Workers in the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco were told to work from home indefinitely given conditions in the downtown area.
The building, at the intersection of Seventh and Mission streets, is home to the office of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as the local branches of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The area around the building has also become a notorious hotspot for open-air drug dealing.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, building workers received a memo penned by Cheryl Campbell — an assistant secretary with the Department of Health and Human Services — on Aug. 4. It advised workers to stay home “for the foreseeable future” because of crime in the area.
“In light of the conditions at the (Federal Building) we recommend employees … maximize the use of telework for the foreseeable future,” Campbell wrote in the memo, according to the Chronicle. Campbell also wrote that the recommendation should be extended to building employees who do not currently use work-from-home options.