James Ream has been living in a tent on the corner of Fell and Baker Streets for over a year. He's an artist by trade, but he was evicted from his apartment after a dispute with his landlord and lived in his van for a while. After his van was towed away, someone gave him a tent and he took to the streets.

His tent is outside the city's only DMV office, across from the Panhandle, a leafy stretch that leads to Golden Gate Park, in a family-friendly neighborhood of well-maintained Victorian buildings.

“It's a nice place. The sidewalk is wide enough for a tent and there's still space for pedestrians,” said Reem, 59, who on some days is one of more than a dozen tent dwellers on this stretch of concrete.

“There are a few of us who have stuck together tightly,” Ream said.

Mayor London Breed has said the city will launch a tough campaign to get people off the streets following a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, and his new neighborhood is one of dozens that may be targeted.

Ann Estimated 8,300 people Despite years of efforts to move people experiencing homelessness into temporary and permanent housing in San Francisco, unauthorized encampments remain a widespread and visible problem, often accompanied by trashing, theft and open drug use.

For years, Breed and other city officials have argued that their hands are tied by rulings from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers many Western states, that say it is cruel and unusual punishment to punish people for sleeping on the streets when they have no legal shelter.

In a landmark ruling on June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision, ruling that cities in California and the West can enforce laws regulating homeless encampments on sidewalks and other public property.

On Thursday, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom cited the ruling in an executive order calling on state agencies to remove encampments in their jurisdictions. The order does not require cities and towns to comply, but Newsom urged them to do so, saying the proliferation of encampments is a health and safety hazard that requires immediate action.

Fellow Democrat Breed also supports the ruling. She used the Supreme Court's decision as a weapon in her campaign last week: 'Very aggressive' Starting in August, an effort to remove homeless camps will begin, which could include criminal penalties for those who refuse to disperse, she said.

Breed did not make the governor available for an interview on Friday, and her office has not yet released details about what the raids will entail or where people living in tents plan to be relocated. Her spokesman, Jeff Cretan, said some of those details will become clearer next week.

During the period July 18th Mayoral Election Debate Speaking at a rally organized by the local firefighters union, Breed acknowledged her decision to organize the raids was “unpopular” but said it was a necessary step.

“We had to change from a city of compassion to a city of accountability,” she said, “and I've been leading the effort to address this issue differently.”

He said the city has worked over the past few years to increase shelter bed capacity and decentralize outreach workers to provide services and support, but the mayor's office said that when outreach workers offer shelter, nearly 70 percent of their offers are rejected.

San Francisco has experimented with sanctioned tent cities to address the needs of its homeless population.

(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Breed's crackdown is likely to send news out of San Francisco that counters a narrative being promoted by conservative pundits as Vice President Kamala Harris launches her presidential bid in earnest. Harris' Republican opponents have sought to portray her, who rose to political power as San Francisco's district attorney in 2004, as a California liberal whose policies have contributed to the rise in homelessness and retail crime plaguing the state.

But the Supreme Court's decision has divided local Democratic leaders in California. Left-leaning Democrats, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, say the ruling allows cities to criminalize homelessness without addressing underlying causes like addiction and a lack of affordable housing — a sentiment echoed by homeless advocates.

“This order will not reduce homelessness or deter encampments, but it will push vulnerable people even further away from their homes and health than they already are,” said state policy director Sharon LaPorte. Housing Support AssociationHe said in an emailed statement.

It's unclear whether San Francisco will have enough shelter beds to accommodate the wave of people being forced off the streets. Since Mayor Breed took office, the city has increased the number of shelter beds from about 2,500 to nearly 4,000 and increased permanent supportive housing slots to about 14,000, her office said.

The encampment at Ream's DMV is one of several that city officials have cleared multiple times only to reappear days later — the mayor's office said in a statement — and has cleared more than 10 encampments so far this year.

Ream said he worries his belongings will be stolen if he stays in the shelter, but that he feels safer outside. He said he plans to accept help from city workers, but he said he thinks Breed's plan is more about removing tents that are making people uncomfortable than helping people like him.

“They're not concerned about the homeless,” he said. “They're concerned about getting rid of us.”