SF Homeless: "Shame of the City" 5 part study

[G_j]

http://www.sfgate.com/gate/special/pages/2003/homeless/

Shame of the City, SF Chronicle's Five-Part Study on Homelessness

We trip over them on the sidewalk every day. We curse, hand them a dollar, or don't. We feel pity, guilt and rage at their presence. The city spends $200 million a year trying to get homeless people off the streets and into a better way of life - but over 20 years, the problem has only gotten worse.

The more able of the homeless find their way into shelters, counseling and housing programs. But the most chronically indigent, called the hard core, steadfastly refuse most help and stay outside. These 3,000 to 5,000 homeless at the very bottom are the most visible, and they give the city its dubious distinction of having what many call the worst homeless problem in the country.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan and photographer Brant Ward spent four months in the streets, parks and alleys with the homeless and those who deal with them-health care workers, police, tourists, residents, businesspeople, commuters-in an attempt to answer the question: How did San Francisco, one of the most sophisticated and cultured cities in the world come to have so many people living so blatantly, so visibly, in misery?
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http://www.nationalhomeless.org/

The truth about homelessness
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/facts.html

[La_Serpiente]

1. If Gonzalez did not run for mayor

would there be attention placed on the homeless and disenfranchised?

Me thinks Gonzalez did more than promote the Green party. Me thinks he brought awareness to a human face that needed help.

[RBHam]

2. The rabid right are demanding work camps, I'm serious...

Some of them own houseboats in the bay and even claim to be Jews.
http://www.savagestupidity.com/

[Tinoire]

5. I pray for the day someone gets that hate-inciting racist

off the air-waves. I have never heard such racist, homo-phobic, anti-Semitic (both Jewish and Arab) FILTH in my entire life.

I landed on him once, flipping through the radio channels and could NOT believe my ears. Could not.

Shudder to think of all the impressionable people he is influencing during these times of economic woes. This is exactly the way the Germans were turned against "culprits" in Nazi Germany. Who will be our culprits. Hell, this guy can't even choose. If it's not Jews with Boats, it's Blacks with BMWs, or Latinos with 8 kids, or all them swarthy foreigners with slanted eyes, turbans on their heads or European accents.

Shudder.

[Tinoire]

3. Not to be flippant

because this is a crying shame and because I live in the Bay Area, I am constantly ashamed of US and seethe with anger that we do not really care about this issue and pay more lip service than anything to it

but

not to worry, Gavin Newsom, will soon by putting them all on a barge where they'll be tucked out of site and we won't even have to be reminded about them and the new breed of expensively-clad San Franciscans we inherited with the dot.com boom can walk from Neiman Marcus to their shiny little jags without being inconvenienced by silent accusations of signs reading "Homeless Veteran", "Will Work for Food", or "Unemployed".

I wonder what they will christen the barge... The USS Homeless maybe?

*The above post was written with absolute venom*

[Iverson]

9. obviously homelessness isn't important

However, it is important to fly in Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and others so that the Democrat can beat the Green for mayor.

Priorities, you know.

[giantrobot_2000]

4. ...

Take it from a San Franciscan, Willie Brown didn't give a shit about the homeless.

I can't tell you what a disgrace it is to walk down Market St. or through the Tenderloin these days. Normally, I blame the Reagan Legacy for letting the mental patients out of the hospitals but I think Brown should have done more to address the problem. People are living in shit (literally) and there are vials of crack and needles laying around on the sidewalks in the Tenderloin. The homelessness problem is out of control in San Francisco. It's embarrassing because San Francisco is the most progressive major city in America and it feels like there's nothing average citizens can do to help the homeless either get treatment for drug addiction or mental illness or give them a hand up to lead a decent life as a productive member of society. The Grace Baptist Church can do only so much.

It just going to get worse because Schwarzenegger is going to slash funding to programs that help the mentally ill. As usual, the people who need the most help are going to get the shaft first.

What do Republicans care? They live in gated communities or the suburbs.

[Tinoire]

6. Willy Brown didn't give a shit about anyone except Willy Brown Inc. n/t

[xchrom]

7. i've lived in the bay area most of my life

and you could visibly see it get worse after reagan became governor.
there's no political will to really deal with the problem. partly because it would be a very expensive problem to deal with.
many of these people from marin to san jose are seriously mentally ill and have severe drug and alcohol problems.
even from some of the most liberal perspectives -- if there was the money to deal with the problem -- some people would have to forced off the streets. others are simply not well equiped to take care of themselves even if they do have shelter.
america has no conception of how to deal with a person who just can't seem to take care of themselves -- they exist, we just don't know what to do with them.
however -- i don't think san francisco is worse off than many other major metropolitan areas -- since our weather is milder here for most of the year -- you simply ''see'' the devastation more often.
the bay area also keeps closer count of it's homeless than other areas -- which is not a bad thing.

[Nile]

8. Something is wrong with this picture.

Either the numbers are wrong or the people running San Francisco are just plain stupid. They spend $200 million on 5000 homeless. That is about $40,000 each. Why not rent them each a house for $24,000 a year and give them the other $16,000 for what ever else they need. Presto!! no more homeless to shame the city.

[Nay]

10. Nile, they don't do that because hardcore homeless cannot

generally take care of a house and yard, keep things clean, stay sober/off drugs, take prescribed meds, etc. They cannot generally manage money, either.

Ever since Reagan destroyed the mental health care system (even as lousy as it was), the mentally ill have overwhelmed whatever 'system' is put into place to help the homeless. It's an outrage. Open up some psychiatric hospitals, some halfway houses, whatever, and force them off the streets. Stop pretending they should be "free" to do whatever comes to mind -- they've mentally ILL or are severe alcoholics or drug abusers. Compassion is required in our care for them, but we are not required to watch them self-destruct in public. Not just because of our delicate sensibilities, but because we should finally realize there are thousands who will never be able to take care of themselves and it is up to us to do the caring.

[Muddleoftheroad]

11. Deinstitutionalization

Was criminally stupid.

Some people DO need to be put away. If you insist on living on the streets, you have problems. We do need to deal with this crisis humanely, but we can't keep allowing people to live on the streets.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

12. An idea - Let's Completely Ignore the Heroin Trafficking

The way to solve the homeless problem in San Franciscois to completely ignore the heroin trafficking in the Tenderloin and 16th and Mission Street. Evidentally some people in San Francisco - the police department? the mayor's office? the major banks? - are making plenty of money from the open heroin markets and the subpopulation of homeless and near-homeless junkies.

Instead, let's pass out free needles...don't want to interfere with the profits of organized crime...something like that...

[G_j]

13. kick