SF Reaches Settlement in Lawsuit to Clear Tenderloin Tent Encampments

The City of San Francisco has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit filed last month over the tent encampments that have increased in the Tenderloin neighborhood since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The UC Hastings Law School joined with Tenderloin residents, merchants and property owners to file the lawsuit in federal court last month.

The tent encampments have grown as the city has cut back on shelter capacity for homeless residents to allow for social distancing. A count on June 5 found 415 tents in the Tenderloin. 

As part of the settlement, the city has agreed to remove 300 of those encampments by July 20. Those residents will be moved into hotel rooms or sanctioned tent encampments in the Tenderloin and other parts of the city. After July 20, the city will "make all reasonable efforts" to reduce the number of tents to zero.

Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness argues that the lawsuit's focus on tent encampments is misguided.

"Tents were distributed in the interim, waiting for hotel rooms, to allow people have some modicum of fabric to protect themselves from the spread of the virus," Friedenbach said. "UC Hastings wants to rip that tent away, which is why we say it’s both dangerous and cruel.”

Friedenbach said her group still stands behind legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors that calls for the city to secure 8,000 hotel rooms for homeless residents. As of Friday, 1,363 vulnerable homeless residents were housed in hotel rooms and RVs, according to city data.

The Board of Supervisors still has to agree to the deal before it can become final.

- Erika Kelly (@erikakelly100)