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More shelter beds and a crackdown on tents means fewer homeless encampments in San Francisco
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San Francisco is aggressively clearing its streets of homeless encampments after the Supreme Court empowered cities to enforce anti-camping laws. The city has increased shelter beds and supportive housing, but still has a shortage. - photo by AP Video/Terry Chea
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sidewalks once teeming with tents, tarps and people passed out next to heaps of trash have largely disappeared from great swathes of San Francisco, a city widely known for its visible homeless population. The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped to under 3,000 in January, the lowest the city has recorded in a decade, according to a federal count. And that figure has likely dropped even lower since Mayor London Breed — a Democrat in a difficult reelection fight this November — started ramping up enforcement of anti-camping laws in August following a U.S. Supreme Court decision.