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Miller started Urban Alchemy in 2018. Business and city leaders have credited Urban Alchemy with making streets cleaner and safer. envisions eventually helming a nationwide homelessness organization, permanent, unbridgeable emotional distance, role in the line of fire as private patrols paid with city funds. | Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, By clicking Subscribe you confirm you have read and agree to our. And then well be out of the way of all the looky-looers too, he said. Instead of an hourly wage, they offer a non-cash basic-needs stipend, case management, employment services, and a support network within their community. As the Bayview Vehicle Triage Center reaches is first anniversary, questions remain over its success in meeting SFs shelter needs. Helping with that transformational experience takes extensive preparation, said Lola Whittle, president of the Urban Alchemy board of directors. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Lauren Hepler and Chronicle photographer Stephen Lam contributed to this report. Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. Were able to do this because we share a special bond with societys most vulnerable and because we see ourselves in their struggle. So we don't want to pick up anything that's theirs," says Sanchez. Know Your City! A turd. From February through December 2021, the City of Sausalito entered into several contracts with Uban Alchemy. Each call handled by CIRCLE, is a call LAPD doesn't need to answer, freeing officers up for other calls. If the conduct is egregious, which has happened, she said, the person is fired. Were stunned with the insensitivity of calling our workforce mercenary, especially since our practitioners are primarily Black, Latino and formerly incarcerated or homeless, Miller said. Miller pointed to their high levels of emotional intelligence, their ability to read people, and their ability to interact with different kinds of people. Bruce criticized Urban Alchemys hiring model, saying it was a recipe for disaster to have people with troubled backgrounds acting as authority figures over the most vulnerable citizens. Urban Alchemy said issues have surfaced in a small fraction of interactions. That, however, is a slow process, and the county has a long waiting list. Because a city this offbeat deserves a newsletter with some Hammonds helps a woman in distress out of the middle of Market Street. Camp residents want to move on, hopefully to housing opportunities with the County of Marins assistance. Whether you are an abolitionist or a police cheerleader, we all agree whats been done in the past is not working.. That goal was the focus of a recent training for new employees that The Chronicle attended. As can be seen below, veterans homelessness spreads across generations. She has acknowledged relationships that go back years with city power brokers, including Breed and former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, now charged with corruption. No arrests have been made in either case. The San Francisco-based nonprofit Urban Alchemy, which operates three similar campgrounds in the Bay Area, has a contract with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency, to run the East Hollywood site. The operator of the site, the nonprofit Urban Alchemy, has since moved on to open a homeless shelter in Lower Nob Hill and was recently granted a contract by the city to perform homeless outreach. When youre trying to prevent theft, who do you hire? Several co-located agencies offer case management, job placement services, legal . Each response includes a licensed mental health worker. Downtown Streets Team employs local homeless populations to clean community spaces in San Jose and San Francisco. In one case, Urban Alchemy found misconduct an employee called a homeless advocate a whore but the organization and police did not find evidence of assault in the other cases. I like them, Ken Kennedy, a camper who is in the process of leaving the Sausalito encampment, said. The nonprofits unusual slogan is No fuckery., What were trying to do, co-founder and CEO Lena Miller said in an interview, is just make spaces safe and clean and raise the vibration, so to speak, in areas that in the past have been dirty and scary, particularly for people who are vulnerable.. Urban Alchemy provided a data sheet showing they supply over 12,000 showers per year. Crime has gone up in America, the same old solutions are not working, so were going to see more growth in these areas and there are going to be growing pains, said Jorja Leap, an adjunct public policy professor at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, who is the lead researcher for Bidens efforts and was not involved in the Echo Lake Park report. I mean, Ive been to prison, but you cant even make up the stories of what we see.. We prioritize hiring long-term offenders.. In one altercation, Arthur Bruce, who is homeless and lives near the encampment, accused an employee of hitting him during an argument and sending him to the hospital with an injured wrist, an account backed by two friends who said they witnessed the encounter. But where others in the nonprofit services sector and psychologists see prison trauma as debilitating, Millerwho recently received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of San Franciscobelieves that struggling to survive on the inside requires expertise in an encyclopedias worth of social cues. of SF politics and culture. The person in question could be Powelson. In training, Hammonds taught the new employees to be patiently persuasive when asking people who may be homeless, addicted or traumatized to stop blocking sidewalks or using drugs in public. With so few reviews, your opinion of Urban Alchemy could be huge. A fucking turd., Matt Smith