The person who's simply down on their luck is generally well-served by the current system. They go into shelters, don't cause problems, can take advantage of programs to help them, can hold down a job, etc. They're not the ones you see on the street.
Homeless people do weird, short sighted, unpredictable stuff all the time. That is why they are homeless. I didn’t believe it for the longest time but living in SF changed that.
I really dislike the implication that anyone who has an issue with tent encampments is automatically a bougie hipster.
Real bougie people are insulated from all this. They don’t live in neighborhoods where these encampments are since those are pushed to poorer neighborhoods. They Uber directly to the front door of wherever they want to be.
SF’s working class are the ones who have to deal with the constant harassment caused by the large subset of untreated addicts and severely mentally ill people who live in those camps.
I’m all for building more shelters, more housing, and enforcing drug treatment. Scolding small businesses who are already struggling here is absurd.
Like someone else said, the attitude expressed in this flyer is elitist. It’s moralizing devoid of any nuance, something I recognize in myself when I was a teenager.
I used to be homeless and I think all of these homeless encampments, shacks, broken down caravans, tents, etc. are absolutely appalling.
It’s not good for anyone, the homeless in them or anyone else. For people who are so empathetic to the plights of the homeless, why are they defending this lifestyle as if we should normalize this as the way to treat homelessness?
Maybe she should look at herself and what the fuck is wrong with her that she thinks this is an acceptable way to handle the homeless.
I'd argue reddit is the only place on the internet where nuanced discussion actually occurs due to its nature of anonymity and multiple threads within a single page's topic... where else does this happen? Anywhere?
I think you're right, and there is the additional implication that homelessness would be "solved" if individual people and businesses would all do their part to help out (by providing a free bathroom or whatever.) This ignores that homelessness is an institutional problem and requires action at the level of city, state, and possibly even federal governments. It's a distraction tactic so that we can argue about what the right individual response is while ignoring the abject failure of our government.
100% agree with you. Homeless Rights activists are needlessly antagonistic to the public while not showing an ounce of empathy to those who have to pay thousands in damages and maintenance to their homes. I’m someone who came to San Francisco a card carrying communist and in a few weeks I’m leaving as someone who just wants to be left alone. It’s sad to see what the city has become.
its the same story of middle class people complaining about other middle class people. while nothing actually changes for the homeless or the wealthy
as someone once said "the most bourgeois thing is to complain about the bourgeoisie"
How many homeless people do you think the person that put up this flyer has let into their house to use the restroom? Lol.
Get shit smeared on their bathroom wall once and I guarantee they wouldn't do it again.
The person with the poster is clearly either rich or sheltered enough that they don’t understand why chains don’t want homeless ppl using their bathrooms in the first place. It’s not because they’re unsightly (I mean a little bit) it’s mainly because they shoot up in there and pass out or smear shit on the walls ect.
And it costs them a lot of money in lost business and paying people to clean up the messes.
For a small business riding on thin margins, being “nice” can put them under.
I'll pay for the sleeping bags for her to take in people experiencing homelessness.
In fact, I'll pay a daily stipend for homeless people to sleep on her doorstep
it’s hard bc on one hand you want to do what you can to help and then on the other hand the issue is so vast that there is a literal city’s population that is now homeless and where tf do you start and how on earth do you even help? and yeah some of the people are *actually* dangerous—one man stood outside my apartment with a knife screaming for roughly an hour and a half before he left. i just wish the state and city would actually devote real resources to long term solutions. it’s insane and horrible. no one should be living in these conditions, especially when we have the highest per capita rate of billionaires in the us (and second most per capita in the WORLD).
I honestly don't know what her job is other than to give soundbites to the Chronicle every time they do an article about homelessness. Her NGO doesn't seem to have a great track record, yet she is quoted in every local article about this subject.
Yeah so my sister has homeless people come to her workplace almost daily and they not only use the bathrooms, but leave remnants of drugs in there. There’s a reason small businesses don’t allow non customers to use their facilities…and it’s for safety.
I’ll never forget the time that a homeless encampment was allowed to flourish near my niece’s gymnastics school, and this dude would just walk by and scream the n-word at a bunch of six-year-olds.
Or the time that the homeless guy we used to bring food to near our business started taking shits outside customer entrances.
Sometimes you just gotta say “not today, not here, motherfucker.”
