Deadline Looms For Homeless At San Francisco Tent City

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Janie Har | AP February 26 at 5:31 PM

SAN FRANCISCO — Homeless people have until the end of Friday to vacate a rambling tent city along a busy San Francisco street declared a health hazard by city officials earlier this week.

Sam Dodge, the mayor’s point person on homelessness, said Friday that about 40 tents remained, down from a high of 140 this winter. The tents have lined both sides of a street under a freeway overpass for months, drawing complaints from residents and businesses.

San Francisco has long had a problem housing its homeless, but tensions have been exacerbated by a shortage of affordable housing amid a tech-based jobs boom.

Earlier this month, a founder of a technology startup posted a letter to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee complaining that he “shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people” on his way to work.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/deadline-looms-for-homeless-at-san-francisco-tent-city/2016/02/26/b5120276-dcd8-11e5-8210-f0bd8de915f6_story.html

[KamaAina]

1. The irony is that the city pushed everyone in there to get them out of sight for the Super Bowl

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/25/san-francisco-homeless-encampment-relocation-super-bowl

Residents have been ordered to vacate the San Francisco homeless encampment under a highway overpass after police and public workers pressured the city’s homeless to relocate there from areas of the city slated for Super Bowl 50 festivities.

The 21st-century Hooverville became a symbol of the city’s gaping inequality in the run-up to and throughout the week of star-studded Super Bowl festivities in February, rekindling long-running controversies over how the city should address the needs of its nearly 7,000 homeless residents.

Then on 23 February, less than three weeks after the championship game, the San Francisco department of public health declared the encampments on several blocks of Division Street a public health hazard due to “accumulation of garbage, human feces, hypodermic needles, urine odors and other insanitary conditions”. Homeless residents were ordered to leave within 72 hours.

[red dog 1]

3. + 1

Thanks for the link

[jtuck004]

2. What are you going to do to address this problem? The residents of this amazing city no longer feel

...
What are you going to do to address this problem? The residents of this amazing city no longer feel safe. I know people are frustrated about gentrification happening in the city, but the reality is, we live in a free market society. The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day. I want my parents when they come visit to have a great experience, and enjoy this special place.

I am telling you, there is going to be a revolution. People on both sides are frustrated, and you can sense the anger. The city needs to tackle this problem head on, it can no longer ignore it and let people do whatever they want in the city. I don’t have a magic solution… It is a very difficult and complex situation, but somehow during Super Bowl, almost all of the homeless and riff raff[1] seem to up and vanish. I’m willing to bet that was not a coincidence. Money and political pressure can make change. So it is time to start making progress, or we as citizens will make a change in leadership and elect new officials who can.
...


[1] I want to apologize for using the term riff raff. It was insensitive and counterproductive.

http://justink.svbtle.com/open-letter-to-mayor-ed-lee-and-greg-suhr-police-chief


That "revolution" word sure gets used a lot.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. Starve the homeless industry and start building psychiatric and drug facilities instead

[red dog 1]

4. K&R...Thanks for posting

Although these homeless can go to "a large canopy shelter on Pier 80 that has 150 sleeping mats"...Mayor Ed Lee needs to come up with a better plan that directly addresses the homeless problem in San Francisco..

After all, .that's what he's paid to do....deal with SF's problems.

Come on, Mr. Mayor, do your job!

[davidthegnome]

6. So...

is every house, apartment building and hotel in San Francisco filled to capacity? If not, these assholes whining about being forced to actually "see" (God forbid!) homeless people should be putting together some cash to help them... you know... not be homeless anymore. That would be good.

Instead, the reaction seems to be, "OMG, RIFF RAFF, take it away! My eyes! My eyes! How can I walk to work every day and have to see reality? It's not fair! Stop cluttering up my pretty city! Go away homeless people!..."

Ugh. Apparently it's a problem they don't want to deal with, but they want, "Someone else" to take care of it. How much super PAC money, or political campaign money... would it take to get these people homes? A few million to swap out for their tents for real homes? We can solve homelessness here in the USA, there's enough room, enough buildings, enough spaces that aren't being used and enough money so that everyone can have a home.

Despicable. No, worse than despicable. This contempt and lack of compassion for the poorest of our society reflects the lack of compassion and empathy that seems so deeply embedded within the media, government, and, to some extent, society at large. Instead of citizens getting together to build houses or buy them, we have a bunch of whiny assholes complaining that, OMG, they have to SEE homeless people.

THIS is a clear demonstration of what happens when capitalism goes wild. When profit is so deeply revered that humanity is considered insignificant.

There, but for the grace of....

It could be any one of us.

Is there some kind of gofundme or something for these poor folks? I don't have much, but I can throw in ten or twenty bucks for people who have no where to go.