Washington Post article

[Fiscal]

Are there no social services in SF for the homeless?

Tens of millions are spent on homeless. The issue is mentally-ill and drug addicts. There is no easy solution even with all the money in the world.

 

[sergio]

Someone here posted that BA looks very good compared to US cities. If tens of millions are being spent on homeless in the US, what makes the problem more serious in the US?

 

[MyArgentina]

Exactly. In what way is this 'news'? I had the privilege to attend my daughter's 'destination wedding' in San Francisco recently and yet the folks on the street were actually pitfall. Here, we had all flown in for my beautiful daughter's event, and yet I was left feeling very sad and dumbfounded at the behavior of the 'street-folks'. We were on a double-decker bus ride around town and as we we were waiting to depart there was a person who was obviously having an episode and in need of help throwing his own feces at our bus. And just stomping around in circles ... I will never forget that poor bastard ... What do we do to fix the broken, the mentally ill, the addicts, what?

My impulse was to get off the bus and to help the guy ... But I was with a Wedding Party, Father of the Bride, in a tuxedo and I realized that though my sentiment was kind of nice, in the moment it was an impossibility.

And so we go ... When and where can we really help others?

 

[Fiscal]

Someone here posted that BA looks very good compared to US cities. If tens of millions are being spent on homeless in the US, what makes the problem more serious in the US?

Opinions may differ but I don't think BA looks as good as a US city in terms of cleanliness and how well kept buildings and streets etc are. But there is a massive homeless problem. If you go to most parks in Los Angeles you will find dozens of homeless people camped out. It is really damn embarrassing for a city with such enormous wealth.

 

[Aztangogirl]

Tens of millions are spent on homeless. The issue is mentally-ill and drug addicts. There is no easy solution even with all the money in the world.

I disagree. It is not just mentally ill and drug addicts in the States. It is the working poor who hold down more than one minimum wage job. They are a paycheck away from being homeless. There are many homeless families, many battered and abused women with no resources. It is the veterans who volunteered to be in the armed services who get nothing from the government. It is too pat to say it is drugs and mental illness. The cost of housing in the States is astronomical. Healthcare is expensive. Social services are being cut every day by the current administration.

 

[Ries]

All the big cities in the USA have huge homeless populations. And most are undercounted, as they may or may not include the people who live in their cars. 5000 of those in Seattle, at least. The problem is serious everywhere, because of the incredible income divide, and the very high prices of real estate. In Miami, for example, about 10,000 children in the school system are homeless. This is a similar percentage in most big US cities. The homeless in the USA certainly include drug addicts, the mentally ill, and alcoholics, but also many many children, mothers, and working families. Really, when argentines complain about Buenos Aires, I just have to laugh. There is no comparison.

 

[Ries]

There are currently over 1.2 MILLION homeless children in US schools. Please dont try to tell me its because they are drug addicts or mentally ill, or "lazy". And that number, the latest one, is at least 3 years old. There are more now. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_204.75d.asp

 

[TomAtAlki]

Opinions may differ but I don't think BA looks as good as a US city in terms of cleanliness and how well kept buildings and streets etc are. But there is a massive homeless problem. If you go to most parks in Los Angeles you will find dozens of homeless people camped out. It is really damn embarrassing for a city with such enormous wealth.

Embarrassing is not a word I would choose, how about heartbreaking, sad, disgusting, wrong...........
Nancy

 

[mmoon]

There are currently over 1.2 MILLION homeless children in US schools. Please dont try to tell me its because they are drug addicts or mentally ill, or "lazy". And that number, the latest one, is at least 3 years old. There are more now. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_204.75d.asp

In addition to liking your comment, I want to quote it and thank you for posting it. In all the talk about the causes of homelessness, whether economic, drug addiction, abuse, mental illness (or a combination of factors), we often fail to mention the children who are often the harshest victims, and how hard it is to break out of that cycle.