Mayor London Breed said a "very aggressive" sweep of San Francisco homeless encampments will start in August after a recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the path for officials to widespread enforcement.

Mayor London Breed said a “very aggressive” sweep of San Francisco homeless encampments will start in August, after a recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the path for widespread enforcement.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that enforcing rules against homeless people for sleeping outside doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause.

On Thursday, Breed celebrated the ruling and said the city plans to change its protocols and may begin issuing criminal penalties against homeless people.

“Thank goodness for the change in the Supreme Court decision,” Breed said at an election debate hosted by a local firefighter’s union. “Effective August, we are going to be very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments, which may even include criminal penalties.”

  • finley@lemm.eeEnglish
    822·
    4 months ago

    Or how about you actually build some housing for these people?

    edit: i guess i should have said affordable housing…

    • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
      371·
      4 months ago

      We already built more than enough houses. The problem is that bank and landlords profits contribute to economic growth, the mandate of capitalism. Housing the homeless would contribute far more to economic growth. But, it’d take more than four years to see the results.

      So no. We can’t house them. The need to suffer because otherwise capitalism is threatened.

    • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      4 months ago

      There’s not as much profit in it, so the private sector won’t touch it, it’s that simple.

      We need social housing, designed and built to be as affordable as possible, with the option to rent at just above cost or rent to buy.

      Of course, the usual twats will start crying about socialism but fuck them. If capitalism fails then the state has to step in.

    • Melllvar@startrek.websiteEnglish
      146·
      4 months ago

      The chronically homeless, the ones that are hardest to get off the street, are difficult to house for reasons besides availability or cost, though.

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
        201·
        4 months ago

        And we could still fund a facility and staff to house and treat them and it would be cheaper than the current emergency services and courts costs. It would also be more humane and prevent massive encampments from forming.

        • Kaboom@reddthat.com
          96·
          4 months ago

          They dont want to stay though. You have to realize that some people just dont think the way others think. Call it mental illness, call it mental differences, call it whatever you want. But some people are just not compatible with homes.

          • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            113·
            4 months ago

            That’s probably the case for some but not the vast majority. I’m sure there’s plenty who would like an opportunity to get back on their feet, speaking from past experience, some are just mentally ill and need mental health help to get back and to those who just prefer the streets they can go back.

          • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
            5·
            4 months ago

            I’ve had this idea for some kind of concrete hut type of structure for those types of homeless people to use, that way it’s easily cleaned out. It would just be a way to keep them out of the rain and give them a safe spot. Maybe add a wooden bench type of platform to give them a spot off the ground. You could place them in out of the way areas, along with a bathroom/shower building. Basically an official homeless camp. Just pay homeless people as janitors to keep things tidy.

    • Deello@lemm.ee
      71·
      4 months ago

      Housing costs money so evicting them is actually saving money. /S

    • jumjummy@lemmy.world
      4·
      4 months ago

      We need affordable housing AND mandated drug / phsyc treatment programs for some of these people. One without the other won’t help enough.

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
    503·
    4 months ago

    Fuck this guy. Instead of trying to hide them you could try helping them, would go a lot farther than destroying their tents and handful of belongings they have bcz you don’t like to look at it.

    • quicklime@lemm.ee
      172·
      4 months ago

      The mayor’s pronouns are she/her. But I agree with your point, and so do a very great number of San Francisco residents. The current/upcoming mayoral election is being predictably pushed as a big fight over law and order issues by big-money organizations (a lot of the money coming from silicon valley, outside of SF) and also by corporate-owned local media. The mayor is cynically playing to that tune in her uphill battle to get reelected. As if that weren’t bad enough she had to springboard this off of a cruel Supreme court decision at a time when her constituents are mostly disgusted with the court.

        • jumjummy@lemmy.world
          14·
          4 months ago

          So do you support mandated drug treatment programs? I’m all for tax money being used for these programs, but some of these people need to be forced to go through them.

        • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
          616·
          4 months ago

          Wow, how original… Waiting for the ACAB, bootlicker, etc. comments. You need a reality check.

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
        31·
        4 months ago

        Ah, right, they want to sleep outside and beg for food and shelter. And the mental illness will just walk away if they decide they want it too.

  • Waveform@lemmy.world
    433·
    4 months ago

    Too many people lack compassion.

    I almost became homeless myself recently because the landlord wanted his house back after me renting the place for 19 years. It wasn’t my fault, and I simply cannot afford rent anywhere else with my SSDI income.

    All the usual suggestions and arguments in favor of homeless sweeps and victim blaming fall apart for people like me: shelters are not an option because I don’t always stay sane when exposed to too many people; I’m not on recreational drugs at this time, so I can’t be dismissed as deserving of homelessness for that reason; I’m taking my meds as I should; I can’t get HUD vouchers because I’m sleeping on a relative’s porch; mental institutions are not an option unless I’m in imminent danger of hurting myself or others; etc.

    The reality is that a person in need often faces roadblock after roadblock when trying to find housing, and there aren’t enough funds handed out to solve the problem. I’m just grateful to be one of the lucky few who is stabilizing with a roof over my head, incomplete as it is.

    I think most people just won’t care until it happens to them.

  • sunzu@kbin.run
    16·
    4 months ago

    Putting them in prison is also not a solution though…

    Like wtf

    They will never fix the issue. The amount of money SF spends on homeless per year and since 2000 I bet they could have built the 20k units.

  • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
    9·
    4 months ago

    Yes breed, go harder right, you’ll definitely not alienate more of your voters and leave room for peskin. You’ll definitely pick up votes to your right from the billionaire backed candidates that they really want.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      When I was your age I had sixteen mental illnesses and I just buckled down, worked 80 hours a week, had three kids, owned $800k in rental properties, became a VP at a national bank, survived five different sexual assault charges, and retired to a golf course in Miami Beach.

      The only reason other people don’t do the same thing is because they’re lazy.