It was a beautiful day at Alamo Square, as people from all over the world gathered to see the historic Painted ladies and take in the San Francisco skyline. On this Thursday, the global gathering ground was also the stage for a fiercely local discussion.
The media gathering was called to publicize the San Francisco Democratic Party’s endorsement of Mayor London Breed. But with the release of Governor Newsom’s order just hours before, many of the questions from the media were focused on one thing. “Madame Mayor, if we could talk to you about — your initial impression of the Governor’s executive order regarding the homeless encampments,” was the first one posed.
The homelessness crisis has been the focus of much of this year’s upcoming mayoral election and Mayor Breed’s tenure in office. A recent Supreme Court ruling has given more power to local governments in enforcing criminal penalties for public camping. But what does the executive order actually mean?
Civil rights attorney Andrea Henson put it simply: “So basically, what it does is it gives authority, not only to state agencies, and it directs state agencies to sweep homeless encampments, but it also tells local governments that they should adopt the same policies."
As the executive director of "Where Do We Go," a non-profit dedicated to homeless legal defense, Andrea's work often finds her right at the frontlines of these encampment sweeps. Henson says she was concerned that while Newsom’s directive gives credence to local government’s sweeping, there is nothing enforcing outreach to help the people displaced.“There isn't enough housing, the services, you know," she said. "People wonder, why aren't people going inside? I think if we ask that question, they would see that the services are very lacking.”
At the press conference, Mayor Breed had a different explanation. She said, “We have offered people shelter and space and many people are declining the offer. And so if we have people who are declining on multiple occasions, it gives us the ability to enforce the law. “
Backed by the Governor’s order, the Mayor argued that sweeping the encampments is in the name of housing: “This is not just about cleaning and clearing, because these are people and they have to go somewhere. But we are gonna make them so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer, that is what we are trying to accomplish.”
However, when pushed on whether shelter is available, Breed did not know if there was a shelter waitlist. According to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Adult Shelter Reservation Waitlist is 135 people-deep.
Lukaz Illa, an organizer at the Coalition on Homelessness, saw the directive as political incentive in a contentious election year rather than action to address the homeless crisis. They said,“I want to emphasize that folks are not only, they're not service resistant, that they're not being offered shelter to begin with.”
Since the order does not hold legal weight on the local level, Lukas argued that responses will have voters in mind over the unhoused people directly affected. "It just means that, you know, the way that politicians are going to score political points is off the backs of poor people and homeless folks,” they said.
Regardless of whether Gov. Newsom’s order is carried out in San Francisco, it appears that the issue of homelessness isn’t going to disappear anytime soon.