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.”
Well you shouldn’t be poor or have a mental illness, duh!
When I was your age I had sixteen mental illnesses and I just buckled down, worked 80 hours a week, had three kids, owned $800k in rental properties, became a VP at a national bank, survived five different sexual assault charges, and retired to a golf course in Miami Beach.
The only reason other people don’t do the same thing is because they’re lazy.
Putting them in prison is also not a solution though…
Like wtf
They will never fix the issue. The amount of money SF spends on homeless per year and since 2000 I bet they could have built the 20k units.
Something needs to be done. It’s out of control.
Yes breed, go harder right, you’ll definitely not alienate more of your voters and leave room for peskin. You’ll definitely pick up votes to your right from the billionaire backed candidates that they really want.
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.
