What's with all the homeless people? (San Francisco, Oakland: home, neighborhoods, camps)

[NYCtoSF]

Is it just me or does this city have a serious homeless people problem? It's much worse than Manhattan. I can't walk a block without seeing a couple of dudes parked on the sidewalk with a shopping cart by their side.

Why doesn't the city take care of these people? At the very least they should be moved someplace else, probably Oakland or something. Not trying to be a jerk, but it's not good for tourism to see so many homeless people on Market Street.

[rah]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

Why doesn't the city take care of these people? At the very least they should be moved someplace else, probably Oakland or something. Not trying to be a jerk, but it's not good for tourism to see so many homeless people on Market Street.

Yes because Oakland deserves our homeless people so much more than we do. Why do you believe that SF's tourism industry is more important than Oakland's well being? The homeless don't appear to be stopping many tourists anyways, as the problem has been ongoing for decades, and tourists have been coming in droves for decades. I'm actually pretty surprised you didn't know about SF's large homeless population.

[04kL4nD]

Why not try and bang the attractive homeless chicks instead? Just sayin'...

[18Montclair]

Well, speaking of Manhattan, here's what NYC did:
City Buys One-Way Tickets Home for Homeless Families - NYTimes.com

[rah]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Why not try and bang the attractive homeless chicks instead? Just sayin'...

LOL right, it's that guy. There's gotta be some good "broads" under the freeway overpass near Potrero Hill. He should check it out.

[Isebiel]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

Is it just me or does this city have a serious homeless people problem? It's much worse than Manhattan. I can't walk a block without seeing a couple of dudes parked on the sidewalk with a shopping cart by their side.

Why doesn't the city take care of these people? At the very least they should be moved someplace else, probably Oakland or something. Not trying to be a jerk, but it's not good for tourism to see so many homeless people on Market Street.

It's the mild weather. Every big city I've visited on the West Coast has this issue. And it's legally pretty complicated to get rid of them.

The city's homeless are very unevenly distributed. SoMa/Civic Center/Tenderloin have the most. You're seeing lot more than in other neighborhoods. Generally they hang around where it's busy, flat, and there are a lot of transit hubs.

[Southwest15]

Every major city has a homeless problem. Its just that they are in certain districts. All downtowns have many homeless. Just like on the Las Vegas Strip, they crowd around busy areas when they can solicit money from passer bys and grouop together for protection. But I think they mainly stay west of 5th street, on Market, and there really aren't much tourist that go past the Westfied shopping mall. The only bad place is the cable car turnaround, where homeless flood and are in plain view of tourist. Most tourist don't care though.

Also when you give homeless a chance to move somewehere, they will and often with negative consequences. Look at that occupy protest. Basically all the homeless in the area decided to camp out in front of the ferry bulidng under the guise that they were "protesting" and being protected under the first amendment. This is not the case. Most of those protesters are just homeless that have nothing else better to do. Then they wanted to move them to the Mission, but that failed. Cities and neighborhoods don't want homeless camps moved into their areas. Moving them to Oakland? Not a chance, they have their own issues. Look at Frank Ogawa Plaza.

[sjnative]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Well, speaking of Manhattan, here's what NYC did:
City Buys One-Way Tickets Home for Homeless Families - NYTimes.com

I would be for this but it would give the city and/or state governments another excuse to increase taxation so as to pay for it, because they're wasting our current tax dollars on everything else.

Even if our current homeless were whisked away, they would either come back or be replaced as CA's weather and tolerant city governments will always attract them. Just witness all the illegal aliens who are deported and then come back.

The state will always be populated by the homeless and illegals so long as our citizenry and politicians sympathize with and accommodate them.

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Well, speaking of Manhattan, here's what NYC did:
City Buys One-Way Tickets Home for Homeless Families - NYTimes.com

Didn't San Francisco used to do something similar? They'd put them on buses in the early years and then later on put them on BART until the outlying community's police departments started complaining.

[gone down south]

The West Coast in general has more homeless than the East Coast for a couple reasons -

More accepting social environment attracts people who are already marginalized in society. Very liberal social services policies make it easier for them to get food, medical and legal assistance etc.The SF/Oakland/Berkeley area in particular has a strong tradition going back decades of "let your freak flag fly", this is where people came to escape the moralistic, close-minded, constrictive judgmental society the OP loves so much.

And of course the climate makes it possible to live outdoors year round, unlike colder places where people literally freeze to death on the streets.'