The number of homeless camps that have sprouted up all across San Francisco is now at the highest point since 2020.
The Daily Caller reports that more people moved into homeless shelters in just the first six months of 2023 than during any other six-month period since 2021, according to information compiled by the San Francisco Standard. There are 523 homeless camps in the city as of July of this year, the highest total since 530 camps in October of 2020. Across these 523 camps, there are over 4,000 homeless people in San Francisco.
In December of 2021, the city government declared a state of emergency due to the rise in crime and drug use, and began implementing stricter enforcement of homeless ordinances. But after a lawsuit was filed against the city by the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an injunction was issued in December of 2022 by U.S. District Court Donna Ryu forbidding the city from enforcing these ordinances.
Sam Dodge, San Francisco’s director of street response coordination, said that as a result of the judge’s ruling, the number of homeless people refusing services has increased dramatically. Although a record high 975 people entered homeless shelters, at least 49% of homeless people refused the services that were offered to them by the city’s homeless outreach operations in the first six months of 2023.