The New York Post expounded on this issue in a report about the so-called "dens of death" at the City by the Bay. These dens of death had formerly been posh hotels much sought after by tourists.
About 20,000 rooms in about 500 hotels have turned into single-room occupancy (SRO) housing for homeless people. These rooms, infected with roaches and other vermin, have become mute witnesses to addicts frequently overdosing on street drugs. According to residents, several of these hotels have now been overrun with drug-confused "zombies" high on fentanyl and the flesh-eating animal tranquilizer called "tranq."
"It's like living in a prison, but worse," SRO unit resident Robert Blackburn described his room, located in one of the Tenderloin area hotels. "I try my best to keep my room clean, but there’s been mice [and] lots of roaches in other rooms.”
Blackburn told the Post he now witnesses overdoses "all the time" as drug dealers run the corners just steps from the wretched hotels. The SRO desk managers who guard the doors and check on residents "don't do much" to drive them into seeking treatment and counseling, he added.
JJ Smith, another longtime Tenderloin resident, shared his thoughts with the Post. "Once they put these people in these SROs, it's like they are stuck," said Smith, who lives near four of the SRO buildings.
"The biggest issue is there are too many deaths in and out of there. On a daily basis, I see five overdoses, at least one or two of them end up dead. The only way they leave there is in a coroner’s bag."
Some residents "fall off the wagon," return to drug use habit
Based on figures by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspections from 2021 to 2022, the city operates almost 20,000 rooms in about 500 SRO hotels. The rooms are usually eight by 10 feet, and the residents share a regular bathroom on every floor. Many of the residents in these SRO hotels are vagrants who initially lived in either campsites or homeless shelters before acquiring a unit. (Related: San Francisco homeless people PAID by Biden Regime over $800 in cash and food stamps to be druggie street urchins who deal fentanyl to minors.)
The SROs weren't meant for permanent housing, but several of the recovering and still-struggling addicts remain in the filthy rooms for many years. Many "fall off the wagon" and return to their drug habit while staying in the SRO, which is against the rules every resident must follow. The presence of drug dealers at every block in the Tenderloin district, who can be seen giving balled-up foil to addicts on the street, exacerbates the problem.
Business owners said they are disappointed with the number of homeless and drug overdoses occurring right outside their doors. Alongside residents, they pointed out that the plague encircling Tenderloin and other districts has driven the city's "doom loop." This has led to flagship businesses such as Nordstrom and Whole Foods moving out of the area.
City leaders meanwhile stated they could not do anything because of an injunction prohibiting the San Francisco Police Department from clearing most homeless campsites. Meanwhile, an ongoing lawsuit filed by the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco, accuses the city of violating state and federal laws on homeless people's rights.
"It is not humane to let people live on our streets in tents," said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. "We want a reversal of this injunction that makes it impossible to do our job."
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Watch this video about a San Francisco activist exposing bus stops being "hijacked" as open-air drug markets.
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