Mayor Lurie Signs Settlement Allowing City To Continue Cleaning Encampments, Offering Services

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Daniel Lurie today signed a settlement agreement in the Coalition on Homelessness v. San Francisco lawsuit—preserving flexibility for the city in addressing encampments and cleaning streets, as the number of encampments in the city has declined in recent months. The settlement agreement, negotiated by the City Attorney’s Office and passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, ends three years of litigation over homeless encampments in San Francisco.

The settlement between the city and the Coalition on Homelessness will allow Mayor Lurie to continue his work to keep San Francisco streets clean and safe and transform the city’s response to the behavioral health and homelessness crisis. As part of his Breaking the Cycle plan, Mayor Lurie has integrated the city’s street outreach teams under a neighborhood-based model and stood up more recovery and treatment beds, with San Francisco’s encampment numbers reaching their lowest levels on record, down by a quarter since March 2025. The mayor has also taken steps to clean the streets, launching a public-private partnership with Avenue Greenlight to clean commercial corridors in seven neighborhoods.

“San Franciscans in every neighborhood deserve safe and clean streets. Our administration is tackling the homelessness and behavioral health crisis head-on, standing up the right type of beds, and connecting people who are struggling to stable housing and treatment,” said Mayor Lurie. “With this litigation behind us, we can continue to drive forward our work to solve this crisis by adding more shelter and treatment beds, cleaning our streets, and continuing to drive down the number of encampments in our city.”

“All residents deserve clean and safe streets, and my office will do what it takes in the courts to make that a reality,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “We are happy to put this matter behind us and pleased this agreement allows the city to use all the tools in our toolbox to alleviate homelessness. I have said many times that lawsuits of this kind do not make conditions on our streets better. Courts are generally not equipped to step into the shoes of voters and elected policymakers and craft broad policies that address homelessness. In the future, I hope we can all work together to get those suffering on our streets into housing.”

The settlement agreement will last five years and does the following:

• Releases the city from all claims of liability brought in the lawsuit
• Allows the city to continue utilizing its existing bag and tag policy, which regulates how property found on city streets is stored or discarded
• Sets minimum notification standards should the city choose to change the bag and tag policy
• Creates a detailed dispute resolution process to resolve issues over bag and tag compliance while ensuring parties do not waste court resources over every minor disagreement
• Requires the Department of Public Works to take additional photos when responding to encampments

“San Francisco Police officers will continue to protect and serve everyone in our city, including individuals who are experiencing homelessness. Thank you to all of our city partners who have been committed to the ongoing effort to keep our streets clean and safe for everyone,” said Interim Police Chief Paul Yep. “With this settlement, we can continue to focus on getting services to individuals who need them and make our city safer.”

“Public Works is ready to move forward within the framework of this settlement agreement to continue our daily on-the-ground work with our partner city departments to keep San Francisco clean and safe,” said San Francisco Public Works Director Carla Short.

The city and Coalition on Homelessness were set to go to trial in July 2025 on the remaining claims related to compliance with the bag and tag policy but reached a settlement agreement shortly before trial. Under this agreement, the city will pay $2,828,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs to plaintiffs as well as $11,000 each to two formerly homeless individual plaintiffs.

The case is Coalition on Homelessness, et al. v. City and County of San Francisco, et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 4:22-cv-05502. The settlement ordinance and agreement can be found here.

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