A homeless woman got water dumped on her in San Francisco. It’s a ‘hatred’ faced ‘regularly’ - Los Angeles Times
Advertisement

A homeless woman got water dumped on her in San Francisco. It’s a ‘hatred’ faced ‘regularly’

A homeless woman in San Francisco holds a sign as she begs for money in May. Homeless people regularly face "hatred against them as a class of people,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, a San Francisco advocacy group.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
Share via

The videographer couldn’t contain his shock.

“Come on!“ he blurted over the 10-second clip of a man dumping a bucket of water over the rooftop opposite his window in the San Francisco Mission District. “Wow!”

Splashing through a canopy of trees, the water landed on a lean-to that a homeless woman had set up on the sidewalk below.

Among California residents’ evolving strategies for shooing away homeless people — 311 complaints and illegal sidewalk planters are on the rise — the recent dousing fell into a darker category.

Advertisement

“It certainly is something that homeless people face regularly — hatred against them as a class of people,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, a San Francisco advocacy group. “We see people beat up at night while they are asleep.”

Neighbors were interviewed on local TV expressing their outrage.

“It’s horrible,” a man identified as Rich Caraballo told NBC Bay Area. “It’s passive aggressive and heartless.”

Brett Leader told the station that the man had done it before.

“It’s really upsetting,” he said. “I hope this person gets identified.”

On Twitter, a person who identified himself as a “housing rights warrior” offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who could provide “verifiable information that leads to the arrest of the person on the roof.”

Advertisement

But as of Wednesday afternoon, several days after the Saturday incident was recorded, the man who dumped the water remained anonymous.

In an email, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said an investigation was underway. But he characterized it as a passive investigation. He said no victim had come forward to file a complaint.

“We are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying any parties involved so we can move forward with the investigation,” Officer Adam Lobsinger said.

Advertisement

[email protected]

@LATDoug

Advertisement