Finally, reality check on homelessness

California Policy Lab

I've been writing about homelessness in San Francisco for 15 years. Then-Supervisor Newsom's Care Not Cash was passed in 2002 by city voters who wanted something done about the city's growing homeless problem. (Oddly, the city's left has a history of getting the issue wrong, characterizing Care Not Cash as an attack on the homeless!) 

That Newsom, unlike city "progressives," was serious about doing something about homelessness led to his election as mayor in 2003.

The city's left operated on the assumption that the homeless were simply poor people who couldn't afford the rent in pricey San Francisco, which was at best a half-truth. For anyone who took a look, many of the homeless clearly had substance abuse and/or emotional issues.

San Francisco is finally assuming that's the reality, that housing is not the only issue that has to be dealt with: Breed pushes expansion of mandated SF mental health treatment.

Another delusion fostered by the left: that the homeless were mostly long-time city residents who are down on their luck: Are the city's homeless really "San Franciscans"? 

Of course that doesn't really matter, since no matter how long the homeless have been here, we have to get them off the street. But it's just another layer of bullshit obscuring the reality, that soon-to-be homeless people keep arriving in the city, which highlights the ultimate reality: homelessness and housing is a national issue that can't be solved by one city. All we can do is mitigate its impact with humane and realistic policies.

See also Homelessness and the quality of life in SF, Homelessness in SF: Groundhog day, and Homelessness in San Francisco: Ten years later.

Thanks to Kevin Drum for the link to the California Policy Lab.