San Francisco Pushes Homeless to Leave Town as Crackdown Begins

Work crews swept through the streets of San Francisco early Thursday, tearing down makeshift tents and clearing encampments in a forceful new push to confront the city’s homeless crisis.

A handful of people living below Highway 101 hauled away bicycles and filled wagons with their possessions as the city’s public works department moved in. A week earlier, California Governor Gavin Newsom urged a get-tough approach following a US Supreme Court rulingin June that allows cities to enforce bans on people sleeping in public areas.

Workers remove a homeless encampment in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood on Aug. 1.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Wayman Young, a police officer overseeing the sweep in San Francisco, said the court ...