Homelessness has reached crisis proportions in San Francisco. One of its worst symptoms is the tent encampments that are spreading like a virus in our neighborhoods.

It is not compassionate to allow human beings to live on our streets. Violent crime, fires and the proliferation of rodents make these encampments both dangerous and unhealthy.

The answer to homelessness is housing, not tents. I recently submitted the “Housing Not Tents” initiative for the November ballot because there is no law that specifically addresses encampments. The initiative would move homeless individuals out of tent encampments and into housing while mandating that the city offer temporary shelter or housing before an encampment is removed.

The acceptance of Homeward Bound — the city service that provides a homeless individual with paid transportation to a destination outside of San Francisco when connected to a housing opportunity — would also trigger the removal of an encampment.

24-hour removal notice

It’s important that we don’t just push encampments from one neighborhood to another. My measure prevents this by getting rid of the encampments entirely. If the initiative is voted into law, it would require the city to provide 24-hour notice of the city’s intent to remove an encampment.

The city also would be required to inform all individuals residing in a tent of a specific available shelter or housing opportunity. The city also would store an individual’s personal property for up to 90 days after a tent is removed.

My policy is not a panacea. We need to do more to address our existing shelter and housing capacity issues, so that individuals in encampments have a place to go. We need to do more to address the underlying causes of homelessness, such as poverty, mental illness, substance abuse and lack of job skills.

Funding for housing, services

The good news is that help is on the way. As board budget chair, I secured an additional $13 million for new homeless housing and services in the upcoming fiscal year, and an additional $48 million for next year. Together, Mayor Ed Lee and I are fighting to bring in $1.25 billion in new homeless resources over 25 years.

Such long-term funding would create new housing opportunities, allow new financing tools to create additional affordable housing units, and open multiple Navigation Centers, which can each serve approximately 750 homeless individuals a year.

Like any sensible policy that challenges the status quo, Housing Not Tents has been met with fierce opposition in City Hall. Supervisors John Avalos, Jane Kim and Aaron Peskin have put forward competing tent policies that lurch from the ridiculous to the just plain nutty.

One supervisor wants the government to pay for running water and sanitation services for the tent cities. Another would guarantee free, taxpayer-funded housing in perpetuity to anyone who sets up a tent on our streets. This would guarantee a homeless population explosion in San Francisco: Overnight, thousands of new squatters would set up a tent, eagerly awaiting the keys to their new, free house in our City by the Bay.

Anybody with an ounce of common sense understands that it’s time to stop the spread of tent cities. Encampments simply prolong homelessness, and Housing Not Tents is one key piece of an overall solution.

Supervisor Mark Farrell represents District Two on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.