San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
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Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#2Just looked up some numbers to shed some light on the proportions of these problems:
- SF has had a homeless population of 6200~6500 over the last 15 years
- SF spends $~240M per year on homeless services, about $35k per person (excluding police, medical and other indirect services)
* $112M of that on supportive housing, $40M on shelters/transitional housing, $27M rental subsidies/eviction prevention
- spending has increased by $84M since 2011 when Ed Lee took office
- NYC spends about $1B but seems to have a homeless populat of about 60,000 (~10x that of SF)
Pretty disheartening to see the amount of resources that have already poured into solving the problem without seeming very successful.
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#3Every time the topic comes up, people from across the country start commenting on SF's homelessness woes. I live in SF, and consider our homeless situation unique. There are lots of mentally ill people, who have been hanging around for many years, thanks to good weather and generous people (and the easy availability of some drugs). Most of these people are NOT your typical "lost my job, lost my apartment, and hence am homeless" types. Many of them are so mentally ill that putting them in a mental institution is the only option. They simply cannot take care of themselves.
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#4Just looked up some numbers to shed some light on the proportions of these problems: - SF has had a homeless population of 6200~6500 over the last 15 years - SF spends $~240M per year on homeless services, about $35k per person (excluding police, medical and other indirect services) * $112M of that on supportive housing, $40M on shelters/transitional housing, $27M rental subsidies/eviction prevention - spending has i…
IMO this all boils down to realestate/rental costs. 1/2 the budget for services is realted to housing cost. Build the towers sky high until the market is saturated, stop the ridiculous NIMBYism, stop pandering to the crowd that profits from the problem--the housing owners.
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#5Every time the topic comes up, people from across the country start commenting on SF's homelessness woes. I live in SF, and consider our homeless situation unique. There are lots of mentally ill people, who have been hanging around for many years, thanks to good weather and generous people (and the easy availability of some drugs). Most of these people are NOT your typical "lost my job, lost my apartment, and hence a…
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Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#6Just looked up some numbers to shed some light on the proportions of these problems: - SF has had a homeless population of 6200~6500 over the last 15 years - SF spends $~240M per year on homeless services, about $35k per person (excluding police, medical and other indirect services) * $112M of that on supportive housing, $40M on shelters/transitional housing, $27M rental subsidies/eviction prevention - spending has i…
Yea. What's going wrong? Would just GIVING them a place to live work? It would be cheaper.
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#7Every time the topic comes up, people from across the country start commenting on SF's homelessness woes. I live in SF, and consider our homeless situation unique. There are lots of mentally ill people, who have been hanging around for many years, thanks to good weather and generous people (and the easy availability of some drugs). Most of these people are NOT your typical "lost my job, lost my apartment, and hence a…
I suggest looking at the official data on this subject[1]. The vast majority of San Francisco's homeless people are, in fact, people who were living in SF and paying rent, lost one or more jobs, and subsequently became homeless.
I would also suggest you read the literature[2] concerning "putting people in a mental institution" against their will, because that practice has a long and sordid history and there are many, many good reasons we don't do it anymore.
[1]https://sfgov.org/lhcb/sites/sfgov.org.lhcb/files/2015%20San...
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#8I live close to the area (I'm on 8th and Howard) and the situation for the homeless there is horrible. We walked past the tent camp while going to the local spca to see if they had a cat we could adopt. The spca has a great facility and it is great that their animals are treated so well. But the contrast between the animals and humans on the street made my heart sink. I hope that we can keep the great facilities for the animals but we find a better solution for the people living on the street. As mentioned in the article many are mentally ill and it is sad to see them scream and yell at ghosts. I've never heard someone say something about throwing feces so this doesn't seem frequent. I'm sure many of the homeless want to keep their place clean but there is a lack of public sanitation to do so. Reports say many went to this area after being told to do so during the super bowl http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-mayor-...
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#9Meanwhile, houses in Detroit can be purchased for the cost of a month's rent in SF. The solution is obvious, no?
It seems that people want so badly to live in some of the nation's most expensive real estate that they are willing to be homeless. That's a choice. The quarter billion spent on them is an enabler. It encourages them to stay homeless.
Re: San Francisco Orders Homeless to Leave Tent Camp
#10This is very similar to the homeless situation where I live. We had to recently break up a camp in one of the beach communities too. Many, many drug addicts (especially meth) and mentally ill (possibly due to drugs). Simply providing shelter is not the solution imo. The challenge is so much bigger than that. Drug rehab services need to be provided or even required. The easy access to drugs also needs to be addressed.
I am all for helping people that need our help. I am not for enabling certain behaviors though such as drug use. It is going to be hard to empower drug addicted homeless people if they can't hold down a job or relationships due to their addiction.
I am not saying this is the case for all homeless but at least in my area, it is the majority.
If we want to solve this problem, we need to provide shelter along with drug rehab services & require weekly clean drug tests as a requirement to keep the shelter.
Now the costs for all of that, I am sure is just as big of a challenge.