How bad really is the "homeless" situation (health insurance, mortgage)

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

On my walk to work this morning a homeless woman was sitting on someone's hood trying to steal the windshield wiper blades while completly topless.

Is is abnormal, however side stepping human poo and needles is an almost every day occurances on my walk to work in San Francisco. I work in west soma just south of tenderloin, so not the best area but hardly the worst.

I hope you get paid well for that nonsense friend, but I believe you mentioned you have a plan so good for you

[FC76-81]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

On my walk to work this morning a homeless woman was sitting on someone's hood trying to steal the windshield wiper blades while completly topless.

In today's world, if I'm not seeing this on youtube video taped with cell phone's, I'm not believing it.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by WizardOfRadical

The difference is, when communities in fly over country do not provide services for their down and out, places like California have to pick up the tab.

Homeless services do not come out of federal funds. It is mostly state and local tax dollars. So working people get screwed because losers from fly over country want to get hopped up on smack and sleep under a bridge all day.

Of course if they went *back where they came from*, the local citizens and police would not tolerate it. So they come here, because they can get away with their antics.

It's always a good thing to know your subject when spewing opinion.

Fact: the vast majority of homeless, anywhere, stay in the city where they have history, family, friends, connections. They are not highly mobile.

For example:

A second, related myth: “People choose L.A. as a place to be homeless because of the warm weather.” Although many people move to Southern California for its climate, people who are homeless are no more likely to do so than others. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found that only 7% of people who are homeless arrived in the county less than a year ago. By comparison, 8.5% of all L.A. County residents have lived here less than a year, according to the Census Bureau. People who are homeless are as solidly Angeleno as everyone else here. We did not import this crisis, nor can we export it.

Meanwhile, there are over 21,000 homeless sleeping on the streets and in the shelters of Chicago this winter night. I believe Chicago is one of places referred to as "flyover country".

I wonder why those "down and out" Chicagoans haven't migrated out to California yet? It's warmer here. We have services here.

*scratches head*

[Tulemutt]

What share of San Francisco's homeless are from San Francisco, as opposed to having origins elsewhere?

Specifically, that share has swollen to 71 percent, suggesting that much of San Francisco's homelessness epidemic is "homegrown," the product of factors within the city proper.
This figure runs counter to a popular theory that the city is so generous with its assistance money and programs that indigent people flock here from elsewhere, and that the majority of those on the street came from elsewhere.
71% Of SF Homeless Once Had Homes In SF: SFist

Another 19% are from elsewhere in California.
Only 10% are from other states.

[Ultrarunner]

Story in the Chronicle this morning that a homeless man living in a SF Shelter actually had quite an accomplished life... married, home and position of great responsibility... also close college friend of Mayor Lee...

In a nutshell... life changed when he and his wife divorced and liquidated... he had 50k from the sale of his home in Olympia WA and headed to the Bay Area were he had siblings and that only lasted so long...

The reporter said he was intelligent and articulate... the story was too fantastic to believe yet it all checked out...

This person said he is not atypical... he has met bankers, business owners, etc... on the streets.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Story in the Chronicle this morning that a homeless man living in a SF Shelter actually had quite an accomplished life... married, home and position of great responsibility... also close college friend of Mayor Lee...

In a nutshell... life changed when he and his wife divorced and liquidated... he had 50k from the sale of his home in Olympia WA and headed to the Bay Area were he had siblings and that only lasted so long...

The reporter said he was intelligent and articulate... the story was too fantastic to believe yet it all checked out...

This person said he is not atypical... he has met bankers, business owners, etc... on the streets.

Yep. Such a good story I started a separate new thread on it
Homeless guy really was SF Mayor Ed Lee's college buddy

[FC76-81]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Story in the Chronicle this morning that a homeless man living in a SF Shelter actually had quite an accomplished life... married, home and position of great responsibility... also close college friend of Mayor Lee...