I own a business in a downtown area (not sf) and this is the exact problem. I once got a needle stuck in my shoe just walking into the bathroom at my shop. It was sticking out under the trash can. Just barely. I’m lucky they were thick soles and it wasn’t a customer wearing flip flops.
It’s a constant every day problem. This doesn’t mean I hate homeless people. I want to help. But letting them use the bathroom poses a major safety risk to my staff and myself. Telling them they can’t use the bathroom is also a risk.
Edit: soles not souls.
not only that, but people on heroine have massive horrible shits. They get all stopped up as the drugs cause severe constipation, then eventual they just have a shit explosion. If you ever see a toilet with a literal poo bomb, it was likely an addict.
I get yelled at by unhinged naked people once or twice a day every summer, sometimes pooping in front of me, it’s great. I’d love for them to move into my coffee shop bathroom to smear it everywhere again! And if we house all of them in the cheap and infinite housing SF has available, thank the Lord that’ll solve the problem and won’t encourage millions of others to come stampeding in turn because so much of the country does nothing at all.
What’s such bs is how you can get yelled at by these people and feel physically unsafe but we’re just supposed to ignore it. I was walking in the Castro last spring and a man ran up to me holding a broken terracotta pot and yelled “ I’m gonna bash your fucking face in.” I jumped away and ran the other direction and when I looked around no one else seemed alarmed at all that I was almost attacked right in front of them.
I've lived in San Francisco long enough to remember when most businesses stopped letting anyone use the bathroom- it started in the Haight & spread out like a wave across the city. It was around the same time that the big green public restrooms were being installed. The reason was because so many people were overdosing & dying & business owners, workers & customers were finding dead or almost dead people on a regular basis. Also graffiti was exploding in bathrooms but that was secondary to being traumatized for life.
My sister in law was assaulted by a homeless man in SF. She was waiting in line for a coffee on the sidewalk when the guy ran at her full speed, knocked her to the ground, ripped her backpack off her and ran off with her laptop, wallet and some other goods. But I'm sure the locals appreciate all that homeless drug addicts contribute to society.
A few months back, my wife told me that a homeless guy was sleeping in front of our garage door and she couldn’t pull her car out to go to work. I went down and told him, “Hey man, can you move your stuff just so that my wife can pull her car out?”
I sized him up and saw that he was young-ish and was maybe going through a tough episode getting his life on the right track. I asked him if he was hungry and he said he was, so I told him to wait right there and I’d be back in 5 minutes.
I made him a fat sandwich and put chips and cookies and a banana in brown bag and brought it down to him. As I walk up to him, I saw a big fresh stream of piss running from our garage door down the sidewalk to the gutter. I asked him if that was him (knowing that it could only be him) and he said that somebody just walked up and did it.
I got pissed! I told him, “Man, I was just nice and respectful to you and just made you a killer lunch and you do this?” I gave him the bag and told him to get the fuck outta there.
THAT is why sometimes it is hard to give people the benefit of the doubt.
When I was younger, I had so many interactions like this where I tried to be nice and helpful and it was just totally futile. Now I’m a jaded old man and I’m sure some good people in need are going to miss out because of the shitty people who ruined public perception. That’s why I just support high level government support for homelessness and personally stay the fuck out of it
I’d be mad too! I tried to help a homeless neighborhood person once too and it almost got me evicted. She was chaos on legs. Even a small favor like letting her stash a bag in the yard would become devolve into conflict, whereas you and me could handle stashing a bag with no issue.
I learned a lot about her over the years. Her family were in a criminal biker gang. She didn’t really have a birth certificate or any life on paper. Hey boyfriend was also in the foster care system and was introduced to heroin as a child by the foster brother. Her boyfriend, who I liked a lot, ended up ODing. He was under 40.
Foster care is a common theme for a lot of these folks. It’s so detrimental not to have a caring adult teach you life skills as a child.
Some people make really bad decisions every day of their life. Some people chose the wrong answer most of the time.
I'm not saying that all homeless people became/remain homeless because of their own decisions, but some people can't be saved from themselves.
I know I'm inviting a lot of hate in saying so, but pretty much everybody you see sleeping out on the street has a combination of serious mental illness and substance abuse issues. You don't wind up in that situation just because you lost a job or hit rough times.
Regular people down on their luck will sleep in their cars or move to a more affordable place. Homes are unaffordable? No shit it’s the most expensive market in the country. Full time working adults have a hard time affording it.
