San Francisco homelessness Q&A: Frequently asked questions, answers

[yuiyoshida]

How can I help people experiencing homelessness? Should I give them money? What should I do if a homeless person is sleeping on my doorstep every night?

The questions that arise around homelessness in San Francisco aren't always easy ones and the answers can be quite complex. The most pressing question of where to find a bed—whether you're looking for shelter yourself or helping someone secure it—brings up a complicated system of shelter shortages, long lines and waitlists.

Below we aim to provide responses to some of the most common questions.

How many people are homeless in San Francisco?

According to the 2015 homeless count, 6,686.

But really the number is elusive.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Questions-about-San-Francisco-s-homeless-answered-8323297.php
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Solution to SF's homeless problem starts with supportive housing
Could San Francisco increase its stock of supportive housing by enough units to get all of the neediest homeless people off its streets in just two years?

Fixing San Francisco's homelessness problem is possible.

It will require the addition of thousands of housing units for the hardest-core homeless people — the ones who wander the streets, screaming at the invisible, the ones who live in tents on sidewalks and shoot up in plain sight. The ones who make people who live and visit here think San Francisco has lost its way.

The solution is compassionate. It puts counselors on the sites of those thousands of new housing units, to help the hard-core homeless with their mental problems and drug addictions. The solution is open-ended. Many of those now-homeless people will be in taxpayer-funded housing for the rest of their lives.

The solution is more than theory. Several cities around the nation are taking steps that have either already eliminated chronic homelessness on their streets or are close to doing so.

"Absolutely it can be done," said Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor who specializes in homelessness research. "We know how to solve this. We have the techniques. It's just a matter of marshaling the will and the focus."

more...
http://projects.sfchronicle.com/sf-homeless/supportive-housing/

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SF Homeless Project: Letter to the City
To the city and people of San Francisco:

Like you, we are frustrated, confused and dismayed by the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness in our city. Like you, we want answers — and change.

We see the misery around us – the 6,600 or more people who live on the streets of San Francisco – and we sense it is worsening. We feel for the people who live in doorways and under freeways, and for the countless others who teeter on the edge of eviction. We empathize with the EMTs, the nurses and doctors, the social workers and the police. They are on the front lines of this ongoing human catastrophe.

Numerous noble, well-intentioned efforts by both public and private entities have surfaced over the decades, yet the problem persists. It is a situation that would disgrace the government of any city. But in the technological and progressive capital of the nation, it is unconscionable.

So beginning today, more than 70 media organizations are taking the unprecedented step of working together to focus attention on this crucial issue.
We will pool our resources – reporting, data analysis, photojournalism, video, websites – and starting Wednesday, June 29, will publish, broadcast and share a series of stories across all of our outlets. We intend to explore possible solutions, their costs and viability.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/homeless/article/SF-Homeless-Project-Letter-to-the-City-8326254.php

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What happens when SF takes homeless people’s ‘stuff’

Super Bowl 50 was supposed be Mayor Ed Lee’s touchdown.

The crass, corporate pièce de résistance in downtown San Francisco known as Super Bowl City would delight family members of all ages.

Yet the streets already hosted encampments of hundreds. Those living there were not exactly ready for the NFL limelight.

Gradually pushed out by local police, homeless people landed on Division Street.

In the following weeks, thousands of locals expressed their anger as Mayor Lee’s departments swept Division Street clean of its notorious tents. The ensuing backlash shined a national spotlight on the more than 6,000 souls in The City of St. Francis without homes.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/happens-sf-takes-homeless-peoples-stuff/

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Can You Find A Place To Sleep Tonight?
See if you can make it through the night as one of the more than 6,500 homeless people living in San Francisco.

Between the thousands of San Franciscans without a place to live and the dozens of shelters meant to provide them housing lies a massive, many-armed social-services organism bound by complex rules and layers of bureaucracy. One wrong turn or a small procedural mistake can mean the difference between a warm bed for the night and sleeping on the street.

This Choose Your Own Adventure simulation is intended to replicate what happens after a person — in this case, a domestic violence survivor and mother of two — first loses their home.

The scenarios laid out here are personalized to a fictional (though all-too-common) situation, but they are based on BuzzFeed News reporting into every step of the city’s emergency-shelter system. If you were to end up homeless in San Francisco tonight, chances are good your experience would look a lot like the simulation below.

more...
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/can-you-find-a-place-to-sleep-tonight?utm_term=.flzZWYl78b#.cqrXMazZBr

https://www.google.com/trends/story/US_cu_t62vdFUBAABNWM_en

[xfundy]

1. Lots of cities who reduced or "got rid of" their homeless problem

gave the homeless one-way bus tickets to SF. Developers and techies will protest any solution that uses real estate to try to ameliorate the problem.

