How is the NFL going to have a successful 50th Super Bowl with all of the dirty homeless on the streets of San Francisco? Mayor Ed Lee thinks he has the answer. He is going to get rid of San Francisco’s homeless in time for the Super Bowl to come to town.
“They are going to have to leave,” said Lee.
“Some of them are mentally ill. Some of them have severe drug addiction and yeah, they get cleaned up for 24 hours, and then they are back on the environment that caused this in the first place,” he said.
Lee’s plans to outlaw sidewalk camping, relocate homeless individuals, and has been vague in addressing what will happen to individuals who fail to comply with the city’s wishes.
Critics say that the mayor’s plan is unrealistic.
“The Navigation Center is already operating at capacity, and the 500 units of housing that he is talking about should be full be then,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness. “It would be outrageous to hold them in reserve for any event.”
The “500 units” Friedenbach refers to are the additional housing that the mayor says will be built to accommodate his new measures.
The Super Bowl, Friedenbach notes, is free to the public. Individuals, including the homeless, are welcome to attend.
“What are you going to do?” asked Friedenbach. “Create some kind of gate where you look at people and decide who can come in and who can’t?”
Watch the local report from CBS San Francisco below.