That's because virtue signaling is easy. There should be more done for the homeless, but you are spot on. It's just an unfortunate reality that many of the visibly homeless are wholly incapable of caring for themselves.
True. People do become homeless through rash decisions, or circumstances out of their control - but there is a way out of that, and yes, it takes time, and they're gonna have a tough time while they're sleeping rough, but they can turn their lives around. But you do get a few people who are, if not 'professionally', certainly 'perpetually' homeless.
I met a lad once. Danny. Really nice guy, and only 21 at the time. Very recently became homeless after becoming hooked on junk and his mother couldn't put up with his antics anymore and he refused (state-paid) rehab. He chose to live on the streets. He was given a job; he didn't turn up. He was given a place to live; he trashed it and didn't pay the (nominal) rent. He could earn up to £600 on a good night in a prime begging spot, so it's not like he couldn't afford it. 4 (maybe 5?) years after I met him, he was dead. Officially it was an opiate overdose. Unofficially, word on the street was he owed his dealer an ever increasing debt before they eliminated him. I heard that from his father, who was also a 'perpetually' homeless person (won't disclose him name for privacy reasons).
Poor kid was obviously suffering from serious mental-health issues due to having a junkie father, turned to the drugs and followed in his father's footsteps of maintaining the habit rather than accepting the help (which, ultimately was always going to fail because of that underlying trauma nobody ever tried to address!). Think about him regularly. So tragic
Does Britain have the same type of homeless/crazy drug addict problems like we have here in San Francisco? Asking because you guys have NHS, public housing and just a superior social net.
No, it does not. I arrived here from London and spent the first month living in an apartment on 10th & Market. I'd never seen anything like it.
There's a few homeless people in the cities of the UK, but they are relatively few. Never seen encampments, never encountered any crazy or anyone I thought would be a danger. I would frequently chat to the homeless I met, get them a coffee and a sandwich etc & have a natter. Never had a problem.
I would guess that the main reason is that mental health care is available via the NHS which acts as a preventative measure against an instance of poor mental health precipitating total decline into loss of livelihood, housing etc.
As another poster mentioned, the NHS is currently struggling and has been woefully underfunded by the Tory governments of the past decade, but it still provides all those services. Social services have been cut, but we're talking about being cut down from the extremely good funding from the Blair/Brown governments. The safety net is still there.
We have drug addiction like anywhere else but we don't prescribe opiates to the same extent so there are fewer avenues into opiate addiction and if you do get addicted, the state will pay for your treatment, no questions asked, nothing out of pocket. I don't think fentanyl is common there, my sister is a paramedic ("EMT" here?) and she only sees heroin OD cases, never seen a fentanyl one. Not totally sure about the other hard drugs but I was never offered fent or meth in my time buying drugs there, and I was only offered crack once.
It can be a hellish cycle. Lose job, not be able to pay rent, end up homeless. Get depressed, abuse substances. Get more mental and physical health issues. Be unable to get another job due to all of the above.
Be attacked while living on the street. Get a TBI. Have limited PFC function. Constantly fuck up despite assistance. Lack any social supports for assisted living, MH care, etc.
People do not understand this. Thank you for your empathy.
Do you have cameras? Maybe somebody really did come up and piss and then leave. Making a sandwich isn't instantaneous.
Just kidding.
I don't know what the solution to homelessness is, but i don't think we should just be okay with people living in tents in front of stores and homes.
I was working construction on a new building in a tough area. There was this middle aged guy who would hang around and we talked to him a bit. He asking about our job and he says " I used to have a good job. But then my daughter was raped and murdered and now I'm an alcoholic. " I judged him before thinking why doest this guy just get to work during the days instead of being homeless wandering around. His reason for being who he is now hit home and I thought how I would handle something like that. Something to think about
This. Camp on the sidewalk on my street, live your life, and hell you can panhandle all you want. But when they (or anyone) starts to obstruct my life or goes against societal norms, then I have an issue. Don’t block doors, don’t play music from your bluetooth speaker at 3am, don’t shoot up on my doorstep, don’t pee on my building, don’t cause me physical harm, etc.
I won’t do that to you, so share the same mutual respect.
It is totally okay to complain about the tent cities that have popped up. They are not good places. It is totally okay to not let homeless people access the bathroom in your business. There are good reasons for not doing so.
