Why doesn't the city just get rid of the homeless people? (San Francisco: foreclosure, unemployment benefits)

[NYCtoSF]

SF has too many homeless people. I don't understand why the city doesn't just direct the cops to continually make their lives so difficult that they're forced to leave. This is what Giuliani did in Manhattan.

These people may be relatively harmless, but they're an eyesore and they add to the filth and degradation of urban environments. Is there no desire within long time residents to rid SF of these people?

[Ceece]

I never like sounding heartless but we've let "homeless" become a lifestyle choice for many. I think we do need to offer some kind of shelter/institute and give them that choice, but ferel people wandering the streets diong whatever isn't acceptable.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by Ceece

I never like sounding heartless but we've let "homeless" become a lifestyle choice for many. I think we do need to offer some kind of shelter/institute and give them that choice, but ferel people wandering the streets diong whatever isn't acceptable.

I've just written about this on the other thread. We have resources in/around the Bay Area for homeless people. The folks you see hanging out on Market St for example are generally there BY CHOICE. Most are mentally ill and/or drug addicted and often times BOTH. They do not want help for their addictions or mental illness.

Folks that are genuinely in need of assistance from being left homeless after a foreclosure, loss of a job, can't afford food,don't have the financial means to take care of their children, etc... DO seek help.

I actually had a friend that was mentally ill and came to live with me for a short while. He was in his manic phase of his bi-polar condition and decided to go off his meds because the mentally ill on a manic high generally like this feeling. He started using drugs to cope with his more frequent cycling of highs/lows and I had to kick him out after his rants about Jesus/ scary thoughts and he went back to living on the streets. I saw him one day on Van Ness huddled outside of a movie theater wrapped in a nasty blanket, really dirty, covered in sores. I didn't even have the courage to help him again--sadly and all too often they are a lost cause and can become dangerous to others.

Mentally ill people have great difficulty avoiding addiction and more often than not go hand in hand. It's terribly naive to make these assumptions that there isn't help for people like this---there is, but they become part of the street life and often feel safer there where they know other people like them than in a shelter (Yes, I know this sounds odd)

[mayorhaggar]

arbeit macht frei

[Larry Siegel]

Political correctness and a desire by some people to increase the demand for the social services they provide.

[NYCtoSF]

Originally Posted by clongirl

I've just written about this on the other thread. We have resources in/around the Bay Area for homeless people. The folks you see hanging out on Market St for example are generally there BY CHOICE. Most are mentally ill and/or drug addicted and often times BOTH. They do not want help for their addictions or mental illness.

Folks that are genuinely in need of assistance from being left homeless after a foreclosure, loss of a job, can't afford food,don't have the financial means to take care of their children, etc... DO seek help.

I actually had a friend that was mentally ill and came to live with me for a short while. He was in his manic phase of his bi-polar condition and decided to go off his meds because the mentally ill on a manic high generally like this feeling. He started using drugs to cope with his more frequent cycling of highs/lows and I had to kick him out after his rants about Jesus/ scary thoughts and he went back to living on the streets. I saw him one day on Van Ness huddled outside of a movie theater wrapped in a nasty blanket, really dirty, covered in sores. I didn't even have the courage to help him again--sadly and all too often they are a lost cause and can become dangerous to others.

Mentally ill people have great difficulty avoiding addiction and more often than not go hand in hand. It's terribly naive to make these assumptions that there isn't help for people like this---there is, but they become part of the street life and often feel safer there where they know other people like them than in a shelter (Yes, I know this sounds odd)

That's sweet of you to help someone who's just a friend as opposed to a family member or significant other.

I've even refused help to family members.

[msgsing]

Many homeless here too and probably many by choice. They get fed downtown at a church sponsored charity that serves app 4,000 meals a day. After feeding time is over they fan out all over town riding the trolley system without paying.

[Ms Kitty 98]

