Large Police Presence Greets Homeless Advocates near Super Bowl City.

Super Bowl City has been set-up along the Embarcadero in areas where many homeless used to sleep. It is common knowledge that the San Francisco Police Department has been pushing the homeless to certain areas in the City where they will not be seen by the Super Bowl crowds. The police are pushing them to a “four-block radius on Division between Mission and Harrison.” Supervisor Scott Weiner even proposed taking their tents away. Super Bowl City has had a negative effect on the homeless and many resident’s. One of the biggest complaints is the fact that the Super Bowl isn’t even being held in San Francisco. Additionally Super Bowl City may be paid for by the tax payers. Super Bowl offers freebies including concerts and fireworks shows, but many in the community feel that money can be spent on taking care of the homeless in San Francisco.

There are at least 6,000 homeless people in San Francisco, and many live on the streets because the shelters are abusive and have too many rules. Additionally shelters do not allow more than 2 bags per person and often they will not accept pets. There is only 1 shelter bed per 5 people in San Francisco. Many of the homeless were actually living in San Francisco and have been displaced by eviction. San Francisco has up to 22 laws that criminalize the homeless including a Sit and Lie law. Last year over 10,000 citations were issued to the homeless over the Sit and Lie law. There are at least 3,000 homeless children in San Francisco, and 61% are disabled, 30% are LGBT and the majority of the homeless are people of color. There are laws that also ban the feeding of the homeless. Treatment of the homeless by politicians, police and businesses have become cruel and unusual. “The U.N. Human Rights Committee even condemned the trend as “cruel, inhuman, [and] degrading” in a recent report on the United States. State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced a Homeless Person's Bill of Rights to the California Assembly. But the bill was suspended citing the costs of the build-up of the infrastructure. In February 2015 Senator Carol Liu (D) introduced the Right2Rest Act, or SB 608, however “a vote was not rendered during the 2015 process in the Housing and Transportation Committee and was asked to come back for a vote in the next California legislation session with amendments in order to get the necessary votes and pass to the next house.” There are no recent developments on SB 608, and more information on it can be found here http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/sen/sb_0601-0650/sb_608_bill_20150227_introduced.html
Other sources for info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_Bill_of_Rights#California