Sisters of The Road could be on the verge of withdrawing from the mayor’s controversial Street Access For Everyone committee—which has been responsible for overseeing the enforcement of the sit/lie ordinance since it was passed into law on August 30 last year.

The nonprofit plans to hold a press conference on Thursday morning, May 8, after the SAFE committee has met between 9:30 and 11am, on the steps of city hall, where there is currently a spontaneous protest going on about the city’s sweep policies, involving up to 55 homeless people this weekend.

“Homeless advocates’ continued buy-in is important on the SAFE Oversight Committee as it suggests that what is being done is a fair compromise among business advocates, the City, the Police Bureau, and homeless service providers to address “issues of livability” in downtown and the Lloyd District,” says the press release.

In other words, if Sisters were to withdraw its support for the SAFE committee, the city would have a much tougher time claiming the sit/lie ordinance is fair. Of the 88 warnings and citations given between August 30, 2007 and January 22nd, 2008, 79 were given to people who were identified as homeless, “transient,” or no address was listed.

The mayor’s office has claimed all along that the ordinance is not aimed at homeless people, but instead, at ensuring the sidewalks are unobstructed for everyone. However, it emerged at last month’s meeting that the city is only punishing human beings under the sit/lie ordinance, and letting unlicensed sidewalk signs go unpunished because it doesn’t want to harm small business.

Sisters’ Community Organizer Patrick Nolen is staying tight-lipped about the position to be taken on Thursday. “We’ve been having a lot of conversations about it between staff at different levels and with our customers,” he says. “We’ve had a focus group about it, and it’s something we want to have a real understanding of before we make a commitment to any position.”

Sounds like they’ll be withdrawing, to me. Stay tuned…