The Tenderloin - San Francisco's WORST Neighborhood

the tenderloin a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco that encompasses about 50 square blocks and is home to some of the highest levels of crime drug addiction and homelessness in the city it's no secret that this neighborhood has been plagued by homelessness and drug use for decades tents line the streets usually at every corner and the sidewalks tend to be covered with trash until the crews clean it up on a daily basis stores like Walgreens have busted windows and items are locked down due to Crime even the spam isn't safe here cars have notes written on their Windows to tell potential thieves there's nothing inside but among the seemingly dystopian neighborhood I couldn't help but ask the question is there more to this place what is life really like here and how did it get so bad to answer these questions I interviewed Tom Wolf a former addict and homeless man himself who once called the streets of the tenderloin his home nowhere in the country is it easier to be addicted to drugs than in San Francisco and specifically in the tenderloin the tenderloin is unique in that it's a Vibrant Community it's a community made up of a lot of people in what they call permanent Supportive Housing that had struggled with chronic homelessness it's also made up of a lot of immigrant families there are over 3 000 children living in the tenderloin it's also the home of the largest what they call open drug scene or open-air drug dealing Market in the entire country now in recovery Tom seeks to educate and spread awareness about the drug and homeless crisis inside the tenderloin you'll see point in time reports that we'll talk about there's only 26 percent of the people that are on the street that are addicted to drugs I've heard 41 percent but look I'll be honest with you I was out there on the street it's about 80 percent 85 percent of the people that are out there struggling with addiction or untreated mental illness or both period end of story according to Tom it's because of the cities and previous administration's policies that it's gotten so bad that drug dealers need to be held accountable arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to clean up the city if you're going to sell a drug that has contributed to the deaths of 2 200 people in the last three years in San Francisco you need to be held accountable period these guys are out on the street everybody knows who they are they know that everybody knows who they are and they're selling these drugs and everybody's dying around them and we just kind of shrug and say well we have an obligation to support the drug users we do but one of those obligations has to be removing those drug dealers from the street and giving people an opportunity to find a better life and maybe transform their life by supporting recovery recovery at least on the criminal side of things now seems to be a possibility with the ousting of district attorney chasa Boudin one of the state's most notorious prosecutors became popular for his drop in convictions since he took office with the recall of Chase to Boudin things may get back on track but to truly gauge how things were I set out to interview someone currently on the street and bumped into a man named John who told me some very scary news what's like the craziest thing you've been through dad foreign like John suffered through hardship living on the street until they were provided a hotel room to stay in John said that this is a common occurrence for those who don't have a roof over their head yet John is there a lot of theft stealing there is people in this Robbie while you sleep at night just while you're sleeping yeah to everybody there is some order to this chaos but it takes the form of an illicit drug Market that operates in plain sight the tenderloin is home to two major organized crime networks one centered on drugs and the other on theft both of which Thrive due to a lack of enforcement unfortunately it's the homeless and those who have fallen into addiction that are used as Pawns in this game in this footage you'll see the homeless man holding the drugs in bulk in his backpack while the dealer sorts this is so if anyone is busted it will be the homeless man who takes the biggest fall instead of the dealers for this risk the homeless are often paid in drugs for their involvement all this is not to say that there isn't a police presence here in fact the neighborhood has its own police station but violent crime takes precedence due to officer shortages filming this area gave me perspective and made me thankful for the little things in life if you're ever in San Francisco you may even notice that many of the problems the tenderloin faces aren't always exclusive to this neighborhood so be safe out there walking the streets I hope this video gave you some insight as to what life can be like here stay tuned for more videos and thanks for watching [Music] thank you

Channel: Film Compass

Views: 65,670

Keywords: the tenderloin, the tenderloin san francisco, san francisco tenderloin, tenderloin, crime, san francisco, san francisco homeless, san francisco homeless problem, san francisco drug problem, tenderloin district, san francisco crime, skid row, san francisco california, tenderloin district san francisco, san francisco worst neighborhoods, san francisco worst hoods, san francisco worst place to live, san francisco worst neighborhood, homeless san francisco, visiting san francisco

Id: _ALe5dWFGwc

Length: 4min 40sec (280 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023