[yeoman6987]

3. Read my number 2 perfect logical and easy solution

[yeoman6987]

2. I think if San Francisco fails the rest of the country is doomed.

The mayor should immediately give a 5 thousand payout to all 6600 of the homeless and take it out of general fund. The city council will approve the money pay out and then raise taxes in the city by 2 percent. Done. Problem solved. Citizens in liberal San Francisco won't complain about a small increase in taxes.

[Recursion]

5. Why do you think a one-time $5000 payout would "solve" the problem?

That's, what, two months in a cheap hotel?

[Socal31]

7. Many homeless are addicts or have other types of mental illness. They go hand in hand.

Giving them $5k is not a good idea by any standard.

Instead of buying Latin American police/military units new toys, or spraying Peruvian jungles, why not funnel those BILLIONS into mental health, addiction treatment, and job training?

Give a man a fish v teach a man to fish.

The Nixon drug war, the Reagan elimination of mental health treatment, and the despicable care veterans receive after combat are to blame. A stipend cannot fix it.

[smirkymonkey]

21. I agree. Getting them back on their feet with some kind of permanent housing,

medical/psych/addiction care and a jobs training program would go much further in solving long term homelessness.

[SMC22307]

23. What, exactly, will a *5 thousand payout* do long-term for the homeless?

Problem not even remotely solved.

And screw the passive-aggressive swipe at liberals over taxes.

[ghostsinthemachine]

26. Double that to 10K (I am homeless)

With an advocate, and poof, a lot of people would no longer be homeless

A lot of homeless people have the same or similar situations.

Child support (you lose your drivers license)
No vehicle
Loss of drivers license
traffic fines (the last three are connected of course)
Teeth
medical care
clothing
housing
professional dress
professional resumes

I would use mine to fix my car (1500), pay off some traffic tickets and then start the non profit I have been working on.

Instead they spend millions on homeless people, and I never see one dollar of it. Some people would fuck it away surely, but with an advocate program they would be able to take care of all the legal bullshit that is keeping them on the streets, and increasing daily in most cases.

[yeoman6987]

27. Honestly o just through 5 grand out there for the scenario

Heck I'd make it 100 grand if it could pass. I know some would use it for drugs and alcohol as some have mentioned but of we get 75 percent off the streets and 25 percent into appropriate addiction places that would help a lot. I know some won't be successful in kicking a habit....it's hard as hell to do but if a good number do I'd say success.

[ghostsinthemachine]

29. The addict is NOT the majority of homeless

at least not in suburbia. Right now there are five homeless people sitting at the bank of computers at the library and none of us have alcohol or drug issues. We are broke down (me), jobless etc...

[sarcasmo]

4. Billions for war, very little to help the homeless.

Sad.

[Recursion]

6. San Francisco spends about $300 million per year on services for the homeless

It's over 3% of their city budget, which is a record in the US.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. San Francisco doesn't have a large homeless problem

It has enormous mental illness and brain-tenderizing substance abuse problems. San Francisco needs a San Quentin sized old-fashioned mental institution to care for these people who will never live independently.

[yuiyoshida]

10. The article says 6,000 homeless

but further in, it says:

"Many people think the number is between 10,000 and 12,000" ...a few more and you can fill up AT&T Park.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. But why are they homeless?

How many are homeless because of structural issues and how many are homeless because they are incapable of functioning independently?

San Francisco could be the most affordable city in America with an abundance of public housing and those who struggle with mental health and substance abuse issues will still be struggling. The left is uncomfortable with it and the right just doesn't want to pay for it but there are some people who will require institutional care for their entire lives. We need to provide for that.

[yuiyoshida]

14. The article clearly states why they are homeless

Most of it is greedy landlords who boost their rents from 1,300 to 3,000, as per example that was posted here on DU! But, if you don't buy that let me quote what it said...

"The majority - 71 percent in the last count - became homeless while living in San Francisco. This is due to a wide range of reasons, from evictions to mental health issues.

In fact, only 1o percent said they were living outside California when they became homeless in the last count, and of those, only 22 percent came to the city for homeless services and benefits.

Other reasons for moving to San Francisco cited in the homeless count were that they were looking for work, that they sought acceptance in the gay community, that they were traveling through, or that family and friends are here," as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. "In other words, the same reasons many of us came to San Francisco."

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. The insane and inebriated haven't been priced out of their apartments any time recently.

The crackhead who assaulted my girlfriend had theoretically been housed, she just preferred smoking crack to living indoors.

The collective homeless in San Francisco represent a dozen or more groups with unique causations and needs, but a lot of them simply can not function independently and never will. That has nothing to do with hipsters, techies or affluent gay dudes.

