Mayor London Breed said a “very aggressive” sweep of San Francisco homeless encampments will start in August, after a recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the path for widespread enforcement.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that enforcing rules against homeless people for sleeping outside doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause.
On Thursday, Breed celebrated the ruling and said the city plans to change its protocols and may begin issuing criminal penalties against homeless people.
“Thank goodness for the change in the Supreme Court decision,” Breed said at an election debate hosted by a local firefighter’s union. “Effective August, we are going to be very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments, which may even include criminal penalties.”
Too many people lack compassion.
I almost became homeless myself recently because the landlord wanted his house back after me renting the place for 19 years. It wasn’t my fault, and I simply cannot afford rent anywhere else with my SSDI income.
All the usual suggestions and arguments in favor of homeless sweeps and victim blaming fall apart for people like me: shelters are not an option because I don’t always stay sane when exposed to too many people; I’m not on recreational drugs at this time, so I can’t be dismissed as deserving of homelessness for that reason; I’m taking my meds as I should; I can’t get HUD vouchers because I’m sleeping on a relative’s porch; mental institutions are not an option unless I’m in imminent danger of hurting myself or others; etc.
The reality is that a person in need often faces roadblock after roadblock when trying to find housing, and there aren’t enough funds handed out to solve the problem. I’m just grateful to be one of the lucky few who is stabilizing with a roof over my head, incomplete as it is.
I think most people just won’t care until it happens to them.
Fuck this guy. Instead of trying to hide them you could try helping them, would go a lot farther than destroying their tents and handful of belongings they have bcz you don’t like to look at it.
Wow, how original… Waiting for the ACAB, bootlicker, etc. comments. You need a reality check.
The mayor’s pronouns are she/her. But I agree with your point, and so do a very great number of San Francisco residents. The current/upcoming mayoral election is being predictably pushed as a big fight over law and order issues by big-money organizations (a lot of the money coming from silicon valley, outside of SF) and also by corporate-owned local media. The mayor is cynically playing to that tune in her uphill battle to get reelected. As if that weren’t bad enough she had to springboard this off of a cruel Supreme court decision at a time when her constituents are mostly disgusted with the court.
Something needs to be done. It’s out of control.
Or how about you actually build some housing for these people?
The chronically homeless, the ones that are hardest to get off the street, are difficult to house for reasons besides availability or cost, though.
And we could still fund a facility and staff to house and treat them and it would be cheaper than the current emergency services and courts costs. It would also be more humane and prevent massive encampments from forming.
They dont want to stay though. You have to realize that some people just dont think the way others think. Call it mental illness, call it mental differences, call it whatever you want. But some people are just not compatible with homes.
We already built more than enough houses. The problem is that bank and landlords profits contribute to economic growth, the mandate of capitalism. Housing the homeless would contribute far more to economic growth. But, it’d take more than four years to see the results.
So no. We can’t house them. The need to suffer because otherwise capitalism is threatened.
There’s not as much profit in it, so the private sector won’t touch it, it’s that simple.
We need social housing, designed and built to be as affordable as possible, with the option to rent at just above cost or rent to buy.
Of course, the usual twats will start crying about socialism but fuck them. If capitalism fails then the state has to step in.
Not sure about this.
