Bye-bye, Buster’sDespite the clear need for a 24-hour drop-in center for homeless people to get off the streets and out of the elements, Buster’s Place was still put on the bloody budget block and closed its doors yesterday at 5 p.m.
For weeks, staff at Buster’s have been counseling the 150 to 200 people they see everyday on different places to go. 150 Otis is the city’s stated stand-in for Buster’s, run at half the cost and only open to half the population – the male half. Women are being told to go to Oshun, but resources at that 24-hour drop-in are already stretched thin.
Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, was on the scene last night. She reports: “At least 20 people were filed out the door. Four of them were in wheelchairs. Many were elderly. Not one that I talked to had anywhere to go. There was no one from the city, not one person – not the homeless czar, not the Homeless Outreach Team, not the Department of Public Health – to assist them. Many filed over to 150 Otis to try their chances at a bed for the night in the CHANGES system, but the shelter had not opened yet.
“One woman I talked to was in a wheelchair and looked to be in her early 90's. She was rolling slowly away, and said she had somewhere to go. When I asked her where, she clearly had no idea and was very confused. She had nowhere to go, and I did not see her in line at 150 Otis, where being female, they would not have given her a number to hold her place in line anyway.”
Since opening last March, Buster’s has logged over 34,000 visits from an estimated 700 different clients. The thought of the city’s estimated 6,000 homeless men and women having one less place to turn has brought tears to the eyes of Louis Ramon, a case worker who has been at Buster’s since it opened.
“We had about thirty people in here in the afternoon, the diehards with no place to go and we had to tell them to leave,” Ramon told the Guardian. “It’s been sad. I’ve cried.”
150 Otis will only be open through June. After that, the city hasn’t announced their intentions, though recently passed “standards of care” legislation mandate a 24-hour drop-in.
The Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Disability Rights Advocates filed for a temporary restraining order in federal court to keep Buster’s open, but the assigned judge refused to hear the case until Wednesday, April 2. The two civil rights groups were asking that Mayor Gavin Newsom and the City and County of San Francisco not close Buster’s because it serves a disproportionately large disabled population. “Closing Buster’s Place puts people in immediate and grave threat,” said DRA’s Julia Pinover.
“The struggle is not over,” Friedenbach added. “We have a court case on Wednesday that may help. We still have a budget process to bring back to the city a 24-hour low-threshold health and hygiene-based drop-in center, but already I can say based on last night, the personal impact on human beings was devastating.”
Bryan Cohen contributed to this report
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Comments (3)
I live near Valencia and Duboce, so I consider myself a neighbor of the (former) Buster's operation.
It's one less option for the homeless and I'd rather see some money moved from wasteful AIDS Office of DPH spending shifted over to a real direct services program like Buster's.
Never did I experience a hassle or see any problems at or near it.
And it was a bit of security at the crazy intersection, having people going in and out of the place. The activity put some humanity at that area of Mission Street.
Sorry to see Buster's go bust.
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p.s. get rid of that awful blinking cafe cocomo ad! i'd post more comments if i weren't distracted by the annoying cafe cocomo electrical jumping ad.
Posted by Michael Petrelis | April 1, 2008 07:36 PM
Is the Guardian's building open for the homeless? Perhaps the editors' conference room could help those less fortunate...
Posted by Miguel | April 1, 2008 08:16 PM
Actually, miguel, there are a couple of really nice people sleeping in our vestibule right now. We just shared an orange.
Posted by Marke B. | April 1, 2008 09:08 PM