During an election debate this week, the mayor of San Francisco announced a plan to crack down on homeless encampments that may include criminal charges for violators, claiming that the era of "compassion" on the issue was over.

On Thursday, five candidates for mayor of San Francisco, including incumbent Mayor London Breed, gathered at the San Francisco Firefighters Union Hall on Newhall Street to discuss a range of topics including restoring firefighters fired for refusing vaccine mandates, revitalizing downtown, crime, and, of course, the homelessness problem that has plagued the city for more than a decade.

'After six years, you don’t have a plan. You have a track record.'

Recent Supreme Court decisionGrants Pass v. Johnson granted municipalities more flexibility to clear up homeless encampments, ruling that banning people from sleeping or camping in public spaces such as streets and parks did not violate the Constitution. The decision partially overrules a local injunction imposed in late 2022 that prevents Bay Area authorities from enforcing anti-camping laws.

Mark Farrell, a former mayor who is running for the role again, accused Breed of dragging her heels on addressing the homelessness problem in light of the SCOTUS decision. "The Grants Pass decision was three weeks ago and tent encampments are growing," Farrell claimed at the debate on Thursday.

Farrell then gestured to the crowd of firefighters in attendance, pledging to take swift action to clear up the problem once and for all so that "every day you can deal with fighting fires and not dealing with tent encampments."

"You have to be aggressive."

Breed seemed to agree, claiming that the so-called "compassionate" approach has not worked. "We have had to move from a compassionate city to a city of accountability, and I have been leading the efforts to ensure that we are addressing this issue differently than we have before," she said.

"We are going to be very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments which may even include criminal penalties," she continued.

"We will continue to lead with services, but we also can't continue to allow people to do what they want on the streets of San Francisco, especially when we have a place for them to go," Breed added.

"The problem is not going to be solved by building more housing. Thank goodness for the Supreme Court decision."

Though her statements at the debate mark what the Daily Mail described as "a change in tack" regarding homelessness, they were rather light on substance, offering few specifics about how the encampments would be moved and what kinds of "criminal penalties" might be assessed.

However, Breed did claim that the new policy would be implemented sometime next month. A statement from city attorney spokesperson Alex Barrett-Shorter explained that the new approach "will help us address our most challenging encampments, where services are often refused and re-encampment is common."

Still, Farrell indicated that Breed, who has been in office since winning a special-election race in 2018, has had enough time to fix the problem. "After six years, you don’t have a plan. You have a track record," he quipped.

Breed is in a tough battle to keep her seat. Mission Local doubted that she will receive a sole endorsement from the firefighters' union this time around like she did in 2018, and at least one poll published last month suggested that Farrell was well ahead of her in ranked-choice voting.

The results of the firefighters' union vote regarding mayoral endorsements, held immediately following the debate, will be released at a meeting in early August.

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