SF News Dead Body Discovered While Clearing Large Homeless Encampment Near Oakland's Fruitvale As the City of Oakland proceeds with an aggressive effort to clear dozens of homeless encampments that have sprung up around the city, police and cleanup crews made a grim discovery on Monday afternoon.
SF News New California Bill Would Outlaw Arresting or Fining Unhoused People Camping In the Street Several California mayors (including SF’s own) cheered a June Supreme Court decision that allowed cities to arrest or prosecute those camping on the street. But a new proposed California law could bring that practice to a complete halt.
SF News Mayor Breed Touts 60% Drop in Tents on Streets, Mandelmans’s District 8 Supposedly Has Just One Tent Some very encouraging new statistics saying the number of tents on San Francisco streets is at a six-year low, including there being only one tent counted in District 8, but this does not seem to have meaningfully lowered SF’s homeless population.
SF News SFMTA Votes to Tow RVs Parked Overnight on Streets If Campers Refuse Offers of Shelter San Francisco's rules targeting people who live in parked RVs on the streets are about to tighten up, as the SF Municipal Transit Agency has approved a law to tow people’s RVs if they refuse an offer of shelter.
SF Politics Sheng Thao Issues Executive Order to Ramp Up Oakland Encampment Sweeps Facing a recall election and a slew of scandals, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is seizing on a recent Supreme Court decision to proclaim that the city will get a lot more aggressive in clearing homeless encampments.
SF Politics Even In Liberal Berkeley, Aggressive Encampment Sweeps Set to Begin A ruling by the Supreme Court allowing cities to crack down on illegal camping without necessarily providing shelter to the unhoused has even brought Berkeley's city council around to approving more unfettered encampment sweeps.
SF News Hayes Valley Building Destroyed By Fire Full of Squatters, Stoking Fears It Could Be Destroyed By Fire Again It was last August when an under-construction Hayes Valley building caught fire, with many speculating that people camped just outside the site caused the fire. Construction has gone nowhere since, and neighbors are alarmed that squatters appear to have moved in, and it could just burn again.
SF Politics Newsom Says He’ll Yank Counties’ Funding If They Don’t Clear Homeless Encampments Aggressively Enough Governor Gavin Newsom is ratcheting up the threat level toward California cities and counties on the homeless encampment front, now saying he’ll cut their funding if they aren’t more aggressive in clearing encampments.
SF News Tents Return Right Away In Mission District, Tenderloin Areas Targeted By Encampment Sweeps The new and supposedly more aggressive sweeps of homeless encampments are turning into a familiar game of whack-a-mole, as new tents are reportedly popping right back up in areas where city workers have cleared encampments.
SF Politics Mayor Breed Doubles Down on Just Shipping the Homeless Out of Town, as Encampment Sweeps Ratchet Up SF Mayor London Breed’s new tactic to reduce homelessness won’t be seen as particularly compassionate, as her latest executive order demands encampment sweeps where people are first offered a bus ticket out of town before they’re offered shelter.
SF News SF Steps Up Homeless Encampment Sweeps This Week — Will Homeless Just Ping-Pong to Other Blocks? San Francisco's ever-shifting strategy to address the crisis of homelessness shifts again this week to an aggressive effort to clear encampments off of streets and push individuals to accept shelter and/or substance abuse treatment.
SF News Newsom Orders State Agencies to Clear Homeless Encampments En Masse in Wake of Supreme Court Ruling Governor Gavin Newsom just issued an executive order that would represent the largest homeless encampment sweep effort in the nation since the Supreme Court handed down their decision that cities can ban sleeping outdoors.
SF News Oakland Moves to Clear Encampment at Toll Plaza Beach, Displacing About a Dozen As officials warned they would do in recent weeks, police and Public Works staffers arrived Tuesday morning to do a sweep at an encampment near the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza that had grown to around a dozen residents.
SF News Saturday Links: Large Homeless Encampment Sweep In Oakland to Begin Tuesday Oakland officials are planning to clear a long-term homeless encampment at a beach near the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza; PG&E is planning some power shut-offs this weekend; and the Warriors remain undefeated in the Summer League.
SF Politics Breed Vows Major Encampment Crackdown Coming In August, Says There May Be ‘Criminal Penalties’ Emboldened by the recent Supreme Court decision allowing bans on homeless encampments, Mayor London Breed said Thursday that a major effort to sweep encampments was in the works and would start in August.
SF News South Bay Water Board Seeks to Make It Illegal to Camp Along Creeks, Waterways In the latest legal gambit to address homeless encampments in the Bay Area, the board of directors of Santa Clara Valley Water wants to make it illegal to camp in or along any of the 300 miles of creeks and waterways it manages.
SF Politics Ninth Circuit Clears Way For San Francisco to Resume Encampment Sweeps Although the removal of homeless encampments had not completely stopped in San Francisco, a panel of federal appellate judges just ordered an injunction to be lifted that clears a legal hurdle to the city's efforts to clear illegal encampments.
SF Politics Supreme Court Ruling Could Have Broad Implications for Homeless Encampment Sweeps In California The Supreme Court has, predictably, ruled in favor of the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, weighing in for the first time on the issue of homelessness and how cities and states may legally enforce laws around public camping.
SF News Mayor Breed Touts New Numbers Saying SF Tents and Encampments at a Five-Year Low London Breed’s office is making a big to-do over the latest city numbers that indicate tent encampments are at a five-year low, and while these numbers vary wildly over time, it does look like the trend line is going in a positive direction.
SF News City Vows to Crack Down on Bernal Heights RV Encampment, Which Has Been Growing In Recent Months A smattering of RVs permanently camped on Bernal Heights Boulevard has grown larger, and now City Hall says they’ll enforce a long-forgotten 27-year-old ban on overnight parking on the street.
SF News Jury Convicts SF Man of Public Nuisance After He Displayed 'Free Fentanyl' Sign Outside Public School On Friday morning, a jury convicted a homeless man of "willfully and unlawfully creating a public nuisance" after he piled belongings on a sidewalk and displayed signs near a school advertising "Free Fentanyl 4 New Users."
SF Politics City Outreach Teams Say Around 60% of SF Homeless Refused Offers of Shelter the Past Three Months Mayor London Breed is again putting out the message that the city needs to enforce laws about camping in public spaces, ahead of a potential Supreme Court decision on the issue next year.
SF Politics Newsom Announces $300 Million In New Grants to Clear Homeless Encampments Governor Gavin Newsom says he’s handing $300 million to cities and state organizations to clear homeless encampments, but insists it’s not just for clearing encampments, but for providing shelter too.
SF News Homeless Encampment Sweeps Begin In Downtown SF Ahead of APEC Predictably, the city is stepping up efforts to clear people off the streets in and around the security zone being set for the APEC leaders summit next week, and some of those being told to move are being told it's because of the summit.
SF News Guy With ‘Free Fentanyl’ Sign Outside School Finally Arrested, His Encampment Cleared The unhoused man who’s long infuriated the Inner Richmond with his sprawling encampment and signs saying “Free fentanyl 4 new users,” and “Meth for stolen items!” was arrested late Friday morning, but it’s not clear whether this saga is finished.
