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San Francisco

SF mayor and city attorney push back on lawsuit over homeless camps

Court injunction prevents clean-up while residents and businesses want action

San Francisco Mayor London Breed; City Attorney David Chiu (Getty)
San Francisco Mayor London Breed; City Attorney David Chiu (Getty)

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is caught between a lawsuit over homeless encampments and local residents and businesses who want them gone.

Breed and City Attorney David Chiu have pushed back against legal claims by homeless advocates, saying that homeless people have refused offers for shelter, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The Coalition on Homelessness and individual plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit in September over homeless camp sweeps, accusing the city of violating precedent and the constitutional rights of homeless residents by forcing them off the streets without having enough shelter to offer them. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu granted a preliminary injunction late last year that temporarily banned San Francisco police from clearing most homeless encampments, citing sleepers in public and enforcing other laws aimed at homeless residents during the suit.

The plaintiffs alleged in a filing early this year that the city was violating the judge’s order. 

While advocates behind the lawsuit want the city to shift resources from encampment sweeps to affordable housing and initiatives to reduce homelessness, residents and businesses have pressured Breed to clean up encampments.

Chiu hit back in a legal response and in a statement last week that the plaintiffs’ motion was “riddled with falsehoods and irrelevant information that cannot legally support the relief they are seeking.” 

Chiu said plaintiffs “appear unwilling to admit that unhoused people regularly refuse the city’s offers of shelter” – including the city’s tiny home cabins.

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Breed stood by her city attorney in calling for the preliminary injunction to be overturned. 

She pointed to data from the city’s encampment clearance team that shows people refused referrals for shelter in most of its thousands of engagements in the last couple of years. 

“San Francisco leads with offers of shelter, but when people refuse to accept these offers, they shouldn’t be allowed to remain on the street,” Breed tweeted. “The reasons people refuse help can be complicated, but that isn’t an excuse for allowing people to remain on our street when we have a place for them to go.” 

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which represents the coalition, pushed back on Breed’s claims on Twitter, according to the Chronicle. It said its attorneys would investigate the specific incidents raised by Chiu and respond in full in a filing at the end of the month.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Zal Shroff also said his clients have accepted shelter offers since the lawsuit was filed, and that homeless people in general do sometimes refuse offers usually related to accessibility at a shelter.

San Francisco had nearly 4,400 homeless people last year. As of last weekend, the city had 3,085 shelter beds, which were 90 percent full. 

— Dana Bartholomew

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Companies and People
Coalition on HomelessnessLawyers’ Committee for Civil RightsDavid ChiuLondon Breed
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Homeless encampments