SQUALOR IN THE STREETS

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | November 4, 2001 | Patrick Hoge

[TheMole]

S.F. spends more than $200 million a year on homelessness, but why does the problem persist?

San Francisco is spending about $22,000 every hour on homeless people this year, but still can't get Joe Dinovo and thousands like him off its streets.

[TheMole]

This is not a new article (November of last year) but I just discovered it for myself and couldn't find any record of it being posted. It's a good overview of the problem and probably the maximum amount of sense that a writer for the Chronicle is allowed to make. I hope he didn't lose his job for omitting the obligatory bashing of Ronald Reagan whenever the "homeless" are mentioned.

[Frances_Marion]

"City officials say they've done their best, and The Chronicle found they are spending more than $200 million this year on the homeless, about the same as San Francisco spends annually on its Fire Department."

Liberal democrats can never get it through their thick heads that just throwing more money at a problem won't solve it. This SF Chronicle article attests to that...

[Samizdat]

Oh, so noooowww the left wing media has found the homeless! Where were they during clinton's reign of terror? Hmmmm? These left wingers are so predictable.

[Astronaut]

Seattle is just as bad. You cant walk downtown without being harassed by some filthy scum begging for money so he can buy drugs or booze. I say pass a law against vagrancy, convict them all, and put them to work cleaning up the filth they generate.

[JZoback]

These chronically homeless people have become a defining characteristic of San Francisco.

Wow, tough choice here:

San Francisco: first known as the reigning home of queers and fags, now the city of the insane homeless.

Must be tough to be a liberal these days in office

Sorry if the words queers and fags offends anyone, they use the names themselves.

[Drango]

This is basic Economics 101. Rewarding undesirable behavior promotes more undesireable behavior.

$22,000 a year and they wonder why they have it! sheeeesh!

[MistrX]

Soylent Green.

[Travis McGee]

I say pass a law against vagrancy, convict them all, and put them to work cleaning up the filth they generate.

Too logical. Plus the supreme court long ago said vagrancy laws violated this or that right.

[Osinski]

Well, Berkeley is just as bad. As a former insider to a Berkeley homeless organization, I can attest to the lack of accountability. In fact, my firsthand observations were that the new politically appointed management obliterated the accounting standards in order to plug in any old numbers they want. Makes everything look good to the board and at grant time. The biggest issue for me however, is that OUR dollars...yes the US taxpayer dollars partly fund this mess courtesy of HUD. So when you hear "homeless", know that your money is going to the crony/nepotism system of "correct" minority democratic political appointees.

[JZoback]

Joe is the second picture. Here's the link for a few more pictures Link

These people need help, not liberal pablum

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Alcatraz would make a good holding cell for these pigs. There they could defecate, urinate and vomit to their hearts content.

[woofie]

S.F. spends more than $200 million a year on homelessness, but why does the problem persist?

You could build 200 one million dollar houses for that and in 10 years youd have 2000 less homeless...

[Maceman]

Let's see... 5,300 homeless and a budget of $200 million. That's just under $38,000 per person. If the city just directly gave the homeless the $38,000 (tax free of course), it would give them each an equivalent annual income of $57,000 each.

Certainly on that level of income they could afford to get their own housing, even if they had to have roommates, and have some left over for booze and drugs.

[TheMole]

Seattle is indeed bad. I was down by Pioneer Square a few months ago, and two drunks seemed to be having a p***ing contest - they both sprayed a wall from about 7 or 8 feet away, while one of them drank from a liquor bottle at the same time. However, I can assure you that Sin Freaksicko is in a league of its own in this area. The article actually understates the problem.

[MissAmericanPie]

They have done their best pocketing 200 million they mean. San Fran is a good place for the homeless, they blend.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

San Francisco is spending about $22,000 every hour on homeless people this year, but still can't get Joe Dinovo and thousands like him off its streets.

If the homeless are getting this kind of money, where's the incentive to get off the streets? Rewarding bad behavior is no way to make people stop.

[ODDITHER]

"It makes no sense to spend San Francisco taxpayers' dollars to arrest and prosecute those whose only crime is poverty," he said early in his term."

I would say that these people are breaking a whole bunch of laws starting with illegal drugs,vagrancy,littering not to mention stealing and harrassment of tourists, sounds like the laws they have been breaking have led them to poverty, not the other way around.

Add this to not being able to take your children to a public restroom because the gay men have turned them into public brothels, heck San Fransisco sounds like a heck a place to raise a family or visit on a vacation. Add to that the fact the California placed dead last in Public education - sounds a real paradise.

[McGavin999]

Let's see, $200 million for 5,300 homeless people is $37,736 per person per year. Even in California this has to be a lot of money, that's $3,144.67 per MONTH!!!

It's bad enough wasting all that money, but to have to dodge human waste just to take a walk seems a bit much. Think of all the diseases.

[cavador]

This is what happens in all western societies when local goverments target mental institions in their stupid costcutting exercises.We have a similar problem in Sydney.

Now our streets are infested not only by rapists,drug addicts and murderers but now those that have mental problems.Last Christmas (2000)I was bashed by a schitzo guy using a guitar for a weapon.I recieved severe bruising to my left arm.(There were two police officers watching the whole thing.)

[truth_seeker]

However, the city has only about 1,700 year-round, emergency shelter beds to serve the 5,300 still homeless residents it has counted.

Works out to about an eight hour shift with a bed, indoors, each. At the intake interview, ask: "which shift would you like, with the bed?" Kinda like a real job.