Bay Area Homeless - Concern or Crisis Part 1

[Music] it could happen to anybody it could happen to anybody and it's just hard homeless in the Bay Area a lot of people are one incident one accident one job loss away from the exact same situation tens of thousands of people living on the streets somebody comes every day families staying in cars in shelters struggling to get their children to school there's a mixture it looks you get but a lot of it is people just look disgusted those who served our country living in a tent on concrete sidewalks it's bad could they come by like I said your 2:30 this morning and now a new face of homelessness victims of the Bay Area housing crisis borrowing cars or sleeping on a couch sleeping under a bridge or on the field or on the sidewalk somewhere is there a solution what we are doing now is clearly not working lawmakers cities counties struggling to find answers homeless residents are in our city and we can either choose to leave them outside in our parks streets our creeks or we can house them the widespread issue in our faces we're trying to be compassionate and measured I want to help homeless people but not this way put them at the fairgrounds put them anywhere politicians business leaders and residents of the Bay Area agree something needs to be done to help the homes the bay area has a population of over seven million people and unfortunately thousands of them are living on the streets well that may seem like a small percentage of people living here the fact is they're human beings in need of a hand up good evening I'm Julie Haner and I'm Frank Somerville we're talking here about everyday people who are now living in tents or in a car on the street and there are lots of reasons why they ended up there sometimes it's the loss of the job or a medical issue or a drug problem or trouble with the law many people say even with a steady job and a roof over their head and living paycheck to paycheck one misstep away from the same fate so tonight what we're going to do is try to shed a little light on the issue and hopefully open up a dialogue that will lead to possible solutions recently I spent some time just down the road from our station here in Oakland at a tent city underneath a freeway you probably noticed these tent cities they're literally popping up all over the Bay Area and we wanted to find out who are the people who are living there and what are their lives like I spoke with two of them they talked about the huge rats they deal with the noise how they go to the bathroom and what was the last time they were actually able to take a real shower [Music] [Music] do you mind if I ask what is it like being out here violet disagreements happening with people from different walks of life we may not be a diplomatic review some of us that wives or children that we miss it's never boring it's never boring good boy I don't tell you I'm never bored like normally that cook I think I stole grills you know let's say you do have to go to the bathroom where do you go I keep a bucket with maybe some bleach in it and I don't know that works but a bigger between separate things in Hazzard you know I made for a bottle of a verb reason you know what people bucket don't keep it covered new bleeps and stuff in here in the chili you want to kill this meal some people piss in the dirt I don't agree with that in the rest you wouldn't believe how these rats man actually move they do come back and your whole thing is rearranged then you may claim it on your neighbor's and get it the rest in it there are people who say look I get that they're homeless but you know what I don't want to walk by needles I don't want to walk by all of this garbage I don't want them in my neighborhood what would you say to those people because around a bus company the same situations they view people living I lost my home in there 2008 that whole housing crash in but it can happen to you man I wouldn't be so quick to be so judgmental man and jump to conclusions about people what do you want people to know about you then I'm not a victim I'm not a victim I'm not a victim I don't like that you know I mean we're all struggling man and I believe that we're all in the same water but we're not in the same boat this is hard not to get emotional when you see this just thinking about this is where they look this is what they have and there's so many people who were just a couple paychecks away from a potentially being and it's so easy to drive by them and not think anything we're all human beings it's just you know what it is it's really sobering it's really sobering to think that someone lives an attack like that that's all they have when you say you can't deal with Caltrans people what do you mean by that because they kick you out not not just that they they deliberately target your belongings and they don't come to clean up they come to just up and then take everything we own they hope that if they take everything we own will lead well the majority of us we've got nowhere else to go Oh plans my home I've been here for 35 years I've been homeless I was a taxpayer of a homeowner as a business owner you know I ran random business with my father for 19 years right downtown it's horri it's rough and I have you know I'm a mechanic I'm living out here on the streets all my stuff is subject to being stolen at any time I leave my camp it's an open game that's why I put up the little fence little Ben said I scrounged up my scrounge up some pallets and and put it together and it's just