VIDEO: San Francisco Luxury Condo Residents Angered over Homeless Camp

An alley in San Francisco has residents living in fear, as the area on Willow Street between Van Ness and Polk has the highest concentration of tents in the city, according to current data.

“It’s pretty consistently nerve-wracking,” resident Amber Lutsko told KPIX last week. “This just seems to be a safe space for chop shops, drug trafficking.”

Residents said they fear driving down Willow Street, and many would not walk through it at any time, adding the problem has grown since the coronavirus pandemic.

“The garbage, first of all, that’s a huge health concern, rats…,” Lutsko commented.

All of it is just feet from the Artani at 818 Van Ness Avenue, where units have sold for over $1 million.

When asked what the worst problem was, Lutsko answered, “Probably the threats of violence, the threats of violence to us, other residents in the building.”

“There was a guy who passed out in front of our door with a needle hanging out of his arm all day long. And our children had to walk past that,” she said.

The KPIX report continued:

Artani residents say they are confronted with unwanted activity as soon as they exit the garage. They are forced to make a right turn onto Willow Street. They shared photos of a man they say regularly urinates and throws feces. The smell permeates the entire garage. Another photo shows a man trying to break into their garage, by using a bottle to keep it from closing. Others are captured damaging their property – even trespassing and stealing packages.

Meanwhile, at least 150 residents of San Francisco’s Marina District hired private security as crimes in the area caused major concern among neighbors, Breitbart News reported.

“We don’t feel safe in our neighborhood,” Marina resident Katie Lyons said. “And we have an alarm, we have cameras on our property, but we want the extra security of having someone have eyes on our place.”

Video footage from July 2020 showed how a cleanup effort pushed the homeless into other neighborhoods:

In early October, the city did a sweep of Willow Street, but the next day, the tents and garbage were back.

“The police don’t actually come when we call 911, because we’re actively being threatened by somebody wielding a club or a knife, they don’t come,” Lutsko explained.

Neighbors want additional police patrols, and Artani residents said they created a task force to discuss how to fix the problem. They are also talking about working with officials to add fencing around the garage, cameras on Willow Street, and turning it into a two-way road.

“This is such a wonderful place, and I don’t want to be afraid to live here,” a person named Shannon told KPIX.

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