5 ms·

It was my understanding that SF in particular is an incredibly rich county and that there are adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. Is this not

It was my understanding that SF in particular is an incredibly rich county and that there are adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. Is this not the case?

IntronExon 9y ago
Shelters are notoriously nasty places, and a bed alone is not what these people need. Many, if not most are seriously mentally ill, and need a level of care that isn’t available to people without serious money. Since the 1980’s mental health has been shafted in the US, with predictable results for homelessness and mass violence. Remember that the Us is a country in which a sitting congresswomen and bystanders can be gunned down by a paranoid schizophrenic who was known to authorities, and nothing changes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > in which a sitting congresswomen That's a part of the problem right there: Gabrielle Giffords is a woman, not a man - unlike the other 78% of Congress. As usual with politics, as long as you're not a white, able-bodied male with money, no one will care what happens to you. There will be a couple of rallies, maybe a week or so of media headlines and that's it. Oh and maybe anniversaries of the event. Sounds cruel but I have the feeling that it will need a rich white powerful politician's kid to die or be maimed in a mass shooting to have any effect on gun control. And even then, I wouldn't bet my money on actual change happening. As for mental health, no idea how more funding for that can ever be passed. Unlike with a person with a wound it's difficult to "see" mental health issues (or, the healing process), and a culture in which mental health issues are regarded as "weaknesses" that must be ignored/covered-over than be helped doesn't help eithr.
  - totalZero 9y ago
    Ever hear of Steve Scalise? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise
carapace 9y ago
SF spends about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on homelessness.[1] There are not adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless.[2] [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record-241-million-on-homeless-6808319.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-recor... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisco-state-of-emergency-homelessness-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisc...
GuiA 9y ago
This article[0] claims that the shelter system has 1200 beds, and that official figures put the homeless population count at ~7000, while unofficial figures put it more around 10 000-12 000 and the parent article quotes 21 000. [0] https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Questions-about-San-Francisco-s-homeless-answered-8323297.php https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Questions-about-San-Fran...
teej 9y ago
The city of San Francisco spends $40,000 per person per year on the city’s homeless population. That was $241 million in 2016 [0]. The issue of homelessness is complicated but is made worse by terrible mismanagement by the city. [0] - https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record-241-million-on-homeless-6808319.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-recor...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 9y ago
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SllX 9y ago
There are not adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. There are not even adequate shelters for the homeless. The shelters are not always even safe places to be if you're homeless. Nor are the shelters that exist adequate substitutes for mental hospitals that a portion of the homeless population should be housed within but can't be because they don't exist. If you're homeless, there are worse places to be than San Francisco and not many that are better, certainly none that I could think of. Maybe Salt Lake City? That said, there aren't any good places to be homeless in America, only comparatively better.
vkou 9y ago
There aren't enough beds, and many homeless people prefer sleeping on the street, then in a shelter, for a number of logical reasons. 1. They are more likely to be assaulted or robbed in a shelter. Shelter staff may or may not do shit to help you. 2. Shelter admission hours can be limited - they may be incompatible with their job. 3. You are expected to be drug and alochol free in a shelter. For someone with an addiction, this may not be something they can accept. [1] [1] Before anyone suggests that the solution is for those people to just quit their addiction, please keep in mind that there are many wealthy, intelligent, mentally sound people in a stable, supportive environment, with a loving family are unable to break their addictions.
- pnw_hazor 9y ago
  Harder to run bicycle chop shops in shelters too.
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > 3. You are expected to be drug and alochol free in a shelter. For someone with an addiction, this may not be something they can accept. There's an addition to this: pets, especially dogs but also rats. For many homeless people their pets are their only living companion - but shelters accepting people with pets are a rarity even in Europe. Of course, because multiple dogs in the same space will lead to all night barking, territory fights etc. - this is why unconditional (!) housing first policies are the only thing that works.
- askmike 9y ago
  > 1. They are more likely to be assaulted or robbed in a shelter. Shelter staff may or may not do shit to help you. I'm not sure you can still call something like that a shelter to be honest.

