san francisco tours of homeless

latest in US News

Ex-NFL player’s son, 14, missing for weeks as cops probe...

Socialist NYC councilwoman claims 'queer liberation' is tied to...

Politics of dating survey: Here's how Dems and Republicans view...

Tropical Storm Beryl intensifies in Caribbean, likely 2024's...

Special Counsel Robert Hur 'vindicated,' 'deserves an apology'...

Central Park carriage horses suffered in sweltering 90-degree...

Trump crushed Biden in debate, new poll reveals: 'More...

Nevada Trump loyalists hopeful he can finally take the state...

Breaking news, death, drugs and abandoned businesses all on display along san francisco ‘doom loop’ tour route.

• View Author Archive
• Get author RSS feed

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

San Francisco’s ‘doom loop’ route really does give people a front row seat to the city’s descent into homelessness, drug use and urban decay.

Spurred by a local joker who has organized a tour of the California city’s most blighted areas , The Post walked the proposed route to see if the “worst of San Francisco” really was on offer.

Community activist JJ Smith generously acted as an ad-hoc tour guide for the “landmarks” on a 1.5-mile trip, which took in City Hall, Union Square, Mid-Market and the Tenderloin District — areas where a one bedroom apartment typically retails for $750,000 and upward.

The once bustling areas of Market Street and Union Square were homes to such esteemed stores as Nordstrom Rack and Old Navy until they recently left.

Floors and floors of completely vacant space in various storefronts are visible from the street, save a few lonely mannequins staring forlornly from windows.

Since January 2020, half of retailers have fled the downtown area because of sagging sales and lack of foot traffic and tourism. Of those that are left, even Ross Dress for Less now sports “enhanced security” in the form of bag checks and security guards stationed at all exits.

Market was also one of the only places along the route a couple of bored looking cops could be spied ambling along.

Homeless individuals have moved in to take advantage of the empty shell and sleep in front of the vacant shops, erecting a tent city on the sidewalk for most of the street.

Ironically, some encampments are in front of boarded blocks which used to be affordable apartments, now earmarked for destruction. Open drug use is commonplace at all hours, according to JJ, and people could be heard rustling and shuffling inside the tents just feet from the blaring mid-afternoon traffic.

Soon joining the urban emptiness could be the four-star Hilton San Francisco Union Square, where rooms are $450-a-night, and the Hilton Parc 55 hotel, where rooms are a little cheaper at $150-a-night. Their owner announced in June it would stop paying a $725m loan, which could potentially leave more than 3,000 rooms empty, although they were both still operational this week.

Crime has gotten so bad in the downtown area employees who work at the nearby Nancy Pelosi Federal Building were recently ordered to stay away and work from home “for the unforeseeable future” .

The building is a stone’s throw from the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street in the Tenderloin District, a hot-bed of drug deals once the sun goes down.

On any given night, dozens of individuals can be found shooting up or smoking fentanyl-laced drug concoctions from foil, JJ explained.

Smith said he has personally provided Narcan — which reverses opioid overdoses — to at least 50 people. Unfortunately, some of them could not be saved.

“It’s hard and really, it just makes me feel so sad,” Smith said.

“It’s gotten so bad that I stash Narcan on the streets when I walk my route. If I walk down the street, I know I stashed one near the store. And if I go down the other side, I know I have one in the next corner. I stash it all over for easy access because that’s how bad it gets around here.”

Smith said he saw officials with the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office recently take three bodies from one building where overdoses frequently occur. Multiple overdoses in just a span of hours are becoming ever more common, Smith said.

Many of the homeless addicts who collapse on the sidewalk overnight stay there until cleanup crews from local non-profits clear the streets every morning from 5 to 7 a.m.

In one video Smith showed The Post, which he shot, crew members from non-profit Urban Alchemy asked the addicts to pick up their belongings and stop using drugs as they try to sweep the sidewalk.

The video also showed Smith trying to wake up a man so high on drugs that he couldn’t open his eyes or move while being shaken.

“Come on fellas, it’s time,” said one worker holding a broom who tried to wake up a man passed out on drugs.

It’s a vicious cycle that keeps the doom loop going.

“They clean up the place early in the morning so people who have kids can walk around and take them to school, but once it gets dark, [the addicts] come right back, take drugs and pass out until the morning,” Smith said. “It never ends.”

Share this article:

Advertisement

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Orlando Cepeda dies

8 homeless moms in San Francisco struggled for help. Now, they’re learning to advocate for others

Teniah Tercero, right, pushes her two daughters Amairany, 8, left, and Valentina on a tire swing while spending time at a park Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teniah Tercero watches as her daughters play at a park playground Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Danica Gutierrez is photographed inside her daughters’ bedroom Thursday, June 13, 2024, in San Francisco. Gutierrez and her three daughters moved into a three-bedroom unit in a complex with wi-fi and a rooftop garden, but says she doesn’t feel her girls are safe since some of her neighbors are struggling with addiction and mental illness. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Jennifer Johnson, top left, talks with fellow members of the Family Advisory Committee as the group of eight mothers met with politicians in City Hall, Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Danica Gutierrez, left, and Christiana Porter hug after they met with politicians at City Hall, Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in San Francisco. Gutierrez, Porter and six other women are part of Family Advisory Committee, a pilot program by San Francisco nonprofit Compass Family Services, working to engage more homeless parents in advocacy as family homelessness surges in the U.S. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Danica Gutierrez talks about the family services available at her apartment complex Thursday, June 13, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teniah Tercero, right, gets her three daughters into her SUV on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. Tercero and her daughters have lived in many different places, from motel rooms to her car. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Danica Gutierrez is photographed on the rooftop of her apartment complex Thursday, June 13, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teniah Tercero, right, walks with her daughter Valentina, 4, after playing with the family’s scooter Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Danica Gutierrez walks through her daughters’ bedroom Thursday, June 13, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teniah Tercero gives her daughter Rojelia, 7, a piggyback ride while at a park Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teniah Tercero, center, trails behind two of her daughters as they walk to the shelter they’re living in from their car Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teniah Tercero kisses her daughter Valentina, 4, while spending time at a park Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

• Copy Link copied

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — They know chronic back pain from couch surfing while pregnant. They tuck their children in at bedtime in the backs of cars and under bridges. Once their kids are asleep, and only then, do they let themselves cry.

