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submitted 3 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped to under 3,000 in January, the lowest the city has recorded in a decade, according to a federal count.

And that figure has likely dropped even lower since Mayor London Breed — a Democrat in a difficult reelection fight this November — started ramping up enforcement of anti-camping laws in August following a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Homelessness in no way has gone away, and in fact grew 7%, to 8,300 in January, according to the same federal count.

But the problem is now notably out of the public eye, raising the question of where people have gone and whether the change marks a turning point in a crisis long associated with San Francisco.

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[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 113 points 3 months ago

Homelessness in no way has gone away, and in fact grew 7%, to 8,300 in January, according to the same federal count.

Oh, good, who needs to address a problem when you can ignore it?

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 months ago

This message has been approved by Donald Trump®️™️ 👍

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 40 points 3 months ago

This isn't a partizan issue, just like immigration, Democrats are fucking horrible on homelessness too.

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

Aside from lots of blue state tax dollars that feasibility could be spend on homelessness and other infrastructure projects subsidize red states.

And any truly effective solutions can't be at the city or state level, else homeless folks will migrate there for a better life, thus overwhelming the local system. It has to be federal. That means republicans get to shoot it down yet again, with how tight congress is.

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[-] linearchaos@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

I never realized how Orange the thumbs up was....

[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Ah yes, the Covid strategy employed by many.

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

San Francisco has increased the number of shelter beds and permanent supportive housing units by more than 50% over the past six years.

Read the article before commenting next time.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Shelters are not permanent living accommodations. They don't let you stay in them long-term. On top of that, everything from just basic theft to sexual assault happens in shelters.

Also, if you have a dog, you can't bring the dog with you. If you're a woman alone on the streets, having a dog around to protect you is a pretty good idea.

So increasing the number of shelter beds doesn't do shit. Permanent housing units, fine. But touting shelters is just bullshit.

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[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

You skipped the "and permanent housing units" part of my comment. Shelters are a step to getting off the street. They give homeless access to information and resources to improve their position. It is in no way "ignoring the problem" like you claim. Short of singlehandedly solving poverty, what do you expect a mayor to do?

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[-] norimee@lemmy.world 92 points 3 months ago

This is so sick. Instead of doing something about the rising homelessness problem, they just shoo them away so rich people don't have to see them anymore. Making life even harder for those who already have it rough.

Way to kick the one laying on the ground.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 3 months ago

In a podcast docu-series, a woman qualified for free housing and was afraid to take it. She had mobility issues and someone in her unhoused community fetched her prescriptions. She was afraid of not being able to get medication. Now imagine how that feels losing your support system and still sleeping outside.

There's a popular idea that homeless people don't want homes.

I'm sure that's true in isolated cases, but I don't know if it's generally true.

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[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 46 points 3 months ago

Tracking homeless people is extremely difficult and where all the people once living on San Francisco’s streets have gone is impossible to know.

We all know where they went. Oakland and Richmond.

[-] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Don't forget Sacramento. I hate the sweeping under the rug without fixing the problems.

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

Honestly makes sense. As messed up as it sounds, it 100% must be cheaper for the city to offer a bus ticket out of town than to actually address why people are homeless. Capitalism is an asshole.

[-] orcrist@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

Not just capitalism. Also NIMBYism.

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[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 39 points 3 months ago

“We’re seeing much cleaner sidewalks,” said Terry Asten Bennett, owner of Cliff’s Variety store in the city’s historically gay Castro neighborhood, adding that she hates to see homeless people shuffled around.

Caring more about how it 'looks' than how unhoused people are surviving is peak 21st century bs.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago

I get your point, but the owner is just making an observation and even says they hate seeing people shuffled around in your quote.

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 34 points 3 months ago

Gotta clear the encampment location for the incoming waves of foreclosure homeless people!

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 33 points 3 months ago
[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 31 points 3 months ago

From my time with a county government: homeless tend to cycle between being within municipal city limits, unincorporated county, and state/federal lands like Dept of Transportation lots with highway overpasses and such.

Shuffling between jurisdictions keeps legal proceedings ever going anywhere.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

That's it exactly, move them around like whackamole.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 30 points 3 months ago

They probably are doing what a lot of places in the country do and just bus the homeless people out of their city and send them to another.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

That's how they all ended up in SF in the first place.

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[-] ramsgrl909@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago

I just went to Dreamforce last week and was told they push the tents further away from the conference while it's happening.

I don't know what it looked like before but there are still PLENTY of homeless in San Francisco and it's very sad to see.

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[-] CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee 16 points 3 months ago

They're all turning up where I live across the bay

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Similar thing going on in Seattle.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I've been wondering about that.. any theories?

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Sweeps by police mostly. Lots in jail, others pushed to suburbs (especially since they combined the Seattle homelessness initiatives with king county resources), and a few put in temporary housing.

[-] TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Living on the Southern Atlantic seaboard here, a lot of our homeless are from New Jersey and Maryland... usually get a big wave of them come winter; local governments in the northeast shipping them down so they don't die from exposure in the colder months.

[-] theherk@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

They could put them all in Sausalito and Bay Farm. That would precipitate a solution quickly, I’m sure.

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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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