-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
San Francisco is definitely on a whole other level of homelessness
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
- Start date
San Francisco has a long history of policing the homeless instead of helping them. Navigation Centers have shown a great deal of success but the residents (including Jack Dorsey) went NIMBY when they tried to open another one recently:
Addressing the issues of homelessness in San Francisco requires us to look at it as not one issue but many issues-there isn't just one solution - "build more houses". There are different reasons why there are so many people on the streets- severe mental illness is one. severe drug addiction is a different one. Then there are the people that simply do just need a place to live and get back on their feet. The first two groups need focused and long term treatment. Simply putting them in a house doesn't solve the issue-it just removes it from public view.
OP
OP
Yeah. It's incredibly sad...There's so many factors that need to be addressed to fix the problem but many people aren't willing to have a homeless shelter near them. Though, I'd rather that they were just provided housing like apartments.
My own family is emblematic of the problem. There may be a homeless shelter built near me to help the homeless on this side of town. My father and mother are furious because "our property value will go down!" despite them having no intention of selling. They also complain that their will be more "drunkards and junkies" near us. This is the problem. People say that they want to "help" the homeless but don't want to be near them.
Now if only America had good mental health and substance abuse facilities that people could afford...
My own family is emblematic of the problem. There may be a homeless shelter built near me to help the homeless on this side of town. My father and mother are furious because "our property value will go down!" despite them having no intention of selling. They also complain that their will be more "drunkards and junkies" near us. This is the problem. People say that they want to "help" the homeless but don't want to be near them.
Now if only America had good mental health and substance abuse facilities that people could afford...
Woah there, Giant Bomb spouting off like a bunch of out-of-touch techbro adjacents? Well I'm shocked. /s
Seriously, I've spent a lot of time on foot in SF and I live next to Skid Row in LA. I'm pretty sure that LA's homeless population is larger, but I don't see how you can really compare them in a meaningful way. They're both very bad. LA has thrown billions of dollars at the problem with negative results. The money is mismanaged, the NIMBYs block efforts to create affordable housing, and states like Nevada and Arizona are known to scoop up groups of their homeless populations and dump them in LA.
It's more complicated than that. Homelessness is a matrix of mental and physical illness, addiction, poverty and crime - cycles that feed each other. Cities keep looking for magical solutions and corporate grifters smell development dollars. No single city has yet admit that the problem isn't some weird idealized single mom just trying to get a roof over her kids' heads (she's real enough but also the emotional appeal) and rolled up its sleeves to address complexity. In Seattle you'd think halfmillion dollar condos with no parking were the secret recipe for success. Meanwhile our PD is under a consent decree and has impeded its own ability to attack the drug markets happening in plain sight - and instead revives overdose victims on a literally daily basis. And the blame is shifted to an Amazon couple for buying a single family home.
It's fucking complicated and if we don't immediately begin triage then it's going to bleed out terminally.
I'm taking my wife there for vacation over Labor Day, and I already felt depressed as hell about the situations in both Portland, San Diego, and Seattle whenever I visit there. That's the one aspect I'm dreading as I always feel like I can't do anything to help them.
Is there any particular reason I hear about the SF homeless problem more?Here are the actual numbers for reference.
OP
OP
OP
OP
You need to think of it in terms of per capita. NYC has a MUCH larger population than any of the other cities on the that list.
I wonder when and how this terrible and complex problem will be solved.
The problem is a lot if homeless people have drug problems and mental illness.
Things like UBI won't work for ppl with these problems.
The problem is a lot if homeless people have drug problems and mental illness.
Things like UBI won't work for ppl with these problems.
How do those in Phoenix and Las Vegas survive the summers?Here are the actual numbers for reference.
Then the NIMBYs try and blame tech companies for the housing issues.
I think I got lucky. All of my SF trips pretty much avoided the ugly side of SF. Just go to Chinatown, walk around the Sunset area and the major metro areas. Mostly touristy places.
I've lived in Vegas, and it's terrible to see. Drive through some of the older parts of town during summer, and it's almost like The Walking Dead. The homeless are fried and cooked and shuffling down the sidewalk like zombies. I can only assume that most of the people who stay are the ones with the mental disabilities.
Was going to post this but I was too late. Check out this bullshit:
It's got ~20% less people than LA county though, and going by this chart twice as many homeless people. You hear about the homelessness problem in LA way more though.
I was there a couple weeks back, yeah it's absolutely horrible. So many people just sprawled out on the side of the street and really every corner you turn.
SF and LA.
Its a pronounced California problem.
I always bring people from out of town in Skid Row to give them a reality check. It's kinda morbid because I'm starting to see some people do the same thingg, cruising around in their ubers. It's almost become a sort of fucked up attraction.
Its a pronounced California problem.
