Handling The Homeless In Golden Gate Park

"'We don't have options for them,' says dark horse mayoral candidate Quintin Mecke of the Safety Network Partnership, a city-funded community coalition that addresses crime, public safety and drug abuse in neighborhoods. 'So if not the park, where?'"

"That is often the jumping off point for advocates. The 'Where do you want to put them?' argument leads down a familiar path of unaccountability. From there it is a short trip to the theory that our country is trapped in a cycle of homelessness, that the problem is so large and complicated that it will take hours to explain."

"'I am not here to address the park,' insisted Juan Prada, executive director of the Coalition of Homelessness. 'You're talking about maybe 200 people in the park. We have between six and eight thousand homeless in San Francisco. As a problem, the park takes a back seat.'"

"Paul Boden, a regional director for the Homeless Coalition, is among those who doesn't think the campsites are a huge problem. In fact, he'd be willing to let campers live in the park, although he'd try to clean things up."

"'If the sites were clean, and you had people policing each other,' Boden says, 'the impact of having homeless people in public places would be minimal.'"

"Hilary McQuie, of the Harm Reduction Coalition, agrees, suggesting a kind of hotel arrangement."

"'I think we should let people sleep there at night, but have enough staff to make them move during the day,' she says. 'I would rather see them sleep in the park on the soft ground, than see them on the sidewalk when I go to the show.'"