- “For the first time, San Francisco is being held accountable for how it handles unhoused people’s belongings.” – John Do, senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a settlement with the Coalition on Homelessness that requires the city to follow its bag-and-tag policy and creates oversight measures to protect the belongings of unhoused residents. The agreement stems from a lawsuit filed in 2022 and, after a second and final vote on Sept. 16, must be signed by Mayor Daniel Lurie before becoming a five-year court order.
The Coalition sued the city over its practice of discarding people’s belongings during encampment sweeps. The group alleged that despite the existence of a bag-and-tag policy, which requires property to be stored, city workers frequently threw away essential items such as tents, sleeping bags, medication, and identification documents. These items, advocates said, were critical to unhoused people’s ability to seek housing, employment, and benefits.
The settlement agreement requires San Francisco to give unhoused people the chance to reclaim their belongings before the city can destroy them. It also mandates that the city provide advance notice of planned sweeps to unhoused individuals and the Coalition on Homelessness, along with quarterly reports on property seizures. In addition, the Coalition will receive monthly access to the city’s storage yard, allowing it to monitor compliance…