a deterrent if they really wanted something that was in here they only have to do is jump over let me just ask you point-blank what was the last time you took a shower when was the last time you were able to take 3 weeks 3 weeks nor shall facilities available to us there are but they're nasty or you're getting stuff stolen one of the hard things to do out here stay clean we have no bathroom facilities we have no running water we have to get water from faucets and then card it back to our camps that's what the five-gallon buckets and then we stayed we try to wash up as much as we can one of the things that I notice is I'm talking to you is how how nosy it is the park going by got trucks going by how do you deal with that I try not to pay attention to it but it's hard it's been hard on me mentally psychologically physically was living under the overpass you get a lot of road dust over here and it's not really good help it's not very helpful all you have to do is give us a big big property with a fence around it tarp off the fence we put campsites in there we'll police it ourselves give us a couple of dumpsters give us some porta-potties you got the trash problem dealt with you got the human waste problem dealt with we're everywhere we're all over the place I don't know what our numbers are right now but they're growing and they're growing fast I mean I was the only one here on this block four years ago four years ago I was all by myself right here all by myself once you're on the homeless right it is hard as hell to get out of it the latest count found nearly 30,000 homeless people living in the Bay Area that's roughly the same number of people who live in the city of Burlingame his numbers are calculated from a one-night all out blitz were thousands of volunteers and homeless advocates hit the streets to count the homeless population the count happens every two years the most recent count happened in January of this year the homeless aren't just spread along urban Skid Row's sleeping in alleys and begging for spare change homeless people are of course in Oakland San Jose and San Francisco but they're also in the suburbs in small towns along residential streets and their numbers are increasing in East Contra Costa County for example the number of people living without permanent housing was up by 33 percent between 2015 and 2017 slightly more than half of those people live in the community of Antioch the news about homelessness in large cities sadly is not promising either Alameda County's homeless population spiked roughly 40 percent between the point and time counts half of that county's homeless live in Oakland a possible reason for that median rents were up by 25 percent since 2015 but at the same time median household incomes were up by just 5 percent head south to Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County homelessness rose thirteen percent over the past two years more shocking was the drastic increase in the number of homeless youth that number ballooned by a whopping 286 percent there are now more than 3,500 homeless young people living in that County San Francisco is where homelessness may be the most visible they have 7500 people living on the streets but they're no longer just clustered in the city's downtown area some residential neighborhoods saw drastic jump in those without a home in the Richmond District for example the number of homeless people doubled from 2015 to 2017 other areas saw a three-fold increase those are the numbers but why are they so extreme in the Bay Area i sat down with UC Berkeley professor Sam Davis an expert who's been studying homelessness in the bay area for years and he's currently serving on a board with Berkeley Mayor Jesse ARAG when looking at ways to address the problem professor Davis says when it comes to homeless affordable housing is our biggest issue housing that's you know I mean I'm not just saying that because I'm an architect it's just that's the answer that we just need more housing and we need a housing that's befitting of the various populations as we mentioned and that they can afford I moved here 20 years ago and I don't remember seeing the homeless encampments the tent cities that I'm seeing now I mean some of them are sprawling now they're taking up entire city blocks what's changed or what's creating this where are they coming from well I don't know that they're coming from afar I think the data show that that most of people that have become homeless were in the county living in the county before they became homeless I think in Alameda County that figures 80 or 82 percent of the people counted last year we're already in the county living here before they became homeless are we seeing more families are we seeing more different kinds of homeless spaces yes we're definitely seeing more families we're seeing more families with young children which is really tragic but not just for the health issues that surround that but also for education issues so yeah I think the home if you if again I'd have to look back at the data but I would think that I'm quite sure that the population of homeless families with young children is growing and it's pretty large portion of the overall homeless population and if you'd like to hear more of our conversation the full video is posted on our website at KTVU dot-com we've set up a special section on homelessness dedicated to this important issue the fact is that all over the Bay Area there are so many people affected and some of the most vulnerable are families