The growing number of homeless people around and in the city of San Francisco has prompted some tech billionaires to create initiatives to change this situation. Tech billionaires Ron Conway, Michael Moritz, and well-to-do hedge fund manager William Oberndorf have each donated about $50,000 to a campaign to rid San Francisco of its homeless tents.

The campaign named Proposition Q is aimed at addressing the most visible symptom of the city's ongoing homelessness crisis; tent cities that crowd the sidewalks in certain neighbourhoods. The compaigners are hoping to make changes to law to allow the police to evict a homeless person from the street, after giving a prior 24-hour written notice. It will be mandatory for the police to offer a shelter bed or a bus ticket out of town before serving the notice. If the homeless person does not comply, the police will seize all their belongings and the tent itself.

Other than poorly maintained shelters, these encampments are currently the only place for most of the city's homeless to live in.

The campaigners are pushing for a completely ban on tents on sidewalks 

People against this measure are calling attention to the fact Proposition Q have not included any funding for further shelter and housing plans. The existing city shelter beds are at maximum capacity and there is a long waiting list.

Critics say evicting the homeless from the streets and taking their tents is akin to taking away the last chance of any kind of roof over their head