Less than a block from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that brought thousands of diplomats and leaders from around the world to San Francisco, a young man in the middle of a drug addiction lay curled up while a city worker calmly carried a broom and dustpan the downtown plaza near Fifth and Mission streets was swept.
In a nearby alley, a half-dozen people crowded around a light pole and walked past butane lighters, some slowly falling asleep after inhaling milky-white puffs from glass pipes.
Around the corner, directly opposite a heavily guarded entrance to the summit, a man in a dark hoodie slept on the sidewalk, resting his head on a bright orange backpack, while foreign emissaries in neatly pressed suits strode past.
If you've been following much of the coverage leading up to APEC, you might have come to believe that San Francisco has at least temporarily cleared its downtown of scenes like this, hoping to show the world its best face in the relentless “Doom.” Loop” narrative around post-pandemic challenges is being flipped.
But even though the city pushed homeless people out of the designated peak safety zone around Moscone Center, many didn't get far.
“People were just forced out into the alleys,” said Javier Bremond, a human rights activist with the San Francisco advocacy group Coalition on Homelessness. “And a lot of people are under the highway.”
A homeless encampment is seen along Leavenworth Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. Thousands of CEOs, world leaders, protesters and others will soon descend on San Francisco to attend a high-profile global trade summit, giving the struggling city a chance to turn around its image as a declining economic power. As hosts, San Francisco and the city's partners clean sidewalks, remove graffiti and place homeless people in indoor shelters. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Of course, city officials have cleared many encampments, scrubbed major roads and promised to open some new shelters. And places where outdoor drug use is typically common, such as the Powell BART station and United Nations Plaza near City Hall, have been noticeably quiet in recent days.
“They definitely relocated people from the areas where the fancy people were supposed to live,” said homeless man Zach Wiseman, 28, sitting hunched over a suitcase next to a bus stop across from the APEC entrance on Mission Street. “Get dressed up for the show, and when it’s over you can go back to whatever.”
Nevertheless, it was difficult to avoid human suffering during the conference.
On Thursday, a delegate from Thailand waiting to enter a summit checkpoint said he had heard about San Francisco's problems with homelessness but was still shocked to see how many people were languishing on the streets.
“I didn’t believe it at the time until I saw it myself,” he said, declining to give his name while representing his country in an official capacity. “It's sad to see, especially because I've lived here before. It was a romantic city.”
San Francisco officials did not immediately respond to questions about the city's response to homelessness during APEC.
Bremond, the advocate for the Coalition on Homelessness, noted that the city's efforts to keep homeless people out of major events are nothing new, pointing to encampment clearances in 2016 when San Francisco helped host the Super Bowl, an event that brought the local population into the national spotlight.
Late last year, the coalition obtained an injunction against the city that restricted officials from clearing many encampments for months. But in September, a federal court clarified the order, allowing the city to dismantle encampments as long as officials first provide homeless residents with a homeless bed.
At last count last year, an estimated 7,750 homeless people sleep outdoors or in shelters each night.
Bremond said he was disappointed that APEC organizers and federal officials did not do more during the summit to help set up shelters, such as temporary motel rooms for displaced homeless people.
“How many billions were at this conference?” Bremond asked. “To them, it would be like dropping a quarter on the floor.”
The city doesn't have nearly enough shelter beds for everyone, although homeless people often refuse shelter for a variety of reasons, from safety concerns to reluctance to comply with curfews.
Tracy Phan, 38, begged shoppers for change outside a Walgreens on Market Street and said she had seen more people this week staying at the city group home where she sleeps most nights.
The conference might have something to do with it, she said. But the weather also begins to change as the winter months approach.
“It’s raining,” Phan said, “and it’s cold out here.”