who are out on the streets every morning we walk about ten blocks just to get to the bus to take him to school he shouldn't have to worry about where are we gonna stay tonight you know coming up we'll have more on this family's incredible journey plus what is it about the Bay Area that some would say lends itself to a growing homeless population we'll explore the different factors that one former mayor says are definitely part of the problem tonight's special on homelessness in the Bay Area continues right after this break [Music] my son calls me a turtle you know here in my house on my back compasses telling family is that if they sleep on the streets or in a vehicle they'll be able to access shelter faster that is the harsh reality families learning if they move to the streets the possibility of permanent housing may come sooner than just getting by in a shelter city officials say there are now more than three thousand homeless children in San Francisco many of those kids wind up missing school lacking proper nutrition and experiencing exhaustion from sleep loss and stress we recently spent a day with one homeless family in San Francisco and saw firsthand the struggles they're facing ktvu's tara Moriarty has their story it's 6:45 a.m. at the first friendship shelter in San Francisco families trickle out including Meadow Silvestre her husband Aaron burrows and their eight-year-old son AJ it really seems like to me that poor is the new thing to be prejudiced against the three sleep on a mat together AJ in the middle in a room filled with about 50 other homeless people many people snore I hear this pretty much every morning the three pack up and leave at 7 o'clock that's when all the families are forced out only allowed back later in the afternoon every morning we walk about 10 blocks just to get to the bus to take them to school first stop a market and Pete's coffee after dipping into the bank account meadow learns they only have 140 dollars left for the rest of the month and it's only the 12th yes please the family lives off Meadows disability and errands state welfare checks which total $1,500 a month the borough's say a long and drawn-out landlord dispute coupled with skyrocketing rents forced them out of their Bayview apartment there's a mixture of looks you get but a lot of it is people just look disgusted Aaron suffers from social anxiety disorder Meadow has spina bifida and PTSD both are recovering heroin addicts every morning they wash up in the market restroom they only get a shower once a week at the shelter while Aaron must leave for a doctor appointment meadow walks six more city blocks and catches the bus to AJ school AJ is acutely aware of his situation lately he's been having trouble at school he frequently gets sick and doesn't sleep well at the shelter full of crying babies and snoring adults W icx school his teachers say AJ winds up sleeping most days on this cot set up in the school's main office if CPS gonna take me away is you know you scared for me to leave him at school then I might not come back the family has been trying for five months to get into a shelter where they can have their own room and work toward more permanent housing compasses telling family is that if they sleep on the streets or in a vehicle they'll be able to access shelter faster there are at least 7500 homeless people in San Francisco 3,200 of them children that's according to the family homelessness program compass which says it received calls from 5200 Bay Area families last year looking for shelter service and that's only a fraction of the actual number they say these appointments I fill out these applications and it's so depressing the Burroughs lost their section 8 voucher so finding a new home on $1,500 a month is nearly impossible in the rents range now for like a two-bedroom it could be average of like $4,800 it's really a miracle that families kind of survive the day-to-day grind officials here say the borough's best bet is to find permanent supportive housing where there is on-site support and rent is adjusted based on income but the likelihood that she might find a unit in San Francisco is swim with no family to help them they say they'll continue to muddle their way through the system get jobs get off the streets and into a home you shouldn't have to worry about where are we gonna stay tonight you know if anything for AJ yes I made a mistake or whatever and I've tried to rectify the situation but I'm just still being punished my whole family is in San Francisco Tara Moriarty KTVU Fox 2 News in the past month since we spoke to the family Aaron meadow and AJ have bought an RV that they're now living in they tell us it's a way that they can prove to the homeless advocacy group compass that they're ready to move into permanent housing we'll keep in touch with them and keep you updated on their journey as well whether at San Francisco the East Bay or in the South Bay homeless encampments and ten cities are more visible than ever before and while the problem needs to be addressed frustrations can boil over it's really hard for people who live in neighborhoods where they walk out the door and you know there's needles people don't have a place to go to the bathroom it's scary for their kids and as those encampments homeless encampments expand many business owners say it's impacting their bottom line they've taken over everything and we're concerned about the safety of our employees more on that and other issues coming up on this KTVU special concern or crisis my