San Francisco police and street cleaners take aggressive approach to clearing homeless encampments

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police in San Francisco will start clearing out homeless residents living in public areas under new policies announced Tuesday by the office of Mayor London Breed, who has pledged a more aggressive approach to tent encampments following a key U.S. Supreme Court decision.

In a memo, Breed’s office said city workers will continue offering housing and services to homeless people as they work to dismantle tent encampments, but street cleaners, police and other city workers will have greater leeway to prevent tents from popping back up in areas that have been cleared or to prevent smaller encampments from growing into larger ones.

San Francisco has nearly 4,000 shelter beds for an estimated 8,000 people who are homeless. Breed has expanded capacity since taking office in 2018, but the city is still short.

“The goal of this enforcement is for people to accept offers of shelter and know that they cannot remain where they are. Staff will not be required to re-offer shelter in an area where they’ve recently been working to clear an encampment if individuals return to that same area,” said the release.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June made it easier for cities to ban homeless encampments, an issue cropping up in more parts of the country amid the high costs of housing and opioid drug crisis. In California, which is home to nearly a third of an estimated 650,000 homeless people in the U.S., Gov. Gavin Newsom last week ordered state agencies to begin removing tents and structures on state land.

In central California, the Fresno City Council gave initial approval Monday to a ban on homeless camping despite impassioned pleas from residents and advocates that people should not be punished for being poor.

In San Francisco, a multi-department unit goes out to clear encampments at least twice a day, five days a week, with homeless residents receiving advance notice of upcoming cleanings and outreach.

That will continue, but city workers can now return to cleared areas to force out a returning person. Also, new teams of police and public works employees will go out daily to address smaller encampments.

Breed, who is in a tough reelection bid, said the city will still offer services and shelter. But new methods are needed as homeless people reject two-thirds of shelter offers. Enforcement will be progressive, with warnings followed by citations, escalating penalties, and even arrest, according to her office.

Homeless people say they have rejected shelter offers because they can’t take all their belongings or bring pets, or they have had traumatic encounters with staff or other residents. They were among those who sued the city in 2022, alleging the city was not providing notice or making real offers of shelter. The case is pending.

Homeless advocates in San Francisco said at a Tuesday press event that hundreds of subsidized housing units and hotel rooms are vacant and available, but officials are focused instead on encampment sweeps that worsen the situation.

“Our local officials are choosing to confiscate people’s property, survival gear, medications, the last items they’re holding on to after losing everything, instead of offering… a place to live,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness.

Officials with Los Angeles County said at a supervisors’ board meeting Tuesday they disagreed with the governor’s approach to addressing homelessness.

“Criminalization is intentionally not part of the county’s framework because it makes the problem worse by creating more barriers along people’s path to housing, and it runs counter to our goals to create a more equitable system,” said Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum.

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AP reporter Jaimie Ding contributed from Los Angeles.