SF Homeless Advocates Call For Swift Action In Socially Distanced Protest

Dozens of protestors gathered outside of San Francisco’s Moscone Center on Monday for another socially distanced demonstration. 

Activists gathered to demand swifter action to move the city’s homeless into emergency shelters where they can appropriately distance themselves from one another; a prospect made especially difficult in many of the city’s existing shelters. 

Last week, Mayor London Breed reversed course on plans to build an emergency shelter at Moscone West. 

Protestors stayed separated in their own cars, honking their horns and waving signs reading “House the Homeless” and “Protect the Unsheltered”. 

The demonstration came after dozens of people at one of the city’s largest shelters, MSC-South in the SoMa neighborhood, tested positive for the coronavirus. Mayor Breed announced Friday that 68 residents and two staff members tested positive; that number has now grown to 91. The shelter has been closed.

The city has recently committed to an emergency measure to secure 7,000 hotel rooms, which would house virtually all of the city’s unsheltered residents. San Francisco hotels have already offered thousands of rooms, which currently sit empty. 

The City Controller said today that the city is planning to secure 7000 hotel rooms for first responders, quarantine, and homeless people.That’s 1000s more people out of crowded shelters & off the street—they had committed to just half that as of yesterday. Definitely progress

Several members of the Board of Supervisors have grown increasingly critical in recent weeks of the city’s reluctance to embrace the hotel plan. 

A KCBS Radio Special Report "Exposure On The Streets:  The Race to Stop The Spread Among the Homeless" takes a deep dive this week into the unique obstacles facing the homeless as they try to protect themselves from the virus. You can find part one here.