wife works right over there and I come in and catch the blarg and as you come off the freeway there's just a homeless cat I mean I lived in the Bay Area for thirty years and when people started begging on the street and living on the street and standing in traffic asking for money on the street I hadn't only seen that in like poor parts of Mexico and I've never seen that in this country ask any of these like average working-class people we should have the right to not have to hurdle over heroin needles we should have the right to not have to like you know breathe in crack smoke on our community and that's the problem that I can't solve it's very sad did you see not just individuals you see entire families homeless with not too much hope at all as you drive around the Bay Area it's not hard to find a homeless encampment many are expanding as the homeless form their own communities and in some cases they stretch for entire blocks crews worked to clean up the tent cities but they seem to just move from block to block recently the City of Oakland took action cleaning up trash outside of businesses but pretty much as soon as the trash is gone it just starts piling up again city officials have tried to support some encampments giving them porta-potties and barricades to keep the camps from pouring out farther into the streets something doing that is a more humane and healthy option for dealing with the homeless a recent UC Berkeley study found that moving the homeless from one space to another may not be cost-effective so what's the answer it's a problem that faces communities in many cities around the Bay Area officials say in March they found more than a hundred encampments lining the streets of Oakland so why the Bay Area why are there so many homeless people here is it the weather is it our culture there are some who say that has something to do with it former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown talked to us recently on the culture here's what he told us there are in other locations and and there's no doubt people tell them exactly how much better raw you are if you are in need in San Francisco versus some other place and so they will migrate to San Francisco for that purpose and we are a very generous City it is a complex issue while some point to the culture here UC Berkeley professor Sam Davis who's been studying the homeless problem for years pointed to several different factors I don't actually think the culture is contributing in a major way I think it's more about economics and about jobs and about about mental health support and I think that's just been exacerbated by their rising rising rents and other costs in the Bay Area and I don't know that there's actually been an explosion I'd have to look back to the numbers over the last couple of years I just think it's a lot more visible I think the encampments has become somewhat of a new phenomenon people did live on the streets but not aggregated in groups like they seem to have been in alas last year or so all of the homeless encampments seemed to continue getting bigger and many business owners and employees work next to or right across from these tent cities and they have legitimate concerns ktvu's Frank Mallicoat talked to people on both sides of the issue they are tucked under countless miles of Oakland BART track Ted cities where a year ago there was one now dozens have sprung up blocks from City Hall entire street corners have been swallowed up where laundry garbage and commerce now mingle is one industrial areas like here in West Oakland have become shanty towns with a flea market Flair this is bottom some are here because of drug use others are here because of mental illness or finances whatever the case the word is out Oakland is quickly becoming a refuge for the homeless she sleeps here man is my sleeping bag laughs you have just ruled it out Iraq war veteran Lee Smith calls his minivan home it sits under this shroud of tarps on West Oakland Wood Street his gritty neighborhood has grown from 60 to nearly 200 Plus this past year Smith is a handyman says he wants out but simply can't afford it I'm on a fixed income you know and the rent went up and this almost check this come on like that without taking me take care of the bill so I had to had to make a choice you grew up in Hillsboro in Danville did you ever think you'd end up no no no no mavin Carter Griffin is a self-described gypsy with an artisan Sartre a divorce sent foreclosure pushed this fit generation California on a wood Street four years ago and she's a no hurry to get out I see it as a culture like I said I think we're a culture not a problem we're evolving and we're trying really hard to have some dignity and respect and learn how to live amongst each other it's it's a it's an experiment I think it's a curb urban experiment an experiment that has some Oakland businesses saying enough all right ray Mizzou owns the Golden West envelope company directly across from that Wood Street encampment they've taken over everything and we're concerned about the safety of our employees we're concerned about what's gonna happen to our insurance rates because everything goes up because of what's going on out here all the activity that appreciates the value but the insurance rates go up it's just um one big mess a mess that has no quick fix homelessness isn't just an Oakland problem it's a Bay Area problem a problem that will take perhaps a generation to fix somebody comes every day every day basically for some like lifelong Oakley