Residents of Crime-Ridden San Francisco Neighborhood Sue City Over Open Drug Markets, Homeless Encampments 

A group of residents in a crime-ridden San Francisco neighborhood have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city of not doing enough to combat open-air drug markets and large homeless encampments, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday on behalf of a group of residents and businesses in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, does not seek monetary damages.

Instead, the plaintiffs are seeking court orders requiring the city to end flagrant drug dealing and use in the neighborhood, according to the Chronicle.

[RELATED: Maine ACLU Says Failed Proposal to Legalize Portland Homeless Encampments with Frequent Overdoses, Assaults, and Rapes Would Have Been “Positive First Step”…]

While San Francisco Mayor London Breed has made solving the city’s homelessness crisis one of her top priorities, the city is also battling a lawsuit from the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, which argued in 2022 that the city’s sweeps of encampments violated the rights of the homeless.

The Thursday suit, filed on behalf of Phoenix and Best Western hotels and four unnamed Tenderloin residents, alleges that city policies have created a “containment zone” for the city’s open drug market, while being tolerant toward violence, theft and sales of stolen goods.

[RELATED: Chaos at Portland City Hall as Leftist Protesters Demand Legalized Homelessness…]

The suit claims that the City of San Francisco is violating the residents’ right to equal protection, violating disability laws by failing to maintain clear sidewalks and allowing unsafe crowds of people to congregate, and creating a public nuisance, per the Chronicle.

The complaint mentions an unsanctioned “safe consumption site” that was set up by activists on the street in the beleaguered neighborhood last summer, and alleges that city officials “made no effort to punish or reprimand those who operated it.”

[RELATED: Maine Will Study Effectiveness of “Safe Consumption Sites” as a Potential Fix For Opioid Epidemic…]

Another complaint filed Thursday against the city by UC College of the Law San Francisco accused the city of failing to live up to a 2020 settlement agreement under which city officials are required to make all “reasonable efforts” to eliminate homeless encampments in the neighborhood in which the school is located.

“While we understand and share the frustration of Tenderloin businesses and residents, the City is making progress in reducing crime, disrupting open-air drug markets, and addressing homelessness, all while complying with the preliminary injunction issued in the Coalition on Homelessness case,” Jen Kwart, spokesperson for San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, said in a statement, per the Chronicle.

Matthew Davis, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in both lawsuits, called the street conditions in the Tenderloin a “catastrophe from a public health perspective.”

“The city blithely treats the Tenderloin as a place where this type of harmful activity can happen on the streets and sidewalks, and it’s inconceivable that they’d allow it in other neighborhoods,” Davis said.