I always bring people from out of town in Skid Row to give them a reality check. It's kinda morbid because I'm starting to see some people do the same thingg, cruising around in their ubers. It's almost become a sort of fucked up attraction.
This is the thing that really urks me. We call this ghetto safari in germany, when out off town people come in to visit problem areas as a sort of "toruist attraction".
It's a problem from Provincetown to San Fransisco.
It's not so much garden liberalism, as it is how everything is structured. So many Americans have their net worth tied up in real estate, that its the political third wheel to change anything, even for the better, because no one wants to take on the increased risks or uncertainty.
You also have very liberal, and very diverse neighborhoods poo pooing building to keep "gentrification" out, when all they're doing is ensuring the less fortunate are pushed out as prices rise. Cities are always changing beast, and that nonsense way of thinking needs to die.
I live in one of those communities and its infuriating to see people bemoan yuppies and gentrification in one breath, and yell about new condos and traffic in another. They want the empty blocks and blight of the 70s and 80s back, but thats not going to happen in their lifetime; but the characters can be saved if they understand simple supply and demand.
If you want to save your neighborhoods character and culture, when there's demand for new housing you need built, build, build. Otherwise some rich asshole is going to just come in and buy it all out from your overtaxed family and raise rents.
It gets plenty cold in SF. You want "not too hot, not too cold" you go to San Diego. They're in SF because while services are insufficient, they're still better than almost anywhere else on the West coast.
Nobody wants to pay for it. In Canada it's the same east Hastings in Vancouver rivals anywhere for sheer homeless numbers .... you could make very nice mental health apartments you dont even need institutions but no one paying for that shit.
Nah, it's an American problem. NYC, Chicago, DC. It's all the same. SF just takes it to absurd heights.
Coming back to American cities after visiting Europe is always a stark reminder of how fucked our social safety net it.
Edit: Building more housing is not a solution either. All they're gonna build is fucking luxury apartments, $2500/month studios. Private and corporate homeownership needs to end. Period. All housing needs to be provided by the government. For everyone.
Which is weird because Boston is slightly smaller and has a lower population yet apparently has a similar number of homeless according to the graph. And yet I haven't seen huge issues on the streets with homeless people. You'll see them in/in front of train stations and on some busy corners, and smell some piss in some train stations, but that's about it.
"Simply" getting people off the streets and putting them in housing (not dorms or shelters) would actually help people manage mental health and addiction issues more effectively.
We're talking food, clothes, and shelter. You don't need to do 14 other things before you start with shelter.
As beautiful as SF is, the homeless problem is indeed out of control.
Lived there for a month and it was jarring. And I'm from NYC where homelessness is pretty common.
Lived there for a month and it was jarring. And I'm from NYC where homelessness is pretty common.
That is what happens when you go full stupid in the late 60's early 70's and make constructing additional homes illegal. No cheap used housing available. This was a complete over reaction and continuation of the highway revolts.
I do not use the term often, but Berkley is full fucking libtard.
I do not use the term often, but Berkley is full fucking libtard.
This is Chicago to a tee.
The blatant segregation and the simultaneous liberal back patting kills me inside.
Some parts of South Side look like a 3rd world country. I just will never get it. As you stated, progressive in general have a massive blindspot on certain issues, while others know but don't care as much as they let on.
People not from the US always seem to mention this as if it's another one of those US problems that only affect the apparently barely over third world hellhole that is the United States, and yet:
It's so much easier to fix all of those other problems if people have a roof over their heads. It's a necessary step for people to get treatment.
But it's not the "one solution to fix all" that some people keep making it out to be. That's simply sweeping these people under the rug.
I can't imagine being homeless here in PHX. The summers are literally deadly out here. It was 113 the other day....Here are the actual numbers for reference.
A) It's really not.
B) Most of the housing and homelessness problem is a result of ridiculous zoning regulations put in place by the city 60 years ago that make it literally impossible to build affordable housing. Zoning regulations which rich ass tech capitalist bros are loathe to change and therefore fight tooth and nail, and since they have the money they win.
I think we need to make a distinction between homeless people and drugged/mentally unstable people here. People who got displaced from a city like San Francisco due to its high rent are not ones who are lying on the street half naked. They move outside into far distanced suburb, live in a van, live in a basement with multiple roommates... etc. The people you see half naked on the streets are people who are either potentially on drug, mentally unstable or both. In their case, I do not see lower housing costs help them in their situation. What they need are facilities to nurse them back from either their drug addiction or help them take care of whatever mental issues they're facing. My opinion would be that SF should be building more facilities tailored to mental health, treating drug addictions and temporary shelters in general. Most of the west coast cities are suffering from this and I see it where I live as well. Building social housing aren't going to help those people because they're not going to be holding down a job to pay subsidized rent