According to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless, who just released a report cloyingly titled "Homes Not Handcuffs," San Francisco is the seventh meanest city in the county. That is to say, we're the seventh meanest place when it comes to dealing with the homeless and homeless crisis in the U.S. Curbed reports that "out of the 273 cities the study looked into, San Francisco ranked 7th on the list."
The breakdown is like this:
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. St. Petersburg, FL
3. Orlando, FL
4. Atlanta, GA
5. Gainesville, FL
6. Kalamazoo, MI
7. San Francisco, CA
8. Honolulu, HI
9. Bradenton, FL
10. Berkeley, CA
Each city was ranked on their criminalization of homelessness, if you will, via "enactment and enforcement of laws that restrict groups sharing food with homeless persons in public spaces," "sweeps of city areas in which homeless persons are living to drive them out of those areas, frequently resulting in the destruction of individuals’ personal property such as important personal documents and medication," "enactment and enforcement of legislation that makes it illegal to sleep, sit, or store personal belongings in public spaces in cities where people are forced to live in public space," and other criteria. To check out the report in its entirety, go here. (Warning, it's a .pdf, which, oddly enough, is the cruelest kind of link!)