The failure of the first major San Francisco homeless policy
Mayor Agnos cleared out Civic Center Plaza in 1990, helped no one, and doomed his career
Mayor Art Agnos’ homelessness policy of 1990, dubbed “Beyond Shelter,” attempted to push the city away from “Band-Aid” solutions towards a more permanent affordable housing approach. But public impatience with the growing number of homeless boiled over when Agnos refused to clear out the homeless camping in front of City Hall — his stand being that he wouldn’t force them to move until there was a viable place for them to move.
After mounting and vitriolic criticism, Agnos finally secured 300 beds for the City Hall group, and cleared out the encampment. He was roundly criticized for tolerating the camp, for waiting too long to act, for separating homeless couples, and for the fact that “215 of the roughly 300 beds that the new shelters now have are already filled by other homeless people, and they will have to be displaced,” as homeless advocates at the time pointed out.
His political career never recovered.