Since January, a group of eight San Francisco mothers have met regularly as part of a local nonprofit’s pilot program to share their stories and learn to advocate for the needs of families like theirs experiencing homelessness .

“I feel like I failed my kids,” says Teniah Tercero, breaking into tears as she talked about how she hates exposing her three young daughters to the open drug use of the city’s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood where they sleep at a shelter.

The room falls quiet. Christiana Porter, a fellow mom, gently pats Tercero’s shoulder as someone else passes over a box of tissues.

“I know the feeling,” adds Danica Gutierrez, also a mother of three girls.

Gutierrez, 29, was skeptical about relaying some of the hardest moments of her life with people who were strangers.

“Then after being in the group, I started realizing that all these ladies have a strong voice,” she said, “and maybe our voices put together could be strong enough to make a difference in someone else’s life.”

The women are on the Family Advisory Committee, a program launched by San Francisco nonprofit Compass Family Services this year to empower homeless people to better serve their needs.

They have learned how the city’s budget process works and met with politicians, sharing personal experiences and insight into what the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and nonprofits should be providing.

Broadly, the women describe a homeless services system that is confusing and even hostile, with websites that lack clear information and staff who can feel dismissive.

They want housing for families away from people struggling with drug addiction or behavior issues, and staff trained to welcome homeless families. More money, they say, should be spent on housing rather than short-term shelters.

They also want families to be given clear instructions about which phone numbers to call and when to maintain their place in line for housing. They want caseworkers to return their calls, even if there’s no new information to report. They suggest nonprofits stock practical goods such as rain covers for baby strollers and children’s clothing for special occasions, like graduation.

In telling their stories to help others, the women have found a welcome sisterhood.

Some in the group have experienced domestic violence. One mother recently arrived in San Francisco from Nicaragua and, with her husband, kept watch over their daughter, 9, when the family slept outside under blankets and on cardboard. A third-generation San Franciscan sleeps on a foldout couch in her parents’ living room.

Their quest is for a safe, stable home in a city where the median monthly rent is $3,300 and the median price of a house is $1.4 million.

Three years ago, Gutierrez and her girls were sleeping on floor mats at a school gymnasium that doubled as a shelter. Now, she’s in a subsidized three-bedroom apartment with a rooftop garden in a building with on-site childcare and case management.

The younger girls, 7 and 8, share a cheerful bedroom brimming with library books and art supplies while their sister, 11, has her own room. In the tiny kitchen, Gutierrez has written “good morning, little children” on a piece of chalkboard. One wall of her bedroom is crowded with her girls’ school achievement certificates.

But neighbors in the “permanent supportive housing” site include people struggling with addiction and mental illness and she doesn’t feel her family is safe.

“I just hope that it’s touching the politicians’ hearts a little bit,” she says.

For years, tent encampments made up primarily of adults without children who often used illegal drugs and blocked sidewalks, dominated the national debate over people living on the streets. The issue boiled up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors in public places.

But family homelessness is growing, due to migration and an uneven post-pandemic recovery as COVID-era benefits and government protections against evictions expired.

A federal count found more than 50,000 families with at least one adult and one child experiencing homelessness in 2023. The 186,000 adults with children in those families is up 16% from the previous year, according to a one-night tally by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Most of the growth was attributed to New York, where migrants are filling New York City’s shelters.

In California, the count found more than 25,500 homeless adults with children, including about 600 in San Francisco. The city has 400 spots for families that can accommodate about 750 people, many in private rooms.

As of mid-June, there were more than 500 families on San Francisco’s wait lists for emergency shelter and hotel vouchers.

“Babies cannot wait,” says Porter, 34, an eyebrow esthetician with show-stopping braids.

She fell behind on rent during the pandemic, working multiple, low-wage jobs with five children and limited help for child care.

Jennifer Johnson, 38, grew up homeless, and thought she had left that life. Then she lost her job managing a real estate office at the start of the pandemic, and her apartment when her landlord decided to sell.

Johnson, an aspiring chef, crashed with family and friends when she became pregnant with her first child. When Johnson, who now has two boys, 1 and 3, finally reached out for help, she was told her situation was not dire enough for housing.

“The powers-that-be need to see how this works,” she said, “and how it impacts people.”

Shelter staff turnover is high from burnout and low pay and there are not enough beds or rooms to house everyone in need, much less ensure that homeless families are kept separate from other adults with substance abuse or other problems.

At the end of May, the women descended on City Hall for 30-minute meetings with members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Despite one testy exchange with a supervisor that ended with tears, they declared it a success.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has pledged $50 million for more emergency shelter and housing for families, “an unprecedented level of resources,” said Hope Kamer of Compass, which is working with the city to implement some of the suggestions from the women.

Albert Townsend of the National Alliance to End Homelessness works to ensure that people sharing their stories are groomed for leadership roles where they can have more impact.

“You got more hearts, hands and minds at the table,” he said.

Bleary-eyed from working a graveyard shift staffing a public restroom, Tercero pushed a tire swing on a recent afternoon as her daughters Amairany, 8, Rojelia, 7, and Valentina, 4, laughed.

They have lived in many places, from motel rooms to the red Dodge Durango that has doubled as their home — made cozy with Mickey Mouse shades on its rear windows and dashboard trim painted with red nail polish.

The city can help families by investing in places that feel like a home instead of shelters that can be dangerous and onerous, with rules and reprimands over meal-time signups and curfew, Tercero said. A place, she said, where “you can feel like a person, like a mother instead of like a prisoner.”

 A Communal

Response to, pb&j walking tours.

Welcome regularly takes groups on walking tours to learn about homelessness and poverty.  First, we make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches together while we get to know each other and learn about homelessness in San Francisco.  Then, we walk through the neighborhood handing out sandwiches and talking to homeless and hungry individuals while we stop at locations that help participants learn more about the issues affecting local poverty.  Walking tours occur in San Francisco's Polk Gulch, Tenderloin and Castro neighborhoods.

Groups interested in learning more about PB&J service projects should contact the Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer: [email protected]

Your secure online donation will help us provide eye glasses, advocacy and support to the homeless in San Francisco.

