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10:15 AM: A group of housing advocates that entered and occupied a vacant unit in the Mission last night, remain this morning, but SFPD says it’s just a matter of time before they’re forced to leave the premises.
According to MissionLocal, after a rally at the 16th and Mission BART plaza, Monday night, about 50 protesters marched to the building at 3491 20th Street where they entered through an open back door and took over the second floor unit. The first floor of the building is a T-Mobile store.
The occupants, said to be members of advocacy group Direct Action to Stop the Cuts, have hung signs out the windows, some bashing capitalism, some saying as “No Homes, No Justice, No Peace.” The back doors were opened for anyone who wanted to join the occupation.
Since the building occupied is private property, they cannot be removed until the property owner says they are trespassing.
The organizers for this protest were also behind two vacant building occupations earlier this year. In April, another building in the Mission in April, and in June, a building at 150 Otis where a homeless shelter once was.
Comments from DASC, which appeared on IndyBay, expressed anger over the Mayor’s alleged efforts to slash funding of programs that aim to help the cities homeless and poor, including in-home support for the disabled and community meal programs.
They claim Newsom is making it easier for landlords to evict tenants, and is doing so to please his “real estate industry-affiliated backers.” Read all their reasoning here.
At 10:15am this morning, SFPD tells the Appeal the building is still occupied. They added that the property’s owner is being tracked down, and occupiers will be removed once police are able to do so.
11:52 AM: The protesters were placed under citizen’s arrest late this morning, according to a report from Bay City News.
The owner of the building issued the citizen’s arrests, charging trespassing. Five people were arrested, San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Troy Dangerfield said.
He said the five are being taken to the police station for processing and may be cited.