Toribio civ they feel forgotten no one actually comes out here and evaluate the situation or see if anybody can uh I don't know do better by you know Sam being evacuated or being so steps to take more context to make to do better Joseph has called this 980 overpass at West Grand home for two plus years a lady college grad that couldn't get work and now he dreams of a way out I don't want to be homeless or I don't want to be somebody that actually doesn't and now this fitting in with mainstream society you know because the camp doesn't define me it's just somewhere to Pichet it can be in Oakland Frank Mallicoat KTVU Fox 2 News around the Bay Area we're seeing a whole new face of homeless in one case a man who devoted his time to helping the homeless after time on the streets is now back on the streets himself living in a car initially was homeless in the jungle he fought a good fight for many people including himself got into housing now he's back on the street it reflects the problem plus many experts say the root of the problem is housing a problem driving people out onto the streets or out of the Bay Area I originally lived in the city of Mountain View and then I got priced out from there and I moved to the city of Santa Clara I got priced out from there I moved to the city of Sunnyvale got priced out from there tonight's special homeless in the Bay Area concern or crisis we'll be right back [Music] [Music] homelessness is a problem not just limited to the bay area in the Pacific Northwest homelessness in Seattle rose 10% over the past two years during that time Los Angeles County saw rise of 23% there are now nearly 60,000 people living on the streets their homelessness also affects smaller regions as well in Central Oregon there are now 30% more people without permanent housing on the East Coast Vermont is up almost 20% and finally in New York City the number of homeless people out on the streets was up nearly 40 percent over the past two years that being said across the country overall the homeless population is down so why are many of these statistics rising in the Bay Area when it comes to the issue of homelessness one thing that can't be ignored is the lack of affordable housing and that's especially true here in the Bay Area with the tech boom and the popularity of the Bay Area home prices are soaring ktvu's Tom Baker takes a closer look now at our housing crisis I originally lived in the city of Mountain View and then I got priced out from there and I moved to the city of Santa Clara I got priced out from there I moved to the city of Sunnyvale got priced out from there the American dream of homeownership and the California dream of easy living is in a severe drought that's lasted for decades and there's no economic El Nino to end it I had a kindergarten teacher a wonderful teacher get married in May they couldn't afford a house here and so they moved to San Diego so I lost a really great teacher people of color african-americans Latinos we don't see a future here because of the rent increases in faxes Matt Reagan policy director for the Bay Area Council a consortium of the Bay Area's biggest employers we keep falling further and further behind in the last decade we've permitted about one new home for every eight jobs we've created as a state California needs to create about a hundred and eighty thousand units of housing a year just to keep pace with natural population growth we're averaging about 80 that red hot competition has rocketed prices about 300 11,000 California housing units have been built in the past decade but during that same time California's population has grown by three point two five million ten times more new people than housing units the number crunchers that the California Association of Realtors calculate that overall Bay Area single-family homes are now eight percent more expensive than just a year ago and far far higher in Santa Clara Alameda and San Mateo County's today the median Bay Area home price is about nine hundred nine thousand dollars that sixty-four percent higher than California's already high statewide average when we have significant numbers of working families living in their cars we have a crisis the rent increases that we're seeing now are the highest we've ever seen without even considering the chronically homeless lining streets and freeway underpasses with tent city's affordable home builder Steve Marshall founder of little house on the trailer says that has led to many to seek out or create a wide variety of illegal living spaces from warehouses to garages to rundown RVs to shacks and sheds and backyards and they may well comprise 25% of our housing stock Marshall says city and county buildings own and code enforcement departments know full well that that's going on and they have a generally heavy policy if no one complains they're grateful that that housing exists we know the housing costs are killing people and it's choking folks and we got to do more to get housing built a scientific statewide poll just last month commissioned by advocates for affordable housing shows that the majority of Californians are willing to support as much as nine billion dollars in housing bonds to build affordable housing even if you could get affordable housing units down to a hundred thousand dollars each that nine billion dollars would create just 90,000 units half of what we need just to keep up with population growth but that does not include the cost of land utilities and many fees communities demand to permit those units