An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin • Hacker News Board

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#161

Post by entelarust » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:08 AM UTC

In seattle we have a ton of missions and shelters in the downtown area. Most have a one night limit, or a weekly one night limit. But Seattle is also very walkable and there is enough shelters to round-robin and have somewhere to stay/get a meal every night of the week.

We also had a downtown "free ride" with our bus system which let you take the bus within the downtown area free of charge to promote downtown living/working. But this ended up being dominated with loitering homeless. Luckily, they finally got rid of this last summer.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#162

Post by corwinstephen » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:08 AM UTC

rdouble wrote: post #148

corwinstephen wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to believe this based purely on having heard it all my life. But a friend of mine recently made an interesting point: he asked me what race homeless people are. My answer (at least here in LA) was that they're almost unanimously black or white. Never Asian. Never indian. Rarely Mexican. I countered that it could be due to Asian and Mexican cultures being more culturally inclined to take care of their own, but…

Latinos make up the 2nd largest homeless demographic in Los Angeles.

It's very possible I'm off base here. I'm going purely on observation and anecdotal things. Do you happen to have any hard stats off hand?

Edit:

I looked it up. You're right in that Latinos hold the second highest percentage of homelessness at 33%, but when you consider population size, it sort of becomes irrelevant. Latinos make up 47% of the total population in LA. Blacks make up only 9% however they're a full 50% of the homeless population. This means that per capita, Latinos are 5 times less likely to be homeless than blacks.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#163

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:17 AM UTC

corwinstephen wrote: post #162

rdouble wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latinos make up the 2nd largest homeless demographic in Los Angeles.

It's very possible I'm off base here. I'm going purely on observation and anecdotal things. Do you happen to have any hard stats off hand? Edit: I looked it up. You're right in that Latinos hold the second highest percentage of homelessness at 33%, but when you consider population size, it sort of becomes irrelevant. Latinos make up 47% of the total population in LA. Blacks make up only 9% however they're a full 50%…

[deleted]

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#164

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:18 AM UTC

djmdjm wrote: post #30

What's remarkable about this is how the poster finds these casual encounters with homelessness "unremarkable". No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. I don't know enough about the causes of this phenomenon in SF to suggest what can be done about it; I'm sure they are complex, multi-factorial and politically fraught, but the level of homelessness in SF and (almost)…

[deleted]

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#165

Post by kooshball » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:21 AM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #42

CamperBob2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a lot of people in this thread who don't seem to have heard that many, if not most, of these people are scammers. I also see a lot of people who don't seem to understand that you get more of what you subsidize, whether you want it or not. Just putting that out here.

What does it mean for a panhandler to be a 'scammer'? They're not really homeless at all, they actually live in a mansion in Beverly Hills with a two car garage, and manage to pay for it all by asking for change on the street all day pretending to be homeless?

Panhandlers and the homeless are two totally different things. Of course one doesnt have to be homeless to panhandle.

By scamming, the parent poster was probably referring to stuff like "hey can I get a few bucks for a bus ticket" or "hey can I get some money for gas". That's pretty much always a scam.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#166

Post by stephengillie » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:28 AM UTC

entelarust wrote: post #161

In seattle we have a ton of missions and shelters in the downtown area. Most have a one night limit, or a weekly one night limit. But Seattle is also very walkable and there is enough shelters to round-robin and have somewhere to stay/get a meal every night of the week. We also had a downtown "free ride" with our bus system which let you take the bus within the downtown area free of charge to promote downtown living/…

Seattle also has 6 or 8 tent cities, each literally about 200 people camping in a church parking lot or city park for a 2-week span.

This part of the planet is mild enough to support human life with a minimum of shelter. Areas with this attribute will always have humans trying to survive on fewer resources than average.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#167

Post by stephengillie » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:29 AM UTC

frozenport wrote: post #136

bcantrill wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want a glimpse into San Francisco's hardcore homeless, read this excellent Chronicle series from 2003: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SHAME-OF-THE-CITY-HOMELES... This problem is in no way unique to San Francisco; our engineering team has offices in San Francisco, Seattle (Pioneer Square) and Vancouver (Gastown) -- and we can collectively report that there are large, hardcore homeless populations in all th…

Is it a West Coast thing?

Seattle has about 8 "tent cities", plus the massive Pioneer Square and Belltown homeless mobs.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#168

Post by kalleboo » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:35 AM UTC

Finbarr wrote: post #102

mikebracco wrote: post #53

Sort of off topic but related... I wonder how the homeless will fair when we become a cash-less society. This may be far off but it's inevitable. While initially one might think the homeless will be worse off, I can imagine technology actually improving things. Imagine some sort of NFC chip or ID a homeless could obtain from a shelter that would allow someone to give money to them from their mobile phone...and then p…

This is interesting. What if all homeless people in SF were issued a cash card. The balance of the card would be controlled remotely and it could be (de)activated at any time. People who want to help the homeless could pool money together and the funds could be put onto the cards at the point of need. Perhaps retailers would be able to request the balance on behalf of the purchaser somehow - phone, web, etc. If peopl…

Food stamps?

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#169

Post by bodyfour » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:42 AM UTC

drstewart wrote: post #109

nopassrecover wrote: post #103

From a non-American perspective, the Tenderloin and SF's poverty generally is baffling. As a caveat, I realise there are contributing factors to SF poverty (homeless from other states) - this is more about the personal experience. I haven't traveled a lot (~18 countries) but I've not encountered any poverty in a first-world city that is comparable to SF. Sure there are homeless in other cities (e.g. Rome's beggars) b…

That's because it's a not a no-go zone. Maybe if you are extremely sheltered, which it sounds like you may be?

I would definitely tell someone just visiting SF (especially from a foreign country) that the TL is a "no-go". I've been there many times, but it's not the kind of place I'd want to be lost and disoriented.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#170

Post by vellum » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 9:46 AM UTC

msutherl wrote: post #135

djmdjm wrote: post #30

What's remarkable about this is how the poster finds these casual encounters with homelessness "unremarkable". No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. I don't know enough about the causes of this phenomenon in SF to suggest what can be done about it; I'm sure they are complex, multi-factorial and politically fraught, but the level of homelessness in SF and (almost)…

It seems nobody has mentioned the climate. San Francisco is temperate and mostly warm – you can be outside all year. I spent a lot of time in Montreal. There are homeless people, but they tend to be more organized. You don't want to weather a Montreal winter unprepared. I've always wondered how many of them die in the cold every year.

More like mostly chilly. SF doesn't have the temperature extremes of the Montreal, but you still have to wear a sweater most of the year. You can always spot the tourists by their shorts and newly bought "San Francisco" emblazoned sweatshirts.