Unhoused man lives in a box that resembles a coffin
By Lyanne Melendez
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Norm Weil has a problem.
His building is surrounded by pristine high rises near 2nd and Howard streets.
He admits, his is an eyesore.
“We never had to board up our building before. This has been boarded up for a couple of years,” a frustrated Weil told ABC7 News.
All of the windows on the street level have been broken and inside, some of the doors and walls have bashed in. He showed us more of the damage.
“They discharged the fire extinguisher all over the place,” Weil said.
“They” is actually believed to be just one person.
First name, Ricky, who lives outside of the building in a box.
“This guy has been here since the pandemic,” assured Weil.
When you search the address 594 Howard Street on Google Maps, Ricky’s cardboard box is visible – so is he.
“It’s just not good. It hurts our ability in this challenging leasing market to lease this building,” explained Matt Wolff, the real estate broker for the building.
“I’ve seen him harming himself as well. It’s just a bad situation for him, for us and for the city,” added Wolff.
“He’s threatened to kill and rape me many times,” revealed Gerard Madden, a tenant who leases space here.
Other tenants told us they have been harassed numerous times.
“He’s very violent. He has a scooter that he wheels around as a weapon, so it’s not a scooter this size, a smaller blade. He swings it around. He bangs everything. He’s constantly high, constantly screaming, shooting up in front of everybody. It’s pretty sad,” said Madden.
At this point, you’re probably wondering where are the police in all of this?
“The police came, they found him inside our building, nothing! Of they came, they took him away, he was back here two hours later,” said Weil.
We reached out to police but were never given an answer.
Wolf said he has asked Ricky to move several times.
“I have. He had nice profanities for me,” said Wolf.
We thought we’d give Ricky a chance to speak his mind.
We “knocked” on the box.
Lyanne Melendez: “Hey Ricky? Hi, how are you? My name is Lyanne Melendez. I’m with ABC7 News. Do you have a minute to talk to us? Do you want to stand up or sit up for me? Do you mind? Sorry to wake you. The building owner here, he’s complained about you. I wanted to ask you how long have you been out here?” Ricky: “Not long at all. Not long at all.” Melendez: “He has said that you broke windows.” Ricky: “Oh, no. Melendez: “No? But damaged property?” Ricky: “No damaged property.” Melendez:: “No damaged property you say.”
t was pretty clear that he was not able to make much conversation. We were, instead, concerned about his constant itching and scratching.
This is a person who admittedly has been approached by outreach teams, offering help.
“The totality of it is that everybody is sympathetic, everybody is frustrated, but nobody does anything,” insisted Weil.
The supervisor for that district told us he’s now studying a program used in a suburban county near Richmond, Virginia that offers drug treatment to county jail inmates.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey would like to see a drug-free sidewalk ordinance in San Francisco.
“It is not helping our economy, it isn’t helping our businesses, it’s not helping our residents but least of all it’s not helping anybody who is on the streets struggling with addiction,” insisted Dorsey.
Meanwhile, Norm Weil’s frustration grows as he realizes he’s running out of options to remove Ricky.
We asked him what would happen if he removed that box while he was away.
“It’s happened. He gets another box,” said Weil.
Ricky occasionally leaves his box with his scooter in hand. Where he goes is anyone’s guess.
“The city has thrown billions of dollars at this problem and yet a guy is allowed to be out here for almost five years and nobody can do anything. Something’s not right,” added Weil.
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