Learn some tangible ways to make a real difference where you live.  Replicate our projects, volunteer and find DIY guides.

Welcome seeks to provide a faithful response to poverty and to improve the quality of life for individuals in our community through hospitality; the arts; education; food; and referrals.

SF city leaders, homeless advocates react to Supreme Court ruling on encampments

By katy st. clair | bay city news • published june 28, 2024 • updated on june 28, 2024 at 5:09 pm.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, and the decision is welcomed by San Francisco city leaders while some homeless advocates called it "shameful."

The high court voted 6-3 on the contentious Grants Pass v. Johnson case that placing restrictions on unhoused people and where they can sleep is not "cruel and unusual" criminalization of homelessness.

Watch NBC Bay Area News 📺 Streaming free 24/7

The court determined that it was constitutional to criminalize sleeping on city streets, even if there was no alternative place offered by the city for the person to go to sleep.

The case has been closely watched in San Francisco because of the city's highly visible homeless population as well as the injunction preventing the city from clearing encampments unless it has first made a genuine offer of shelter that is declined by the people being displaced.

The San Francisco City Attorney's Office on Friday agreed that the decision has "significant implications" for the city.

"San Francisco will continue to take a compassionate, services-first approach to addressing our homelessness crisis," said the City Attorney's Office. "It will take time to analyze this decision and chart a path forward to change policies on the ground and ensure our litigation catches up with the Supreme Court's decision today."

Litigants on both sides of the case -- the advocacy group Coalition on Homelessness and the city of San Francisco -- filed amicus or "friend of the court" briefs in the high court advocating their respective positions.

San Jose has 4th highest homeless population in US

Supreme Court allows cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside

San Francisco Mayor London Breed praised the ruling.

"This decision by the Supreme Court will help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently," she said in a statement released by her office Friday, adding that her administration has made "significant investments in shelter and housing."

Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.

"But too often these offers are rejected, and we need to be able to enforce our laws, especially to prevent long-term encampments," she said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in on the decision on Friday.

"This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and wellbeing of our communities," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, homeless advocates are decrying the ruling.

"The solution is, and has always been, safe and affordable housing. But instead of tackling root causes, elected leaders have chosen to penalize residents who have nowhere else to go," said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness.

The ACLU of Northern California also decried the ruling and cited San Francisco's ordinance that requires the city to offer shelter before clearing an encampment.

"Today's shameful decision guts a key civil rights protection for unhoused people, but it will not derail our lawsuit against San Francisco, which has policies and an ordinance requiring the city to offer shelter before clearing encampments," said John Do, senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.

This article tagged under:

8 homeless moms in San Francisco struggled for help. Now, they're learning to advocate for others

Eight San Francisco women are part of a pilot program by a local nonprofit to engage more homeless parents in advocacy as family homelessness surges in the U.S. The mothers spent six months with Compass Family Services learning about the city's budget ...

SAN FRANCISCO -- They know chronic back pain from couch surfing while pregnant. They tuck their children in at bedtime in the backs of cars and under bridges. Once their kids are asleep, and only then, do they let themselves cry.

Since January, a group of eight San Francisco mothers have met regularly as part of a local nonprofit's pilot program to share their stories and learn to advocate for the needs of families like theirs experiencing homelessness .

“I feel like I failed my kids,” says Teniah Tercero, breaking into tears as she talked about how she hates exposing her three young daughters to the open drug use of the city’s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood where they sleep at a shelter.

The room falls quiet. Christiana Porter, a fellow mom, gently pats Tercero’s shoulder as someone else passes over a box of tissues.

“I know the feeling," adds Danica Gutierrez, also a mother of three girls.

Gutierrez, 29, was skeptical about relaying some of the hardest moments of her life with people who were strangers.

“Then after being in the group, I started realizing that all these ladies have a strong voice,” she said, “and maybe our voices put together could be strong enough to make a difference in someone else’s life.”

The women are on the Family Advisory Committee, a program launched by San Francisco nonprofit Compass Family Services this year to empower homeless people to better serve their needs.

They have learned how the city's budget process works and met with politicians, sharing personal experiences and insight into what the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and nonprofits should be providing.

Broadly, the women describe a homeless services system that is confusing and even hostile, with websites that lack clear information and staff who can feel dismissive.

They want housing for families away from people struggling with drug addiction or behavior issues, and staff trained to welcome homeless families. More money, they say, should be spent on housing rather than short-term shelters.

They also want families to be given clear instructions about which phone numbers to call and when to maintain their place in line for housing. They want caseworkers to return their calls, even if there's no new information to report. They suggest nonprofits stock practical goods such as rain covers for baby strollers and children’s clothing for special occasions, like graduation.

In telling their stories to help others, the women have found a welcome sisterhood.

Some in the group have experienced domestic violence. One mother recently arrived in San Francisco from Nicaragua and, with her husband, kept watch over their daughter, 9, when the family slept outside under blankets and on cardboard. A third-generation San Franciscan sleeps on a foldout couch in her parents’ living room.

Their quest is for a safe, stable home in a city where the median monthly rent is $3,300 and the median price of a house is $1.4 million.

Three years ago, Gutierrez and her girls were sleeping on floor mats at a school gymnasium that doubled as a shelter. Now, she's in a subsidized three-bedroom apartment with a rooftop garden in a building with on-site childcare and case management.

The younger girls, 7 and 8, share a cheerful bedroom brimming with library books and art supplies while their sister, 11, has her own room. In the tiny kitchen, Gutierrez has written “good morning, little children” on a piece of chalkboard. One wall of her bedroom is crowded with her girls' school achievement certificates.

But neighbors in the “permanent supportive housing” site include people struggling with addiction and mental illness and she doesn’t feel her family is safe.

“I just hope that it’s touching the politicians’ hearts a little bit,” she says.

For years, tent encampments made up primarily of adults without children who often used illegal drugs and blocked sidewalks, dominated the national debate over people living on the streets. The issue boiled up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors in public places.

But family homelessness is growing, due to migration and an uneven post-pandemic recovery as COVID-era benefits and government protections against evictions expired.

