Business owners and residents in San Francisco's Castro District are calling on the city to do more about the unhoused and mentally ill people who are causing issues in the neighborhood.
Community members welcomed a deep cleaning of the neighborhood by public works crews on Thursday, but they said it's not enough for some of the recent problems they've been seeing.
"My next-door neighbor Lisa, the hair salon, they broke her window maybe three, four times — $1,500 every time," Castro Coffee Company owner Ken Khoury said. "Down at the nail salon, also they broke theirs. Rossi's across the street."
Khoury has owned the Castro Coffee Company for more than 35 years. He said this past year has been the most difficult.
He said people experiencing mental health crisis and homelessness are not just damaging his property, they're also threatening his customers sometimes.
He believes the recent sweep of the Tenderloin made the situation in his neighborhood worse.
"The Castro became the second Tenderloin, simply put," he said. "There's more influx of drugs, more influx of mental illness."
The Castro Merchants Association has issued a letter to city hall, calling on the city to designate 35 beds for a group of unhoused people who have become very familiar in the neighborhood.
Castro Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said he's sympathetic to their concerns.
"Our office has been keeping, working with neighbors and with merchants and with the police department on a list of folks who are regularly causing challenges," Mandelman said. "We try to get additional resources. We don't really know what the Department of Public Health is doing for those people."
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In a prepared statement, the Department of Public Health said it's not city policy to dedicate beds to people from a particular neighborhood. Instead, the city will be opening 1,000 additional shelter beds to help alleviate issues in the Castro and other neighborhoods.
Leaders of the Castro Merchants Association said they may consider not paying taxes or city fees if a workable solution is not made soon. They're inviting business owners in other neighborhoods to join in and put additional pressure on city hall.
