Downtown is another story, he said, fueled mostly by the open-air drug trade. The team has found guns, knives, machetes and axes in the tents, as well as giant containers of urine and feces, rats, mold and drugs. Lt. Young said the police search the records of anyone who gets aggressive with them, and he estimated that roughly one in four have come back with warrants for crimes that ranged from car break-ins to sexual assault.

He said the new policy allowing citations will make it easier to keep sidewalks clear.

“We want them to go to shelter, and if they don’t, we have to enforce the law,” Lt. Young said. He added that those cited will be released on site and that it would be up to the district attorney to decide whether to charge them. Those with warrants will be taken to jail immediately.

In the first few days of the latest effort, city employees had 235 conversations with homeless people and removed 81 tents. Twenty-four people accepted a shelter bed, while the rest declined or did not respond. The police reported that they have made nine arrests, eight for outstanding warrants and one for illegal lodging, who was cited and released on site.

Among the arrested was Mr. Beiswanger, outside of the D.M.V., who had outstanding warrants for falsely identifying himself to the police and possessing methamphetamines. They took him to jail, and he has been released. He could not be reached for comment after leaving the camp.

The other homeless men by the D.M.V. loaded their belongings into the U-Haul van and wandered away. That, for the time being, was enough to avoid citations.

About an hour after the city crews left, the men retrieved their belongings, and carried them through Golden Gate Park to a different corner.

There, they erected a new encampment.