San Francisco is dealing with an elevated number of homeless people and drug users near its international airport as the city tries to crack down.
The average number of homeless people recorded at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and the nearby Bay Area Rapid Transit station has nearly doubled in the past year from 222 a week to 414, according to airport officials.
Eva Cheong, managing director of airport services, told the San Francisco Chronicle that officials are struggling to balance the ‘safety and security of our patrons and facilities with compassionate outreach to vulnerable individuals.’
At a recent meeting, Cheong claimed that the city’s recent efforts to clean up the streets have forced homeless people to the outskirts. The airport is almost 13 miles south of downtown San Francisco.
‘As people get pushed out of the city neighborhoods, we’ve seen them coming out,’ she said.
Officials in Millbrae and San Bruno, towns surrounding the airport, have also seen more homeless people at their metro stations, Cheong said.
Since taking office in January, Mayor Daniel Lurie, a Democrat, has made it one of his top priorities to improve street conditions for residents by arresting more homeless people who set up tents and openly use drugs in public spaces.
This, some argue, has had the effect of driving the problems straight to the SFO’s doorstep. That has forced the airport to start coming up with solutions.
The San Francisco International Airport has seen the number of homeless people nearly doubled since last year, airport officials said
Officials said that’s likely because of increased street cleanup efforts being championed by the city’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, a Democrat
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and the SFO Airport Commission last month approved a $1.5 million, three-year contract for homeless outreach and engagement services at the airport.
Outreach workers with the nonprofit LifeMoves already spent about four hours a month at SFO as part of an agreement with the county.
But under the new contract between the airport and the county, two outreach workers and a supervisor will begin working exclusively at the airport later this summer or early fall.
Francisco Valencia, a case manager for LifeMoves, told the Chronicle that many homeless people seek refuge at the airport because it’s a safe, climate-controlled environment where they can get out of the elements.
‘You can kind of blend in there,’ Valencia said. ‘If you have your belongings with you, you kind of just look like a person that’s getting ready to take a flight.’
Marika Buchholz of the San Mateo County Center on Homelessness said the county hopes the new agreement will nonprofit workers to make a bigger change in the lives of homeless people and build rapport with them.
‘Having a team focused solely on the airport will allow for a depth of engagement that we have not been able to provide previously,’ Buchholz said.
Before its agreement with San Mateo County, Cheong said the airport tried partnering with San Francisco, but it was deemed infeasible because of challenges related to transporting homeless people to services they’d need in the city.
Airport officials have had to strike a deal with San Mateo County in order to deal with the growing number of homeless people showing up there (Pictured: Homeless encampment in downtown San Francisco on February 24)
Under the contract with San Mateo County, outreach workers will attempt to connect with and move people to shelters near the to the airport.
They’ll also be requesting a mental health or medical assessments from the county’s street health care teams, or provide them with food, clothing or other resources they may need.
A homeless man who’s been on the street for four years and is addicted to fentanyl spoke to a a LifeMoves outreach team at the Millbrae metro station, the Chronicle reported.
The man, named Ben, said he takes public transportation outside the city to find better weather or a more peaceful environment.
The workers offered to find him a shelter bed for the night or to help him get treatment for the wounds on his legs.
Ben declined both offers but accepted some food and water the team gave him to take back to the city.
‘Sometimes the first engagement may just be a snack pack,’ said Lynette Reynoso, an outreach supervisor at LifeMoves, ‘but we’ll meet them where they’re at and go from there the next time.’
