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

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

#71

Post by sixQuarks »

lhnz wrote: post #25

Certainly not very compassionate, but is it true that the homeless in San Francisco have a drug problem that is making the area unsafe? Is nobody trying to treat or house these people? Shouldn't people take this piece and use it as further evidence that there is a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than merely a culture war they can take part in? As usual, everybody want's to talk about how much of a 'bro' this g…

I understand where this kid is coming from. He worded things terribly, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Instead of attacking him, people should be trying to figure out what to do about this problem. The homeless problem has really gotten out of hand in SF - and violent crime too. I know several people that have been attacked and robbed near market street.

I left SF in 2014 after living there since 1999. It's a very different city these days, the "cost of living" to "quality of life" ratio is perhaps the worst of any city in America.

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

#72

Post by Lawtonfogle »

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…

>the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless.

This helps the short term homeless. Long term homeless often have problems that can't be met just by giving them housing.

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

#75

Post by wmil »

lhnz wrote: post #25

Certainly not very compassionate, but is it true that the homeless in San Francisco have a drug problem that is making the area unsafe? Is nobody trying to treat or house these people? Shouldn't people take this piece and use it as further evidence that there is a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than merely a culture war they can take part in? As usual, everybody want's to talk about how much of a 'bro' this g…

The problem goes back to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and the 'Deinstitutionalisation' movement in the 70s.

Basically they shut down psychiatric facilities instead of fixing them. Now no one has a good solution for people who need care but don't qualify current programs.

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

#76

Post by mmmlll »

sandworm101 wrote: post #31

The shame is that this individual is far from unique, and not just in SF. I run into people daily who speak of homelessness as a conscious lifestyle choice. I know of one SF attorney who constantly rants about how the homeless there all earn 50k a year. They build up these fantasy worlds to justify their perception of themselves as moral millionaires. They believe wealth to be the inevitable result of a heightened mo…

Your attorney friend is talking about trustafarians in the park on the other side of the city, and gravitate to Upper Haight, not the homeless populations that center around downtown in close proximity to the TLoin. Johnny5SF isn't complaining about the former, because they're not really situated to be a daily part of any rich tech bro's commute.

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

#77

Post by sixQuarks »

sp332 wrote: post #2

How can he live in SF for years and think it's a free market? I live across the country and even I know that the housing market there is artificially constrained. He really seems to think that homeless people grow on trees or something instead of realizing that they lived in the city before he did.

The homeless problem in SF has very little to do with the high cost of housing. SF's policies on homeless has attracted homeless people from far and wide. Other cities were caught busing their homeless people and dropping them off in SF.

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

#78

Post by dederp »

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 platform for lecturing and shaming other people for stepping out of a very oppressive and narrow range of opinion or expression.

I now find articles like this and these daily recurrent societal witch hunts to be infinitely more offensive than anything this guy wrote. I don't want to live in a self imposed culture of toxic silence so no, Hacker News, I will not join in with your witch hunt and participate in group shaming of some random guy who wrote a bad letter.

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

#79

Post by packetized »

sandworm101 wrote: post #41
m1sta_ wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the solution will be a realisation that not everyone has a right to live in SF. Just like not everyone has a right to live in Newport. A part, but not a big part :)

Or the solution may be to accept that the city owes a duty to everyone in it's boarders and cannot deport human beings based on circumstance. The city could tax the rich heavily, to the point that a balance is struck that both shelters the poor and dissuades further gentrification.

What do we do when some of the poor simply do not want to be sheltered?

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

#80

Post by progressive_dad »

creshal wrote: post #66
monkmartinez wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> A lot of them prefer this "lifestyle"... we try very hard to help the people that want help. Most don't. A lot of them are mentally handicapped or dealing with acquired mental illnesses. Even under good conditions, treating either is hard . Of course EMS/fire fighters/volunteers working in shelters aren't able to do that.

Ronald Reagan started this catastrophic failure when he was governor of California in 1967.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-men...

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