Public Sanitation

In fulfilling the San Francisco Department of Public Health's mission to promote the health of its citizens, part of that effort focuses on upholding public sanitation standards of sidewalks, streets, parks, playgrounds, and public spaces and facilities throughout its 13 districts. A tremendous amount of the department's efforts to keep the streets clean focuses primarily on the removal of needles, syringes, human and animal waste, and miscellaneous litter.

Since 2013, SFPDH's has made additional efforts to improve litter and needle disposal through its coordination and funding of several collaborative and community-based programs:

• As of September 12, 2018, there are currently sixteen 24 hour syringe disposal sites located within San Francisco, 7 of which are kiosks and the other 9 being small disposal boxes. In collaboration with the SF AIDS Foundation, SFDPH funds a 10-member clean up team that operates 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to pick up used syringes and needles off the streets, in addition to collaborating with Homeless Youth Alliance, St. James Infirmary, San Francisco Drug User's Union, and Glide Harm Reduction Services in an effort to maximize its proper needle cleanup services. ( https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/syringe.asp)
• The Community Health Response Team through SFPDH also offers Narcan, disposes of needles, and works with the community to encourage individuals to seek care and referral for treatment.

In addition to the work done by SFDPH, San Francisco Public Works ^[1] also provides maintenance for the streets and groundwork of San Francisco. Through a number of programs, the organization works to fulfill their mission statement of serving those that reside, work, and visit San Francisco:

• Provision of different street cleaning services, specialized by district and by street direction.   
• Beginning 2014, SF Public Works placed a number of Pit Stops in various impacted locations around San Francisco. Pit Stops provide access to universal toilets, needle disposal, and dog waste stations.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The supervisor of District 3 is Aaron Peskin, which includes North Beach, Chinatown, Telegraph Hill, North Waterfront, Financial District, Nob Hill, Union Square, Maiden Lane, and part of Russian Hill.

One of the resources for street cleaning in Union Square is the Downtown Streets Team Union Square Program, a non-profit program whose mission is to "end homelessness through dignity of work." As of today, eight DST members clean and sweep the alleys and sidewalks in Union Square area Mon-Fri from 7-11am and 1-5pm.

As of today, there are no Lava maes located within the District 3 region.

In addition to San Francisco Public Works, the organization that is responsible for setting up weekly mechanical street sweeping schedules in all the districts, they also have a partnership with Community Ambassadors, a program that puts unemployed and underemployed citizens to work by sweeping litter from the sidewalk, cleaning tree basins, and helping troubleshoot graffiti vandalism, broken sidewalks and other problems that can degrade a neighborhood.

San Francisco Public Works is starting a new round of Eco Blitz cleanups that bring a full force of work crews to targeted neighborhoods to sweep and steam clean sidewalks, flush down streets, pull weeds, spruce up public trash cans, paint out graffiti, freshen tree basins, prune City-maintained trees, clear leaves and litter from catch basins, remove illegal postings from utility poles and more!

Outreach and Enforcement Team (OnE Team): The team is responsible for educating merchants, property owners, and residents of their rights and responsibilities regarding street and sidewalk cleanliness and enforcing City codes to ensure sanitation standards are met. Team members are assigned geographic zones, each with their unique needs, to keep these San Francisco communities beautiful, vibrant and sustainable.

District 5

The supervisor of District 5 is Vallie Brown, which includes Inner Sunset, Haight Ashbury, Lower Haight, Fillmore, Western Addition, part of Cathedral Hill, Parnassus Heights, North Panhandle, Anza Vista, Lower Pacific Heights, Japantown, Hayes Valley, part of Ashbury Heights, and part of UCSF Parnassus Heights.

District 6