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The homeless problem was exacerbated by twitter employees being upset about the outdoor toilets near their office.

• epistasis 5y ago
  The homeless problem was exacerbated by a housing shortage, not by people thinking that there should be a better solution to people's problems than sewage in the streets. SF spends a ton of money keeping people out of homelessness through rent assistance, and this is some of the most effective public money that can be spent to help with the problem. But even more effective would be to stop the ever rising costs by allowing more people to live in the city, and allowing them to spend their own money to construct this new housing. High homelessness rates are not caused by drugs, or by mental illness. High homelessness rates are caused by artificially constrained housing and the ever increasing prices that this sort of market creates. I fear that by embracing the status quo, refusing to allow homeless shelters, refusal to allow housing for anyone, really, that there will be a growing anti-homeless backlash. Otherwise normal people are upset that there is no solution year after year to the displacement and misery. People are becoming tired of pols claiming that they care, claiming that they will do something, only to have those same pols reject the obvious solutions to reduce homelessness. I seriously fear for the increased human toll that will result from continued inaction housing.