this delivered house be 1/3 of the total and that is to say nothing of homeowner and citizen resistance sharing everything from reduced property values to diminution of the quality of life that reduced San Jose's 99 potential sites for affordable homes down to just to the people that have what they've got they're happy with the current situation people believe that affordable housing it for instance negatively impacts the value of their home that's that's patently false we know that building affordable housing in communities has no negative impact on home values so Tom even if there is affordable housing how does that help the chronically homeless well chronically homeless have more problems than just needing a place to live if you simply stick them in a box many of them not gonna like it there many of them are gonna leave and we're going to destroy those surroundings what they need or other kinds of care they need mental care they need drug rehabilitation they need this world of other treatment that needs to be done and that's going to add at least 25 to 50 percent more on top of the cost of the housing no matter how low cost it is there are just some really tough answers out there that are gonna cost a lot of mine Tom thank you the housing crisis is something everyone in the Bay Area has to deal with whether they're homeless or not but it's really affecting those on the fringe those trying to make a difference eight views an Ruben spoke to a man who's devoted his time to advocating for the homeless but now he's ended up on the streets himself like this is hard to come by you know this is heavy tarp Robert Aguirre spends most of his time advocating for the homeless either out in the encampments or down at San Jose City Hall I provide a bridge I provide the connection to the people of that have the solutions to the people to have the need it's something he's been doing for years but suddenly this summer a Geary's circumstances changed when he received a letter from his own landlord he serviced with an eviction notice it was a no cause eviction San Jose has since changed the rules about evictions but for a Giri it was too late after nearly three years in that apartment he was now homeless a friend lent him this car and he's been living out of it since July sleeping under Ridge on the field or on the sidewalk somewhere a giri admits he's better equipped to handle this than most in fact he was homeless once before living in the infamous San Jose encampment called the jungle it happened after his business as a technology consultant went under and it was his experience there that made him a passionate advocate initially he was homeless in the jungle he fought a good fight for many people including himself got into housing now he's back on the street it reflects the problem the problem is that a Giri like many others has a section 8 voucher in hand but there are long wait lists for any apartment willing to accept them and so a Giri has gotten creative asking the mayor and city council members to write him letters of recommendation and they did when I show up with those letters it kind of changes the conversation a Giri wants to make it clear he's not looking for special treatment just an opportunity to rent somewhere in the meantime he says he'll keep fighting for the homeless like he always has you'd have to shoot me to stop me I can't stop while a Giri hunts for a new apartment he says he'll continue to advocate for other projects like the tiny homes proposal in San Jose that might help others besides just himself in San Jose and Ruben KTVU Fox 2 News for some people waiting for a place to rent isn't an option KTVU reporter Amber Lee met with the man doll family last month in Oakland they were living out of their car while they look for a place to rent with their three children they ended up homeless when their mother Aisha got sick after giving birth to their youngest child with a limited income and skyrocketing housing prices the man Dolph's decided they had no choice but to leave Oakland and move to Las Vegas where they could find an apartment for half the price I don't ever want to feel like this again I'm gonna make a point of making better plans for our future the man dolls were able to find an apartment and pay for an entire year's worth of rent thanks to a lot of generous contributions to a GoFundMe account and last week we checked in with them over Skype on Aisha tells us that her family is doing great especially her kids they're excited adjusting to new schools the baby's running around and you know just having a great what's the best part of all of this we saw the piece that that that Amber did where you were sleeping in your car you were washing in in sinks and bathrooms it just looked like it was really tough contrast that to what it's like now Wow I can't even sit there words don't even explain how much we tend to take for granted when you don't have the simple things in life the ability to walk through the refrigerator and grab a bite to eat or cook dinner I'm so excited I've cooked dinner every single night Ayesha says being homeless was one of the most difficult things she's ever faced and she says she'll never look at the homeless the same way still ahead they serve their country and many are living on the streets the search to find the Bay Area's homeless veterans are you a veteran in need of services we're looking for veterans any veterans hello anyone home we go along with the Gulf War veteran as he goes tent by tent searching for homeless vets [Music] many of the chronic cases of homeless are people with mental illness it's a health care issue that needs near constant treatment to help people mental illness different from any other kind of illness it's the illness itself that prevents people or can prevent people from knowing that if they have something that could benefit from help and treatment and then doing something about it San Francisco General recently opened a facility for those transitioning from the hospital to the outside world working to ensure they don't end up on the streets some of them will be able to spend the night but we'll be doing medical medical management medication management psychiatric support addiction support and it will be a day treatment program along with overnight States Mayor Ed Lee and other city leaders toured the facility in late August it's called the hummingbird navigation Center and will cost nearly three million dollars a year to operate many of the nation's veterans are dealing with mental health issues after serving our country many develop post-traumatic stress disorder and unfortunately some of those vets end up on our streets this week Kate views Rob Roth spent time with some homeless veterans and other former service members who are hoping to help them Lawrence Rosenberg says he doesn't like talking about his days as a Marine fighting in the Vietnam War in the late 60s freaks me out it always did freak me out there's still a free rail code and I we found Rosenberg recently in San Francisco's Tenderloin but he says for most of the past 14 months he's been sleeping outside on Haight Street it sucks I mean turning the beat up preparing it Rob Rosenberg says sometimes he can't believe he was caught in an ever downward spiral that took him from the military to the streets he gets emotional I served my flag I did mine you know and yes big boys cry big boys don't cry man you ain't got no heart yeah Rosenberg is one of a hundred and thirty seven chronically homeless veterans in San Francisco according to the latest homeless census there are some four hundred other vets considered homeless but not living on the streets that's a decrease from two years ago in San Francisco are you a veteran anita services each day go for veteran benben como goes tenth by ten searching for homeless vets we're looking for veterans any veterans hello anyone home Ben como is an outreach worker for swords to plowshares which works to get those who serve the military off the streets he says many of them have given up while you're in the service you have a sense of purpose you have a dignity about what you're doing and then to lose all that for whatever reason on the streets it's a it's a real crash and burn situation how long have you been homeless on the streets it seemed like fourteen months but on this day Ben como and Lawrence Rosenberg met for the first time if you sign right there that's the first permissions like swords to plowshares tells us that with the help of the city rosenberg now has a case manager and should be getting a permanent place to live this month a lot of the work is convincing that we can help them it's available to them we encourage them to make the choice to let us work with them we always give the vets the choice and that's sometimes that's hard because they may not make the right the choices that we would like to see them make this former Marine appears to have made the right choice after years of heroin addiction and homelessness when I wasn't honest when it really affected me about doing this he now lives in a federally subsidized studio apartment in a building on Kearney Street for formerly homeless vets this is heaven right I just have an attitude of gratitude it suits to plowshares the cost of war doesn't end after the battlefield is we all know the cost continued executive director Michael blacker says public attitudes toward veterans have improved since he came home after serving in Vietnam a good news is that you can see some tangible results from the investments of HUD and the public sector have made the bad news so will those investments continue an increase and that's what we need a place to live is what 81 year old homeless Vietnam vet Michael Boutwell needs the former Army Staff Sergeant says he now sleeps along the Embarcadero I don't know probably died I don't know in San Francisco Rob Rob KTVU Fox 2 News seeing homeless on the streets of San Francisco is nothing new but what is new are the large growing encampments that's something we haven't seen before they're picking up anywhere from two to four tons of garbage a day just from these encampments coming up on this PT bu special report the growing frustration facing city workers in San Francisco and what they're doing to try to get the problem under control [Music] a recent headcount in San Francisco revealed about 7500 people have no place to call home and every night about 60% of those are left to fend for themselves out on the streets that's 4,500 people every single night sleeping out in the cold last year San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee created the Department of homelessness to tackle the problem ktvu's Tara Moriarty talked with the director who's working to find long-term solutions Tara also spoke to the head of Public Works who's working on short-term solutions and she spoke with a supervisor who says right now the city just isn't doing enough marks I know has been living on the streets of San Francisco for seven years said only I no longer had a place to stay so