The homeless men in tents on a sidewalk near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco knew that city crews were coming to clear them out, but they did not budge. Fifteen times this year, the city has cleared the sidewalks near the local Department of Motor Vehicles office. Each time, the homeless campers have quickly returned.
Attempt No. 16 would be different, Mayor London Breed vowed. No longer would San Francisco allow homeless people to stay on the sidewalks if there was another place to sleep. The campers had collectively turned down 89 offers of shelter this year, and Breed had had enough, the New York Times reports. “We need some tough love on the streets of our city,” Breed said at a re-election campaign rally four days before the clear-out.
San Francisco has a reputation as a liberal bastion, a city that had hoped to solve its problems more through compassion than crackdowns. With voters frustrated by homeless encampments, open drug use and a downtown that has lost some of its verve, Breed has taken a tougher approach as she fights for her political life in a hotly contested mayoral race. Empowered by a Supreme Court decision and encouraged by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Breed has vowed to clear encampments aggressively this month and has told police officers that they can cite homeless campers for illegal lodging, with a possibility of jail time, if they refuse shelter. Police offers were told that they can now cite people for sitting, lying or camping on sidewalks; obstructing people’s ability to walk in public spaces; and creating a public nuisance through conduct that is “offensive to the senses.” Breed directed city officials to offer bus tickets to homeless people before providing them a shelter bed or other services. It was the starkest sign yet that San Francisco had changed its stance, and stood in contrast to Los Angeles, where leaders criticized Newsom for issuing an executive order encouraging them to sweep homeless encampments.
Comments