SF Mayor Breed And Homelessness: What Her Crackdown On Encampments Will Look Like

In a Mayoral election debate last week, San Francisco Mayor London Breed vowed to combat homelessness in the city soon. Specifically, she noted that she will be targeting homeless encampments beginning in August.

“The problem is not going to be solved by building permanent supportive housing or shelter alone; we have to start cutting off the opportunities that exist in San Francisco,” said Breed last Thursday. “Effective August, we are going to be very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments, which may even include criminal penalties. We have had to move from a compassionate city to a city of accountability. Citations, penalties and criminal penalties. We now have the ability to enforce the law.”

While Breed’s action follow years of stop and go actions against the homeless in the city, her announcement on Thursday was in response to two major things. The first was her main opponent in the race: Former Mayor Mark Farrell. Farrell currently holds a slight lead in Mayoral polls, with all polls showing him ahead to some degree in a final Farrell v. Breed decision. Farrell, as well as Levi Strauss heir and fellow candidate David Lurie, have been particularly in favor of removing encampments. Breed, meanwhile, has been more pausing about this issue, saying that the number of encampments has gone down and that camping on the streets is already prohibited. Despite that, Farrell’s bullish approach has helped him leap up in the polls, causing Breed to give chase.

The second are the courts. In a one-two punch in the last month, the Supreme Court ruled in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson that cities could more easily take down homeless encampments, with an Appellate Court order restricting homeless encampment sweeps being thrown out. With San Francisco now having the green light to ramp up their encampment sweeps, Breed waited until the debate last week to announce the new crackdown.

While her new policy announcement undercut one of the biggest issues against her, there is also the question of what the crackdowns will look like next month. For homeless in encampments and homeless advocates, they are less than thrilled about the crackdown and said that Breed’s plan is only going to hurt them.

“I really think that if we follow the approach that the mayor is suggesting, it isn’t really going to solve the problem. I think issues will get worse, and I think everyone is affected by it; not just the unhoused folks but all of San Francisco,” said Coalition on Homeless San Francisco communications director Julian Highsmith.

However, the Mayor’s office soon fired back by saying “San Francisco is a city that prioritizes compassion and will continue to lead with services, but we cannot allow people to refuse services when shelter is offered and available.”

The encampment crackdown will likely  consist of the usual: city workers going to encampments and offering shelter space. But if they refuse, the encampments will be broken up and those there being given penalties. While San Francisco has always done this to an extent, Breed’s new found vigor to do so because of the race and courts will mean a lot more visible encampment clearings next month, likely with press covering it as Breed really wants to show that she is taking a new aggressive approach.

“She’s doing everything she can to get one up over Farrell and Lurie,” said political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Monday. “They want more sweeps, as well as pressing them more to take shelter. Breed is still trying to play compassionate, but she also sees where most San Franciscans stand on the issue.

“You’re right in that she’ll use that strategy to take down the encampment. But she is going to be tenacious about it. Cameras on it to downplay Farrell and Lurie, but then also not focusing on what happens to those after the camps are struck so that Peskin can’t gain ground. That’s where we are with all this. She wants that coverage in well before the election.”

Breed’s encampment actions are expected to begin next month.