PUC Moves to Remove Homeless Encampments; Goats on Hold

By Carol Dimmick

The SF Water Department took the first step towards removing a large homeless population from the hillside above the Laguna Honda Reservoir May 28 by notifying squatters that they are trespassing on city property.

Beverly Hennessey, director of communications for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC), confirmed that the PUC has a comprehensive plan it is following to restore the property and protect the neighborhood.

"I will personally go up there starting May 28 to present them (the squatters) with written notification," Hennessey said.

Hennessey said the PUC is working closely with the mayor's homeless office and the homeless coalition to make city services available to those leaving the property.

Capt. Dan Lawson, commanding officer at the Park Police Station, confirmed that his officers will be citing those who refuse to leave over the next few weeks. Lawson said his officers would arrest chronic squatters and people having no identification or carrying weapons.

For years a large homeless population of 50 to 60 people has been living on the property. At least five semi-permanent structures with mud walls and thatched roofs are standing on the hillside.

Some dwellers cultivated vegetable gardens, cook on butane stoves, built ponds and planted fruit trees. But most sites are full of garbage and over-run with feral cats.

Police believe that transients who live on the property were responsible for a rash of car boostings and home burglaries along Seventh Avenue in April.

In addition to the squatters, neighbors have proven to be an impediment for fire abatement measures the PUC tried to implement this Spring.

In April, the PUC was forced to pull the plug on a plan to use 500 goats to remove vegetation from the hillside as part of a fire prevention measure after angry neighbors flooded city offices with e-mails demanding the goats be removed. It seems the hungry goats were destroying acres of valuable native plants that provide a refuge for wildlife during their one week munching on the hillside.

During the past month the PUC has met with environmentalists and neighbors to find common ground that takes into account fire management and biological preservation. Hennessey said the PUC is considering a plan that would reintroduce the goats after wire is put up to protect native plants.

But Jake Sigg, a member of the California Native Plant Society whose e-mails ignited the campaign to remove the goats, doubts the goats can be brought back under any scenario.

"The problem with goats is that they were a bad choice to begin with. The whole area is covered with native plants, so they are going to have to fence off the whole area," he said.