Jeez, the Homeless problem in San Fran is worse than ever.

[trumad]

I lived in San Francisco in the eighties and it was pretty bad then.

My visit this last week had me staying in Union Square and I gotta tell you, I was accosted a bunch of times by extremely aggressive street people who got in your face if you didn't cough up some money.

One guy came up and said give me some money for a corndog...As I kept walking he ran in front of me and shouted "Fuck You". Now I'm 6:2, 230 and I wasn't to worried that he'd take me on, but it scared the shit out of my wife. Hell, she was worried about taking a walk 3 blocks to the square and insisted that I walk with her.

Let me say this... I'm as Liberal as they come and I know that it's a serious problem in America regarding the homeless. BUT when they're aggressive that's a different story.

[Mrs_Beastman]

1. I last time I read or heard anything about the San Fran homeless problem

they were making a lot of progress and was a model for other urban areas. I wonder what happened to change that? Probably funding.

[trumad]

2. Maybe so..

but there were plenty this last week.

[Cleita]

3. Take it to Arnold. All it would take is reversing Prop. 13.

But Arnold doesn't have to deal with these people does he? Nor do the rest of the officials flying over the problems in our state instead of rolling up their sleeves and tackling them have to.

[Deja Q]

4. It's not going to get any better:

1. governor groper is an idiot; I don't care if he teaches his children how to clean up their rooms.
2. peak oil; resources are about to dwindle. Homelessness is only going to get worse.
3. karma will pay in kind to the greed and selfishness our corporate and elected 'leaders' engage in.
4. The aggressive factor is only going to get worse as more people become more desperate and angry.
5. "Every man for himself" is the unspoken motto of our country. I doubt that will change.
6. If the public wakes the fuck up, there will be a lot of riots. Corporate means to terminate pension funds is just the beginning.

[ngant17]

5. San Francisco hasn't changed much since I was there in 2001

I took a summer course at the Univ. of San Francisco in July, 2001. Although I lived in a dorm on campus, I never missed a chance to visit the outlying districts.

USF is nestled on the higher part of SF, it's near the Golden Gate Park, and near the beach, too. So that was a nice place to stay.

OTOH as you venture 'downhill', toward the heart of the city, the hugh numbers of homeless people always stood out in my mind, then as now. It's got to be bad when the only place for a homeless person to sleep in San Francisco is in front of an attorney's office or on the sidewalk. It's hard to walk on the sidewalk in places because there are so many people sleeping there. It's kinda scary in certain parts as the night turns into early morning.

I think there is an AIDS clinic and once a month, you can see this hugh line of people, a city block or longer, they are flocking to get the free shots. I think it's near the Glide Memorial Methodist Church, which does a lot of community service and has an excellent, lively service. I think the SF police shot and killed a homeless person when I was there. Something of a public outcry about that, but life went on, for the rest of us, at least.

The yuppies have screwed up the housing in San Francisco. Oakland is about the only place where the real working class of San Francisco can afford to live. A lot of revolutionary activity is entrenched there these days, for good reason.

[ngant17]

6. SF has one of the worst homeless problems outside of NYC

I took a summer course at the Univ. of San Francisco in July, 2001. Although I lived in a dorm on campus, I never missed a chance to visit the outlying districts.

USF is nestled on the higher part of SF, it's near the Golden Gate Park, and near the beach, too. So that was a nice place to stay.

OTOH as you venture 'downhill', toward the heart of the city, the hugh numbers of homeless people always stood out in my mind, then as now. It's got to be bad when the only place for a homeless person to sleep in San Francisco is in front of an attorney's office or on the sidewalk. It's hard to walk on the sidewalk in places because there are so many people sleeping there. It's kinda scary in certain parts as the night turns into early morning.

I think there is an AIDS clinic and once a month, you can see this hugh line of people, a city block or longer, they are flocking to get the free shots. I think it's near the Glide Memorial Methodist Church, which does a lot of community service and has an excellent, lively service. I think the SF police shot and killed a homeless person when I was there. Something of a public outcry about that, but life went on, for the rest of us, at least.

The yuppies have screwed up the housing in San Francisco. Oakland is about the only place where the real working class of San Francisco can afford to live. A lot of revolutionary activity is entrenched there these days, for good reason.

[Jade Fox]

7. The extreme gentrafication of San Francisco...

has no doubt literally dumped a lot of lower-class people into the streets.

I thought the mayor there (can't remember his name) was elected in part
because of his radical (and controversial) plans for dealing with the SF
homeless population. Sounds like it is not working too well.

[Arugula Latte]

8. Gavin Newsome is the mayor.

I lived in S.F. from '89 to '90. The Market St. area was filled with homeless then.

[maxsolomon]

9. america: they're YOUR relatives on the street

i work in downtown Seattle, where the homeless problem continues to grow exponentially every year. all our downtown parks are basically homeless loitering areas, devoid of taxpaying users. if you want to eat your sandwich in the sun, YOU are the interloper. i have had the same guys, many of whom are strangely enough morbidly obese, spanging me every day for 5 years running.

the homeless are'nt FROM seattle, and they're not FROM NYC, SF, LA, etc., etc., etc.

they're from wherever you live. small towns, cold towns, reservations, mental facilities. some of them are related to you, let you let the cities take responsibility for them. & the more money we throw at social services, the more of them come here. how about we give them all bus tickets back to their hometowns, and YOU take them in?

[UdoKier]

10. I live here, and yes, they are a bit crazier and more agressive

than in other cities...


People tell me that it's actually better than a few years ago.

I would say that Union square and Market street are about the best places to meet plenty of homeless. If they bother you. maybe you should've stayed in the Marina, or Marin County...


At least the mayor has changed the policy of giving them stipends into giving them housing vouchers. Apparently that has helped.

[trumad]

13. Bother me...?

Aggressive behavior bothers me, homeless or not.

[UdoKier]

14. All I'm saying is you picked an area with a lot more homeless

than in other parts of the city or the region. DId you not know the Union Square area was full of them?

[leftofthedial]

11. that whole Union Square - Market St. area is the worst

in the city as I recall

[lonestarnot]

12. Phili foreclosures....

legitgov.org.

Foreclosure Rate Rises Sharply --In 2000, the Philadelphia sheriff auctioned off 300 to 400 foreclosed properties a month; now he handles more than 1,000 per month. Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, had record auctions of foreclosed homes and officials speak of a "Depression-era" problem.

[AirAmFan]

15. Reaganomics and the housing bubble have created this problem

There always have been thousands of marginal, poorly-educated, hard-to-employ people in cities. Before Reagan Republicans shredded the safety net, thousands of borderline mentally disabled and borderline illiterate men resided in single-room-occupancy hotels and lived on pittances from state-funded "General Assistance" programs in most states.

Governors like Thornberg (PA), Engler (MI), Thompson (WI), and a series of California governors pioneered the whittling of General Assistance down from sub-poverty levels to zero. Federal welfare "reform" put so much pressure on state welfare budgets that, since 1996, even families with children can get only time-limited welfare, with lifetime limits of 24 months in some states! And conviction of a "drug felony" now leads to lifetime ineligibility for financial help from the government.

Meanwhile, a housing bubble engineered by Alan Greenspan's macroeconomic policies led to the closure and gentrification of SRO hotels into million-dollar condos in many big cities. All these forces have engineered a permanent outdoor underclass that is leading to the architectural elimination of public spaces and less livable cities and towns across the country.