A business group sent a letter to San Francisco officials threatening to stop paying taxes if the city did not address issues including the homeless problem.
The Castro Merchants Association said they would cut off their taxes unless the city worked on fixing problems, namely burglary, vandalism, behavioral health, and the homeless camping outside businesses and homes, KTVU reported Thursday.
The association’s co-president, Terrance Alan, who owns Flore Dispensary and Cafe Flore, said many shops have been targeted with vandalism and his own had its windows broken on numerous occasions.
In addition, “Every day we wake up and have to help people on the street. We have to clean up feces on the street. We have to clear our people from doorways, so we can open our businesses. It’s not fair,” Alan explained.
Meanwhile, video footage showed children exiting a bus in San Francisco and walking through a group of homeless drug addicts who appeared to be shooting up drugs, Breitbart News reported in July.
Social media user Ricci Wynne claimed to have recorded the scene at the intersection of 8th Street and Mission:
Now ask yourself this question would you want your children to walk through this squalor just to get home from school? @JoeBiden @VP @SpeakerPelosi @SenFeinstein @LondonBreed @SFPDChief #DoBetter #democrats #politics #Police #DRUGS #SanFrancisco #California #crime #DoYourJob #NA pic.twitter.com/ZBa8PApgtC
— Ricci Wynne (@RawRicci415) July 8, 2022
“They got to walk through this shit,” Wynne told viewers, adding, “These little kids gotta walk through this shit. This shit is crazy.”
Per the KTVU report, the association wants officials to have 35 shelter beds for individuals in the Castro who have nowhere else to go.
However, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said it was unable to reserve beds for a single area, but “The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing will be opening 1,000 shelter beds over the next three months that will give people in the Castro and other neighborhoods a place to stay inside,” a statement from the city read.
In addition, the association wanted laws enforced and a plan of action when it came to individuals who did not want housing, help with mental health problems, or assistance with substance abuse.
A homeless man named James reportedly moved to San Francisco because he could get money and food stamps from the city and it paid for him to have entertainment on his cellphone, according to an interview with Michael Shellenberger, author of San Fransicko.
“F*****g phone call bro… Two hundred food stamps and $620 cash a month. Forget about it. Why wouldn’t I do it? You know, it’s f*****g free money dude,” he commented. “Why would I want to pay rent? I’m not doing s**t. I’ve got a f*****g cell phone that I have Amazon Prime and Netflix on.”
