San Francisco cracks down on homeless: Sleep in train station, go to jail

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/23/san-francisco-cracks-down-on-homeless-sleep-in-train-station-go-to-jail/



San Francisco cracks down on homeless: Sleep in train station, go to jail
By Reuters
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 6:54 EDT

Transit police on San Francisco’s BART commuter rail line on Tuesday stepped up efforts to discourage homeless people from sleeping in stations, issuing warnings that could eventually lead to a trip to jail.

The crackdown by the Bay Area Rapid Transit police started with verbal warnings to people sleeping in the hallway corners of Powell Street train station downtown, the first step in a widening campaign that will eventually include all stations.

“We felt we had a duty to protect our patrons and provide them safe passageway in case of an emergency,” said BART spokesman Jeff Jennings. “If something happens, we want the people to be able to get up and move with the crowd and not trip folks.”

The campaign comes as San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the United States, wrestles with a nearly intractable problem of homelessness that has filled shelters to overflowing and left a meager amount of publicly subsidized housing available to the poor and mentally ill.