Brian HoweyThis story was part of coverage that won the 35th SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism Award, Print/Online Small Division.
For the past year and a half, San Francisco has relied almost entirely on complaints from 311 — the city’s nonemergency customer service line — to address homeless encampments, leading to a sharp increase in the proportion of encampments labeled “removed” by city workers, a review of public records shows.
Data from the city’s 311 call center and mobile app show that a big shift happened in August 2018. For the preceding 10 months, about 10% of encampments were removed following complaints. Afterward, for the period ending in December 2019, that proportion shot up to 38%.
The increase in the rate of encampment removals appears to be connected to a shift in responsibility for complaints from Public Works to the Healthy Streets Operation Center, a coalition of city agencies that is tasked with abating homelessness — and which directs city resources chiefly based on 311 complaints.
The change has prompted some city leaders to voice concerns. In August, Homelessness and Supportive Housing Director Jeff Kositsky told an audience at Manny’s Café, a Mission District venue that hosts public speaker events, that reporting encampments to 311 was “a real problem” and urged audience members to stop using the app for that purpose.
“One of the problems with how we address homelessness in San Francisco — a lot of it’s driven by 311 complaints,” he said, adding that if it were up to him, reporting encampments wouldn’t be an option on the 311 app.
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