Homelessness in SF (neighborhoods) (Richmond: real estate, city hall, earthquake)

[Wes927]

No need to beat to death the horse of homelessness in SF. Between homelessness, left wing politics, and the impending earthquake apocalypse what more can be said?

However, I'm curious if homelessness is a citywide problem or to an extent certain neighborhoods are immune.

Thanks in advance!

[jzt83]

Sunset, Richmond, Twin Peaks area, the area near SFSU and Stonestown, most areas at higher elevations, and a few other areas have low homeless populations. The epicenters of homelessness are civic center/tenderloin, mission, SOMA, Haight, and some other places.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by jzt83

Sunset, Richmond, Twin Peaks area, the area near SFSU and Stonestown, most areas at higher elevations, and a few other areas have low homeless populations. The epicenters of homelessness are civic center/tenderloin, mission, SOMA, Haight, and some other places.

Yes, less of an obvious problem but every single neighborhood has several well known "locals". Aside from Twin Peaks, I don't ever recall not seeing a homeless/mentally ill person squatting on the sidewalk along the main shopping areas (like 19th/Irving, for instance). There was a very well known mentally ill woman that would scare the cr*p out of my 3yr old every time we'd head to the local library. I guess the homeless/mentally ill that wouldn't want to participate in a "group setting" would head down to the avenues.

[globaliesnation]

The homeless and the disabled are endemic to all SF districts because the City thrives on their presence. I will explain. The degree to which the homeless and disabled are visable in the the community varies considerably from district to district. This is not accidental, it is dictated by SFPD which takes its marching orders from City Hall.

Thirty years of history vividly demonstrates how the current social service system evolved. The phenomena can not be understood without a brief recounting of this history.

Dog Patch, a former industrial area beneath the western slope of Potrero, demonstrates how the City machine wields its power. Following a great outcry from the public beginning in the early '90s, many homeless and disabled were "made invisible" and pushed in to Dog Patch from SOMA , Civic Center and the Haight. Vehicle encampments can still be seen on Illinois Street today.

Prior to Loma Prieta, some of today's homeless or marginally employed were housed in the pre-1989 SOMA district. These people became displaced in era of the post 1989 quake redevelopment. Certainly this accounts for only a minority of today's SF's dis-enfranchised, however, it does speak to the history of the problem.

We could step back to the Summer of Love and the roots of the Haight Ashburry Free Clinic, however the HIV/AIDS crisis is more closely related to the beleaguered current system of social services delivery.

During the early years of the HIV/AIDS health crisis, the community banded together in grass roots organizations to help those in dire need. As the crisis unfolded many of the infected were too weak to leave their residences and actually starved to death. Project Open Hand set about to remedy that shameful era by bringing hot meals directly to to those in need.

How did the early Not-For_Profit organizations devolve to their current extortionate, parasitical form?

As the tragedy of the Great Die Off entered its second decade, professional carpetbagger opportunists appeared like lice to replace the community's home-grown volunteers. The era of grass roots based community help was replaced by an unwieldy bureaucracy. Those who had vigilantly stood beside their heretofore invisible dying brothers and sisters by holding candle-light marches and by demanding viable therapies or assisting in countless other ways were now falling victim to burn-out or succumbing to the virus themselves. Please recall that from 1980 to 1996 there was no useful drug therapy available to treat AIDS.

A vacuum of available home-grown volunteers created vast opportunities for "processional AIDS Non-Profiteers", as the much needed new funding finally flowed to a desperate community.

As more professional outsiders filled this vacuum of need, the era of the bloated, unaccountable modern day SF "Non-Profit" was born.

Today the Non-Profit machine is strongly partnered with City Hall and overly represented by powerful lobbyists. They exist to feed themselves by capitalizing on the plight of their "clients". Evocative evidence of this exploitation is the concept -now-become-law- called "NON-PORTABILITY OF BENEFITS".

Why were entitlements for disability programs made "non-portable"?
Why are "clients" prohibited from relocating to other communities where the cost of living is less than that of SF?

The answer in two words is "body count". The NP's depend upon high "client" numbers for funding. For each "client" there exists an army of social "case workers" on the public payroll. Redundancy of function abounds. Most, but not all, of these "case workers" are serious slackers who lack any accountability whatsoever. But, the case workers are merly pawns in the bigger picture. Call it:

>>The Non-Profit - Government Social Services Agency - Lobbyist Complex <<

Like the moons of Jupiter, the "clients" are held captive in an eternal orbit by gaseous giants whose political mass and impenetrability make them immune from accountability. More can and should be done for the "clients" with greater efficiency. Now is the time to examine what is working and delete that which is self-serving.

Having discovered the magic formula of pandering to concerned citizens and extorting/misusing public funds to feed themselves, NP's are surprisingly similar to unregulated financiers and their partners in crime, your elected officials.

Enter the concept of "permanent client status" . As taxpayers, we should demand that a small portion of the money which is being spent to help the disenfranchised and the disabled to be utilized in a way which permits, not prevents, the upward mobility of "clients" and accommodates those who desire to return to productive lives.

Two major changes must be made to the social service delivery system. First, the non-portability of benefits law must be changed to allow "clients" freedom of choice when it comes to county or state of domicile.

Secondly, those with chronic illness requiring permanent long term subsidy of medications must be allowed the opportunity and the dignity of receiving medicines and related health care without fear of losing the lifee saving subsidies merely for pursuing re-education, re-employment, or partial employment.

President Clinton, in his speech entitled, "The End of AIDS", concluded that change must be made to current disability law to guarantee that every American who is infected will be able to continue working or return to a productive life without the fear of losing the medical subsidies on which their lives depend.

With California's fiscal crisis in mind, each of us must understand what is wrong with the current system and demand change on the federal as well as the state level Expect massive disinformation campaigns by the status-quo NP's and health care lobbies. We must be prepared to respond with job retraining opportunities for social "case" workers whose jobs will be eliminated as a workable system replaces the outmoded, broken and corrupt current model of social service delivery.

Originally Posted by Wes927

No need to beat to death the horse of homelessness in SF. Between homelessness, left wing politics, and the impending earthquake apocalypse what more can be said?

However, I'm curious if homelessness is a citywide problem or to an extent certain neighborhoods are immune.

Thanks in advance!

[rah]

Originally Posted by jzt83

Sunset, Richmond, Twin Peaks area, the area near SFSU and Stonestown, most areas at higher elevations, and a few other areas have low homeless populations. The epicenters of homelessness are civic center/tenderloin, mission, SOMA, Haight, and some other places.

The Sunset and the Richmond definitely don't have the lowest homeless populations. They're both right next to golden gate park and ocean beach, both of which are homeless magnets.

Hills, distance from downtown, and distance from commercial areas tend to lower homeless populations...especially if it's in a neighborhood that's more sleepy and affluent. But no place is completely immune (except for maybe those rare affluent and suburban style neighborhoods, such as Saint Francis Wood). It's a small city geographically, with a lot of homeless people.

[Wes927]

Thank you all for your informative answers.

It's interesting that real estate prices stay so high when there is such a serious quality-of-life-issue.