It was my understanding that SF in particular is an incredibly rich county and that there are adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. Is this not the case?

IntronExon 9y ago

Shelters are notoriously nasty places, and a bed alone is not what these people need. Many, if not most are seriously mentally ill, and need a level of care that isn’t available to people without serious money. Since the 1980’s mental health has been shafted in the US, with predictable results for homelessness and mass violence. Remember that the Us is a country in which a sitting congresswomen and bystanders can be gunned down by a paranoid schizophrenic who was known to authorities, and nothing changes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner

mschuster91 9y ago
> in which a sitting congresswomen That's a part of the problem right there: Gabrielle Giffords is a woman, not a man - unlike the other 78% of Congress. As usual with politics, as long as you're not a white, able-bodied male with money, no one will care what happens to you. There will be a couple of rallies, maybe a week or so of media headlines and that's it. Oh and maybe anniversaries of the event. Sounds cruel but I have the feeling that it will need a rich white powerful politician's kid to die or be maimed in a mass shooting to have any effect on gun control. And even then, I wouldn't bet my money on actual change happening. As for mental health, no idea how more funding for that can ever be passed. Unlike with a person with a wound it's difficult to "see" mental health issues (or, the healing process), and a culture in which mental health issues are regarded as "weaknesses" that must be ignored/covered-over than be helped doesn't help eithr.
- totalZero 9y ago
  Ever hear of Steve Scalise? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise

carapace 9y ago

SF spends about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on homelessness.[1] There are not adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless.[2] [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record-241-million-on-homeless-6808319.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-recor... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisco-state-of-emergency-homelessness-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisc...

GuiA 9y ago

This article[0] claims that the shelter system has 1200 beds, and that official figures put the homeless population count at ~7000, while unofficial figures put it more around 10 000-12 000 and the parent article quotes 21 000. [0] https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Questions-about-San-Francisco-s-homeless-answered-8323297.php https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Questions-about-San-Fran...

teej 9y ago

The city of San Francisco spends $40,000 per person per year on the city’s homeless population. That was $241 million in 2016 [0]. The issue of homelessness is complicated but is made worse by terrible mismanagement by the city. [0] - https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record-241-million-on-homeless-6808319.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-recor...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

SllX 9y ago

There are not adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. There are not even adequate shelters for the homeless. The shelters are not always even safe places to be if you're homeless. Nor are the shelters that exist adequate substitutes for mental hospitals that a portion of the homeless population should be housed within but can't be because they don't exist. If you're homeless, there are worse places to be than San Francisco and not many that are better, certainly none that I could think of. Maybe Salt Lake City? That said, there aren't any good places to be homeless in America, only comparatively better.

vkou 9y ago

There aren't enough beds, and many homeless people prefer sleeping on the street, then in a shelter, for a number of logical reasons. 1. They are more likely to be assaulted or robbed in a shelter. Shelter staff may or may not do shit to help you. 2. Shelter admission hours can be limited - they may be incompatible with their job. 3. You are expected to be drug and alochol free in a shelter. For someone with an addiction, this may not be something they can accept. [1] [1] Before anyone suggests that the solution is for those people to just quit their addiction, please keep in mind that there are many wealthy, intelligent, mentally sound people in a stable, supportive environment, with a loving family are unable to break their addictions.

pnw_hazor 9y ago
Harder to run bicycle chop shops in shelters too.
mschuster91 9y ago
> 3. You are expected to be drug and alochol free in a shelter. For someone with an addiction, this may not be something they can accept. There's an addition to this: pets, especially dogs but also rats. For many homeless people their pets are their only living companion - but shelters accepting people with pets are a rarity even in Europe. Of course, because multiple dogs in the same space will lead to all night barking, territory fights etc. - this is why unconditional (!) housing first policies are the only thing that works.
askmike 9y ago
> 1. They are more likely to be assaulted or robbed in a shelter. Shelter staff may or may not do shit to help you. I'm not sure you can still call something like that a shelter to be honest.