Homelessness in San Francisco: talk of frustration, survival

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — On a frosty December morning, Victoria Solomon recounted how San Francisco police had rousted her awake hours earlier, and threatened to take her to jail if she didn't clear out within 10 minutes.

They tried to force her out of a public area without offering a shelter bed as required by law, Solomon said. At least this time city workers didn't trash her belongings, she said. This would have forced her to find a new tent, bedding and clothes — not to mention new identification and Social Security cards, as well as a cell phone.

“You can be as tough as you want on people, that’s not going to magically create a house for them. And they don’t have disappearing powers,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

In September, the organization and seven individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless again sued San Francisco for violating the city's own policies regarding providing shelter beds. They also said that city workers have thrown out peoples’ personal belongings such as medication, wheelchairs, prosthetics, laptops and cell phones, against city policy.

Solomon is among an estimated 7,800 people without a home in San Francisco, a city that has come to be seen as an emblem of California's staggering inability to counter the homeless crisis. Homeowners, businesses and local leaders in San Francisco are frustrated with visible signs of homelessness — which includes public streets blocked by sprawling tents and trash.

Solomon is frustrated too. “Who says I’m not part of the community just because I’m homeless?” she said.

Two of the sweeps she experienced this year happened in the Castro neighborhood, where she noted that civil rights activists once stood up for marginalized...