Cracking Down On The Homeless

Cities are herding them off the streets but moving a lot slower in dealing with the underlying causes

For more years than he cares to remember, John Dumont has called home the doorways and alleyways of downtown San Francisco. For most of that time, the city paid little mind to the 50-year-old former paramedic and his cartful of possessions. That indifference vanished last month when a police officer found him sitting on the sidewalk in front of a Wells Fargo ATM and issued a $76 ticket and a court summons. Then one morning last week, Dumont says, he was awakened by a cop kicking him in the foot and telling him to move on. "It gets worse every day,"...

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