San Francisco homeless camp swept from Cesar Chavez Street

City cleanup crews, counselors and police clear out a large camp of homeless people on Cesar Chavez Street around Highway 101. City cleanup crews, counselors and police clear out a large camp of homeless people on Cesar Chavez Street around Highway 101. Photo: Steve Rubenstein / The Chronicle / Steve Rubenstein / The Chronicle Photo: Steve Rubenstein / The Chronicle / Steve Rubenstein / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close San Francisco homeless camp swept from Cesar Chavez Street 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

A homeless camp that had mushroomed along Cesar Chavez Street around Highway 101 was dismantled Tuesday, scattering about 100 street people into shelters and nearby neighborhoods — leaving, still unanswered, the question of how to truly get rid of tent settlements that keep popping up in the city.

Street cleaners, police and outreach counselors descended upon the camp about 6 a.m. and spent the morning methodically bagging up trash and flopping tents onto flatbed trucks.

Shelters and cleanup

The counselors’ goal was to get the campers into homeless shelters or other poverty services, but the cleaners’ goal was purely to clear out what has become a smelly, messy eyesore to passersby and neighbors in recent weeks.

Camps have dotted the maze of trails, bushes, freeway-ramp ledges and dirt lots at that part of Cesar Chavez for decades. But ever since a giant encampment along Division Street was swept out in March, the Cesar Chavez population has grown into the largest street settlement in the city.

Separate settlements of tents and makeshift shelters popped up everywhere there was a bare spot, some sorted by drug use — one marijuana camp refused to let heroin users in — and others grouping by other interests, such as dogs or artwork.

The Division Street population had peaked at around 250 over the winter as rains drove the homeless to set up tents under the Central Freeway that cuts overhead. When it was cleared out after weeks of heated debate over whether the campers had been forced there by commotion over the Super Bowl, scores of displaced street people scattered to nearby blocks — as well as outlying areas, like Cesar Chavez.

After police shot and killed a homeless man at an encampment on Shotwell Street in the Mission District in April, Mayor Ed Lee vowed he would redouble efforts to crack down on street camps.

Most left quietly

Most of the campers on Tuesday went quietly, loading up shopping carts and shuffling off along Potrero Avenue or Cesar Chavez toward new spots where they could set down their things. One man simply fell asleep in a bicycle pathway, ignoring the ruckus, and a couple dozen lingered nearby, obviously waiting for the cleanup to end so they could move back in.

Rachael Kagan, spokeswoman for the city Department of Public Health, said city outreach counselors had been making the encampment a priority for weeks, and recently got some of the campers into the Navigation Center, which quickly routes the homeless into housing.

Maxim, a 50-year-old man from Russia who gave no last name, rolled up his green tent and sadly mused about where he could go next. He said he had been homeless for a year after losing his limousine driving job for not being able to speak English well enough.

Ordered to move

“The workers told me to move, but they don’t tell you where to move,” he said. “Of course, I’m not here by choice.”

Sam Dodge, Lee’s aide on homelessness, said Caltrans, which owns the land under the interchange, is planning to install fencing around the site as early as summer.

Counselors have been trying to place homeless people in shelters for several weeks, he said.

Last week, he said, counselors were able to persuade eight campers at the site to try the shelter at Pier 80.

“It’s a very complex site out there,” he said. “Some of the people living there are seniors, some have health issues. It’s been a large encampment for a while.”

Steve Rubenstein and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com