A federal count found more than 50,000 families with at least one adult and one child experiencing homelessness in 2023. The 186,000 adults with children in those families is up 16% from the previous year, according to a one-night tally by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Most of the growth was attributed to New York, where migrants are filling New York City’s shelters.

In California, the count found more than 25,500 homeless adults with children, including about 600 in San Francisco. The city has 400 spots for families that can accommodate about 750 people, many in private rooms.

As of mid-June, there were more than 500 families on San Francisco’s wait lists for emergency shelter and hotel vouchers.

“Babies cannot wait,” says Porter, 34, an eyebrow esthetician with show-stopping braids.

She fell behind on rent during the pandemic, working multiple, low-wage jobs with five children and limited help for child care.

Jennifer Johnson, 38, grew up homeless, and thought she had left that life. Then she lost her job managing a real estate office at the start of the pandemic, and her apartment when her landlord decided to sell.

Johnson, an aspiring chef, crashed with family and friends when she became pregnant with her first child. When Johnson, who now has two boys, 1 and 3, finally reached out for help, she was told her situation was not dire enough for housing.

“The powers-that-be need to see how this works," she said, “and how it impacts people.”

Shelter staff turnover is high from burnout and low pay and there are not enough beds or rooms to house everyone in need, much less ensure that homeless families are kept separate from other adults with substance abuse or other problems.

At the end of May, the women descended on City Hall for 30-minute meetings with members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Despite one testy exchange with a supervisor that ended with tears, they declared it a success.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has pledged $50 million for more emergency shelter and housing for families, “an unprecedented level of resources,” said Hope Kamer of Compass, which is working with the city to implement some of the suggestions from the women.

Albert Townsend of the National Alliance to End Homelessness works to ensure that people sharing their stories are groomed for leadership roles where they can have more impact.

“You got more hearts, hands and minds at the table,” he said.

Bleary-eyed from working a graveyard shift staffing a public restroom, Tercero pushed a tire swing on a recent afternoon as her daughters Amairany, 8, Rojelia, 7, and Valentina, 4, laughed.

They have lived in many places, from motel rooms to the red Dodge Durango that has doubled as their home — made cozy with Mickey Mouse shades on its rear windows and dashboard trim painted with red nail polish.

The city can help families by investing in places that feel like a home instead of shelters that can be dangerous and onerous, with rules and reprimands over meal-time signups and curfew, Tercero said. A place, she said, where “you can feel like a person, like a mother instead of like a prisoner.”

Trending Reader Picks

GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin appeal ruling allowing disabled people to obtain ballots electronically

• Jun 28, 7:16 PM

In Georgia, conservatives seek to have voters removed from rolls without official challenges

• Jun 29, 12:02 AM

The Supreme Court nears the end of another momentous term. A decision on Trump's immunity looms

• Jun 29, 8:10 AM

Iranian official says reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-liner Saeed Jalili heading to a runoff presidential election

• Jun 29, 4:08 AM

Martin Mull, comic and actor, dead at 80

• Jun 28, 10:57 PM

ABC News Live

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

Watch CBS News

San Francisco leaders react to Supreme Court ruling on homelessness

Updated on: June 28, 2024 / 5:41 PM PDT / CBS/Bay City News Service

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled 6-3 on the contentious Grants Pass v Johnson case that placing restrictions on unhoused people and where they can sleep is not "cruel and unusual" criminalization of homelessness. The decision is being supported by city leaders in San Francisco that have decried the restrictions placed on them regarding encampments.

The court determined that it was constitutional to criminalize sleeping on city streets, even if there was no alternative place offered by the city for the person to go to sleep. 

The case has been closely watched in San Francisco because of the city's highly visible homeless population as well as the injunction preventing the city from clearing encampments unless it has first made a genuine offer of shelter that is declined by the people being displaced. 

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu on Friday said the work is already underway, reshaping city policy on how to manage encampments, particularly when services are declined. 

"So at this very moment, we are analyzing the decision," said Chiu. "We will be providing additional guidance and legal advice to the administration and policy makers as they think about how to change policy based on this decision. The decision is going to provide us with more flexibility in how we address this."

The city attorney repeatedly used the word 'flexibility' suggesting law enforcement -- and citations -- may be needed in some cases. 

"Ask any number of city workers what needs to happen and what's appropriate on one block, on one street, is different from what happens elsewhere," said Chiu.

Litigants on both sides of the case—the advocacy group Coalition on Homelessness and the city of San Francisco—filed amicus or "friend of the court" briefs in the high court advocating their respective positions. 

San Francisco Mayor London Breed praised the ruling. 

"This decision by the Supreme Court will help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently," she said in a statement released by her office Friday, adding that her administration has made "significant investments in shelter and housing."

"But too often these offers are rejected, and we need to be able to enforce our laws, especially to prevent long-term encampments," she said. 

San Francisco Supervisor and mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin released a statement that noted the ruling would give law enforcement more tools to crack down on drug dealing at encampments, but also emphasized the importance of increasing the number of available shelter beds in the city.

"But, from both a pragmatic and effective perspective, San Francisco must still work to create the 2,000 additional shelter beds I called for on the first day of my campaign," the statement read. "Creating these shelter beds is an absolutely necessary part to my comprehensive approach to homelessness." 

Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in on the decision on Friday. 

"This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and wellbeing of our communities," he said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, the decision was blasted by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates.

"Today's shameful decision guts a key civil rights protection for unhoused people, but it will not derail our lawsuit against San Francisco, which has policies and an ordinance requiring the city to offer shelter before clearing encampments," said ACLU of Northern California senior attorney John Do. " Because the city has a history of not keeping its word, we'll be watching closely."

Homeless advocates decried the ruling as the criminalization of poverty. The Coalition on Homelessness, which has sued the city over its policies, says they will continue that fight. 

"Leading up to this decision, from our perspective, the city has already taken the gloves off. You know, we're just gonna keep at it, and this lawsuit will continue at full speed," said Coalition on Homelessness Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach.

Politics followed the ruling as well. SF mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie said the city has been too slow to build out shelter space and get aggressive about filling it up. And it's hardly clear that the court's decision will create any dramatic changes in that regard.

"The Mayor used that injunction as an excuse," said Lurie. "She should have built the shelter beds and cleared the sidewalks years ago."

