Homeless advocacy groups rally against new sweep orders
Holding signs that read "house keys not handcuffs" and "sleeping is not a crime," protesters gathered Tuesday in front of San Francisco's Hotel Whitcomb to denounce recent measures they said would criminalize people facing homelessness.
Instead of arresting those sleeping outdoors, advocates called for city leaders to house homeless people in vacant spaces, such as Hotel Whitcomb. The hotel has remained closed to the public since it was utilized by the city to house homeless individuals in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tuesday's rally on Market Street followed a late June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court and subsequent actions and announcements from state and city leaders. After the Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings that found it cruel under the Eighth Amendment to punish people for sleeping outdoors, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to clear homeless encampments, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the authorization of aggressive camp sweeps expected this August.
Speaking at the podium Tuesday, San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston thanked homeless advocates for continuing to work toward housing people "no matter which way the political winds shift, no matter what Trump's Supreme Court says, no matter what our mayor says during an election year."
"The problem is, whenever we do these things and they start to work, a bunch of very, very wealthy people realize that to sustain that work, they're going to have to help fund it," Preston said. "And so, they go out of their way to come up with these ridiculous and cruel narratives that somehow people are homeless because they don't want to be housed, which is absolutely absurd and offensive."
Breed's office did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, but the mayor previously released statements saying San Francisco is a city that prioritizes compassion.
"And we will continue to lead with services, but we cannot allow for people to refuse services and shelter when offered and available," Breed's statement continued.
In a video embedded in a July 25 press release from the governor's office, Newsom said he didn't think there was anything more urgent and more frustrating than addressing the issue of encampments in the state of California.
"Over the course of the last number of years, the state has stepped up, where in the past, we provided no support, no resources, to cities and counties to clean up encampments," Newsom said, further noting the previous legal challenges local governments faced when attempting to clean up encampments prior to the Supreme Court's decision. "It's time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites to focus on public health and focus on public safety. There are no longer any excuses."
Also present at the demonstration Tuesday were representatives of local advocacy organizations, such as Young Women's Freedom Center and Coalition on Homelessness, along with those who were formerly homeless and John Do, senior attorney for the Racial & Economic Justice Program at the ACLU of Northern California.
"The Eighth Amendment no longer stops the government from arresting you and jailing you for just sleeping outside, but that decision doesn't end other civil rights and important protections that we all have," Do said at the demonstration. "So we're still here, and we're going to defend things like due process, equal protection, the Fourth and 14th Amendment, and state and local protections too. So the fight's not over."
Preston called it unconscionable that the city has vacant apartments with people sleeping on the streets. The U.S. Census Bureau's most recent American Community Survey on occupancy status in San Francisco found about 52,600 units to be vacant in the city. The 2024 Point in Time count, which captures the number of those experiencing homelessness on a given night in January, counted 8,323 individuals.
"The Supreme Court issued the invitation and authorized cities and states all across the nation to criminalize poverty, to sweep and arrest homeless people for the crime of being homeless even when they're not offered anywhere to go," Preston said. "Local officials in San Francisco should reject that invitation to criminalize being homeless."
"That we had to move and that only thing available now is shelter beds," was what Jessica knew of the situation.
Tuesday was to be moving day for Jessica and everyone else living in the handful of tents up and down 19th St. between Harrison and Folsom, one of several locations the city had scheduled for its expanding encampment removal. Everyone there said they had been given advance notice by the city, and offered shelter space.
"That's just not gonna work for me because of my dogs," she said. "There's dogs running around, like big dogs. And they'd kill my dogs. It's just a bad situation you know."
"Expanded all types of housing, acquisition," Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness told the crowd outside the Hotel Whitcombe. "This building is for sale."
Those that have sued the city over its homeless response denounced both the Mayor and the Governor's push to clear encampments.
"We have over 700 supportive housing units sitting vacant," Friedenbach said.
"So I would suggest you get your fax from the office of housing and homeless services," Mayor London Breed has said of the criticism.
As recently as last week, Breed pushed back on that assessment of the numbers. She pointed to the breakdown of those 700 units, suggesting many of them are not ready to be used for various reasons.
"Just because they have some units that might require some work before people should move in," Supervisor Dean Preston added. "They've been saying that for two years."
It seems the city is going to need more space of every kind: supportive, housing, and shelter, because increased enforcement will demand more space. The teams that go out often slow down towards the end of the day as the shelter spots begin to fill up, one likely reason the tents on 19th Street were still present. But, shelter is not always the preferred choice.
"Anything that's more private, like the tiny houses over there," Jessica said. "I was begging them, me and my boyfriend, we're begging them for three years to go to one of those and they just wouldn't do it."