San Francisco’s Crime is Getting So Bad, Some Residents Are Hiring Their Own Cops

SoMa Becomes a Dumping Ground for Services

If you live in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, you might get a faster response from a private security guard than from the police.

That’s the reality for residents who have watched their streets fill with homeless encampments, open-air drug use, and sidewalks blocked by people in crisis.

Over the past year, local property owners pooled together $820,000 to hire their own security patrols.

They say the city left them no choice, and the reason they’re so frustrated starts with a map that shows exactly where San Francisco puts its problems.

$820K for Private Guards in 12 Months

The SoMa West Community Benefit District, a nonprofit funded by local property owners, has spent $820,000 over the past year on private security services from a company called Aspis Solutions.

The guards cover 109 blocks of the neighborhood around the clock, seven days a week.

The CBD’s main job is keeping the neighborhood clean, not hiring security forces, but residents felt they had no other option.

The money comes from annual assessments on property owners within the district, and the security expense now eats up a significant chunk of the budget.

Residents Call Security Instead of Police

“Frankly, our building calls the CBD for safety patrols now instead of the police, because we’ll get a response within a timely manner,” said Reese Isbell of the SoMa West Neighborhood Association.

That sentence tells you everything about how broken things have gotten.

When residents see someone blocking a garage or a doorway, they dial their private guards instead of 911.

Alex Ludlum, executive director of the SoMa West CBD, described watching police pull someone out of an apartment entryway, release them immediately, only to see the same person smashing car windows hours later.

Homelessness Concentrated Most in SoMa

Ludlum says the reason so many people struggling with addiction and homelessness end up in SoMa is simple: the city concentrated all the facilities and services that support them in one neighborhood.

After years of bearing the brunt of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis, residents and service providers in SoMa and the Tenderloin say the rest of the city needs to step up.

A recent assessment by the controller’s office found shelters are concentrated in the eastern part of the city, especially the Tenderloin, while there are no shelters in the western half.

Pandemic Hotels Made It Worse

During the pandemic, the city rented a number of hotels in SoMa and converted them into shelters for the homeless population.

Residents say that attracted more crime.

“There was always 10 to 20 drug dealers with 10 to 20 people using drugs in front of our own center,” said Carla Laurel, executive director of the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center.

Her organization serves youth in the neighborhood, and staff had to ask dealers to move during school pickup and dropoff times.

“That was always very dangerous,” she said.

Guards Patrol on Bikes and Vehicles

The Aspis Solutions guards patrol the area on bicycles during the day and vehicles at night.

“If there is anybody on the sidewalk, doorways, blocking garageways or just mainly blocking the sidewalk where people can’t walk through, we walk up to them and address it. We ask them if they can relocate,” said Erin Kametani of Aspis Solutions.

The guards are not armed. Their job is to maintain a visible presence and de-escalate situations rather than make arrests, which they have no authority to do anyway.

The Map Shows the Problem

At the CBD’s office, staff created a map showing all the city services and their exact locations.

“This is a visualization of where supportive services are in San Francisco. And as you can see, they’re all right here,” said Ludlum.

“The city is designing pockets of poverty, and they’re putting it here.”

Single-room occupancy hotels and aging buildings in the area have been easier for the city to lease or buy.

The map shows permanent supportive housing buildings, shelters, food pantries, harm reduction programs, and treatment centers all clustered within a few blocks.

Sixth Street Became Ground Zero

The Sixth Street corridor has become the city’s most visible drug crisis zone.

SFPD estimates at least 200 people loiter and use drugs on the roughly quarter-mile stretch each night.

There are about a dozen permanent supportive housing buildings for formerly homeless people in the area, plus low-cost hotels and nonprofits offering social services.

As recently as January 2025, the corridor was bustling with drug users, dealers, violence, and illegal vending. Increased police enforcement pushed some activity to the Mission District, but problems persist.

Violent Crime Actually Dropped 10%

ABC7 News data found violent crimes like murder, robberies, and assaults dropped in the Southern district by 10. 3% over the last 12 months compared to the three-year average.

When asked if crime was down because of SFPD or private security, Supervisor Matt Dorsey said it “might be both.”

But property crime in SoMa rose 29% in the first four months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, driven by car break-ins and retail theft.

So the picture is mixed.

Lurie Plans Another Facility There

Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a new involuntary sobering center will open at 444 Sixth Street in early 2026.

The facility will allow officers to take people arrested for public drug use to sober up and get connected to treatment, creating a system that lets cops quickly return to patrol.

When asked about residents’ concerns that the city keeps pushing services into their district, Lurie said he’s concerned too but that the new center is about making streets safe and clean.

Residents are skeptical.

Residents Want Services Spread Citywide

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, introduced legislation to correct decades of imbalance.

“It’s time for the rest of the city to do their fair share,” he said.

The proposal would require each district to approve at least one facility by next summer and bar new sites from opening within 1,000 feet of an existing one.

For now, SoMa residents keep paying for their own security. They’ve spent $820,000 so far, and they say they’ll spend more if they have to.

Visiting San Francisco’s South of Market

South of Market sits just south of downtown, stretching from Market Street to the waterfront.

The neighborhood is home to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at 151 Third Street, the Yerba Buena Gardens, and the contemporary Jewish Museum.

SFMOMA is open Friday through Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. , with admission at $30 for adults. The area is walkable from BART’s Powell or Montgomery stations.

If you visit, stick to the main corridors around the museums during daylight hours, as conditions vary block by block.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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