Crosscurrents

Crosscurrents is our award-winning radio news magazine, broadcasting Mondays through Thursdays at 11 a.m. on 91.7 FM. We make joyful, informative stories that engage people across the economic, social, and cultural divides in our community. Listen to full episodes at kalw.org/crosscurrents

Local photographer talks to the recently displaced by SF crackdown on encampments

KALW | By Sunni Khalid

Published November 5, 2024 at 3:00 AM PST

Norma Sofia, explains to San Francisco officials that she needs to get her pitbull and personal items before her RV gets towed.

This interview aired in the November 5th, 2024 episode of Crosscurrents.

Click the play button above to listen

In July, the Supreme Court's ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson, essentially made it illegal for people to sleep outside in public places. People can be arrested and fined and it’s a lot easier for officials to forcibly remove unhoused people by sweeping encampments.

In San Francisco, the sweeps have affected over a thousand unhoused people, including those living in mobile homes and trailers.

Pablo Unzueta is a photographer with El Tecolote. He's been chronicling the challenges faced by the unhoused through his pictures. He's also asked folks he photographs to write out their personal experiences of having their belongings striped away.

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Bill Anaya, 59, who has been living on the street for about two decades, begins to pack up his belongings from his encampment in San Francisco, CA. Anaya was forced to relocate after DPW officials conducted an encampment sweep.

PABLO UNZUETA / Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote/CatchLight Local

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A Department of Public Works official bags and tags a tent near an encampment in San Francisco, CA. This sweep comes weeks after the city’s declaration to crackdown on homelessness.

PABLO UNZUETA / Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote/CatchLight Local

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A tent that was bagged and tagged by a Department of Public Works official sits near an encampment in San Francisco, CA.

PABLO UNZUETA / Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote/CatchLight Local

Michail Hutson, 42, who has been sleeping on the street for four years, sits underneath the shade in San Francisco, CA. Huston writes that last year, the Department of Public Works officials threw away his mother and brother’s cremated ashes, and he hasn’t been able to recover them since. “They can’t be replaced,” Hutson said. “I can’t explain how that feels.” San Francisco Mayor London Breed vowed to begin “aggressively” removing unhoused people from the streets, citing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order last month to clear encampments.

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Michail Hutson, 42, writes that last year, the Department of Public Works officials threw away his mother and brother’s cremated ashes, and he hasn’t been able to recover them since. “They can’t be replaced,” Hutson said. “I can’t explain how that feels.”

PABLO UNZUETA / Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote/CatchLight Local

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Michael Inman, 57, who lost his job in 2018 and has struggled to find stable housing, leans on his car in San Francisco, CA. “Things come and things go,” he writes. “Just as long as I have health, then I am blessed.” Inman was a union iron worker for 15 years, but after a life-changing shoulder injury, things “went down hill” for him.

PABLO UNZUETA/PABLO UNZUETA / Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote/CatchLight Local