Homeless Advocates Urge SF to End Sweeps, Saying It Should Be 'Safe Place for Everybody'

Updated at 3:10 p.m. Thursday

Homeless advocates gathered Thursday afternoon on the steps of San Francisco City Hall to issue Mayor London Breed a symbolic citation in protest of her crackdown on encampments.

“This is what should be the moral epicenter of the United States,” Coalition on Homelessness organizer River Beck told a small crowd. “This should be a safe place for everybody, on the sidewalks and off.”

Demonstrators held a banner designed like a ticket that cited Breed for “street sweeps that violate rights and perpetuate homelessness.” Near the bottom, it read, “Issued by the people.”

“I cannot stand to live in a society where treating human beings like literal pieces of garbage is acceptable,” said District 6 resident Lea M, who declined to give her last name. “I have only seen human misery get worse and worse and worse.”

Since the crackdown started at the beginning of the month, advocates say they’re seeing police being more involved in encampment operations, with more citations and arrests as a result.

Coalition organizer Mercedes Bullock said the goal of Thursday’s protest is to end this “counterproductive” punitive approach.

Breed announced last month that the city would take a “very aggressive” stance on homelessness, directing agencies to target even the smallest encampments. Police are encouraged to follow warnings with citations or arrests.

“The goal is not punishment, it is compliance,” according to the mayor’s office.

The new efforts focus on preventing “re-encampment” after city teams clear a camp. Once an area has been swept, staff no longer have to offer shelter before removing people and potentially citing them.

“What we’re seeing is that they’re doing that and a whole lot more,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the coalition, which initiated an ongoing lawsuit against the city over its approach to encampment sweeps. “We’re seeing a massive amount of property confiscation … we’re seeing people go backwards in terms of their ability to get into housing because they’re losing all their paperwork.”

The policy changes follow a Supreme Court ruling that opened the door for cities to enforce anti-camping laws without first offering shelter beds, as well as the resulting changes to an injunction that limited San Francisco’s ability to enforce certain laws to clear camps amid the coalition’s lawsuit.

In the wake of those changes, the San Francisco Police Department issued a notice to members clarifying that they are free to enforce nuisance and sit/lie laws without extending shelter offers.

Since the crackdown began, business owners say they’re seeing fewer tents, which they welcome, but just as many unhoused people.

“They don’t have anywhere to go,” Friedenbach said. “They’re just moving from place to place to place, and they don’t know what to do.”