothetical financial impact of cleaning up a few planters? Please tell me you’re joking. If anything is “incredibly shortsighted”, it is the status quo approach of live and let live for the degenerates and drug addicts who plague our streets.

When I look at those things I see a good start at recycling. They are so pervasive they might as well be use d to collect all those bottle we are now supposed to recycle. Give the people who need a job the opportunity to collect and turn in the bottles. They become part of the solution instead of a problem.

In reply to Jeremy.

Yeah totally inhuman of them to wish to add something to their community. Isn’t it the overarching goal of existence to leave things better than we found them?

Perhaps you find tents and the people who choose to reside in them on our city streets “beautiful”. I do not, nor do most of the other residents of our fine city, and in 99.9% of cases would prefer a planter on the sidewalk to the alternative.

In reply to Joe DeZappa.

It doesn’t deter them from living on the streets. They have no option other than to live on the streets. It just pushes them to a nearby street.

In reply to Seth.

Seth,

I love the Planters.

I think of them as a much needed addition to the City’s canopy of Green.

But, let’s not make it necessary for Homeless to sleep there.

Open SFUSD buildings nights and put Campsites on TI and Lincoln Golf.

Hopefully the Planters will still be maintained when the Homeless are gone.