City of Santa Monica was having to do the same thing to keep homeless from piling up around the library for Internet access. The Library became the hub for all homeless in the region for the wifi alone. Seeing as they run a data center in the basement I had to access working there, it was always an adventure to visit.
San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
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Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#12Every day I start to believe more and more that people won't stop with homelessness until every homeless person is dead.
"Emergency housing is a drain on taxpayer dollars." "Job placement is taking jobs away from locals." "Soup kitchens are another drain on taxpayer money." "Homeless services are a waste of money."
It makes me sick how people can act when it comes to the homeless population when so many of us are just 1 bad month away from being homeless ourselves.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#13If your forum's moderation is a fraction of a percent more tolerant towards a group of people who generally aren't tolerated, you will end up with the entire group on your forum, oftentimes in numbers exceeding those of your original community. If you want a couple examples from the recent past, do you remember how a lot of communities made rules against posting stuff about My Little Pony (at one point, 4chan, a site that will normally allow anything, had to create a site-wide rule about it), or the way some subreddits became alt-right hubs over the course of a few weeks after someone found out the moderators would let them post stuff about it? The effect of this is to force everyone into a posture of equal hostility, even if they do not themselves care one way or the other.
This is exacerbated by the fact that any amenities designed to service the homeless (like a wi-fi tower out in a field where an encampment wouldn't bother anyone) would amount to officially recognizing the existence of the buildings erected there. I do not think the city could handle the contradiction of forcing one type of resident to go through an elaborate permitting process to build a shed, but allowing another resident to erect a temporary home in an officially recognized location. They are stuck turning a blind eye to it.
If you combine the two effects, you end up with the case they have now, where small-scale amenities will be overwhelmed, while large-scale amenities or directly intentioned actions are impossible because they would violate the fiction that none of this is happening. I know it sound hard to believe - that within the eyes of the system there are no homeless encampments: but just to offer one piece of evidence in support of it, I am not aware of any fire inspections going on in the tent villages.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#14>Neighbors of the library collaborated with the city to urge the library to turn off its Wi-Fi at night in hopes the Castro neighborhood’s unhoused population would move on. Theoretically, wifi access could help people move on by giving them the network access even old tech could use to look for jobs, living situations, long-lost relatives, access e-counseling and telehealth visits, etc. It's not the only thing the h…
in hopes the Castro neighborhood’s unhoused population would move on. We really need to implement solutions better than "go be homeless somewhere else."
In NYC the DHS intakes and beds 60,000 homeless people _every single night_.
To say that there aren't solutions in place is incorrect. At least in NYC, the folks you see sleeping on sidewalks have broadly chosen that position over a bed in a shelter. It's a point of pride for many New Yorkers that if you're homeless and willing to get clean, the city will provide a bed for you every night.
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dhs/downloads/pdf/dashboard/FYTD2...
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#15"No porn for you" Probably some dumbass in the department that came up with this agenda. Okay, what is that going to solve? Maybe, just maybe come up with a plan to help these folks instead of kicking them down even further. I love it when politicians flex with "We are the greatest country on earth" STFU. You are not. Take care of your people.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#16So, instead of finding ways to help the less fortunate and reduce homelessness, it was seen as better to find ways to get the problem to go elsewhere. As if turning off the WiFi means the homelessness problem will just disappear too.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#17This is such a lazy approach to social issues. Being poor and homeless is so hard. The system is built with countless chicken-egg problems that make it almost impossible to climb out of poverty. On top of this, elitists who are so disconnected are arbitrarily enforcing this kind of amoral depraved nonsense. Should we just keep stripping the needy of more and more resources until eventually maybe they'll just disappea…
The city is just so inept. It is such a nonsensical policy to allow encampments but lock the bathrooms and turn off the internet.
The city policies force them to defecate in the street/bushes and god forbid they use the internet to search for potential employment or other services.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#18Every day I start to believe more and more that people won't stop with homelessness until every homeless person is dead. "Emergency housing is a drain on taxpayer dollars." "Job placement is taking jobs away from locals." "Soup kitchens are another drain on taxpayer money." "Homeless services are a waste of money." It makes me sick how people can act when it comes to the homeless population when so many of us are jus…
As is clear from may comments to this post, the american dream is apparently to pull up the ladder behind you.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#19There should be free Wi-Fi everywhere in the city, so people don't have to concentrate around a library.
Re: San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it
#20Every day I start to believe more and more that people won't stop with homelessness until every homeless person is dead. "Emergency housing is a drain on taxpayer dollars." "Job placement is taking jobs away from locals." "Soup kitchens are another drain on taxpayer money." "Homeless services are a waste of money." It makes me sick how people can act when it comes to the homeless population when so many of us are jus…
They'll complain about lack of workers while doing this too.
Put people into a hopeless unemployable situation and don't allow them a way out and meanwhile complain that no one wants to work.
We could fix the one of the biggest economic issues right now by enacting a program to get people back on their feet but apparently the real solution is for them to die.