The Runaround
by Kelley Cutler
Hy Carrel from Faithful Fools and I ventured to the Department of Public Works (DPW) lot to retrieve an individual’s belongings after it was “bagged and tagged” by law enforcement and DPW workers. The City says they don’t throw people’s belongings and survival gear away… they say they “bag and tag” it and people can simply go to the DPW yard and get their stuff. So easy, right?!
Spoiler alert… that’s not the reality.
Luckily I had been to DPW before or this process would have been even more challenging because it’s tough to find. Here are the instructions on the DPW site for retrieving your belongings…. easy peasy!
We went up to the blue booth and asked about retrieving belongings, and the guy pointed us to a man sitting in a DPW truck on the street. We had all of the needed information to provide… even the officer info. Good ole Officer Peachy!
The guy in the truck asked if we had ID. You’ll notice how that is not listed as an item required to get your belongings? That was just the first of many excuses for why they couldn’t retrieve the belongings. DPW policy doesn’t require you to have ID. Often folks’ ID is taken by DPW during Sweeps.
Both Hy and I suck at lying so we were honest and Hy explained that he was there as a social service provider who was asked to help retrieve the belongings of a woman who is experiencing homelessness.
The items supposedly ‘bagged and tagged’ were a tent, sleeping bag, umbrella and a jacket. Apparently these items are too precious for them to allow a social service provider to transport back to the individual the City took it from.
The DPW worker was actually very pleasant to us; he was just playing the game the City plays to avoid giving people their belongings back.
We asked if he could check to see if the belongings were there so we could let her know. He said he would go check, and that he would come back in 20 to 40 minutes to let us know. So we waited….
As we were waiting I struck up a conversation with a couple who were trying to get their belongings back. This was their 3rd attempt at the DPW yard, and they had driven up from Santa Cruz. They were getting the runaround. The couple told me the DPW worker asked if they had receipts for their stuff, as if folks keep receipts for their backpack, makeup and other personal belongings. During their last trip to the yard they said the DPW worker took their DPW property confiscation form and never came back. After 2 hours they gave up. They didn’t think he was ever coming back.
The DPW worker came back after 25 minutes and informed us that, yes, the belongings “bagged and tagged” out front of Faithful Fools at the day and time we provided had been logged in. Great. We wanted to know what the items were that were logged in. Apparently that’s confidential information, real top secret stuff. We told him again what the items were, because we had this top secret information, about the tent, sleeping bag, umbrella and jacket.
Well, getting an answer would require another 20 to 40 minutes for him to go find out. We waited… 40 minutes.
He drove back up and Hy asked if his client should take hours to come get her stuff and he stated “If it works, it’s worth picking up.”
The process is set up to frustrate people so they just give up. I needed to get back to the office for a meeting so I could no longer waste my time with DPW games.
He then spoke to the couple who drove up from Santa Cruz and were on their third attempt to get their belongings. The DPW worker explained that he only has the key for 1 of the 3 storage areas and their stuff was in one he couldn’t get into. He told them to come back the next day, from Santa Cruz.
Now I could understand things like this happening from time to time, but we hear the same thing from basically EVERYONE who attempts to get their belongings back from DPW. It’s the DPW runaround.
But don’t worry, you can trust that the City isn’t throwing people’s personal belongings or survival gear away. They just “bag and tag” it. 🙄
By the way, as of today there are 1,176 people waiting on the single adult shelter waitlist for a temporary bed. This doesn’t include families and children.
So our question to Sam Dodge, assistant to the head of DPW, is this: when is the Local Homeless Coordinating Board going to get a tour of the DPW lot so we can see how this great process works?
