4 ms·

Lax homeless laws+unreasonable apartment costs+temperate weather=filthy streets filled with feces and homeless people.

• matthewmacleod 8y ago
  What are "lax homeless laws"?
  • vowelless 8y ago
    A euphemism some people use to partly blame the victim.
    • AllegedAlec 8y ago
      I don't think it's unreasonable to demand that there are laws against people shitting in the streets and leaving infected drug needles all over the place and that these laws are also acted upon by law enforcement.
      • jefflombardjr 8y ago
        The problem with this in my opinion, is at least what I've seen in Portland is they arrest the person, take them to jail, and when they're released they just go and do it again. The only thing this accomplishes is putting a strain on the court system. If they had some sort of alternative to 'catch and release' like a recovery program or prison diversion program. 100% agree with you. The law isn't enforceable as it stands now and throwing a bunch of police/extra courts/extra incarceration centers isn't really going to attack the problem at the source.
      • crooked-v 8y ago
        I would suspect the former part of such a law would be immediately suppressed by the judiciary unless the city actually built enough well-serviced public bathrooms for everyone before it went into effect.
      • bruceb 8y ago
        People should not defecate in the streets yes. But hard to tell people not to poop when they don't have nearby bathrooms to do their business.
        • nailer 8y ago
          The article mentioned the city has build 5 public bathrooms in the area
      • matthewmacleod 8y ago
        Ultimately, someone who is in a position where they're defecating in the street and discarding used needles isn't likely to be in a position where they'll be engaging positively with law enforcement. That kind of thing needs to be treated as the public health problem that it is, with extensive society-wide initiatives to prevent people getting into those situations, and to help them get out once they're in. Law enforcement can play a part in that for sure, but until there's a clear programme it doesn't do much to alleviate the problem in the long term.
        • AllegedAlec 8y ago
          And in the mean time the city gets less and less habitable.
          • matthewmacleod 8y ago
            Right, but the way to fix that isn't "throw more law enforcement at the problem".
            • AllegedAlec 8y ago
              I don't know. I think getting them off the streets is a fairly high prio thing to do, even if it's just by putting them in prison temporarily while a better option is prepared. Yeah, the homeless are victims of the situation, but so are the inhabitants of SF. They deserve a place to live where they do not have to be afraid of being assaulted by a homeless man, having their children tripping over infected drug paraphernalia, or their city being a hotbed of disease due to a large population doing their business on the streets.
              • goliatone 8y ago
                I would agree, but then also the people who have been living in SF and are not part of the tech economy also deserve not having to worry about their rent doubling or being kicked out to the streets and put in a situation where homelessness is a very real prospect.
      • stinos 8y ago
        Fairly sure there are laws like that (you can't leave random garbage on the street, no public nudity, etc?), just no active enforcement. Because it's not practical to patrol all the time, everywhere. Tackling this problem needs to be done on other levels.
        • AllegedAlec 8y ago
          Which are apparently doing nothing, because this problem has been around for quite a long time (over half a decade by now, I believe?).
  • laxhomelesslaws 8y ago
    Not shooting them on sight. At least that's what most of the rich people in SF complaining about homeless people seem to think.
  • diogenescynic 8y ago
    Cops don’t enforce most drug laws and property crimes here, I suspect that’s what he means. So the SFPD is really uninvolved and doesn’t like to cite or arrest homeless people unless they are violent. It’s like a low level state of anarchy being allowed. If a homeless person decides to camp on your property, good look getting the cops to remove them. You need a special sign displayed that you have to apply for and pay for to even remove trespassers... the whole city is structured to allow petty crimes.
  • norseman 8y ago
    You can get heroin and go shoot up inside the BART train station in SF. If you call the police they might show up, probably not. They'll arrest 1....100 other there shooting up too. Edit: Soy boy SF engineers down voting me, go get your soy lattes and feed the dead overdosed pigeons in SF park ya faggots