A homeless encampment crowded a San Francisco synagogue. Its removing got here with regret. – J.

In the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah that year, the president of the Sha’ar Zahav congregation in the Mission Dolores neighborhood of San Francisco discovered that a homeless camp had been set up in the synagogue. People slept in tents on either side of the building. The entrances and exits had become inaccessible.

Before the pandemic, it was not uncommon to see people sleeping in tents just steps from Sha’ar Zahav, the city’s historically gay and lesbian synagogue just two blocks from Dolores Park. During 2020, as more tents appeared around the synagogue, the synagogue staff brought meals to the unprotected people. They swept the sidewalk around the tents, handing out garbage bags, and then collecting the filled bags.

In 2021, however, this cooperative relationship between the synagogue and the unprotected dissolved, according to Marc Lipschutz, the synagogue’s president.

“Our campers in 2021 were not responsive, didn’t pack their rubbish, didn’t move their rubbish. They urinated on our building regularly, ”said Lipschutz.

Maintenance staff who came to collect rubbish three times a week are increasingly faced with a “monumental task,” said Lipschutz. He instructed them not to touch the hypodermic needles that they would find on the floor.

“Not all of our homeless neighbors were drug addicts. But some of them were quite safe, “said Lipschutz,” and were often under the influence and sometimes belligerent. “

In August, as the synagogue was preparing to hold face-to-face services and resume religious school, Lipschutz began contacting public officials: a member of the SF Board of Directors, the mayor’s office, the San Francisco Police Department, and the San Francisco Emergency Management Department .

“I felt that I had to balance the dignity of people who don’t have a home and the security of my community,” he said.

“I also want to stress that I didn’t want our neighbors to be removed without being offered housing and related services. I asked for assurances that their properties will not be confiscated because I believe this has happened in the past. and [I requested] that they will not be forcibly relocated, but with compassion. “

Over a period of two weeks prior to Rosh Hashanah on September 6th and 8th, emergency management teams, along with officers from the SFPD mission station, visited the camp to see what residential programs or accommodations the people in the tents would want to go to, Sam said Dodge, who had just arrived as the new director of the inter-agency Healthy Streets Operation Center in San Francisco.

We love our location and everything that is associated with it. This is part of the challenge.

Concentrated relocation efforts took place over Labor Day weekend, May 4-6. September, when the half-dozen people who lived in the small camp moved with their belongings in their possession to the city-approved safe sleeping villages and navigation centers. These are upgraded accommodations with more privacy and on-site services, Dodge said.

“That worked out well. We took our time, ”said Dodge. He said no one was arrested or their property was confiscated. The goals outlined by Lipschutz were achieved.

Lipschutz takes responsibility for clearing the tents and admits that he was rejected by several synagogue members who believed unsecured people were allowed to camp on the sidewalk because of inadequate affordable housing. Out of concern for public safety, he acted anyway.

“For someone who says, ‘Marc, you were wrong,’ I have to say, ‘I’m sorry. It pains me a lot. ‘ And in a way, maybe I was wrong. But I felt that I had to balance the needs of the communities, including my community of Sha’ar Zahav. “

More than two months since their removal, the people and their tents have not returned, said Lipschutz.

Rabbi Mychal Copeland in front of Sha’ar Zahav Congregation. (Photo / Norm Levin)

Sha’ar Zahav’s Rabbi Mychal Copeland said homeless people nestling near places of worship are a problem and she is meeting with nearby church spirits to find out “how we can best make positive changes in our city for our uninhabited neighbors can cause. ”

She said she supported Lipschutz in his actions to remove the camp in the synagogue.

“We love our location,” said Copeland, “and everything that comes with it. This is part of the challenge. “

On any given day, up to 5,000 people could live in San Francisco without protection, Dodge estimates. And the total number of people without permanent housing is more than 8,000 across the city, according to the last count as of 2019, although the number has undoubtedly increased higher during the pandemic. The census planned for 2021 has been postponed due to the pandemic. The next official homeless census in the city will be in January, the San Francisco Public Press reported. These data provide vital funding for the city’s homeless assistance.

These services are particularly urgent in the South of Market area, where Rabbi Yosef Langer of Chabad of SF (on Natoma Street on 6th Street, near a liquor store and single room hotel) meets someone at the front of the synagogue sleeps entry almost every day. He brings coffee and prepackaged meals to the people sleeping on the outside walls of the synagogue and greets them as they pass. On his way he notices human and dog feces.

Rabbi Yosef Langer of Chabad of San Francisco on patrol in SoMa. (Photo / Max A. Cherney)

“This is her home,” said Langer. “Many of them grew up on Sixth Street.”

However, if the entrance to the center is blocked by a sleeping person, he will tell them to move and, if necessary, call 311, the city’s emergency number. He says it usually takes three days to get a response, and if a person is removed, “within a night or so, they’re back”.

He has a relationship with the Hospitality House, an animal shelter just around the corner from the synagogue entrance, and tries to connect some homeless people to the organization’s rehabilitation resources.

“It goes so far beyond a religious thing,” Langer said. “If you don’t grab it, you’ll end up in a garbage can. If you don’t take the other one, it will fall on you. “