S.F. officials swept homeless encampment early to avoid protest, advocates say

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City Hall may have outflanked a planned protest by homeless rights advocates on Thursday, according to organizers who were readying a rally during a scheduled encampment sweep at Sixth and Jessie streets today. 

When organizers with the Coalition of Homelessness, a group that advocates for unhoused people in San Francisco, showed up in the SoMa at 11:30 a.m., they found that the city had already completed the sweep. The sweep had originally been scheduled for 1:30 p.m., according to a city schedule.  

Not a single person from San Francisco Public Works remained on site, though a few tents had already been set up again. The Coalition wanted to draw attention to “human rights abuses” and pressure the city into stopping them. 

Organizers speculated that the city had swept the area early to avoid encountering the protesters — the rally time and location had been advertised to press earlier this week. 

“They really didn’t want people seeing what happens,” said the Coalition’s policy and communications director, Julian Highsmith.   

“The city is avoiding bad media as much as they’re avoiding helping homeless people,” added River Beck, a human-rights organizer with the Coalition. 

On Friday, Kristin Hogan, a spokesperson with the Department of Emergency Management, said there had been an “unrelated operation” on the block earlier that day, but that the encampment clearing schedule had not changed. She said the city’s homeless outreach teams conducted their regularly scheduled activities.

“The 1 p.m. [operation] did take place,” she said. “They were there until at least 1:50. They were still there when the rally had already been located.”

In July, Mayor London Breed promised that the city would conduct “very aggressive” encampment sweeps in August following the U.S. Supreme Court Grants Pass ruling, which allowed cities to conduct sweeps without offers of shelter. 

Breed said the city would still offer shelter before dismantling encampments, and that the goal of the sweeps was to make life “so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer.”

During the sweeps, city officials have thrown away homeless people’s belongings, and have encouraged homeless people to leave San Francisco by giving them bus tickets. Mission Local documented several encampment clearings in the Mission and Bayview, finding that some homeless people were arrested, and that residents returned to their old haunts after just a few days. 

Homelessness has become a staple of the campaign trail ahead of the November election. Breed has promised a tougher hand with those living on the streets, saying that the city will still lead with “compassion,” but that repeated refusals to take shelter may result in arrest.

Most of her opponents have seized on a perceived lack of action towards encampments, saying the mayor had the power to aggressively clear tents well before the Supreme Court ruling. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, for his part, has taken a different stance and, on Tuesday, put out a plan that emphasized “shelter, not sweeps.”

Highsmith, of the Coalition on Homelessness, saw Breed’s enforcement plan as an election strategy. “It’s kind of just saying, ‘Hey, look, we cleaned the streets, we cleaned the sidewalks, we’re doing our job. Re-elect me,’” he said.  

On Thursday, after learning their original location had already been swept, the Coalition decided to relocate its protest to City Hall, toting their signs and a banner with a spoofed court order for Breed. They rallied a crowd of around 20 people on the front steps, shouting slogans like “Sweeps kill, housing heals.” Three speakers from the Coalition demanded that the sweeps stop. 

“This is San Francisco. This is what should be the moral epicenter of the United States. People from all over the country come to San Francisco for a sanctuary city,” said Beck. “This should be a safe place for everybody on the sidewalks.”

Shortly after the speeches ended, a duo from Skywatchers, a group that creates performances inspired by the concerns of Tenderloin residents, read a poem with musical elements and sang a song with the crowd. 

“Your encampment resolution sounds like ‘Final solution,’ treating people like pollution,” they read, referencing the Nazi extermination plan. They ended the poem by chanting “There will be revolution” with the crowd. 

As the rally wrapped up after about half an hour, the Coalition on Homeless speakers emphasized that, though things had not gone to plan this time, they would continue protesting until the city ends its sweeps. 

For Highsmith, sweeps are not a real solution to homelessness, because they just temporarily move people to shelters, rather than finding them permanent housing. “Things might look clean on the surface, but we’re not really solving the issue,” he said. 

Still, despite the criticism of Breed, Highsmith emphasized that ultimately Coalition on Homelessness hopes to work with City Hall on homelessness.

“We don’t see the city as an enemy, but as someone that we want to hold accountable to keeping San Franciscans safe and housed,” he said.

This piece has been updated with comments from the Department of Emergency Management.