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who also applauded the ruling, says it still leaves San Francisco facing the same hard fundamental choices about how to manage homelessness in the city. 

"The world for our police officers and public works employees, everybody out on the street, on Monday, is not going to be dramatically different from the world today," said Mandelman. "There are real policy choices about how comfortable we are with our public spaces as they are now. And how willing we are to use a law-enforcement response to try to address it."

The decision doesn't end the case. It now goes back to the lower courts to be resolved in accordance with the 6-3 ruling. And, as some of the reactions to the ruling made clear, it still leaves the city facing choices about how aggressive to be. Those questions continue to divide people in San Francisco. The court ruling certainly has not ended that.

Wilson Walker contributed to this report.

• Supreme Court of the United States
• Homelessness
• Housing Crisis
• San Francisco

Featured Local Savings

More from cbs news.

San Francisco politicos react to first presidential debate

"Fuller House" actor makes directorial debut at SF's Frameline film fest

SF couple to renew their vows 20 years after city's first same-sex marriages

Cubs snap skid with 5-3 win over Giants

• On the Border
• ABC-7 Alert Center
• Watch a Newscast
• ABC-7 StormTrack Doppler
• El Paso Chihuahuas
• Watch Locomotive FC
• Texas Politics
• New Mexico Politics
• Watch Live Events
• Borderland Crimes Podcast
• Community Champions
• Borderland Experts
• Father’s Day
• Good Vibes Only
• Sunday Funday
• Mother’s Day
• Entertainment
• Events Calendar
• ABC-7 Listens
• KVIA Careers
• Borderland Careers
• Contact KVIA
• People of ABC-7
• Closed Captioning
• EEO Public Filing
• FCC Public File
• KVIA Jobs and Internships
• Download Our Apps
• History of KVIA ABC-7
• TV Listings

8 homeless moms in San Francisco struggled for help. Now, they’re learning to advocate for others

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Eight San Francisco women are part of a pilot program by a local nonprofit to engage more homeless parents in advocacy as family homelessness surges in the U.S. The mothers spent six months with Compass Family Services learning about the city’s budget process and the homeless services system. It was not easy for the moms to share personal stories with policymakers, but they hope to improve the system for other families. The women also bonded over shared experiences. They want more money for homes, not shelters. A federal count found more than 50,000 families with children were homeless in 2023.

Jump to comments ↓

Related Articles

Gozo’s Ice Cream: Empowering individuals with disabilities in the Borderland

Wimbledon 2024: Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are taking over tennis

Arizona man gets life sentence on murder conviction in starvation death of 6-year-old son, things to know about the case of missouri prison guards charged with murder in death of a black man.

KVIA ABC 7 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.

Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here

If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here .

New Data: San Francisco Street Homelessness Hits 10-Year Low

San Francisco, CA  – New data released as part of the City’s biennial homeless count shows that the number of people living on the streets of San Francisco has reached the lowest level in at least 10 years. This comes as San Francisco has expanded access to shelter and housing, and increased enforcement of local laws when offers of shelter and service are refused. 

The 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count  conducted in January 2024 found that fewer than 3,000 people are living in tents, structures, or on the streets, a 13% drop since the 2022 PIT Count and the lowest level since before the 2015 PIT Count.

This decline matches recent declines in the City's quarterly tent count. Based on the April tent count, there are 41% fewer tents than since July 2023, the lowest rate that San Francisco has seen in five years.

“We are working every day to move people off our streets and into shelter, housing, and care,” said Mayor London Breed . “This is safer and healthier for people on our streets, and it is better for all of us that want a cleaner and safer San Francisco. Our City workforce is dedicated to making a difference, and we will keep working to get tents off our streets, bring people indoors, and change the conditions in our neighborhoods.” 

Lowest Street Homelessness Level in 10 Years  

In the 2024 PIT Count, 2,912 people were found to be sleeping unsheltered on San Francisco’s streets, either in tents, structures, or on the street. This is a 13% decrease from 2022 when the number was 3,347. This is the lowest this count has been since before 2015, when 3,791 people were found sleeping on the streets. 

Since coming into office, Mayor Breed has prioritized moving people indoors, by expanding shelter and housing to new historic highs, directing consistent encampment outreach efforts, and launching innovative programs like Street to Home , which has bypassed bureaucratic barriers to more quickly place people into vacant housing. She has also successfully worked with state legislators to expand mental health laws at the state level, allowing San Francisco to compel more people unwilling or unable to accept help into treatment and care. 

Progress on Street Encampments  

San Francisco’s encampment teams, organized under the Healthy Street Outreach Center (HSOC), have been conducting operations to offer people shelter and services, enforce local laws to prevent camping when people refuse services, and clean up encampments.

Since the last Point-in-Time Count in 2022, HSOC encampment teams have conducted over 900 operations, moving over 2,800 people directly from encampments into shelter. This is in addition to the thousands of others who accessed shelter during that time through other access points. 

HSOC encampment teams have continued this work in 2024, exceeding their previous year's pace with over 250 operations so far this year. This work has followed the clarification by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the fall of 2023 that stated that people who refuse offers of shelter do not meet the definition of “involuntarily homeless,” and thus, the federal preliminary injunction order does not apply to them. Prior to that clarification, the City had been constrained in what laws could be enforced due to the federal injunction.  

Expanding Shelter and Housing   

San Francisco has expanded shelter capacity by over 60% since 2018, with more shelter beds coming online soon that will reach a 66% expansion. As part of the PIT Count, the sheltered population now accounts for 48% of the overall homeless count, up from 2019 when it only accounted for 36% of the overall homeless count. 

San Francisco has also increased housing slots by over 50% since 2018, giving San Francisco the most housing for the formerly homeless of any city in the Bay Area and the second most per-capita in the country. 

San Francisco has helped over 15,000 people exit homelessness into housing since 2018 and has dramatically increased the rate at which people are exiting homelessness in the last two years. In 2022 and 2023, San Francisco helped an average of 3,300 people per year exit homelessness, a nearly 80% increase from the previous average between 2019 and 2021. This includes people moving into permanent supportive housing, accessing rental subsidies, or receiving travel relocation assistance. 

