Gallery owner soaks homeless woman with garden hose in viral video

An art gallery owner is copping major backlash online after footage of him spraying down a homeless woman with a garden hose went viral.

The owner of a posh San Francisco art gallery is being showered with scorn after he was nabbed on viral video spraying a homeless woman with a garden hose.

Collier Gwin, the owner of the Foster Gwin Gallery in the California city’s upscale Jackson Square neighbourhood, admitted that he hosed down the woman to get her off his sidewalk on Monday, the New York Post reported.

However, the gallery owner insisted that the whole community has failed her.

“The whole neighbourhood is a part of this situation,” Gwin told NBC Bay Area News.

“The police force is a part of this situation. The city and the social services is a part of the situation. There have been repeated attempts to try to help this woman who is psychotic,” he continued.

“There’s absolutely nothing that can be done. They’ll take her to a shelter, and they will turn her out in two days. They will take her to the hospital, they will release her within a day.”

But the video — which was first posted to TikTok before it was widely shared on Twitter, garnering thousands of views — drew the ire of online critics.

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San Francisco art gallery owner Collier Gwin has copped furious backlash after getting caught on video dousing a homeless woman with a garden hose. Picture: Twitter / @briochesf

The stunt was described as “unconscionable” and “abuse”. Mr Gwin defended his actions and said it reflected poorly on the neighbourhood’s response to homelessness. Picture: Titter

“I don’t care how frustrated somebody is, this is not the way human beings treat other human beings,” San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, whose district includes the gallery, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“It’s unconscionable,” he said. “It’s abuse.”

Others on social media also fumed.

“If housing is a human right, then discrimination and violence against someone bc of their housing status is a human rights violation, correct?” Twitter user Brittni wrote.

“Collier Gwin is a vigilante and must be prosecuted for assault unless the city condones this and wants to see similar actions,” she said.

The footage shows Gwin matter-of-factly spraying the woman, later identified as “Cora,” as she screams.

“Are you gonna move?” Gwin is heard yelling. “Move.”

Mr Gwin says he doused the woman with a hose because he was frustrated that authorities hadn’t been able to do anything.Picture: Twitter / @tjcrowley

Edson Galvez, who posted the video online, told NBC he was stunned.

“I started recording the guy and this guy is like pouring water on plants,” he said. “And then I saw the lady like this, and I was like, ‘Oh no! That’s a lady.’

“OK, that lady doesn’t go inside the business,” said Galvez, co-owner of the nearby Brioche Cafe.

“She sleeps on the street, but she’s very calm, yeah. I was putting quarters on the parking meter right now and she was passing by.”

Still, Galvez conceded he could “understand both parties.”

“I feel sorry for the tenant, I feel sorry for the lady. But police had come out one time and he said there’s nothing they can do,” the local said.

Police reportedly responded to the scene after the incident but Gwin didn’t answer, according to the NBC report.

This story originally appeared in the New York Postand is reproduced with permission.