Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, in which we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. Four candidates are challenging incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to represent District 5, which spans from the east end of Golden Gate Park through Haight-Ashbury, Japantown and the Western Addition, the Lower Haight and Hayes Valley, and most of the Tenderloin.
Street conditions are top of mind for many voters, so we asked the candidates this week about sweeping homeless encampments.
The subject made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson last week that cities restricting where unhoused people can sleep in public spaces, even when no shelter is available, does not amount to “cruel and unusual” criminalization of homelessness.
A broader San Francisco lawsuit filed in 2022 alleged the city violated unhoused people’s constitutional rights when dismantling encampments — that case triggered a federal injunction limiting evictions of encampments. Part of that ruling will be affected by the Supreme Court’s decision.
We asked candidates what they thought about the injunction in San Francisco and the Supreme Court decision last week. Some candidates said that without shelter, our problems won’t change. One candidate avoided saying what they thought of it.
Read their responses below.
Note: I will be at Stoa at 701 Haight St. on Wednesday, July 3 at 6 p.m. Come say hi and share your thoughts about the election or District 5.
Scotty Jacobs
- Job: Marketing
- Age: 30
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2022, homeowner
- Transportation: Public bicycle
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Washington University
- Languages: English
Until we have adequate shelter beds available, we’ll have encampments. I am committed to ensuring that state funds earmarked for shelters actually result in more beds — not in the pockets of City Hall’s non-profit industrial complex. Our first priority must continue to be offering services to those most in need. However, we cannot allow encampments to exist in perpetuity.
I’ve been clear about my position: If an unhoused person refuses shelter, the city should clear encampments. This policy does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and is necessary to restore public confidence in San Francisco’s ability to run itself effectively.
Allen Jones
- Job: Activist
- Age: 67
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2021
- Transportation: Wheelchair
- Education: Teaching Bible studies at juvenile hall
- Languages: English
This Supreme Court ruling solves nothing, especially for people with disabilities who suffer the most from blocked sidewalks. Homeless individuals who prefer the sidewalk to a shelter will only relocate more often.
You could not pay me to live in a shelter. That is why, from 2009 to 2019, I lived in a pickup truck — loved it. We need to employ a strategy that clears the sidewalks BEFORE we can reduce homelessness. If you were temporarily homeless, would you rather live in a tent or a town car? Read my proposed solution to clear our sidewalks on my campaign website.
Autumn Looijen
- Job: School board recall co-founder
- Age: 46
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since December 2020, landowner
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from California Institute of Technology
- Languages: English
If you are worried about the Grants Pass ruling, remember that there is no Supreme Court ruling that can take from us our responsibility to care for our neighbors, or the compassion in our hearts.
This ruling means that we do have the authority to remove people from our streets when we can offer them shelter and services.
It means we need not leave our neighbors suffering on our streets, shivering in tents and preyed upon by drug dealers until we find them lifeless on the sidewalk.
That is not compassion.
Compassion is building the shelter beds, the treatment beds … read more.
Endorsed by: San Francisco police union.
Bilal Mahmood
- Job: Founder of private and philanthropic organizations
- Age: 37
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since May 2023
- Transportation: Walking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, master’s degree from University of Cambridge
- Languages: English, Urdu
We need to focus on addressing the root of the problem — and our homelessness crisis is predominantly a result of lack of housing. We are more than 1,000 shelter beds short needed to serve those suffering on our streets. Of the shelter and supportive housing we do have, bureaucracy has led to waitlists of hundreds of individuals waiting months to get access.
We need to focus on these problems — building more shelters and permanent supportive housing faster, and cutting the red tape that impedes individuals’ ability to get access to that housing.
Endorsed by: San Francisco YIMBY, State Senator Scott Wiener and DCCC Chair Honey Mahogany.
Dean Preston
- Job: Incumbent, tenant attorney
- Age: 54
- Residency: Homeowner, in District 5 since 1996
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, juris doctor degree from University of California Law, San Francisco
- Languages: English
The same court that overturned Roe v. Wade just ruled that cities can criminally punish unhoused people for sleeping in public, even if there is no available shelter for them to go to. It is an unconscionable ruling.
We must act urgently to end homelessness in San Francisco. We should immediately fill vacant supportive housing units, ramp up street outreach, expand our shelter and housing capacity, connect people with existing rental subsidies, and prevent homelessness through our tenant right to counsel and rent relief. Nobody should be forced to sleep outside, and nobody should be arrested or prosecuted for being homeless.
Endorsed by: Bernie Sanders, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Money raised and spent in the District 5 supervisor race
For
Money spent
Against
Dean Preston
$10,530
$301,458
$26,174
$156,791
Bilal Mahmood
$6,846
$63,387
Allen Jones
$0
Autumn Looijen
$0
$0
$100,000
$200,000
$300,000
$400,000
Money spent
For
Against
Dean Preston
$10,530
$301,458
$26,174
$156,791
Bilal Mahmood
$63,387
$6,846
Allen Jones
$0
Autumn Looijen
$0
$0
$100K
$200K
$300K
$400K
Source: San Francisco Ethics Commission, as of April 3, 2024. Chart by Junyao Yang.
The order of candidates is rotated each week. Answers are capped at 100 words, and may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at eleni@missionlocal.com.
Read the entire “Meet the Candidates” series here. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
Looijen should have been fact checked last week as well. Her responses are plain lazy.