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

An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

jonb.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 216 posts

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#181

Post by uriloran »

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)…

I find it interesting that we have some homeless people even in Germany, where social payments exist by law and (evidently almost) everyone in need would get some money for living and even payed the rent of a home.

--edited syntax

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#182

Post by cpressey »

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?

I think you see more homeless on the west coast because it's a little easier to make it through the winter without consistent shelter there. (Compared to, say, Minneapolis.)

I haven't actually compared against other places on the continent that have year-round temperate climate, so this is just conjecture.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#183

Post by beachstartup »

staunch wrote: post #156
nahname wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't spend much time in the rest of LA, but I was in westwood for 8 months in 2011. There was less than the tenderloin, but most of the streets with shops had a homeless on every corner. I would walk by 5-10 on my way to grab lunch or dinner.

You are exaggerating. I live in Westwood, have lived in the area for 15 years. Also spent quite a bit of time in SF. There is absolutely no comparison between the two places. Even in Westwood Village you could go months without being hit up by a homeless person for change. Now, maybe you were in a hot spot where a few hang out regularly, but they are not everywhere by any stretch of the imagination. They're also noth…

yeah. i live in santa monica but have lived in SF, and these people complaining about west LA's "homeless problem" are out of their minds.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#184

Post by jdavis703 »

doktrin wrote: post #74
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)…

> No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. SF is unique not in the size of the homeless population, but in its distribution. The linked study refers to metropolitan areas (thus including Oakland as part of the SF Bay), but SF ranks 12th in the nation behind Tampa, Seattle & San Jose among others [1] In both DC [21] and to a lesser extent Seattle [8], for instance, yo…

I can't speak for most other cities on the list. But in DC you can from far out wealthy suburbs (e.g. Loudoun County to the White Houss and see homeless. It certaintly is not as prevelant as I've seen in Tenderloin/SF but its not hidden either.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#185

Post by acchow »

corwinstephen wrote: post #142
sebastianmarr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most homeless are mentally ill to some extent I'd love to see some numbers on that.

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…

Come to think of it, I've never met a homeless Asian on Indian before. I see plenty of Asians working their asses off in shitty conditions in chinatowns to feed their kids so they can go off to college some day. You're right, it does make you think.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#186

Post by acchow »

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%…

> Blacks make up only 9% however they're a full 50% of the homeless population.

What brought us here, and how do we fix this?

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#187

Post by rexreed »

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)…

I know your comment is regards to West Coast cities, but if you've been to the East it's quite noticeable in many cities (Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, among many) - definitely not a uniquely SF phenomena. Did you know that in 2011, there were 46.2 million US residents at or below the poverty line [1]? That's 15% of the US population. And as much as 10% of the poor, or 1% of the US population is homeless [2].

[1] https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_Sta...

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#188

Post by rexreed »

acchow wrote: post #185
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…

Come to think of it, I've never met a homeless Asian on Indian before. I see plenty of Asians working their asses off in shitty conditions in chinatowns to feed their kids so they can go off to college some day. You're right, it does make you think.

You might be surprised to learn this:

"Yet there are homeless Asians. Isabelle Hsu reports in the Pacific News Service that in San Francisco alone there are approximately 6,000 plus people living in the streets. She quickly adds that this is a very rough estimate. Ed Jew (the only Chinese American on Mayor Gavin Newsom’s committee to end chronic homelessness) explains that the official estimate of Asian homelessness is probably low because of cultural sensitivities. It is also a matter of saving face: homeless Asians refuse to go to shelters and admit to their homelessness."

[1] http://erwinsdeleon.blogspot.com/2008/07/homeless-asians.htm...

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#189

Post by lazugod »

bherms wrote: post #147
njoubert wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to subscribe to this idea as well, until a friend of mine told me this: "Have you thought of the fact that you're enabling people to be homeless, thereby making the problem worse rather than better?". This really struck me, since I agreed... I'd rather work on the causes than the symptoms.

"If you can heal the symptom, but not affect the cause, it's quite a bit like tryin' to heal a gunshot wound with gauze." -- Phish, __Sand__ Had to plug my favorite group :)

I don't understand the comparison. What are you supposed to do to a gunshot wound other than prevent bleeding, which gauze would do?

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#190

Post by rlmw »

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)…

London has a pretty bad homelessness issue. There are lots of charities and voluntary contributions that attempt to address the issue but its a hard problem to solve.

London also has quite fragmented social ghettos. In most cities you have richer areas and poorer areas, London broadly has this, but has pockets of wealth in the poorer areas and pockets of poverty in the rich areas. To a much greater extent than I've seen in any city I've been to.

Post reply on HN