I bounced around as I could and ended up out here originally from Antioch the 36 year old lost his job following a work injury he also suffers from PTSD kind of get the fishbowl syndrome because you never really get any time away or time to decompress without people always watching you or calling the cops on you today sino is upset because he's losing all of his stuff public works crews are doing a sweep they're clearing out this homeless encampment posing away urine and feces and tossing out trash they're picking up anywhere from two to four tons of garbage a day just from these encampments meet Mohammed nuru the head of the Public Works Department he sees the dirty side of homelessness they don't have bathrooms they don't you know they poop they pee you know right outside the tent and then there's the needles new Roos crews can pick up words of 17500 needles in just one month it's a job that can not only be hazardous but downright dangerous we've had quite a number of assaults 12 workers on a very regular basis some call his team's janitors for the city's homeless as we say in public works made service nuru says homeless encampments seemed to spike with San Francisco hosted the Super Bowl in 2016 right after the Super Bowl we started seeing more tents and with the city's building boom especially in the South of Market area and Mission Bay homeless we're getting forced out only to crop up in other neighborhoods well there was nothing here three months ago and it's been a problem and I really don't know why this is acceptable I mean we we have an encampment and I've asked the Department of homelessness that we don't have in cabinets in my district yeah nothing seems to happen Jeff she he oversees district 8 including Glen Park Noe Valley and the Castro when I see my district suddenly getting worse because of what's going on in the mission or because they're cleaning up Civic Center and people just get on Muni and come here or they get on BART and come to Glynn Park that's not helping she says the city needs to be more aggressive we called outreach teams here the outreach teams have come and talked to people and the people have refused services the outreach teams just walk away there's not a solution we flush money down the tube when we're paying people to interact with people and not solve the problem this problem was 40 years in the making Jeff Cosette's key spearheads the city's new Department of homelessness these are people this is somebody's son and somebody's daughter and when they were young then and grew up wanting to be living on the streets Kozinski says America's homeless crisis has been brewing for decades you know in 1944 FDR talked about housing is a right for all Americans but by 1978 we started to dismantle the Department of Housing and Urban Development and if you took it in real dollars it's sort of the equivalent of an 80% cut in the HUD budget from 1978 to today but San Francisco is spending money on the homeless last fiscal year to the tune of 258 million dollars some even complain that San Francisco is too generous for example remember sign oh he's not even from San Francisco why not try to go to Antioch and get out they don't even have shelters or anything out there and the wait list is just as long as out here for any sort of subsidized housing but Kosinski says if you don't spend money on the homeless now you'll pay more for it later I can tell you for somebody who's chronically homeless and living on the streets it can cost fifty eighty even a hundred thousand dollars a year in medical costs trips to the to the hospital he believes a universal housing subsidy is key and for those homeless who refuse services then you know need to be us to move well you know out of the city frankly unfortunately once your life gets this bad it's really hard to salvage it and then once you get out on the street it's really really hard to get back indoors in San Francisco tera Moriarty KTVU Fox 2 News many people are frustrated not just in San Francisco but all across the Bay Area and they want to know what city leaders are doing to solve the homeless problem I feel like nothing's being done I hate to say that I'm sure they know there's people who are probably going to argue with that but there's nothing being done and as a result the homelessness keeps growing I just think it's so unfair there are so many families out there that are going through homelessness that are spending you know fifty to sixty to even up to seventy-five percent of their income on rent we've got to keep talking about it I mean I I understand how people just wind up stepping over somebody and just going to work because you wind up wondering how big a difference can I make but I feel like we can't give up and keep talking about it we will all this week we'll be bringing you more stories focused on homeless issues facing the bay area and next Sunday night we'll be right back here talking about possible solutions join us for a live KTVU special at 9:00 p.m. we'll be joined by the leaders of our local communities asking what's being done to get people off the streets that's next Sunday night live at 9:00 p.m. the ten o'clock news is next right here on KTVU thanks so much for joining us hope you have a good night everyone see you later you

Channel: KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco

Views: 1,552,287

Keywords: ktvu, homeless, crisis, san francisco, homelessness

Id: dCaOeyjHgaE

Length: 48min 46sec (2926 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 11 2017