KFF Health News September 16, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO — Andrew Douglass shoved his clothes and belongings into plastic trash bags as five police officers surrounded his encampment — a drab gray tent overflowing along a bustling sidewalk in the gritty Tenderloin neighborhood, where homeless people lie sprawled on public sidewalks, sometimes in drug overdoses.
Officers gave him a choice: Go to a shelter or get arrested and cited for sleeping outside.
Douglass was trying to figure out what to do as he dismantled his tent. If he accepted temporary shelter, he’d risk missing an important appointment with his street medicine case manager, who was due to meet him at his tent in the morning to help him secure a low-income housing unit with wraparound services —...
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