Federal judge says San Francisco can’t clear homeless camps

A federal judge has temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments, saying the city is violating its own policies

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments, saying the city violated its own policies by failing to offer other shelter.

Ryu cited evidence presented by the plaintiffs that the city regularly and illegally failed to offer shelter to inhabitants before clearing the encampments and improperly seized or threw out their belongings, including cellphones, medication, identification and even prosthetic limbs.

In a statement, Mayor London Breed decried the emergency order.

“Mayors cannot run cities this way,” she said. “We already have too few tools to deal with the mental illness we see on our streets. Now we are being told not to use another tool that helps bring people indoors and keeps our neighborhoods safe and clean for our residents.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/federal-judge-san-francisco-clear-homeless-camps-95795655