Homeless Upset About McDonald's Dollar Menu Increase

CANVAS STAFF REPORTS - Unhappy meals have arrived at a McDonald's in San Francisco.

Homeless people who hang out at the nearby Golden Gate Park used to get 99-cent burgers at the McDonald's located at Haight and Stanyan streets in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

But the eatery got rid of its Dollar Menu about a month ago. That move, which McDonald's called a simple business decision, means items on the menu are now too expensive for the people who spend much of their day hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.

Items on the Dollar Menu now cost around $1.50.

"I eat less. I have to get more money," said 29-year-old Nicholas Newhart to The San Francisco Chronicle . He was not happy with the price increase and said, "If I don't have a dollar and I want food, I just end up going to a trash can."

Homelessness has been a problem in San Francisco for decades. Tension between business owners and homeless people who hang out on sidewalks in front of their stores and offices has prompted Mayor Gavin Newsom and some Haight Street merchants to support a ballot measure in November that would ban sitting or lying on public sidewalks, The Chronicle reported.

Some homeless people think the more expensive menu is the next logical step in the crackdown, though the move does not affect other McDonald's in the city.

"That means that the Dollar Menu is a hoax, a fraud, a phony," Blake Edwards told KGO-TV .

Franchise owner Natalie Gonzales said the speculation as to why she raised prices at her restaurant at Haight and Stanyan streets is "absolutely false."

"This was a business decision based on a number of contributing factors," she said.

Customer demand and other factors often lead to franchise owners changing the prices of certain menu items, said Julie Wenger, marketing director for McDonald's Pacific-Sierra Region.