Homeless situation outside SF apartment means chaos for tenants, owners
SAN FRANCISCO -- The state's housing crisis hurts the homeless, but also people living in areas where the homeless have nowhere to go or nothing to lose.
John Yandell has lived in his San Francisco apartment building on Franklin Street in the Civic Center neighborhood since 1984. He loved the neighborhood and the easy access to the tennis courts which are literally his backyard.
Yandell is in the tennis business, owns a tennis school, and gives lessons.
"Having a private court that opens up off my apartment right down there, that drew me," said Yandell. "Students used to come and go from the gate on the street. That doesn't happen anymore."
The neighborhood he's called home for almost 40 years has changed and not for the better.
"[They] defecate in the alley, urinate in the alley, openly smoke fentanyl in the alley," said Yandell.
He's seen it all and his property owners have, too.
Richard O'Neill says his family built the two properties on Franklin street. O'Neill and his team showed KPIX videos of vandalism, busted-out doors, and even people stealing electricity from underground vaults.
O'Neill says it's frustrating and things got really bad when the pandemic hit.
"Chaos, actually, and it never stopped," O'Neill said.
O'Neill says the property managers get complaints every day from his 174 tenants. Some stopped complaining and just left the building for good. He's hired security guards costing him $10,000 a month and even those guards have been assaulted.
KPIX cameras were outside the building where city workers were sweeping the alleyways, something Yandell and O'Neill say the workers do well, but the homeless come right back hours later.
"It's farcical the efforts to clean up the alley so far," said Yandell. "I'm frustrated and it just seems like an insoluble problem."
While the city does what it can and police officers keep patrolling, Yandell is hoping for another solution so things can get back to how it was when he first moved in back in 1984.
Last week, Mayor London Breed announced the opening of 430 new shelter beds for homeless residents. By September, the city will have over 1,000 new beds available for people living unsheltered.
Yandell hopes that helps solve the problems he's been encountering for the last few years.
