San Francisco sued by homeless demanding reasonably priced housing By Reuters

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – San Francisco’s homeless are suing the Metropolis by the Bay, demanding that it cease rounding them up like criminals and spend money on reasonably priced housing as a substitute.

Greater than 57% of the town’s homeless is unsheltered, in keeping with advocacy group Coalition on Homelessness, which filed the lawsuit together with seven homeless people. San Francisco has failed to supply sufficient momentary shelters, the group mentioned on Wednesday when saying the motion.

San Francisco has shut to eight,000 homeless individuals, in keeping with the town’s web site.

“The Metropolis’s decades-long failure to adequately spend money on reasonably priced housing and shelter has left many 1000’s of its residents unhoused, forcing them to make use of tents and autos as shelter,” mentioned the lawsuit filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California.

The advocacy group accused San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed, police and different authorities of appearing “to criminalize homelessness by way of an array of brutal policing practices that violate the constitutional rights of unhoused San Franciscans.”

Town’s homeless sweeps are rooted in its historical past of racism in housing and policing, the group added.

“The Metropolis has additionally launched into a marketing campaign to grab and destroy the property of unhoused individuals with the categorical function of eradicating seen indicators of homelessness from San Francisco’s streets.”

The San Francisco mayor’s workplace declined to touch upon the lawsuit, however mentioned the town had a “service-first strategy” to addressing unsheltered homelessness.

The mayor’s workplace is concentrated on increasing momentary and everlasting housing to supply secure alternate options to individuals dwelling on the streets, it mentioned, noting that the town has about 3,600 shelter beds.