can be reached at [emailprotected]. To that end, Urban Alchemy prioritizes hiring ex-convicts who have served decades in prison after being convicted of serious crimes, which can include murder. The CAOs report did not contain a detailed breakdown of costs, but according to city officials most of the budget goes to 24/7 staffing, and maintaining a one to 12 staff to client ratio at all times. Some Urban Alchemy staff members did drugs on the job and sexually exploited homeless females, according to more than 10 current and past residents of the Sausalito camp who spoke to the Pacific Sun. Im going to fuck you up, Josh can be heard shouting in the first second of the video. And then you can start planning: What do I need to do to start getting into a more permanent, secure situation?. COVID mightve come from a lab leak. See how far weve come. bitea dose of arts, culture and more. Urban Alchemy provided services to homeless residents in Sausalito for almost a year. The organization holds $62 million in contracts in San Francisco while also providing homeless services in a half-dozen cities. Thats when the lot is scheduled to become a construction site. The first apartments in Enlightenment Plaza are expected to open to residents at the end of 2022. Inside the fence, the parking lot-turned-campground can accommodate about 120 people at a time in 12-foot by 12-foot spots, marked by white squares painted on the asphalt. In December 2021, the Sausalito City Council approved a $463,620 contract with Urban Alchemy for around the clock site management services, from January through June 2022, at the Marinship encampment. A woman walking to her job and another making sandwiches at a nearby senior center praised the Urban Alchemy employees for keeping the streets safe. Although the pair mentioned they were with Urban Alchemy, Powelson said the men gave the impression they were homeless advocates from San Francisco. Josh responded that he would take care of it. Urban Alchemys turnover rate from April 2021 to April 2022 was 32.6% higher than the 14% rate in a nonprofit survey conducted by Nonprofit HR, a national human resources firm, in 2020. The police eventually arrived at the camp in response to the verbal altercation, although its not clear who called them. . We try to make sure we're not getting into anybody's personal space. No one wants to touch that kind of liability.. But it's the connection team members hope will reduce the number of lives lost to the streets. In terms of getting to the other side of it, that's not my lane. On a recent morning, a couple of days before the parking lot in East Hollywood opened to its first campers, a few unhoused men stood on the sidewalk outside its mesh-covered fence. Some of these guys have got power trips, and they get pushy, but these guys here had the right thing going just now, Snider said. UA has a no drugs or alcohol policy while at work, and that includes a prohibition on showing up to work under the influence of those substances, Clinebell wrote. Del Seymour, a Tenderloin community leader, called Urban Alchemy phenomenal because it helped calm the streets without police and allowed the city to quickly open homeless shelters. Despite skepticism from some homeless advocates, Urban Alchemy sees its separation from law enforcement as central to its mission. This expansion, in Millers' view, is owed to an innovation that came out of her own study of trauma. A UA employee fucked [a female camper] in the tent next to the tent Im in, Deschamps said. Two employees have been shot on the job in San Francisco since February, illustrating that they can be thrown into dangerous situations. Urban Alchemy has been an invaluable partner in keeping our city safe, clean, and welcoming for all. "They've been great," he said. Sausalito Mayor Janelle Kellman didnt respond to the Pacific Suns request for comment, nor did the rest of the city council members. We also acted immediately to notify the proper support and authorities, he said. Some advocates are concerned, however, that even with a $1 billion homelessness spending plan proposed for this coming fiscal year, the city is investing too much in short-term band aids over long-term solutions. Urban Alchemy launched in 2018, training the formerly homeless or incarcerated to de-escalate conflict, respond to overdoses and foster connection on the streets The CIRCLE pilot is part of $1 billion the city will spend confronting the homeless crisis this year A half dozen porta potties stand in a row along one side of the lot. A year ago, the Community-Based Public Safety Collective formed with the aim of creating national best practices and training for roughly 200 similar organizations nationwide. Thanks for Not Procreating: Making Census of the Moment. Urban Alchemy a relatively new organization primarily employs people of color coming out of prison and last year topped 1,000 employees. Nobody else fucking wanted to do that, Miller said. Not even base metal. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco City Hall reporter. Josh, too, is no longer working in Sausalito. Urban Alchemy said the nonprofit is supporting employees by paying a living wage and offering mental health insurance and therapy. To achieve this, Elliott encouraged landscape architects to continue to design for everyone, not specific populations. It was along the lines of the right answer dont be confrontational. If you are in need of emergency shelter, please contact the Union County 24 Hour Homeless Emergency Response Hotline at 2-1-1. Kevin Fagan is a longtime, award-winning reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle, specializing in homelessness, enterprise news-feature writing, breaking news and crime. Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing for four years and running the Homeless Street. Cook was going to take her to the liquor store until Kennedy intervened and brought the woman back into the encampment. So far, cities are willing to take the risks. The few people who remained on the block stayed out of the middle of the sidewalk and tried to keep any drug use out of view. Miller became interested in public toilets, specifically their importance in ensuring the dignity of the homeless, but also their potential for jobs. LOS. The stations are dropped off and picked up daily by United. The workers most of them rebuilding their own lives after being incarcerated might ask people to move tents off sidewalks so children can walk to school, pick up syringes or rush in to reverse one of the citys frequent drug overdoses. Campers get entered into the countys database for matching unhoused people with social services, called the coordinated entry system. The situation came to a screeching halt after another Urban Alchemy employee told her Josh was taking time off work because he was getting married that weekend. When a neighborhood, street or intersection earns a reputation as a place to avoid, we turn it around. Supportive housing for Individuals and families. The agreement calls for Urban Alchemy to provide positive engagements with the campers, de-escalation interventions and custodial services. Curating the best of The Standards top-notch reporting, every Saturday. Made in L.A. Streaming music, news & culture from KCRW Santa Monica, Live streaming music, news & culture from KCRW Santa Monica. A parking lot has been turned into a homeless encampment that offers 24-hour security and free meals. At the Sausalito tent encampment, Urban Alchemy moved three employees to other locations after altercations with community members, the organization said. He noted that a hospital bill they could not pay, a utility bill they could not pay, balanced with housing, especially in a high-cost market with low vacancy rates, leads to homelessness., The City of San Diego unanimously passed the Community Action Plan on Homelessness, a body of policy focused on helping the existing homeless population, preventing future homelessness, and ensuring that homelessness is an experience that is brief and non-recurring. Ill say, Have a good day, sir, the trainee responded. She has taken these young men, embraced them, given them a job to do when they get out of jail.. During the public comment period of a Dec. 7 city council meeting, he alleged that Urban Alchemy staff used drugs on the job. Fax: 1-202-898-1185, Copyright 2008 2019 Sidewalks once crowded with people doing or selling drugs are now more passable, these people say. We dont have anything that says Security. We call ourselves practitioners.. Most of the calls involve people experiencing homelessness, in some cases drug use. Founded in 2018 with 30 staff, Urban Alchemy started out by providing one program that monitored public bathrooms in a San Francisco neighborhood. Urban Alchemy won a $10 million contract to operate the safe sleeping site, or tent village, on Fulton Street in May of 2020. Kirkpatrick Tyler, head of government and community affairs for Urban Alchemy, said it did not house pregnant women at the site as a policy but that staff was unaware of the pregnancy. According to Deschamps, he heard Josh threatening Kennedy for a few minutes before he was able to turn on the video recorder on his phone. City Controller Ron Galperin said that while the East Hollywood safe camping pilot is expensive, the costs support a professional staff skilled in case management, as well as necessary sanitation and security services. Statistics only tell half the story. Some campers were offended by several of Joshs numerous tattoos, which include white supremacist symbols. A stillborn baby was found in the port-a-potty of a city-sanctioned homeless encampment last January, the San Francisco Fire Department confirmed to The Standard. The current contract expires on June 25. If necessary, employees call paramedics, homeless outreach teams or if confronted with violence or the threat of violence police. Los Angeles has opened its first government-run homeless encampment on a quiet, commercial block beside the 101 freeway in East Hollywood. Very charismatic. The first step of the plan calls for transitioning away from using the police as a first point of contact and instead reaching out to social workers. Urban Alchemy provides four core services: community engagement and outreach, interim housing, hygiene services, and street-cleaning services. All rights reserved. My lane is this part. But Millers core philosophythat long stints in prison can equip a person for handling crises in the streetsis a selling point that seems to run counter to mainstream psychology. Robert Milton, a supervisor at the Department of Public Works, the agency that funds much of Urban Alchemys work, said seeing people who served long sentences holding on to a steady job sends a message. Id rather see Urban Alchemy than the cops.. Powelson denies that anyone from Urban Alchemy requested more information. The four-bedroom residence serves as . Based on Cooks Facebook profile, it appears he still works at Urban Alchemy; however, he is no longer on duty in the Sausalito encampment. Homelessness Rate: 0.93%. These guys were able to come out and talk to young guys and explain to them that they want to do something different, Milton said, adding that it can be inspiring when I see these guys in uniform, just guys out there working., In Los Angeles, Urban Alchemy was hired to provide services to homeless encampments. In general, the countys coordinated entry system prioritizes people based on a vulnerability index that measures physical and mental health. Ian Clark-Johnson and Loving Lou Hammonds told the campers they came to help and make them more comfortable. Send news tips to. I can attest to the fact the meth was real., Kennedy said he knows two Urban Alchemy practitioners who brought meth into the camp, although neither works at the Sausalito location any longer. The lawsuit, which also names the city as a defendant, is ongoing. Drugs arent Cooks only problem, according to the campers who have made other serious allegations against the employee. LA opens its first government-run homeless encampment. We can give them the training. If you have no self-control, no discipline, or choose to take it personally, he said, this is not the job for you.. Within seconds, he blocked all further communication. The police are brought in to offer deescalation training, helping to establish a relationship between law enforcement and employees of Urban Alchemy. An increasingly bipartisan chorus is asking where all the money goes for the states homeless crisis. 