San Francisco has a message for people who moved into the troubled California city and are now living on its streets: Go back to where you came from.
In the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the right of local governments to take action against sprawling homeless camps, San Francisco mayor London Breed issued the “Journey Home Executive Directive” on Thursday. The directive orders city staffers and contractors to offer homeless people relocation services — bus tickets, airfare, and cash assistance — before offering any other city services, including shelter and housing.
As evidence of the need, the directive cites data from the city’s 2024 point-in-time homeless count, which found that 40 percent of respondents came to San Francisco from somewhere else — another California county or another state. That’s up from 28 percent in 2019. The count also found that 37 percent of respondents who had previously had homes said they’d been living in San Francisco for less than a year when they became homeless, up from 15 percent in the 2019 count.
“While we will always lead with compassion and we have made significant expansions in housing and shelter, we cannot solve everyone’s individual housing and behavioral health needs,” Breed said in a statement announcing the directive. “We’ve made significant progress in housing many long-time San Franciscans who became homeless, but we are seeing an increase in people in our data who are coming from elsewhere. Today’s order will ensure that all our city departments are leveraging our relocation programs to address this growing trend.”
For several years, San Francisco has struggled with crime, drug abuse, and homelessness, which was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The degradation and talk of a “doom loop” has turned away tourists and driven out businesses.
In 2022, the Coalition on Homelessness sued the city, accusing it of violating its rules for removing camps. At one point, the city was hit with a wave of suspicious lawsuits from homeless residents who claimed that city workers had illegally disposed of their valuables – electronics, “priceless” baseball card and stamp collections, art, and “business prototypes.” In early 2023, a federal judge blocked the city from clearing camps.
That changed with the Supreme Court’s ruling in June. During a debate last month, Breed vowed to take action against the sprawling homeless camps that have taken over city parks and sidewalks. “Effective August, we are going to be very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments, which may even include criminal penalties,” she said, according to the San Francisco Standard.
In addition to directing staff to offer relocation services to the homeless, Breed is also requiring police officers, firefighters, and paramedics to carry handouts with information about the city’s relocation services. The city will also establish a tracking system that will publish data about the effectiveness of its relocation efforts.
San Francisco has been providing relocation services through various services since at least 2005. The directive essentially brings those services under one umbrella.
Breed’s efforts to clean up San Francisco’s streets come after governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order in late July directing state officials to start removing homeless camps across the state. “There are simply no more excuses,” he said in a statement. “It’s time for everyone to do their part.”