‘Code brown’: An army of cleaners patrols SF’s filthiest streets

The San Francisco Standard–“See this Code Brown? I’m sending it to one of the workers now,” said cleaning team leader Ken McCarter as he paused to look at a pile of feces on a San Francisco street in the South of Market neighborhood. McCarter snapped a picture with his phone and shot off a cleaning request.

The alert would be received by an ambassador with the SoMa West Community Benefit District nonprofit. Ambassadors are paid a starting rate of roughly $22 an hour, plus hazard pay. But especially gross tasks like feces cleanup command a premium: Workers bag $3 for every “Code Brown” they scrape off the streets.

“It’s the scavenger hunt from hell that my team has to play every day,” said Christian Martin, executive director of the nonprofit. “Seriously, there’s not enough [public restrooms], when you’ve got thousands of people living on the streets.”