Mayor Breed’s work to move people off the street and into shelter, housing or back home with family has resulted in a 41% decrease in tents. 

Inflow Increase  

Despite these significant investments, service improvements, and positive outcomes, our community is still seeing a high rate of people becoming homeless. More than 22,000 entered the homelessness response system since our latest PIT Count in 2022. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) estimates that for every one person HSH resolves homelessness for annually, three people become homeless. Though San Francisco’s unsheltered population decreased again in 2024 from 2022 and remains down significantly from 2019, due to Mayor Breed’s significant expansion of shelter, the overall count that includes sheltered and unsheltered individuals increased.  

This can be seen in the increase in the rise in family homelessness and vehicular homelessness between 2022 and 2024. The overall unsheltered population as defined in the PIT Count, which includes both people living on the streets and in vehicles, dropped by 1%, and remains down 16% since 2019. But there was a rise in vehicular homelessness between 2022 and 2024, though the number of people living in vehicles remains below 2019 levels.  

This rise in vehicular homelessness is driven in particular by an increase in family homelessness that has occurred in the last year, resulting from post-COVID economic hardships and by new families arriving in San Francisco without access to housing. Specifically, the 2024 PIT Count saw a 94% increase in families from 2022, which aligns with other City data. 67% of these families are sheltered. Of the families living unsheltered, 90% are residing in vehicles. Mayor Breed’s Safer Families  proposes to address this immediate need.  

About the Point-in-Time Count   

Today the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing released the preliminary results of the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count , a biennial census of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness in a single night. This count provides information that helps the City and County of San Francisco better understand homelessness in the community and guides the way the City and its partners respond to the crisis. The PIT Count helps identify trends and changes in demographics over time and informs future data modeling and planning.

                                                                                          ###

Departments

Homeless sweeps could ramp up in SF after major Supreme Court ruling

"We will continue to offer shelter, but we will not allow those who reject offers of help to remain where they are," said Mayor London Breed in response to the ruling.

• Copy link to this article

The Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on Friday that allows U.S. cities to carry out stricter rules on public camping, a decision that’s expected to result in on-the-ground changes in San Francisco where street conditions have long defined political debate and the city’s reputation nationally.

In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, justices overturned a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that had barred the Oregon city of Grants Pass from enforcing rules against homeless people sleeping outside that advocates argued violated the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause.

In a blistering rejection of homeless advocates’ claims that the Oregon city’s laws were a violation of the Eighth Amendment, the conservative Supreme Court justices determined that “homelessness is complex. It’s causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it.”

“A handful of federal judges cannot begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness,” stated the opinion, delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch. “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime … For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional.”

The ruling’s effects weren’t immediately clear on Friday. However, encampment sweeps will likely become easier for American cities to carry out.

Street encampments have become a symbol of homelessness and destitution in San Francisco and other U.S. cities—and the ruling may open the door for new rules restricting where people can sleep on public property.

Changes to San Francisco’s homelessness policies

Officials told The Standard that San Francisco’s policies regarding shelter wouldn’t stop, and the overall strategy of offering services will stay intact. That differs from a city like Grants Pass, which passed highly punitive laws against sleeping in public which faced legal challenges over the years that eventually reached the Supreme Court.

But some on-the-ground changes could happen in San Francisco. For example, officials said outreach teams that encounter encampments in the city may now be able to clear them after simply asking inhabitants whether they would like to enter a shelter. Today, those teams must make other determinations, such as whether an individual is involuntarily homeless. Officials said the high court’s ruling could change that.

Mayor London Breed said the city won’t tolerate instances where homeless individuals reject shelter.

“There are many people struggling on our streets with addiction and mental illness, and our outreach workers will offer access to treatment while we also work to compel those who are the sickest into care through new tools like expanded conservatorship,” she said. “But those who refuse our help or those who already have shelter will not be allowed to camp on our streets. It’s not healthy, safe, or compassionate for people on the street and it’s not acceptable for our neighborhoods.”

Politically, the ruling is a major victory for San Francisco’s moderate elected officials and concerned residents, who have taken an increasingly hard stance on homelessness in recent years. 

Fierce opposition to the ruling from a long list of local advocacy groups is all but certain. Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness Jennifer Friedenbach, one of the city’s most influential advocates for unhoused residents, called the Supreme Court’s decision a “real kick in the knees” to people on the streets in an interview.

“This decision basically says that it is okay to cite and arrest people who are too poor to afford the rent and have no choice but to sleep on the street,” said Friedenbach. “No amount of arrests will lead people off the streets. It just exacerbates homelessness.”

Critics of the ruling are expected to argue that the court’s decision won’t impact the deeper-rooted issues of the crisis facing San Francisco’s streets, like affordable housing.

At the Supreme Court, petitioners argued that federal courts had overstepped in preventing cities from combatting homelessness, stating in previous oral arguments that the Ninth Circuit’s “failed experiment” had fueled the spread of encampments while “harming those it purports to protect.” Those seeking to uphold the appeals court ruling have said petitioners want to criminalize homelessness or are pushing the homeless problem around through sweeps.

The Coalition on Homelessness’ lawsuit against San Francisco will now proceed after a federal magistrate judge paused the case until after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. 

The coalition’s claims about the Eighth Amendment will likely be impacted by the Supreme Court’s decision. That includes an injunction that restricts how the city can sweep encampments. Other claims about the Fourth Amendment—how San Francisco can handle homeless people’s property—will continue to be hashed out locally.

Read the U.S. Supreme Court decision:

Nisha Kashyap, one of the lead attorneys representing advocates in the lawsuit against the city, said she expects the Supreme Court’s decision to potentially nullify the local injunction.

“I think many folks are deeply concerned about this decision,” said Kashyap. “It’s important that San Francisco doesn’t interpret this as a way to crack down on people who don’t have anywhere else to go. I think that would be a grave mistake.”

The coalition’s suit was filed in September 2022 and accused the city of violating the law by destroying homeless people’s property without offering alternative shelter.

“San Francisco has and will continue to take a compassionate, services-first approach to addressing our homelessness crisis,” said City Attorney David Chiu in a statement. “It will take time to analyze this decision and chart a path forward to change policies on the ground and ensure our litigation catches up with the Supreme Court’s decision today.”

