San Francisco Takes Harder Line Against Homeless Camps, Defying Its Reputation
The New York Times
Mayor London Breed has told city officials to issue citations and encourage homeless people to leave town by offering free bus tickets.
The homeless men who huddled in tents on a wide sidewalk near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco knew that city crews were coming to clear them out. But they did not budge.
They dozed. They bantered. One strummed a guitar. Fifteen times this year, the city has cleared the sidewalks near the local Department of Motor Vehicles office — and 15 times, the homeless campers have quickly returned.
But 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 individuals camping around the D.M.V. branch had collectively turned down 89 offers of shelter this year, according to the mayor’s office, and Ms. Breed had had enough.
“We need some tough love on the streets of our city,” Ms. Breed said at a re-election campaign rally held four days before the Monday clear-out.
San Francisco has long had a reputation as a liberal bastion, a city that had hoped to solve its problems more through compassion than crackdowns. But with voters frustrated by homeless encampments, open drug use and a downtown that has lost some of its verve, Ms. Breed has taken a tougher approach as she fights for her political life in a hotly contested mayoral race.
Empowered by a recent Supreme Court decision and encouraged by Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Ms. Breed, a Democrat, has vowed to aggressively clear encampments this month and has told police officers that they can cite homeless campers for illegal lodging if they refuse shelter, with jail time on the table.
