City plans to clear homeless from Embarcadero for Super Bowl 50

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) -- As San Francisco gears up for Super Bowl 50, some of the city's homeless will be moved from the Embarcadero area where festivities are planned.

"The area will be kept safe for everyone who is attending," explained Christine Falvey, the Mayor's Director of Communications. "Getting people off our streets because it's not safe or healthy to be. There is something the Mayor is focused on 24/7 and all year round, not just for the Super Bowl."

Falvey says Mayor Lee's two-year budget includes nearly $30 million to provide services for the homeless and an additional 500 housing units.

Some of the homeless from the Embarcadero area could be moved to the city's Navigation Center in the Mission District, a one-stop shop with the goal of getting homeless into services and housing.

"He just wants to get rid of the homeless," said Navigation Center client Folau Hunkin. "Thank God for this place."

Hunkin isn't convinced San Francisco will help the homeless by moving them to the Navigation Center or any other place, and neither are some Mission District merchants.

"So we already have a huge problem with mentally ill people on the street without a lot of support," said Elina Davenport at Thread Lounge. "To bring in more would be devastating both for the homeless and everyone else."

On Monday afternoon, a man sat on a sidewalk a short distance from her shop, half-dressed and talking to himself.

"So it's not about shuffling people around so that it looks prettier," Davenport argued. "It's about dealing with real issues in the city, which Mayor Lee has not done."

"Homelessness is something the Mayor focuses on every day." said Falvey, insisting any movement of homeless would not be because of the Super Bowl, but for a long term goal of getting people into more stable situations.

Some of that depends on whether someone who is homeless wants help.

"Everybody always says I got the right attitude," Hunkin said smiling. "I say 'Hey, be thankful you wake up every morning and you're alive!'"