In a statement, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the Supreme Court’s ruling “removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years.”

“California remains committed to respecting the dignity and fundamental human needs of all people and the state will continue to work with compassion to provide individuals experiencing homelessness with the resources they need to better their lives,” Newsom said.

Gabe Greschler can be reached at [email protected]

Filed Under

How U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on homeless camping affects San Francisco

S an Francisco officials and advocates are planning their next steps after a U.S. Supreme Court decision effectively gave the OK for cities to enact restrictive laws targeting outdoor camping.

Why it matters: City officials lauded the decision on Friday, saying it would give them more flexibility to address long-term encampments while keeping streets safe and clean.

Driving the news: The Supreme Court sided with Grants Pass, Oregon in a 6-3 ruling Friday, saying the city has the authority to enforce ordinances that criminalize behaviors associated with being unhoused — like sleeping or camping on public property or parks — even when no shelter is available.

Catch up quick: A lower court decision ruling against Grants Pass served as the basis for a December 2022 emergency order that barred San Francisco from clearing encampments until more shelter beds are available.

• That lawsuit, brought on behalf of the Coalition on Homelessness, accused SF of violating unhoused people's rights , destroying their belongings and unlawfully endangering their lives with its methods for clearing encampments.

Zoom in: While it was later clarified that city workers can clear an encampment if a person experiencing homelessness rejects a specific shelter offer, San Francisco submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court arguing the lower court ruling " overextended the Eighth Amendment ."

• The brief is quoted in Justice Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion, where he points to San Francisco as a city that enforces anti-camping laws not to criminalize homelessness but "as one important tool among others" in the balance of servicing people in need and maintaining public safety.

What they're saying: "There are many people struggling on our streets with addiction and mental illness, and our outreach workers will offer access to treatment," Mayor London Breed said in a statement . "But those who refuse our help or those who already have shelter will not be allowed to camp on our streets."

• San Francisco is reviewing the decision to ensure its policies and procedures are updated accordingly, Breed said.
• While city workers will continue to offer shelter, "my hope is that we can clear them all," she later said about encampments during a news conference. Increasing arrests and citations for unhoused people "is not being ruled out at this time," she added.

The other side: The "shameful decision guts a key civil rights protection for unhoused people," John Do, senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, said in a statement .

• "San Francisco should not interpret this ruling as a green light to unlawfully crack down on unhoused residents."

Between the lines: A 2016 voter proposition requires the city to give 24-hour advance notice and offer available shelter before clearing a tent.

• That didn't change under the emergency order, and it's something homeless advocates say they're closely monitoring amid any changes resulting from the Supreme Court ruling.

The big picture: San Francisco's most recent quarterly tent count, conducted at the end of April, found a 41% reduction in tents and structures from July 2023.

Yes, but: Researchers tell Axios only housing — and much more of it — will solve the crisis.

What to watch: The Grants Pass case addressed only one of 13 claims in the ongoing lawsuit against San Francisco, which will go to trial in May 2025.

Get more local stories in your inbox with Axios San Francisco.

Some cities facing homelessness crisis applaud Supreme Court decision, while others push back

San Francisco’s mayor says the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces will allow the city to begin clearing homeless encampments that have plagued the city

SEATTLE — A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces will allow San Francisco to begin clearing homeless encampments that have plagued the city, the mayor said Friday as she applauded the ruling.

The case is the most significant on the issue to come before the high court in decades and comes as cities across the country have wrestled with the politically complicated issue of how to deal with a rising number of people without a permanent place to live and public frustration over related health and safety issues.

“We will continue to lead with services, but we also can’t continue to allow people to do what they want on the streets of San Francisco, especially when we have a place for them to go,” San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed, a Democrat, said in the wake of the 6-3 ruling.

Breed said she will review the ruling with the City Attorney’s Office before implementing any new policies, and the city will provide training to those clearing camps.

But the ruling was not welcomed everywhere and some cities, such as Seattle, said their approach to encampments will not change. A spokesperson for the Portland, Oregon, mayor’s office said it was prevented by a state law from making major changes based on the court decision.

Cody Bowman, a spokesperson for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat who has seen his two terms buffeted by discontent over the city’s homeless crisis, said they hoped the decision would push the state Legislature to take up the issue and “see this opportunity to consider the tools cities truly need to manage public camping, provide sufficient shelter, and keep our streets safe and clean.”

Boise, Idaho’s mayor, a Democrat, likewise said the city would not change its approach to those sleeping in public spaces, which includes case management and supportive housing.

“In Boise, we take care of people. Criminalizing homelessness has never, and will never, solve the problems associated with homelessness,” said Mayor Lauren McLean. “We must address the root causes with proven strategies, like permanent supportive housing, that empower our residents to stay housed and thrive in their community.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is scheduled to sign a state budget in the coming days that includes another $250 million in grants for local governments to clear homeless encampments, said the ruling gives state and local officials “the definitive authority” to enforce policies that clear unwanted encampments.

“This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities,” Newsom said in a statement after the ruling, which came the same day Los Angeles released an annual count of the homeless population.

Sara Rankin, a professor of law at Seattle University who direct its Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, said the decision will likely result in a type of free-for-all for cities banning people from sleeping on the streets. But she said state constitutional provisions and other federal constitutional provisions could then be invoked.

“I think a number of cities are going to misread this as a green light for open season on unhoused folks,” she said. “But when they do that they’ll do it at their peril because I think that lawyers are going to come back at them under other theories that are still available to them, that are left untouched by today’s decision.”

The case came from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass , which appealed a ruling striking down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outside after tents began crowding public parks. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the nine Western states, has held since 2018 that such bans violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there aren’t enough shelter beds.

Jesse Rabinowitz, the communications and campaign director at the National Homelessness Law Center, said he worries this decision will empower cities to focus even more on arresting people sleeping outside, rather than focusing on proven solutions.

“There are encampments in California and D.C. and New York, not because there aren’t laws to punish people, but because there’s not enough housing that meets everybody’s needs,” he said. “And this case will make it harder to focus on the true solutions.”

Support Our Back-To-School Drive!