In a nutshell... life changed when he and his wife divorced and liquidated... he had 50k from the sale of his home in Olympia WA and headed to the Bay Area were he had siblings and that only lasted so long...

The reporter said he was intelligent and articulate... the story was too fantastic to believe yet it all checked out...

This person said he is not atypical... he has met bankers, business owners, etc... on the streets.

Yeah I didn't think the story could be true but if it's checked out on the up and up....crazy story. There's got to be more to it I think then what we've been told though.

One experienced I've had working as a payroll specialist for a temp employment company years ago, some guys would actually quit their temp jobs and live out on the street for a while if they owe too much in back child support and it catches up to them in the form of wage garnishment, just out of spite I guess. I handled White Plaines NY and it was common for dead beat dads to quit working once authorities caught up with them and we got the order to start garnishing their wages. They'd quit and then pop up months later doing some other temp job and again, we'd get the order to start garnishing their wages again and they'd quit again for a few more months. In the meantime they'd live out on the streets and/or temporarily on the couch of various friends while they weren't working, if they were the type who barely survived paycheck to paycheck. That was the cycle. This was 20 years ago so I think the system has changed up where they track them through DMV records.

And speaking of homeless in San Fran in the news, I heard that the homeless guy who tipped authorities off on the whereabouts of those two outstanding escapees will perhaps collect the $100,000 reward. Wow, nice payday! How would they tax that though? Apparently the guy was sitting outside the McD's on Haight minding his own business reading a news paper when he spotted the white van and one of the fugitives exiting the vehicle. He contacted law enforcement and they took the fugitives into custody. I hope he puts that money to good use.

[Ultrarunner]

Come across a few guys that went totally underground due to alimony/child-support... for whatever reason it left them bitter men and willing to loose it all.

A couple lived in old trailers... one in a should have sunk boat down at the marina... picked up odd jobs polishing and washing boats.

[SocSciProf]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

What share of San Francisco's homeless are from San Francisco, as opposed to having origins elsewhere?


Another 19% are from elsewhere in California.
Only 10% are from other states.

OBVIOUSLY, the problem has to be dealt with where people are. But can anyone really defend the policies of some communities--to provide ZERO services--so that the homeless migrate to the few places where people are willing to provide services? This isn't about moving people out of one's community, its about a nation caring about everyone. Alas, in another case of judges deciding without considering the unintended consequences, judicial rulings make it impossible to even bill the "sending" community for the cost of dealing with the homeless they produce elsewhere.

As for whether 29% is a large or small number for San Franciscans, ask yourself this:

Would you reject a 29% decrease in the taxes going to homeless services (with no reduction in actual services)?

~or, if you like paying taxes~

Would you reject a 29% increase in services FOR the homeless (because there'd either be few of them in the area or the costs of serving them would be subsidized by their communities of origin)?

The simple fact is it is simple to polarize the issue (e.g., the person above who invokes the name of TRUMP, ignoring my explicit rejection of fascism to make a political point I had already made). But, really, should some communities be able to offer ZERO services and draconian policing (e.g., waking people up repeatedly--a behavior that some international studies scholars call torture) to force the people who hit hard times to move to other communities who have a more nurturant spirit? If some community wants to offer no services, shouldn't they at least be forced to pay funds for other communities to provide them?

Homelessness is a NATIONAL issue and requires a national response that binds communities together and helps us see our fates are truly linked. But the judicial rulings kicked the legs out from under any possibility for producing such a national answer to the issue by allowing some communities to insulate themselves from both the problem and responsibility for paying for the solution. In that environment, no nurturant policy will ever be sustainable.

[FC76-81]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Come across a few guys that went totally underground due to alimony/child-support... for whatever reason it left them bitter men and willing to loose it all.

A couple lived in old trailers... one in a should have sunk boat down at the marina... picked up odd jobs polishing and washing boats.

Isn't it amazing how someone would choose living on the streets eating out of a garbage cans instead of working and paying child support? I bet there's a lot more of them out there because of that then we would imagine.