The mayor of San Francisco has finally pledged to do something about the city’s overwhelming homeless problem: he’s going to work with the city to remove the tents from public view.
According to Fox News, Mayor Mark Farrell has finally lost patience with the city’s transient population, which he says refuses help and refuses to move, even though the city has offered them rescue and rehabilitation services.
“Enough is enough,” Farrell told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We have offered services time and time again and gotten many off the street, but there is a resistant population that remains, and their tents have to go.”
The city will begin sweeping away any tents that cross into a sidewalk or public way this week, starting in the city’s Mission District. Tent denizens will be given 24 hours notice and information about where to find city-sponsored assistance and local shelters.
The city says the effort is for the benefit of San Fran’s homeless population, but the government’s sudden interest in removing the transient population may have more to do with a sudden decline in tourism. Local hotels told the city back in January that the problem was getting worse, and that their guests were starting to complain about being lodged next to huge homeless encampments.
“You see things on the streets that are just not humane,” one hotel manager told the San Francisco Chronicle. “People come into hotels saying, ‘What is going on out there?’ They’re just shocked. … People say, ‘I love your city, I love your restaurants, but I’ll never come back.’”
Even the United Nations has called the city’s problem “cruel.”
There’s little the city can do. Deep in admiration for its own leftist ideals, San Francisco can’t bring itself to take any real action against the homeless, mentally ill, and drug addicted who sleep on its streets. Even the mayor’s current plan is likely only a temporary fix. If the people they kick out of the sidewalk tents aren’t able to find an appealing, permanent fix for their situation, they’ll simply move back onto the streets.
