San Francisco clears streets of homeless amid mayoral and presidential races

Cleanup crews, assisted by the police, are clearing the streets of San Francisco of homeless encampments, offering the homeless a one-way ticket out of the city. The cleanup operation coincides with the races for the mayor's seat in San Francisco and the presidency of the USA.

San Francisco is battling a homelessness crisis. As Bloomberg reports, cleanup crews traversed the city's streets on Thursday morning, dismantling makeshift tents and cleaning up encampments.

This is the result of a new massive campaign aimed at resolving the homelessness crisis in the city. A week earlier, California Governor Gavin Newsom called on city authorities to take decisive action against the homeless based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from June this year. The ruling allows cities to enforce bans on sleeping in public places.

Wayman Young, a police officer overseeing the crackdown in San Francisco, told Bloomberg that the aforementioned court ruling paved the way for more stringent law enforcement against people sleeping on the streets. The officer added that there is no longer a need to give the homeless a 15-minute grace period required by the city to respond to inquiries. There are also fewer bureaucratic hurdles to overcome in order to remove the homeless.

The city has long been criticized for its highly visible homeless population and rampant drug use in public places. Currently, it is acting by Mayor London Breed's promise, who is leading a "very aggressive" campaign to force people off the streets of San Francisco.

Due to the lack of available beds in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed has instructed workers, as reported by Bloomberg, to offer city tours to homeless residents first before proposing shelters within the city.

The pressure to buy bus or even airplane tickets for homeless individuals to leave the city is justified by the mayor of San Francisco by the fact that many of the 8,300 homeless people in the city came from other places. The percentage of homeless people in San Francisco who come from other California counties or other states has risen to 40 percent from 28 percent in 2019.

Crackdowns on the homeless in the city are taking place during the race for the San Francisco mayoral seat. The issue of homelessness has also gained national significance in the U.S. presidential campaign. Republicans blame liberal policies for the large number of homeless in California and problems with street crime.

The number of homeless in California has risen by 20 percent during Newsom's term to over 180,000 people, which is by far the largest number in the country. This increase is driven by factors such as excessive housing costs, drug addiction, and mental illness.