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> When you look at the huge homeless population today, I think it was less than 10% back then of what it is now I'm not sure when "back then" was, but homeless

> When you look at the huge homeless population today, I think it was less than 10% back then of what it is now I'm not sure when "back then" was, but homeless in SF has only increased by around 2% from 10 years ago, and has actually dropped by 15% compared to two years ago. (From https://hsh.sfgov.org/get-involved/2022-pit-count/ https://hsh.sfgov.org/get-involved/2022-pit-count/ using the non-sheltered counts, as you were referencing the population you could 'look at') Looking at earlier info, the NY Times in 1998 quoted the Coalition on Homelessness saying there were 16,000 homeless on the streets of SF then. That would mean a huge decrease today compared to then, but I suspect the two numbers may have been counted differently. (https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/13/us/homelessness-tests-san-francisco-s-ideals.html https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/13/us/homelessness-tests-san...). Anyway, it doesn't seem like the data supports your claim that there has been a massive increase in the homeless population lately, unless you go back to at least before the 1980s (https://projects.sfchronicle.com/sf-homeless/overview/ https://projects.sfchronicle.com/sf-homeless/overview/)

photochemsyn 4y ago
The homeless population is a regional phenomenon, SF isn't an isolated island: http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/report/bay-area-homelessness-2/ http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/report/bay-area-homelessness-2... > "The Bay Area’s homeless population today is larger, less sheltered, and growing faster than ever before. Between 2017 and 2020, the Bay Area’s homeless population grew by 6,878 individuals to a total of 35,118—accounting for more than a quarter of the growth in the total U.S. homeless population." Some of the Covid emergency programs sort of worked by putting people in hotels, but those hotels are pretty sketchy places at best. This might account for the apparently flat rate in SF but anyone walking around the poorer neighborhoods can see it with their own eyes: https://www.kqed.org/news/11914346/more-people-became-unhoused-across-the-bay-area-over-last-3-years-except-in-sf https://www.kqed.org/news/11914346/more-people-became-unhous... That's only part of the picture: the growing gap between wealthy and poor is a more significant long-term issue.

photochemsyn 4y ago

The homeless population is a regional phenomenon, SF isn't an isolated island: http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/report/bay-area-homelessness-2/ http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/report/bay-area-homelessness-2... > "The Bay Area’s homeless population today is larger, less sheltered, and growing faster than ever before. Between 2017 and 2020, the Bay Area’s homeless population grew by 6,878 individuals to a total of 35,118—accounting for more than a quarter of the growth in the total U.S. homeless population." Some of the Covid emergency programs sort of worked by putting people in hotels, but those hotels are pretty sketchy places at best. This might account for the apparently flat rate in SF but anyone walking around the poorer neighborhoods can see it with their own eyes: https://www.kqed.org/news/11914346/more-people-became-unhoused-across-the-bay-area-over-last-3-years-except-in-sf https://www.kqed.org/news/11914346/more-people-became-unhous... That's only part of the picture: the growing gap between wealthy and poor is a more significant long-term issue.