SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥� Outreach worker Edgar Tapia hit a San Francisco neighborhood on a mission to find people to take eight available shelter beds, including a tiny cabin perfect for a couple.
He approached a in the Mission District, calling out greetings and offers of snacks and water bottles. He crouched to chat with tent occupants and asked if anyone was interested in moving indoors. He reminded them to clear the sidewalk.
鈥淒o you have any more hygiene kits?鈥� asked a woman inside an orange tent with five friends. 鈥淐an we get some socks?鈥�
The job of Tapia and others on San Francisco鈥檚 Homeless Outreach Team is to match eligible people with vacant beds. But it's not a straightforward process as was clear on this September day, despite and a mayor who says she will living outdoors when they've been offered a place to stay.
Sometimes a person is eager to move inside, but there are no beds. Other times, a spot is open but the offer is rejected for a host of reasons, including complications with drugs and alcohol. Outreach workers plug away, reaching out and building trust with the people they call their clients.
鈥淭oday somebody wasn鈥檛 ready because they were hanging out with their friends. They鈥檙e not ready because they don鈥檛 like the options that we have,鈥� said Jose Torres, Homeless Outreach Team manager with the city's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
鈥淪ometimes we get lucky and they accept the one thing we have available, and if that doesn鈥檛 work out, we try something else," he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 that 鈥榯ry again, try again鈥� system.鈥�
Tapia, 34, was excited because a man he鈥檇 been talking to for two months might be ready to accept a shelter spot. The first time they talked, Tapia said, the man asked no questions. But the next time, the man asked what the shelters were like.
鈥淚t just gives me the chills, because it鈥檚 progress,鈥� said Tapia. 鈥淚 want to see these people off the streets. I want to see them do good.鈥�
The woman inquiring after socks, who gave her name as Mellie M., 41, said her group wants hotel rooms or an apartment. She wants a place with locked doors and a private bathroom because she was raped while homeless.
鈥淚n order for us not to live in tents anymore," she said, 鈥渢hey need to give us a place that we can call home.鈥�
Torres, the manager, left to check in with other outreach workers, thrilled because Tapia had found a couple for the tiny cabin. There was more good news when he arrived in the , where other outreach workers told him that a client, Larry James Bell, 71, was moving into his own studio apartment.
Ventrell Johnson got emotional thinking about the discouraged man he found living under a tarp eight months ago. Johnson eventually got Bell a bed in a homeless shelter, and now Bell was ready for his own bedroom and a shower he didn't have to share.
鈥淚鈥檇 like to have a house one day,鈥� Bell said, sitting on a chair with a plate of eggs and sausage on his lap, a walking cane nearby.
Bell's departure means a free bed at the shelter. Johnson said he's noticed that people are a bit more likely to accept shelter now that the city is cracking down on encampments.
鈥淭hey know that it鈥檚 a little less tolerance,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little less leniency.鈥�
By the end of the day, outreach workers had found seven people for seven shelter beds.
They returned to the Mission neighborhood encampment to tell the couple they could move into the tiny cabin. But when they got there, the couple had packed up and left.
Janie Har, The Associated Press
