Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 515 posts

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#151

Post by rahimnathwani »

refurb wrote: post #100
joosters wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how many people are going to pay more taxes to raise the money for the government to do all these things? In the end, it still comes back to the people. It's not the government's fault.

San Francisco has a $156M annual budget to address homelessness. That's not a small amount of money. First let's make sure that it's being spend efficiently.

That's over $20k per homeless person, per year[0]

[0] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-homeless-populatio...

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#152

Post by kaonashi »

Afforess wrote: post #9

To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…

Homelessness is a byproduct of capitalism in the first place, in feudal societies there is no homelessness.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#153

Post by odonnellryan »

monkmartinez wrote: post #45
Afforess wrote: post #9

To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…

This is a complex issue... but in my experience, most of the homeless are not looking for help to find jobs and/or contribute to society in manner that will lead them out of "homelessness." A lot of them prefer this "lifestyle"... we try very hard to help the people that want help. Most don't. Go talk to your local EMS/Fire department personnel and most of them will have similar stories. I know the homeless people in…

The homeless often have mental illnesses. Forget less severe illness, 1/3 have been found to have severe illness: http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/homeless-mentall...

So, it isn't they are homeless because they like the lifestyle, but it is often because of an illness that they prefer that lifestyle.

We've all certainly felt extraordinary pressures related to common every-day life. Mental illness makes dealing with these pressures very difficult, often almost impossible. I would not blame someone for trying to escape those pressures.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#155

Post by m1sta_ »

shopkins wrote: post #146
dederp wrote: post #78

I read his article. He is right, San Francisco has severe, unbelievable problems with homelessness and drugs which are so painfully obvious to anyone who has ever visited I felt like I was reading something out of the twilight zone. I hate the climate of hostility towards anyone who remotely points this problem out. The reaction and tone of this article is exactly why I hate looking at Twitter now. It has become a pl…

The hostility is warranted when you think you're solving a problem by whining about it on Medium. We all have homeless problems in our cities. We get accosted by mentally ill people, drunk people, high people, strung out people, dirty people. We smell piss on the street corners. But we don't publish it on the internet because of some grandiose vision that our words will suddenly shine light on the issue and spur some…

I don't have that problem. I've lived in lots of cities and have never had that problem.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#156

Post by murbard2 »

Many people react with horror to the idea of policing homelessness. Yet, when given a choice to live between two identical cities, one permissive towards homelessness and the other not, I bet the vast majority would choose the latter.

Many homeless people are down on their luck, have mental illness problems or both. Many homeless people can also be rude, aggressive, and can deteriorate the quality of life in a city by littering, urinating publically, etc. The two aren't exclusive. Many people are caught in a form of dialectical thinking between privileged/unprivileged oppressor/oppressed. Life is more complicated.

What strikes me as ridiculous with the situation in San Fransico is that it's so economically wasteful given that the city has become one of the most desirable place to live in the country,

The Coasian solution would be for the residents to pay the existing homeless to move out of the city and then proceed to police it more thoroughly. I'm convinced there is a price at which everyone involved, including the homeless would be better off. The problem is that, besides the coordination cost involved, the idea feels icky and unconscionable.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#157

Post by kefka »

Shivetya wrote: post #116
DanBC wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't work unless the person wants to recover. That's apart from the human rights violation.

Clue me in, what is the human rights violation? Or better yet, in descending order what are they in regards to those needing help but refusing it and possibly endangering themselves or others?

I certainly understand why there's strife around this.

Mental drugs cause a lot of effects, including causing other problems. They usually cause you to feel like you're in a cloud of anti-emotion. It really sucks when you want to feel stuff. Worse yet, are other side effects like tardive dyskinesia and tremors and things. And those, once you get them, don't go away.

What I gather, the only really humane way to handle mental health problems relating to homelessness is to medically arrest them, have a panel of doctors whom medicate according to the mental disease, wait until the drugs take effect (upwards to 6 weeks), and then explain what's going on and how they wish to continue. If the patient wants to stay on drugs, awesome: they should be provided free of charge. Along with that, governmental services they may have turned down prior can be reactivated and put into motion to assist them.

Or... if they don't want help/treatment, they should sign a paper stating that they were medicated, informed, and that they wish to not be on drugs and live on the street. At this time, they are released to live as they choose. And this "medical arrest" to inform them of their rights would never happen again. That's a one-time affair.

This "Arrest" would happen once, and would be done to provide informed consent. We already acknowledge that things like contracts and the like can't be made while on drugs, alcohol, or under duress. There's no reason why mental defects that cause effects like drugs can't also be grouped in with this.

This sounds to be the most fair..

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#158

Post by mikeboydbrowne »

I don't like the article's tone. I agree that he could have expressed his thoughts more sensitively, but I think this article uses his post as a way to demonize "tech bros" instead of focusing on the actual issue. The Washington Post could have published something on San Francisco's homelessness problem, but instead decided to pick the low-hanging fruit and demonize an entitled tech worker who might have a point.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#159

Post by nxzero »

joosters wrote: post #68
at-fates-hands wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what kind of solution the government should have. There's already a myriad of local, state and federal housing programs already in place. Whether its temporary emergency housing, eviction protection, child care services, or in some cases, low income housing and federal subsidies for permanent housing. There's plenty of safety nets in California, let alone the SF area. If people want to get off the streets, t…

How many of these myriad services are already running at full capacity? Just because there are homelessness support groups out there doesn't magically mean that there is enough support.

More to that point, most public resources are not required to report that they have exhausted their capacity. Further, such resources often actively waste the time of those looking for support under the pretext that resources are available and they need to prove there is demand that exceeds their capacity; even when year after year it's clear that documenting demand will not result in additional resources.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#160

Post by radikalus »

I'm on his side. =\

I think the vilification is comical. Not super impressed with the need to dig into his background to find examples of how much of a "tech bro" he is.

This reads differently if it's not coming from the mouth of a hated-elite.

Post reply on HN