San Francisco Mayor London Breed touts drop in people living in tents on city's streets
San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday celebrated new data showing the number of people living in tents in the city has hit the lowest point in six years.
However, some skeptics say those numbers do not reflect reality on San Francisco's streets.
In August, Breed started ramping up enforcement of anti-camping laws following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson case and an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom to clear encampments.
CBS News Bay Area talked to Mel, a woman who has worked at Marina Floral Designs on O'Farrell St. for a decade an a half.
"In this neighborhood, 15 years," she explained while assembling a floral arrangement. When asked if she's seen a lot in her time in the Tenderloin, she replied with one word: "Everything."
On Thursday, her sidewalk has all of one tent on it, and she says it likely won't be there long.
"I give it one or two more days until some friends will move into it," she says. "Or the police will try to kick them out or the city service."
"It's finally starting to happen," Mayor London Breed declared Thursday. "We're seeing remarkable changes. The streets are looking better. The streets are a lot cleaner, but we also know there's so much more work to do."
Across town, Mayor Breed was touting a citywide drop in the number of tent encampments. According to the most recent quarterly count, those numbers are down 60% since July of last year. She says the progress has picked up speed in the wake of the Grants Pass court ruling, and stepped up enforcement.
Critics of the mayor's encampment strategy say the tent numbers don't tell the whole story.
"Right now we're seeing a political response to an election year," said River Beck with the Coalition on Homelessness. "That's been taken out on a vulnerable community. People are still out there. Just because you're removing tents doesn't mean you're solving homelessness."
So where is everyone going? Close to 1,000 people have accepted shelter so far this year, and 365 of those just since August 1st when these operations were stepped up a bit. But not everyone on the streets is necessarily without a home or shelter.
"We also know that these encampments are actually a draw on people who may have placements they may have shelter," Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said Thursday. "They may have housing and they are still coming back to use substances on the street. I think clearing encampments, making it clear that if you have a need for shelter or treatment, we will get that for you. But you cannot stay on our sidewalks and you cannot be engaged in illegal activities in our public spaces."
Part of the goal in reducing homelessness is breaking up a pattern of behavior on top of reaching those who have, so far, been reluctant to accept the help that has been offered.
"And in some of those locations, we do, you know, find people that we repeatedly engage," said Sam Dodge with the Department of Emergency Management.
And the city says it's going to keep going back, hoping to keep chipping away at that resistance, even if, to some, it looks like going in circles.
"Once they get rid of it, they just go across the street," Mel said of the tent outside her work. "Wait for that cleaning service thing and then they just gonna pop back in."
Since August 1st, 296 people have been cited or arrested. 80% of those cited for illegal lodging and released on site. Many of the arrests have been for outstanding warrants.
Questions remain. Do people feel progress is being made? Can they see that progress? One big measure of that will, of course, come in 25 days when voters go to the polls and decide who will preside over these challenges for the next four years.