Another San Francisco neighborhood is on the brink of desperation when it comes to the unhoused and issues that arise from the community. They say they have now found a way to alleviate some of the problems for now.
There was a fire that happened on Central and Fell in July. It left a tent in pieces and torched a nearby car in the North of the Panhandle neighborhood or NoPa in San Francisco.
Shortly after, residents rallied together to raise about $15,000 to dress the now melted scene with planter boxes.
“I just want to sleep at night. I’m tired of the fighting and the screaming,” said NoPa resident Julia, who didn’t want to show her face.”
Julia lives nearby and said in the last six months, she has also been threatened by some of the unhoused.
“A new group of people have come in and they’re very just lawless for lack of a better description,” she said.
Last week in the Castro, Walgreens installed planters outside its store to deter problematic loiterers.
“It is like a tactic that can be used. But I think at the end of the day, it still boils down to the same problem. Like we just don’t have enough housing currently for these folks,” said Julian Highsmith with the Coalition on Homelessness.
The Organization “Coalition on Homelessness” is behind a federal lawsuit, where a judge issued an injunction, limiting the city’s ability to forcibly move homeless encampments starting late last year.
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Then recently, new numbers from the city said 609 tents were counted in July. It’s the highest it’s been since February of 2021.
The coalition saying homelessness is the biggest issue facing the city.
“We need to make sure that their needs are being addressed and that we are humanizing them and not just valuing planters and plants more than like human lives,” said Highsmith.
A Department of Public Works spokesperson told NBC Bay Area that after reviewing photos of the new planters in NoPa, they appear to be in compliance with their rules.
