The Mayor’s Office is about to start targeting homeless people in the South of Market Area using tactics similar to those employed when sweeping homeless people at Golden Gate Park. The pilot program, dubbed “downtown outreach plan,” will have three separate teams of police officers and social service staff working in a 15-block area, from Third Street to Fifth Street and Market to Harrison streets, according to a Sept. 28 memo from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s deputy chief of staff, Julian Potter, to Newsom’s chief of staff, Phil Ginsburg.

“Any person committing a crime (littering, encampment, trespassing, urinating, defecating, dumping, blocking sidewalk, intoxication, etc.) will be asked to cease the behavior and enter into services,” the memo states. “If the individual resists services, the officer will issue a citation. If the arrest is related to a misdemeanor, warrant, intoxication, or a second citation for the same period, the individual will be taken into custody for processing.”

Supervisor Chris Daly, who obtained the Sept. 28 memo, criticized the effort during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, calling it “eerily reminiscent of former Mayor [Frank] Jordan’s failed Matrix program.”

The Matrix program, which had authorities issuing thousands of citations for low-level crimes such as blocking sidewalks, was widely viewed as mean-spirited and ineffective.

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Trent Rhorer, Newsom’s homelessness czar, said the pilot program would go into effect sometime this week, but that it does not resemble the Matrix program.

“Matrix isn’t a word this administration uses. It’s not an approach that works,” Rohrer said.

Rohrer said police officers need to be part of the equation, because if homeless people will not accept the services, they should be held accountable for illegal activity.

Newsom’s spokesman, Nathan Ballard, said, “This is exactly what we’ve been doing in Golden Gate Park and it’s been working.”

Daly has requested a hearing on the effort before a Board of Supervisors committee. He said incumbent mayors in the past have fallen back on the use of law enforcement and “sweep of homeless people” to address the problem.

“San Franciscans have time and time again rejected that approach,” Daly said. “We’ll see what happens this time.”

The targeted area includes the Moscone Center, home to The City’s convention industry. San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Angela Jackson said homelessness “is a problem in San Francisco and I’m glad to hear that they will be addressing the Moscone area.”

jsabatini@examiner.com

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