His group also is challenging the practice of allowing city marshals to kick people out of parks indefinitely and restrictions on adult in parks deemed "children's parks."

"There's a lot of bluster, enacting policies and laws that really do nothing to solve problems," Peck said. "The real problem is that we are living in a community where for whatever reason there has been a reluctance to dedicate the resources and time necessary to fixing these problems."

A 2002 ballot measure to raise taxes by 1 cent per $100 of assessed property won only 36 percent of the vote.

Goodman says no more money needs to be spent and no more services added. He notes the city's roughly 400 emergency shelter beds are often not full.

"No one is turned away," he said.

The mayor and other local leaders have formed a coalition of regional governments that devised a 10-point plan outlining goals for reducing the number of people living on the streets.

Shannon West, the director for the coalition, said the gaping holes in the system are drug and alcohol rehabilitation and mental health services. She also said people living on the streets need help becoming "housing ready."

She said media attention and legal wrangling can be "a little bit of a distraction to the progress we've made."

The dispute also has left advocates like Occhiogrosso reluctant to discuss their work. She and other Catholic Worker volunteers have been feeding homeless people four days a week or more for 20 years. They have taken a "nomadic" approach and serve early in the morning under the cover of pre-dawn darkness, she said.

"We just try to be low-key about it," she said.

She's been careful to avoid the attention given to Sacco and Circle Park, where a large sign declaring the closure covers a brightly painted mural.

The park will remain closed, Goodman said, until someone comes up with a way to curb the problems in the park.

"Until a light bulb gets lit in my head," he said.