The first of the plans to deal with homelessness as people announce their bids for mayor has come from Supervisor Gavin Newsom.
Newsom´s plan would ban panhandling on median strips in roadways and in parking lots and provide 24-hour shelters and improve shelter conditions. It would also use identification cards and fingerprinting to track who uses the city´s homeless services.
There are 73-hundred homeless people in San Francisco, and the city spends more than 100 million dollars a year on services for them.
The city´s tourist industry and neighborhood groups have pushed for officials to clean up the city.
But homeless advocates say the plan doesn´t show compassion and or show an understanding of the plight of the homeless.
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 5:30 pm