San Francisco's failed experiment of homeless hotels is a cautionary tale https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/san-franciscos-failed-experiment-of-homeless-hotels-is-a-cautionary-tale/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons via @nypost

Homeless people social distance at a city-sanctioned encampment across from San Francisco's City Hall.

San Francisco is surreptitiously placing homeless people in luxury hotels by designating them as emergency front-line workers, a term that the broader community understands to mean doctors, nurses and similar professionals.

If neighborhood residents were more aware of the influx of these new guests, who frequently suffer from drug addiction and severe mental illness as well as having criminal backgrounds, they might object.

Consequently, the city has evoked emergency-disaster law to keep the info private. Officials refuse to notify the public about what is happening in their community and are blocking the press by withholding the list of hotels and preventing reporters from entering the properties.

The Department of Emergency Management has attempted to spin the secrecy by claiming, “Disclosure of the names of hotels where people are being sheltered could jeopardize the privacy and safety of the vulnerable people whom the City has placed there...

... if the public and the press become aware of the circumstances of their placement and could increase the risk that they will be subject to discrimination or harassment on the basis of their health status or status as an unsheltered person.”

The public does have a right to know, however, and obfuscation is ultimately futile. Security guards standing outside hotel entrances, where they had never been before, are clear indicators that something is amiss.

An uptick in crime, drug activity and vagrancy around the hotels is another clue. Properties that have become de facto homeless shelters range from low-end haunts such as the Motel 6 to mid-range and boutique hotels.

High-end hotels that house the homeless-turned-frontline-workers include the InterContinental San Francisco — and the Mark Hopkins.

Ironically, the ‘Department of Public Health’ approved $3,795.98 to buy the homeless guests vodka and beer (cigarettes have finally been scrapped). The funding came from the public treasury.

Meanwhile, chaos is erupting inside and around the hotels.

City and hotel workers are required to sign nondisclosure agreements and are forbidden from discussing what they’re seeing. Per Mayor’s @LondonBreed’s Declaration of Emergency, speaking out can result in a fine of up to $1,000 and/or IMPRISONMENT with a maximum sentence of 1 year

Nevertheless, concerned inside sources report destroyed rooms and rampant illegal drug use. In one hotel, guests are given needle kits and are advised to call the front desk before shooting up; there have been four deaths in the last few days.

Sharps containers have been placed on every floor; used syringes are discarded haphazardly. Badly needed mental-health help is not being administered. The operation is disorganized, with staff members constantly moved around, never knowing what they’ll do from one day to the next

Rooms are rented at close to $200 per night, totaling $6,000 a month—nearly double the cost of a private one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco.

The city-sponsored guests also receive personal grooming, sanitary and cleaning supplies, three delivered meals, and laundry service for clothes and linens. Contracts last between 90 days and two years; by that point, the guests may be able to claim de facto permanent residence.

Since the plan to shift people from tents and doorways to hotels began in May, the blighted neighborhoods have shown no sign of improvement.

That’s not surprising, since change is not likely until the city disallows tents completely, abandons its hands-off drug-dealing and usage policies, and commits to treating people with addiction issues and mental illness —

— not giving them hotel rooms where they can overdose, whether alone or with others whom they bring into the property. At one FLWH hotel, a non-guest was recently found dead in the hallway, still clinging to a crack pipe.