Should cities wait until they can offer someone a shelter bed and affordable housing before clearing homeless encampments and towing RVs?
Oakland leaders grappled with that question on Wednesday. But despite hours of public comment from residents and a robust discussion in the council chambers, members of the city’s public safety commission could not reach a consensus.
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court gave local governments broad authority to punish homeless people for sleeping on public property, cities across the Bay Area have adopted new laws escalating enforcement tactics — regardless of whether they have alternative shelter to offer them…