Could Bilal Mahmood Help The Tenderloin?
For ages, residents of San Francisco’s wealthier, “family-oriented” districts have depended on the Tenderloin to quarantine the homeless. The Tenderloin is by far the highest-density neighborhood in the city, shared predominantly by low-income families of color. Indeed the TL is home to over 4,000 children as of 2023. They are who directly and disproportionately absorb the impact and effects of homelessness in San Francisco. A new proposal however would make the whole city step up and pitch in—whether they like it or not.
One Corner of Town. An Entire City In Need.
You’ll find San Francisco’s homeless shelters concentrated heavily in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. SF District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has a plan that would lighten the load. It’s not another shelter for a neighborhood already saturated with overburdened resources. New legislation would redistribute civic responsibility by requiring every district in San Francisco to operate at least one homeless shelter.
It’s an ambitious plan, one that seeks to break San Francisco’s habit of burdening the Tenderloin. Supervisor Mahmood’s plan would pose an eighteen-month timeline for every district to get their shelters from blueprints to fully operational. Mahmood’s plan would also address oversaturation by prohibiting construction of new shelters within 1,000 feet of existing ones. It might surprise you how many shelters already stand within 1,000 feet of another in the TL.
“This is a crisis that has to be addressed by the whole city in a collaborative, cohesive fashion,” San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood told ABC7.
I’ve often felt alienated from other San Franciscans as a Tenderloin resident myself. In my view, it’s almost karmic that San Francisco gets uniformly blamed for its homelessness dilemma. For most of its life, the Tenderloin has been the rug under which the city sweeps its homeless. Now, a comeuppance for San Francisco’s abusive NIMBYism may be brewing.
No humanitarianism possible without humanity
Mahmood’s proposal would only ask the bare minimum of what are nonetheless expected to be troublingly obstinate neighborhoods. I see the results of the west side’s out-of-sight-out-of-mind mentality on a daily basis. Human tragedy unfolds every single day and outsiders only see them as inconveniences, if they see them. At times it feels as though other San Franciscans blame the homeless for going off-book. There are parts to play and they aren’t playing. They were to sleep in the shadow of the St. Francis, busk at Powell Street BART, and most importantly, stay away from the “good parts of town.” Out of sight, out of mind. But like a kid who thinks cleaning their room means stuffing the mess in their closet, they’ve run out of space to hide their shame.
At present, a tiny fraction of San Francisco’s 49 square miles are dedicated to helping minimize homelessness. It seems all of SF wants to see that minimization happen. However, few people appear willing to cede even a few hundred square feet to make it so.
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“I just have to know about the securities, how they go about it, and how it’s going to impact the neighborhood,” Richmond District resident Yoshimi Inukai told ABC7. “And also, what does that mean to the people that live here? Is it going to lower the value of living here?”
“I am for having some place for them to bring them out of the streets, but I’m not sure this area is good for the shelter,” said Atur Adamya. (ABC7)
Reader, you’re smart. Watch out for the logical fallacy (one of many) at work here. It’s a chicken vs. egg argument, only with human resources and the homeless population. While voters argue against humanitarian aid from the comfort of their homes, flesh-and-blood people suffer in the cold. “Shouldn’t services be centered where the homeless already are?” is a cheap cop-out that dumps responsibility onto those already drowning in it.
“It’s progressive to ensure that everyone is doing their fair share to address this crisis and that the burden doesn’t just fall on the neighborhoods that it has for decades,” Mahmood told the SF Chronicle.
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