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SF, Seattle, Portland... What is it with the trendy west coast cities in particular that struggle with vast homelessness? The cost of housing and living in the

SF, Seattle, Portland... What is it with the trendy west coast cities in particular that struggle with vast homelessness? The cost of housing and living in the west coast states has increased astronomically over the years and continues to do so, is it that simple?

dsl 9y ago
Because the middle of the country has zero tolerance for homeless once they start to become a burden, and bus them to the west coast. Nevada finally settled a SF lawsuit a year or two ago because they shut down a metal health facility and gave them all bus tickets to California. Combine that with the moderate climates (read: you aren't sleeping in 4 foot of snow) and we just end up with an uneven distribution.
- throwaway91111 9y ago
  Yea, you can see this in Denver. I just moved to sf and it's like night and day. The emphasis in denver is entirely in clearing homeless camps, not in attempting to find somewhere that can handle their needs. It was pretty eye opening to see people shooting up on the street at 10am in front of cops in SF.
Danihan 9y ago
No winter die-offs / pressure to leave because of the cold.
jedberg 9y ago
You can live outside year round. It gets kinda tough in the winter, but at least you won't freeze to death. Also super homeless friendly rules and laws. For example, in the city of Berkeley, you are required to have the front door of your commercial establishment set back from the street and covered, and the police won't remove homeless people while your business is closed. In other words, you must provide covered shelter each night to the homeless if you own a business there.
yardie 9y ago
Moderate weather that won't kill you. A tax base that can finance some social services. And increasing housing costs. It's a mix of all of the above.
BurningFrog 9y ago
Part of the answer is that in much of the country it's pretty easy to build housing, and it's available even to poor people.
ocschwar 9y ago
See the reasons listed in the other responses. Another one, which used to be much more significant, is the dark side of the west coast culture's radical acceptance ethic. Port cities were all about radical acceptance once upon a time, because they needed laborers. It didn't matter who you were or what you did: if you could carry goods off a ship, you had a place as a dock worker. And if you couldn't, you could still cook or launder for dock workers. So radical accpetance predates the 60's, though it became more of a thing afterwards. Well, it's nice to know you have a city to go to if your home town cannot accept you. If you're gay, or bookish, or artsy, et cetera. But if what the people around you are not accepting is the erratic behavior that your incipient schizophrenia is getting you to engage in (or the lack of acceptance is actually a delusion induced by it, and your family does still accept you), and you've heard of San Francisco, well, you go there. You cut off ties to your home. And then the schizophrenia kicks in full blast. A nice thing about social media is that people having mental breakdowns tend to make it obvious on Facebook and invite intervention. And, it makes it harder to cut your old ties, when once upon a time it was harder to maintain them. But when you see 50 year olds in the streets around the Mission, holding debates with the voices in their heads, well, this is how they got there.
- bluGill 9y ago
  Port cities didn't need the workers (though they are important), they needed the foreign ships. As a result whatever background your dock workers are, they have to get along with the crews of all those ships coming in.
nolepointer 9y ago
Liberalism.

dsl 9y ago

Because the middle of the country has zero tolerance for homeless once they start to become a burden, and bus them to the west coast. Nevada finally settled a SF lawsuit a year or two ago because they shut down a metal health facility and gave them all bus tickets to California. Combine that with the moderate climates (read: you aren't sleeping in 4 foot of snow) and we just end up with an uneven distribution.

throwaway91111 9y ago
Yea, you can see this in Denver. I just moved to sf and it's like night and day. The emphasis in denver is entirely in clearing homeless camps, not in attempting to find somewhere that can handle their needs. It was pretty eye opening to see people shooting up on the street at 10am in front of cops in SF.

Danihan 9y ago

No winter die-offs / pressure to leave because of the cold.

jedberg 9y ago

You can live outside year round. It gets kinda tough in the winter, but at least you won't freeze to death. Also super homeless friendly rules and laws. For example, in the city of Berkeley, you are required to have the front door of your commercial establishment set back from the street and covered, and the police won't remove homeless people while your business is closed. In other words, you must provide covered shelter each night to the homeless if you own a business there.

yardie 9y ago

Moderate weather that won't kill you. A tax base that can finance some social services. And increasing housing costs. It's a mix of all of the above.

BurningFrog 9y ago

Part of the answer is that in much of the country it's pretty easy to build housing, and it's available even to poor people.

ocschwar 9y ago

See the reasons listed in the other responses. Another one, which used to be much more significant, is the dark side of the west coast culture's radical acceptance ethic. Port cities were all about radical acceptance once upon a time, because they needed laborers. It didn't matter who you were or what you did: if you could carry goods off a ship, you had a place as a dock worker. And if you couldn't, you could still cook or launder for dock workers. So radical accpetance predates the 60's, though it became more of a thing afterwards. Well, it's nice to know you have a city to go to if your home town cannot accept you. If you're gay, or bookish, or artsy, et cetera. But if what the people around you are not accepting is the erratic behavior that your incipient schizophrenia is getting you to engage in (or the lack of acceptance is actually a delusion induced by it, and your family does still accept you), and you've heard of San Francisco, well, you go there. You cut off ties to your home. And then the schizophrenia kicks in full blast. A nice thing about social media is that people having mental breakdowns tend to make it obvious on Facebook and invite intervention. And, it makes it harder to cut your old ties, when once upon a time it was harder to maintain them. But when you see 50 year olds in the streets around the Mission, holding debates with the voices in their heads, well, this is how they got there.

bluGill 9y ago
Port cities didn't need the workers (though they are important), they needed the foreign ships. As a result whatever background your dock workers are, they have to get along with the crews of all those ships coming in.

nolepointer 9y ago

Liberalism.