San Francisco Mayor London Breed has ordered city officials to offer homeless people bus tickets out of town before offering them shelter or housing — a controversial policy that shunts the city’s homeless problem onto other towns.
With her belongings packed into several suitcases, Cynthia Hulett embraces her dog Max while waiting to board a bus to a nearby motel, following the cleanup of her homeless encampment by city workers as part of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe initiative in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Out of nearly 2,000 people who received temporary shelter through Bass’ signature program Inside Safe, a pilot project within City Hall’s broader efforts to bring people indoors, only 255 landed in permanent housing this year, out of about 3,500 total citywide. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Mayor London Breed on Thursday ordered city employees to offer homeless people a bus ticket out of town before presenting shelter or housing as an option.
The mayor’s new executive order, which marks a shift from current practices, comes amid an escalated crackdown on homeless encampments after a recent court Supreme Court ruling gave city officials more power to enforce anti-camping laws. San Francisco officials are ramping up citations and arrests against homeless people who refuse to move indoors.
Thursday’s directive marks Breed’s latest effort to prove she’s taking a firm stance to address the city’s homelessness and overdose crises. Breed is in the middle of a tough re-election fight with many voters focused on the conditions of city streets and the state of unsheltered homelessness.
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued an executive order to accelerate the removal of homeless encampments. The issue of homelessness has plagued his administration, as well as those of Democratic officials at the local level throughout the state, for the past several years.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that removing homeless people is not “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized the decision, but the reality is that it will help her and other officials across the state deal with a problem that they have allowed to fester through inaction for years.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