0. Mara Paradox, a nonbinary exhibition artist hired months ago, was in their second training after they relapsed in drug use and went back into rehab. Audits by Galperin have shown that a yearslong effort to build 10,000 new subsidized apartments for formerly homeless people in the city has been slow and costly, with a typical project taking three to six years to complete and running as high as $700,000 per unit in some cases. The collectives co-founder, Aqeela Sherrills, called Urban Alchemy highly effective, saying it builds relationships, helps people with housing and reduces violence. 1-888-999-2752 (Toll Free) All of these skills help them to establish and maintain social norms in the public places they work. Urban Alchemy said it settled a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by a co-worker and was working to settle two suits accusing the organization of not accurately calculating and paying for overtime and breaks. Additionally, UA has a policy that requires practitioners to maintain workplace boundaries, and that includes no fraternization, such as not hanging out at the work site while not on duty., Clinebell said that Urban Alchemy hasnt received any reports of staff using drugs at the Sausalito camp, yet he concedes someone has a memory of a person reporting at a Sausalito City Council meeting that Urban Alchemy staff were smoking weed.. The CIRCLE dispatch center can respond to 911 calls to LAPD that aren't criminal in nature. A female camper spoke about her intimate involvement with Josh, an Urban Alchemy supervisor who worked at the camp until recently. Alejandro Sanchez, who is on the clean team explains their approach. 636 Eye Street, NW Employees report figures on their interactions after each shift. The only reason why were where we are is because we get to work. In this case, unfortunately, our staff was not informed of the pregnancy by the resident or her partner during intake nor were there any noticeably apparent signs that the resident was pregnant, Tyler said. Portraying difficult subjects in art can be juicy and colorful, Culver City eliminates honors English in attempt to reach racial equity, LAs Black students see fewer cops, more resources 2 years into achievement plan. In Sausalito, where city officials paid Urban Alchemy $464,000 to run a tent encampment for six months, a photo shows that a worker wearing shorts had a visible 88 tattoo on his right calf, a well-known code for Heil Hitler. (H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.) Some unhoused people and their advocates, including Tracey Mixon, a formerly homeless Tenderloin resident who works with the Coalition on Homelessness, complain that some employees have gotten verbally or physically aggressive to make people move or stop problematic behavior. But some advocates worry that officials are investing too much in The Armenian American community has been active in demanding for the United States to be on the right side of history, says Shant Sahakian, executive director of the After years of debate, Californias State Board of Education voted last month to adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum for K-12. SFs most important stories, delivered straight to your inbox, Urban Alchemy employees pick up trash, while homeless people gather belongings in the Tenderloin. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench, @kevinchron. Dillon said nobody else had achieved what Miller had in Bayview and Hunters Point. Some have brooms and plastic trash bags. Miller said Urban Alchemy sends a supervisor to investigate every complaint. He wanted information about whats going on at the camp, Kelly said. An employee who messes up may get another chance. Starting salaries are less than half those of sworn police officers. Elliott expressed a commitment to reduce the number of unsheltered people in San Diego County, which he cited as at least 4,476 people, nearly 55 percent of the at least 8,100 homeless residents of San Diego County. He just gave it to me. An increasingly bipartisan chorus is asking where all the money goes for the states homeless crisis. They come through word of mouth, walk-ins, job fairs, online searches, and referrals from parole officers or other organizations. In a Market street building, Louie Hammonds a former gang member who served 21 years in prison for attempted murder and is now Urban Alchemys chief of training role-played scenarios on the streets. Most of Urban Alchemys 1,100 employees have served life sentences in prison, but did serious self-work to get out from under their incarceration, according to its website. Now, faced with a ballooning homelessness crisis and a federal judge demanding emergency action, LA officials are embracing the concept. We found a turd and turned it into gold. Employees dont always succeed in deterring violence. There was a lot more anonymity and a lot more opportunity for exploitation. Until now. A survey of homeless individuals by Downtown Streets Team yielded one overwhelming response: