San Francisco Mayor Slams Homeless Sweeps Ban

San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Friday spoke out against a federal injunction that effectively bans the city from forcing homeless people to move.

Breed told The Standard that she thought the ruling was “ridiculous” following a presentation on Friday of the city’s five-year plan to tackle homelessness, and claimed the injunction is standing in the way of the city’s progress on the matter.

The injunction, issued in December, restricted the city from enforcing laws prohibiting people from sitting, lying down or sleeping in public spaces, although it can still enforce other laws and temporarily relocate camps to clean streets.

“If we have a place for people to go, we should be able to force them to go, and we’re not able to do that right now,” Breed said. “It just messes up and hinders our ability to do our jobs.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed joined members of the Department of Homelessness on Friday, April 14, 2023 during a tour of City Gardens, a new supportive living community for formerly homeless residents of SoMa Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle/Pool

The injunction was the result of a lawsuit by a nonprofit called the Coalition on Homelessness, which accused the city of illegally destroying homeless people’s property and forcing them to relocate without adequate shelter.

Breed said she interprets the injunction as a ban on moving a single homeless person unless there is a shelter for every homeless person in the city. Prosecutor David Chiu has appealed the injunction, calling it untenable and “unnecessarily broad.”

“Even if we had a place for everyone, we’re not going to be able to suddenly wave a wand and get all these people off the streets,” Breed said.

Hadley Rood, an attorney representing the Coalition on Homelessness, told The Standard in a phone call that Breed’s interpretation of the injunction was wrong, and explained that the mayor’s comments ignore the city’s lack of shelter.

“One of the city’s main talking points is this hypothetical situation, but right now the city is still short of thousands of shelters,” Rood said. “The injunction only prohibits enforcement against involuntarily unaccommodated persons. […] It doesn’t stop the city from doing outreach or bringing people together with services.”

As part of the city’s appeal, Chiu argued that the court failed to adequately define what it meant to be “involuntarily homeless” and whether that applied to people who refused housing.

According to recent estimates, more than 4,000 people sleep on the streets on any given night, and a city dashboard shows the city’s emergency shelter system is often overwhelmed.

Tents line a sidewalk on O’Farrell Street in the Tenderloin District. | Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard

The city has continued to relocate homeless people in certain circumstances, including to clean streets or enforce other laws such as parking codes and handicap access rules. However, city authorities can only ask people to move temporarily.

The Department for Homelessness and Supportive Housing has acknowledged the city is short of emergency shelters and plans to add another 1,075 by 2028, according to a five-year plan released on Friday.

Breed said she is confident the plan will allow the city to cut red tape to address the crisis quickly.

“If we’re able to make significant changes to our bureaucratic process, we can deal with these challenges much more quickly,” Breed said. “This five-year plan will eliminate bureaucracy and boost housing construction.”

David Sjostedt can be reached at [email protected]