After less than a week on the job, San Francisco’s mayor got a first-hand look at the work being done to break up and clean up homeless encampments in the city. 

Mayor London Breed walks around a sidewalk encampment with the Director of the Department of Public Works. 

City crews swept up the debris and Public Health officers picked up needles of a tent city on a dead-end block of King Street that was broken before, but has reformed. 

The mayor met two of the roughly 15 homeless living in this spot, shaking their hands as they get prepped to move out. 

Mark Johnson who says he’s lived on the on the street a long time started crying as he described his emotions about moving into a navigation center. 

“I’m happy, I’m sad, mad, I got so many things, feelings, that are going right through me right now. I feel relieved that you guys are showing a lot of concern for us being homeless. We go through a lot being out here, pushed around, looked down upon, we have feelings too,” Johnson said. 

During the tour, the mayor was stopped by a woman living in a building nearby who says the encampment made many of her neighbors feel unsafe. 

“We pay good rent, we want to be safe, there’s a lot of alcohol and drug-free people here who finally decided to take the right path. We’ve got elderly single women now that their husbands have past they’re afraid to walk down the street, they don’t want to get robbed,” she said. 

The mayor has vowed to eliminate tent encampments in her first year in office, and was happy to see the collaboration and compassion of those working towards that goal. 

“I’m excited about this, making sure that the over 300 encampments that we know, tents in all parts of our city, they’re cleared out and there is a resolution to each individual that is unfortunately living in a tent in San Francisco on our street,” Mayor London Breed said. 

The City says there are two more navigation centers set to open up in the next few months. 

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