[yuiyoshida]

18. You do know there is a housing crisis in the city now?

Land Lords are jacking up their rents despite the Rent Control clause. They figure they can hire a lawyer and take their renters to court to settle the dispute and hope they get a judge who will side with them. Meanwhile, the Renter can not afford to go to court, and ends up on the street. This is happening all over the bay area. Its pure greed, because of this place with the ocean view, they figure they can jack up the price, like any other city in California.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. Of course I know that,

The insane and inebriated homeless that are the incessant issue in San Francisco and the cost of living and housing insecurity are only barely correlated. Every last hipster, techie and affluent homosexual could up and leave, send rents plunging and San Francisco will still have a mostly unchanged homeless crisis.

All the big cities need to start building public housing again instead of investing vouchers and other subsidies in a stagnant and declining rental stock, but that isn't a popular opinion.

[Iggo]

12. Are they not homeless?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. Indeed they are

The issue is that homelessness encompasses a whole lot of different causations, one sized fits all solutions like "housing first" and "treatment in the community" don't work because many of the homeless just aren't functional enough to avail themselves of those things.

What does a crust punk who is rebelling against their parents in Belvedere by camping in Golden Gate Park have in common with someone who spent most of their life in a mental institution before being turned out on the street and has been homeless for decades?

[smirkymonkey]

22. We really need to bring back state funded residential psychiatric/addiction care.

The truth is that a lot of these people will never be functional enough to provide for themselves and need a place where they can be taken care of and helped humanely.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

24. But how?

Liberals say that long-term psychiatric holds are morally abhorrent and conservatives don't want to pay for it.

[smirkymonkey]

25. I don't know. We need a new model and we need to stop putting our imperialist ambitions above

the health and well being of our citizens. That won't happen while republicans are in charge.

[yeoman6987]

28. Republicans are not in charge of San Francisco or California for that matter

It needs to begin at the local level where they know the situation.

[hunter]

9. This really ought to be a federal issue because homeless people migrate to places they can survive.

Some of the places homeless people migrate from are literally deadly. If the weather doesn't kill a homeless person, then there are people in these hellish places who will actively hasten a homeless person's death or simply murder them.

[TipTok]

16. The homeless were an issue for us on our first and last trip there....

Aggressive and constant panhandling, usually directed at my wife, along with the waste issue has scratched SF from our list for quite a while.

At least until the city resolves the problem.

[Initech]

17. Doesn't San Fransisco have the highest rent in the country?

I think I read somewhere that it even surpassed New York City and Chicago at one point. What would happen if we put a cap on rent prices? What would that do?

[yuiyoshida]

31. Not sure a cap would be allowed but yes

You are right, it is very high here, and the only place where rents are higher is probably Hawaii. The cost of living is high as well. I am sure we pay far more for a carton of milk than the rest of the country. Plus with the drought, there will be problems with water for crops. That drives the price up as well, add to that greedy landlords who can have you pay 1,110 a month and jack it up to 3,110 a month, because you live in this city!

[Texasgal]

19. I've only been to San Francisco one time

I was there for work. Your city blew my mind! I loved it so much..

I was staying in the financial district at The Palace hotel...which by the way is a beautiful place! Anyway, as I was walking around, shopping and taking in the sites I paused to talk to several homeless people. I found that many were well educated, personable and FUNNY! Just really in need of a leg up. It was a real shock to me at the time, here I was enjoying your beautiful city and just feet away was a homeless person that really just needed monetary help. It was an eye opener for me.

As I my trip wound down I headed down market street and shared some fried rice and egg rolls with three homeless folks. I gave them some money and wished them well.

I am dying to go back... Here in Austin we've been called a "sister city" of SF and it is starting to happen more and more here as well.. as costs of living is becoming ridiculous here too.

[worstexever]

30. I have a mentally ill child who has been homeless for many years

Last edited Mon Jul 11, 2016, 07:07 PM - Edit history (1)

I saw her last a little over 4 years ago but have spoken with her fairly recently when she telephoned me. She gets SSI (or can get it) and has gone back and forth with living inside and outside. She bounces between Reno and Seattle. As I understand it, she doesn't like to take her meds and is more comfortable hustling on the streets than going to school to learn a trade in which she could never hold a job. She is college educated but never graduated. Drugs and alcohol may be a factor in her life but they are not the main problem; she is schizophrenic, bipolar and may have PTSD. I think most homeless people don't like to or can't play by the rules for whatever reason. Drug and alcohol use is a way to self medicate and can reflect rule breaking/poor decision making skills. Just giving my daughter a grip of money would not be good for her and if it didn't kill her would at the very least be a complete waste of money. It would not have a long term effect on the situation at all.