I've got two tickets to Diridon
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SF's Mayor London Breed has started offering SF homeless people a free bus ride outta town. Other big-city CA mayors worry that such aggressive actions may simply "shoo" the homeless to nearby cities with slower and more calibrated approaches than SF. Breed notes that SF's homelessness population is increasingly swelled by visitors from other cities. SF Chronicle reports.
Mayor London Breed has ordered city employees to offer homeless people a bus ticket out of town before presenting shelter or housing as an option.
The mayor’s new executive order, which marks a shift from current practices, comes amid an escalated crackdown on homeless encampments after a recent Supreme Court ruling gave city officials more power to enforce anti-camping laws. San Francisco officials are ramping up citations and arrests against homeless people who refuse to move indoors.
“San Francisco will always lead with compassion, but we cannot allow our compassion to be taken advantage of,” Breed wrote in the order. “This directive will ensure that relocation services will be the first response to our homelessness and substance use crises, allowing individuals the choice to reunite with support networks before accessing other City services or facing the consequences of refusing care.”
Breed’s office said the city has made significant progress on homelessness in recent years, but progress has been slowed due to an increase in “new arrivals,” underscoring the need for the executive order.
According to Breed’s office, the city’s most recent point-in-time count—a federally mandated tally of homelessness across the country—found that 40% of unsheltered people in San Francisco did not live here before arriving. That’s up from 28% in 2019.
Under the mayor's order, the Human Services Agency, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, and the Department of Public Health are required to amend internal procedures to require all staff who engage with homeless people to offer the city’s relocation assistance programs before any other city services, including housing and shelter. The order states that staff should be “appropriately trained on how to offer this information, and how to provide appropriate referrals,” though it doesn’t detail what such training would consist of or allocate additional funding for the effort.
San Francisco first responders, including firefighters and police officers, are required to carry a handout providing information on the city’s Journey Home program.
Journey Home—previously known as Homeward Bound—provides people experiencing homelessness or substance use disorders with a free bus or train ticket within the lower 48 states, as well as a meal stipend and overnight stay if the transportation route requires it. Participants must have a “connection to the destination city,” such as previous residence or family and friends currently located there.
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