A Supreme Court ruling will allow all cities in the country to fine and arrest people who live on the streets.
In San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan reacts to this announcement.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a tool for cities to enforce our laws, but it doesn’t change our program much,” Mahan said.
Mahan assured that San José will continue with the program of creating more housing spaces for the homeless and moving the homeless to community shelters, but the mayor also sent a message to Governor Gavin Newsom.
“I call on the state to implement a comprehensive statewide program for every county, every city, to hold them accountable for expanding shelter capacity and medical treatment for the homeless,” Mahan said.
For her part, London Breed, mayor of San Francisco, stated the following:
“Here in San Francisco we are in the process of working to implement a new policy in response to the Supreme Court ruling, ensuring that we are prepared with trained personnel to go out into communities and offer shelter and support, but with this ruling we will be able to do even more,” Breed said.
Nisha Kashyap, spokesperson for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, said this decision is dangerous.
She is also the attorney in charge of litigating a lawsuit against the city and county of San Francisco over the tactics San Francisco implemented in the past to remove the
homeless camps on the streets.
“The court’s ruling does not affect the lawsuit against San Francisco as it relates to other issues unrelated to today’s decision,” Kashyap said.
He also clarified that in 2016 San Francisco residents passed a law requiring the city to offer shelter before vacating any encampments and expects the city to comply with its own laws and policies.
For his part, Newsom said in a statement that with this ruling:
“The Supreme Court provides state and local authorities with the final authority to implement policies to remove unsafe encampments from the streets.”
Mahan made it clear that they will continue to offer necessary help to the indigent people of San José.
