Standing in front of her children’s school in San Francisco on Monday, Margarita Salito held up a large photograph of herself and other families taken with Mayor Daniel Lurie last month when they met with him about the threat of facing eviction from city shelters.
Now several families facing eviction are speaking out again and held a press event at on Monday. They were joined by supporters from the nonprofit Faith in Action and the United Educators of San Francisco, a union representing 6,000 public school employees.
The photograph Salito held up was taken at a February meeting with Mayor Daniel Lurie and Kunal Modi, the city’s Chief of Health, Homelessness and Family Services.
Salito said she and the other families are being given two different messages.
“The mayor said he would not evict us,” said Salitos, who is from El Salvador. “And now we have two families who are being evicted. These evictions are being handled by the shelters. They say that they’re carrying out the city’s orders.”
In December, the city rescinded a pandemic-era policy that allowed families to stay in shelters as long as it took for them to find stability. Now, families must leave after 90 days or apply for a 30-day extension.
Salito said 40 families living in shelters received eviction notices in December. She said Lurie and Modi had told a dozen or so families at the February meeting that they would not be evicted as long as the families were showing progress toward housing.
“We are looking for jobs, taking English classes and computer classes,” said Salito, outlining the progress she and her family have been making.
I cannot believe that the city of San Francisco, which is a sanctuary city, is acting this way.
Vilma Arias, a shelter resident from Central America
“Even though we told them that we have an appointment for a subsidy on March 20th, despite that, they said that we couldn’t stay beyond today,” said Vilma Arias, a shelter resident from Central America who was at the press conference with her 6 and 8-year-old children. “I am an immigrant mother from Honduras, and I am unhoused. I’ve been unhoused for a very long time with my husband and my two children.”
Arias said she and her family were going to be evicted at 5 p.m. Monday from St. Joseph’s Family Shelter, which is run by Catholic Charities of San Francisco. She said that she received a document that said if they did not leave, the police would be called. Her children attend Flynn Elementary School.
“I cannot believe that the city of San Francisco, which is a sanctuary city, is acting this way,” Arias said.
Alisa Wolf, a social worker at Flynn Elementary School, said that there are 60 to 80 children at each school in San Francisco that are unhoused, meaning they live in an insecure housing situation.
An email from the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing on Monday said there were 300 families on the waiting list for shelter, and that the department prioritizes families who are living on the street.
“As part of this reform package, HSH changed the shelter waiting list eligibility and prioritization to focus on families living in the direst situations, including unsheltered homelessness,” reads the email.
HSH affirmed that it reinstated the pre-COVID shelter length of stay limit of 90 days. Providers can also authorize up to three 30-day extensions based on family circumstances and additional extensions can be authorized by HSH. The email said that San Francisco’s policy is more compassionate than other cities with high rates of homelessness, noting New York City’s limit is 60 days, a number verified by the nonprofit Legal Aid Society.
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