City progs still clueless about homelessness
I've been posting about San Francisco's homeless problem since 2005 (Death for the homeless). City progressives were clueless about the issue then and are still clueless now, as evidenced by the recent report touted by Public Press on the homeless and Business Improvement Districts like the Union Square BID.
Since the city is unwilling/unable to police Union Square to deal with its homeless problem in that important retail and tourist neighborhood, the Union Square BID tries to deal with it itself.
City progs and Berkeley liberals are upset that merchants on Union Square try to keep the homeless from camping out on their streets. After all, those streets are "public" spaces, and the homeless have a right to be there:
Many of the groups use assessments levied on business and property owners — and collected by local tax authorities — to hire security patrols that work to keep homeless people moving and limit their presence on public streets.
No shit! This is seen as a great injustice to the homeless who are, you understand, just poor people who can't afford housing in San Francisco.
This is at best a half-truth long parroted by city progs, since anyone not blinkered by a goofy version of left-wing ideology can see that many of the homeless on our streets have crippling drug and alcohol issues or are mentally ill.
This is at best a half-truth long parroted by city progs, since anyone not blinkered by a goofy version of left-wing ideology can see that many of the homeless on our streets have crippling drug and alcohol issues or are mentally ill.
Recall that Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash program---which stopped the city from providing cash to the homeless that was helping them remain homeless---was called "an attack on homeless people" by city progs.
Not surprisingly, once Care Not Cash went into effect, 1,000 of the homeless dropped off the "cash" rolls! They just wanted cash, not care.
Not surprisingly, once Care Not Cash went into effect, 1,000 of the homeless dropped off the "cash" rolls! They just wanted cash, not care.
Labels: City Government, Gavin Newsom, Homelessness, Housing in the City, Neighborhoods, Right and Left, Sit-Lie
posted by Rob Anderson @ 3:53 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
True homeless vs. Street People vs Mentally Ill.
There is a difference but ask any member on the board of supervisors and they cannot tell you. Actually I am not surprised how dumb the board can be. Perhaps they are held captives of the non-profits that seem to run the system and are only in business as long as there are people roaming the streets. There are no metrics to even guess as to how good a job the non-profits are doing right?
I like this quote from Tom Wolf, "The bureaucracy provides the city with a great technique for self-preservation. The bureaucracy has the instinct to expand in any direction. The bureaucracy has the instinct to get all the discontented elements of the society involved and entangled in the bureaucracy itself"
While debating where to locate more navigation centers and a regional approach to homelessness, why don't any of the candidates for the Board of Supervisors ask for an audit of the present homeless programs? How are they working or not working? And, as you suggest, what are the "metrics" for making that judgment?
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