Author evicted from rehab center
Michael Shellenberger, an author and journalist who has criticized San Francisco’s Tenderloin Linkage Center, was escorted out of the facility last week after purportedly scaling a fence and entering an offlimits area.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Emergency Management, which manages the center, said a person climbed over a fence and entered the facility without authorization on Feb. 3. The person, whom the department did not identify, was escorted off the premises by staff, who filed a citizen’s arrest for alleged trespassing.
Shellenberger confirmed he was evicted from the center on Feb. 3, during an interview with The Chronicle on Monday.
The incident was referred to San Francisco police, who conducted interviews and determined no criminal offense had taken place. Police declined to provide any reports or other written documentation related to the incident on Monday.
The linkage center seeks to connect people in the Tenderloin to drug treatment, housing and other services while offering a place where people in need can access showers, food, bathrooms and other basic necessities. It opened last month, but quickly attracted controversy following reports — first published by Shellenberger — that people at the center were permitted to use drugs inside the fenced-in area that separates the seven-story building from U.N. Plaza.
Shellenberger declined to confirm that he had climbed the fence or explain how he got into the center. He said his cameras were confiscated by the linkage staff and taken inside the facility. Journalists are not allowed inside the site.
“I was in the linkage center monitoring it as is my right as a citizen,” Shellenberger said. “I was covering a secret and illegal medical experiment. I was evicted from the site.”
The center opened in January as part of the city’s efforts to address overdose deaths in the neighborhood. Access to the center remains strictly limited in an effort to preserve a sense of privacy for the people utilizing its services, according to Department of Emergency Management officials.
The city has so far denied The Chronicle’s requests to enter the site.
“It takes time, trust and a feeling of safety for people to be ready to engage, follow through and commit to programs that address the challenges people are experiencing,” Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Francis Zamora said in a statement. “This is why we must provide a safe and welcoming environment where people can meet their basic needs so we can be there for them when they are ready to do more.”
Shellenberger confirmed that police interviewed him and the staff members who evicted him and ultimately were able to secure his cameras and return them to him. He said police asked if he, in turn, wanted to file a complaint.
“I said ‘no’ despite the fact that it is an illegal and unethical experiment being done on our most vulnerable citizens,” he said.
Shellenberger is the author of “San Fransicko,” a book arguing that San Francisco’s famously progressive politics and policies are to blame for the city’s homelessness, drugaddiction and mental health crises.