Judge temporarily blocks homeless encampment cleanup in San Francisco amid lawsuit

'San Fransicko' author Michael Shellenberger discusses the homeless crisis in California and how to solve it. A federal judge has issued a temporary ban on San Francisco clearing most homeless encampments amid an ongoing lawsuit against the city filed by advocacy groups seeking to stop police sweeps of homeless encampments. Last week, Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in the U.S. District Court in Oakland questioned the tactics used by the city of San Francisco in its homeless encampment cleanups, suggesting that the city is not adhering to its own policies of providing shelter beds to individuals who are being asked to vacate a public area. In her decision, Ryu stated that the city did not offer shelter to homeless individuals before clearing encampments and confiscating their property. The judge also found the city's justification for taking enforcement actions to be "wholly unconvincing," stating that the defendants did not adequately dispute that they cleared people without first providing shelter.