James Reem has been living in a tent on the corner of Fell and Baker streets for more than a year. A professional artist, he said he was evicted from his apartment after problems with his landlord and lived in a van for a while. After the van was towed away, someone gave him a tent and he went out on the street.
Their tent is set up outside the city’s only DMV office, across the street from the Panhandle, a lush stretch of greenery that opens onto Golden Gate Park in a family-friendly neighborhood graced by rows of well-kept Victorian homes.
It’s a comfortable place, said Reem, 59, with a sidewalk wide enough to accommodate her tent and still leave room for pedestrians. Some days, Reem is one of a dozen or more people living in tents on the stretch of concrete.
“There are a few of us who stick together,” Reem said.
“They don’t care about the homeless,” James Reem said of San Francisco’s plans to clear the encampments. “They care about getting rid of us.”
(Hannah Wiley/Los Angeles Times)
Her adopted neighborhood is among dozens of sites likely to be targeted as the city launches what Mayor London Breed has said will be an assertive campaign to force people off the streets in response to a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
An estimated 8,300 people are living without homes in San Francisco. And despite efforts over the years to move people into temporary shelters or permanent housing, unsanctioned encampments remain a widespread and visible problem, often accompanied by litter, theft and open drug use.
For years, Breed and other city officials said their hands were tied by decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers many Western states, that deemed it cruel and unusual punishment to penalize someone for sleeping on the streets if legal shelter was not available.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision in a landmark ruling June 28, saying cities in California and the West can enforce laws restricting homeless encampments on sidewalks and other public property.
On Thursday, citing the ruling, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring state agencies to remove encampments in their jurisdictions. While the directive does not require cities to follow suit, Newsom urged them to do so, characterizing the proliferation of encampments as a health and safety hazard that requires immediate action.
Breed, another Democrat, has also welcomed the ruling. Last week, she said that armed with the high court’s decision, she will lead a “very aggressive” effort to clear out homeless encampments starting in August. She said the effort could include criminal penalties for refusing to disperse.
Breed was not available for an interview Friday and his office has not yet provided details about what the raids will entail or where people living in tents are expected to be relocated. His spokesman, Jeff Cretan, said some of those details will become clearer next week.
During a mayoral debate on July 18 hosted by the local firefighters union, Breed acknowledged that his decision to organize raids was “not popular” but said it was a necessary step.
“We’ve had to move from being a compassionate city to a responsible city,” he said. “And I’ve led efforts to make sure that we’re addressing this problem in a different way than we’ve ever done before.”
She said the city has worked over the past few years to add shelter beds and deploy social workers to offer services and support. But even when social workers offer shelter, according to the mayor's office, those offers are rejected nearly 70% of the time.
San Francisco has experimented with sanctioned tent cities in an effort to address the needs of its homeless population.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
Breed’s push is likely to generate headlines in San Francisco that contradict the narratives promoted by conservative pundits as Vice President Kamala Harris ramps up her presidential campaign. Her Republican opponents have long sought to portray Harris, who rose to political power in 2004 as San Francisco’s elected district attorney, as a California liberal whose policies have contributed to the rise in homelessness and retail crime plaguing her home state.
But the Supreme Court ruling is causing divisions among local Democratic leaders in California. More left-leaning Democrats, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, say the decision will allow cities to criminalize homelessness without doing anything to address the root causes, including addiction and a shortage of affordable housing. It’s a sentiment shared by homeless advocates.
“This order will not reduce homelessness or deter encampments, but it will leave vulnerable people even further from home and health than they are today,” Sharon Rapport, state policy director for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, said in an emailed statement.
It’s unclear whether San Francisco has enough shelter beds to accommodate the potential wave of people forced off the streets. Since Breed took office, the city has expanded shelter beds from about 2,500 to nearly 4,000, according to her office, and expanded permanent supportive housing to about 14,000 spaces.
The DMV encampment where Reem lives is one of several that city officials have evicted time and again, only to see him return days later. So far this year, the camp has been evicted more than a dozen times, according to the mayor’s office.
Reem says he feels safer outside than in an emergency shelter, where he worries about his belongings being stolen. He said he would accept help from city workers, but he also said he believes Breed’s plan is less about helping people like him and more about clearing out tents that are bothering the public.
“They don’t care about the homeless,” he said. “They care about getting rid of us.”