they felt completely ignored as human beings. Council is set to vote July 28 on a $4.14 million agreement with Urban Alchemy that would establish the nonprofit as the ARCH's operator for 13 1/2 months. At times, tension has escalated between Urban Alchemy employees and the people theyre tasked with helping. Dawn Staley thinks so, Girls basketball: Webutuck grabs momentum, tops Manor for Class D title. Los Angeles is seeking answers to the homeless crisis. Steveo Cook, an Urban Alchemy staff member, told Kennedy he could bring in the really good meth.. The ARCH is a City-owned facility providing shelter and resources in downtown Austin, managed by Urban Alchemy and Austin Area Urban League. Downtown Streets Team employs local homeless populations to clean community spaces in San Jose and San Francisco. S.F. At least six lawsuits have been filed against Urban Alchemy since it was founded in 2018. But the groups rapid growth has brought challenges. This academic faction has a narrative that is made up. Los Angeles is seeking answers to the homeless crisis. 4 stars. They allege he is a bully. Los Angeles, CA. The citys homeless services department said shelters run by Urban Alchemy have had few issues and that the organization has met the terms of its contracts. The simple action of donning a yellow shirt and cleaning the community restores their dignity as people and members of their community. It can't be the type of offer that leads to criminalization and displacement and the shutting down of other public spaces, said Shayla Myers, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Entry level positions for Urban Alchemy, like the Clean Teams, have become a familiar site in downtown Los Angeles, Venice and Hollywood. In Los Angeles, homeless advocates accused Urban Alchemy, which was hired on a six-month, $350,000 contract to offer shelter to people living at Echo Park Lake, of acting as an arm of law enforcement to clear encampments. For longtime Bayview resident Yvonne Dillon, the nonprofits Miller has founded have been a blessing for the area because they provided jobs for people who had a hard time finding work. Shes just mad because I wont let her suck my dick, Josh said to the police, according to two campers. Hassan Halfin, an Urban Alchemy supervisor who served 30 years in prison, said, I was amazed at how people were just lost in drugs, hustling, just walking around looking crazy. The site closed in June 2022 after operating for a little over two years. Powelson said he reported drug use by Urban Alchemy staff to Josh, who was a shift supervisor. In San Francisco, a shooting early last year highlighted workers role in the line of fire as private patrols paid with city funds. Campers can bring in their own tents and whatever other belongings fit inside their assigned space. I heard it happening. The site also provides showers, three meals a day and 24-hour security. Today, it's a $50 million agency with 1,200 employees . Urban Alchemy Practitioners have been turning the San Francisco Clean program since 2015. The operator of the site, the nonprofit Urban Alchemy, has since moved on to open a homeless shelter in Lower Nob Hill and was recently granted a contract by the city to perform homeless outreach. Guests at the East Hollywood site, who Miller says are being found through outreach in the surrounding area, are likely to have a wide variety of needs and backgrounds. Building community and state level buy-in is central to achieving these goals. The second worker was shot in April by an assailant who approached from behind, though the organization and police have not discussed a possible motive. However, Clinebell sent another email, stating that Urban Alchemy has investigated the allegations and did not find any of the misconduct allegations to be true.. . Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. Urban Alchemy is moving the needle where nobody else is really able to move the needle, which is because theyre doing the same old, same old, Miller said. Miller says this is the kind of fresh approach public officials have been drawn to when deciding to hire Urban Alchemy to provide security services for public toilets, street corners, BART elevators and homeless facilities, in addition to picking up trash. The organization said it believes that engaging in conversations and encouraging folks to care about their neighborhood is a much more effective approach than forcing people to move or having police write tickets to those who cannot afford to pay them.. I know just about everyone in the city, she said. Urban Alchemy first came to Los Angeles in 2020 as part of an effort to provide showers, handwashing stations, and cleaning to Skid Row. On a recent morning in the Tenderloin, Hammonds and his crew squeezed past drug users, dealers and people sleeping on Golden Gate Avenue, asking those in the crowd whether they could clear out as kids headed to school and directing people to the linkage center if they wanted housing. Once the city increased the contract, we got all these new Urban Alchemy people coming and going, Powelson said. That paradigm gained momentum when a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in May 2020, galvanizing calls for reform and police alternatives. Wounded Warriors opened its first residence for homeless veterans, called Alpha House, at 1361 Fifth Ave. N. in the city of Naples in January 2020. After the Pacific Sun revealed the names of Urban Alchemy staff who the campers allege participated in drug use and sexual predation, Clinebell responded with an email to two of the papers editors. Because a city this offbeat deserves a newsletter with some And the Biden administration, responding to a national surge of homicides, is investing $500 million in community violence intervention. Steveo. "I haven't had a dissatisfied customer yet," says Briggs.