I believe that with the homeless people! there are three category's based on their state on mental and physical condition; we have people down on their luck we have, we have people that have psychiatric disorders, then we have the lazy ones that panhandle for spare change to buy cigarettes,drugs and booze.
So you get these three groups, you throw in a beautiful city environment,livable climate,plenty of out reach facility's that provide food and clothing including a bed for the night on a temporary basis.This added with people that always carry plenty of change in their pockets and are very generous with it, and with this it will create a survivable climate of dependency.
Lets not forget when governor Ronald Reagan closed down all the state mental wards and threw scores of helpless people out into the streets of the cities of California.
Then in San Francisco, the city use to offer General Assistance in the form 604.00 a month to anyone that needed money and could prove that they had been living in San Francisco over two weeks. Former Mayor Art Agnos was another nice guy who proclaimed San Francisco a sanctuary city for the homeless, would be draft dodgers and conscientious objectors in case there was to be a war.
During the 1990's things got really bad as the homeless population soared, then Mayor Frank Jordan came along and initiated the Matrix Law intended to make it unpleasant for the homeless or street people as they are called.
Mayor Willie Brown once said that there was not a homeless problem in San Francisco, and that was until he finally went down to Golden Gate Park and saw things first hand for himself. Mayor Gavin Newsom was friendly towards them till one day he was walking along with the wifey and newborn in tow in the Haight Ashbury and he got a dose of how nuisance things can be.
There are cities out there that their law enforcement issues one way bus tickets to San Francisco to their most degenerate undesirable rejects. The bottom line is that you may reach out to help some of these people, and some of these people don't want any help, they are set in their way's, they will snap back at you. So God only knows what solutions are there to help these people, I myself once helped out a few of them, gave them a place to stay, an address, then they went out got work and went on their own. One of my most successful acquaintances has a nice job over at the Buena Vista Cafe for several years now. I wouldn't recommend you try this yourself, but regardless,San Francisco is always going to be attractive to everyone rich or poor.

[NYCtoSF]

Originally Posted by Ms Kitty 98

I believe that with the homeless people! there are three category's based on their state on mental and physical condition; we have people down on their luck we have, we have people that have psychiatric disorders, then we have the lazy ones that panhandle for spare change to buy cigarettes,drugs and booze.
So you get these three groups, you throw in a beautiful city environment,livable climate,plenty of out reach facility's that provide food and clothing including a bed for the night on a temporary basis.This added with people that always carry plenty of change in their pockets and are very generous with it, and with this it will create a survivable climate of dependency.
Lets not forget when governor Ronald Reagan closed down all the state mental wards and threw scores of helpless people out into the streets of the cities of California.
Then in San Francisco, the city use to offer General Assistance in the form 604.00 a month to anyone that needed money and could prove that they had been living in San Francisco over two weeks. Former Mayor Art Agnos was another nice guy who proclaimed San Francisco a sanctuary city for the homeless, would be draft dodgers and conscientious objectors in case there was to be a war.
During the 1990's things got really bad as the homeless population soared, then Mayor Frank Jordan came along and initiated the Matrix Law intended to make it unpleasant for the homeless or street people as they are called.
Mayor Willie Brown once said that there was not a homeless problem in San Francisco, and that was until he finally went down to Golden Gate Park and saw things first hand for himself. Mayor Gavin Newsom was friendly towards them till one day he was walking along with the wifey and newborn in tow in the Haight Ashbury and he got a dose of how nuisance things can be.
There are cities out there that their law enforcement issues one way bus tickets to San Francisco to their most degenerate undesirable rejects. The bottom line is that you may reach out to help some of these people, and some of these people don't want any help, they are set in their way's, they will snap back at you. So God only knows what solutions are there to help these people, I myself once helped out a few of them, gave them a place to stay, an address, then they went out got work and went on their own. One of my most successful acquaintances has a nice job over at the Buena Vista Cafe for several years now. I wouldn't recommend you try this yourself, but regardless,San Francisco is always going to be attractive to everyone rich or poor.

I actually agree with you on the different categories of homeless people. The first category - people hurt by the recession, should be helped, maybe through food stamps or extended unemployment benefits. The rest though - the hippies in their 20's and 30's - need to be taught a lesson.

[quixotic59]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

SF has too many homeless people. I don't understand why the city doesn't just direct the cops to continually make their lives so difficult that they're forced to leave. This is what Giuliani did in Manhattan.

These people may be relatively harmless, but they're an eyesore and they add to the filth and degradation of urban environments. Is there no desire within long time residents to rid SF of these people?

And then replace them with billionaire crooks, like Bloomberg did?
Judging by your moniker, your lack of compassion is not surprising. You might want to read the news a little more carefully and realize that poverty and homelessness are no longer confined to the "lazy and shiftless".
You might want to address the fact that money is literally being siphoned off from the lower and middle class by stagnant wages, fewer jobs, and corporate tax relief.
But then, seeing reality would cause the whole elitist club to come tumbling down.
As a current visitor to San Francisco and a resident of New York City, I don't think the homeless are the real problem. They have all been polite and not one of them have taken a penny from me. However, i have been robbed blind by the "local businessmen" in both areas.
Oh, and by the way, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Brings Freedom) was the sign over the gates of Auschwitz.
Perhaps "the greatest country on earth" (please note sarcasm), would do well to take a lesson from Denmark. They seem to have been able to succeed and still maintain their humanity.