Gala raised a record-breaking $1 million, shop our essentials amazon wish list, executive leadership council, come tour our house.

• First Name *
• Last Name *
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Supreme Court: Cities can cite, fine homeless for camping in public places

'we cannot arrest our way out of homelessness:' bay area reacts to supreme court ruling.

The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can issue citations, fines and ultimately remove people who camp outdoors in public places – something that the city of San Francisco and California's governor had been pushing for.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can issue citations, fines and ultimately remove people who camp outdoors in public places – something that the city of San Francisco and California's governor had been pushing for.

"Today’s Supreme Court ruling … provides state and local officials the definitive authority to implement and enforce policies to clear unsafe homeless encampments and helps us deliver common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the U.S. are without a permanent place to live.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 181,399 people are unhoused in California, a 40 percent increase from five years ago.  28 percent, or roughly one out of every three unhoused residents in the U.S. live in California. 

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court reversed a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that found citing people for sleeping outdoors was unconstitutional.

This case originated out of Grants Pass, Oregon. The city had passed a law that said people who camp on city streets could be subject to citations, fines, and ultimately removal from those public spaces. Advocates for people who are homeless  sued, arguing the law amounts to cruel and unusual punishment - a violation of the 8th amendment - because it would criminalize sleeping, a basic human need. 

Grants Pass attorneys argued cruel and unusual punishment applies to things like torture or hard labor sentences - not tickets for camping in public spaces. 

A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices sided with Grants Pass. 

"Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. "A handful of federal judges cannot begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness."

A bipartisan group of leaders had argued the ruling against the bans made it harder to manage outdoor encampments encroaching on sidewalks and other public spaces in nine Western states. That includes California.

Homeless advocates, on the other hand, said that allowing cities to punish people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness and ultimately make the crisis worse. Cities had been allowed to regulate encampments but couldn’t bar people from sleeping outdoors.

"Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, reading from the bench a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues. "Punishing people for their status is ‘cruel and unusual’ under the Eighth Amendment," she wrote in the dissent.

In an interview with KTVU on Friday, Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director for the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, agreed with Sotomayor. 

"We have a situation where the Supreme Court said homeless people can be arrested because they are poor and they have no other choice but to sleep on the street," she said. "We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness. This decision will exacerbate the problem of homelessness. We know what the solutions are: People need affordable housing."

The city of San Francisco had been pushing to clear the multitude of homeless encampments.

Pleased with the decision, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu vowed that the city "has and will continue to take a compassionate, services-first approach to addressing our homelessness crisis."

He added that it will take time to analyze this decision and "chart a path forward to change policies on the ground and ensure our litigation catches up with the Supreme Court’s decision."

That said, Chiu said the Supreme Court’s decision will give cities more flexibility to provide services to unhoused people while also keeping the streets clean.

"It will help us address our most challenging encampments, where services are often refused and re-encampment is common," Chiu wrote. "In this case, the Justices grappled with many complicated policy questions that our city workers face on the street every day. The complexity of these questions, and the lived experiences of our city’s workers, illustrate why our position has been that courts are not equipped to police every interaction between government workers and unhoused people. The Supreme Court agreed with that principle today.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed echoed with Chiu and Newsom said. 

"This decision by the Supreme Court will help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently," Breed said in a statement. "San Francisco has made significant investments in shelter and housing. But too often these offers are rejected, and we need to be able to enforce our laws, especially to prevent long-term encampments. This decision recognizes that cities must have more flexibility to address challenges on our streets."

Grants Pass had fined people $295 for sleeping outside after tents began crowding public parks. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the nine Western states, ruled in 2018 that such fines violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there aren’t enough shelter beds.

Friday’s ruling comes after homelessness in the United States grew a dramatic 12% last year to its highest reported level, as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more people.

More than 650,000 people are estimated to be homeless, the most since the country began using a yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. Nearly half of them sleep outside. Older adults, LGBTQ+ people and people of color are disproportionately affected, advocates said. In Oregon, a lack of mental health and addiction resources has also helped fuel the crisis.

The Associated Press' Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report. 

Supreme Court allows cities to enforce bans on…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Things to do
• Real Estate
• Newsletters

News Politics

Supreme court allows cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking.

The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the U.S. are without a permanent place to live .

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition does not extend to bans on outdoor sleeping bans.

“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “A handful of federal judges cannot begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness.”

He suggested that people who have no choice but to sleep outdoors could raise that as a “necessity defense,” if they are ticketed or otherwise punished for violating a camping ban.

A bipartisan group of leaders had argued the ruling against the bans made it harder to manage outdoor encampments encroaching on sidewalks and other public spaces in nine Western states. That includes California, which is home to one-third of the country’s homeless population.

“Cities across the West report that the 9th Circuit’s involuntary test has crated intolerable uncertainty for them,” Gorsuch wrote.

Homeless advocates, on the other hand, said that allowing cities to punish people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness and ultimately make the crisis worse. Cities had been allowed to regulate encampments but couldn’t bar people from sleeping outdoors.

“Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, reading from the bench a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues.

“Punishing people for their status is ‘cruel and unusual’ under the Eighth Amendment,” she wrote in the dissent. ”It is quite possible, indeed likely, that these and similar ordinances will face more days in court.”

The case came from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which appealed a ruling striking down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outside after tents began crowding public parks. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the nine Western states, has held since 2018 that such bans violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there aren’t enough shelter beds.

Friday’s ruling comes after homelessness in the United States grew a dramatic 12% last year to its highest reported level, as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more people.

More than 650,000 people are estimated to be homeless, the most since the country began using a yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. Nearly half of them sleep outside. Older adults, LGBTQ+ people and people of color are disproportionately affected, advocates said. In Oregon, a lack of mental health and addiction resources has also helped fuel the crisis.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court .

More in Politics

Politics | Judge partially ends court oversight of migrant children, chipping away at 27-year arrangement

Politics | San Diego is spending millions to upgrade its aging pools. Here’s which will get a facelift first.

What it means for the Supreme Court to throw out Chevron decision, undercutting federal regulators

Politics | Supreme Court makes it harder to charge Capitol riot defendants with obstruction, charge Trump faces