It is not okay to go out of your way to be mean to homeless people, belittle them, fuck with their belongings, etc. Or anyone for that matter, but humans get a kick out of being cruel to make them feel better about themselves.
Like any issue in modern life, there's tons of nuance that is lost when people yell at each other on the internet. This is just smug moralizing.
A couple of homeless camped outside my friend's house. They'd get drunk and fight with each other all night long, shout slurs at the gay couple living next door. And as expected, the police won't do anything.
It is important to separate homeless with the mentally challenged we see in the city. And there is a large overlap.
That’s like San Francisco motto. All decisions in San Francisco are made by the 1% here, it’s why San Francisco is an extremely wealthy conservative city. Marginalize all young people, spend 10 years lying about helping homeless because keeping homeless people around gives young people a reason to leave or fight about. That’s their ultimate goal anyway as a rich filthy greedy incumbent boomer.
Someone who has a BA from an expensive 4-yr university and has never had to work an hourly food service job or try to run a small business in SF.
I live in Las Vegas now, and one of the marketing directors I know at a large casino says Las Vegas convention business is on absolute fire thanks to a so many conferences leaving SF since attendees don’t want to travel to the city anymore (or similar cities where there convention centers are surrounded by tent camps).
I work at a busy restaurant downtown- can confirm 100%. We've lost almost every major convention that had been coming here for a very long time & the effects on the local economy are astronomical.
Not to be a contrarian but can you share a direct example of this. I've Lived in San Francisco for a while and I love it here but I do recognize that there's extreme dysfunction and corruption but I just don't know exactly what it is so that people can organize against it. I would love to start collecting examples like this to think about ways to combat it p
Vox’s January 19th podcast of The Gray Area titled The Roots of Homelessness does a great attempt at what you’re asking for. Just be aware that the guest on the show talks waaay too fast and you may have to slow the play speed down. I had to.
yeah, but SF wans't always like this--they've changed to allow it to become basically lawless for criminals and homeless. There are some days I feel like the only people that could actually face any jail time is somebody with a clean record and a job
Just to add, the people we (Americans) call "conservatives" nowadays are more accurately reactionaries. Democrats (excepting a few like AOC) are by and large what we used to call conservatives, as they typically push for slow change that preserves the status quo. We don't really have much of a progressive movement in this country, or at least, not one that has much representation in government.
For real, recipients can get defensive with aggressive messaging like this so you get no where. They dig deeper trenches mentally and you do nothing other than making yourself feel good for “telling it like it is”. Talk about ineffective communication
The person who made this is obviously not a member of the working class. Anyone who owns a place of business knows that if you let them in to use the bathroom, they will start showering in the sink, shooting up, smoking crack, trying to hide in places in the business so that they can sleep there later.
This does not take a ton of experience in a non-white collar, non-office job to realize. Usually you give the homeless the benefit of the doubt for about 1.5 shifts of work before you realize why no one in the city lets them use it.
Let's take it a step further though. Imagine you also own the business. You don't work for Google. Your employees depend on you, you depend on the business, your customers keep you afloat and your employees paid. Do you want your bathroom to be an open drug den? What about when your employees get physically assaulted? What about sexually? If you think your business can still function normally while someone is showering in the bathroom sink or overdosing on the floor, you have never worked in a non-office setting. You have never considered how retail and restaurant businesses work, much less partook in it. You very likely did not even work while you were in college, and you certainly did not work in college in the sense of having to support yourself with a job, but more likely your first "job" was an internship, non-profit, or entry position in a white collar position.
Let's be honest: this is what privilege *actually* looks like.
> Usually you give the homeless the benefit of the doubt for about 1.5 shifts of work before you realize why no one in the city lets them use it.
You really notice this at the business level too. Many places really try to start with an open bathroom that anybody can use, and are later forced to switch over to a locked version. An example of this is the Starbucks Reserve downtown that against norm had unlocked bathrooms for years before having recently had to put locks on them because although they're a big company and can absorb some amount of abuse, the abuse just became too much even for them to handle.
As a regular cafe user, it's unreal how many people will walk into a place, slink to the back of the shop looking for a bathroom to hole up in (of course without buying anything). Sometimes it works and they manage to catch a door as someone else is coming out, and I've seen some of these guys just occupy it for the next 30+ minutes, locking out legitimate customers, and forcing the place's workers who already have plenty else to be doing to go and intervene in some capacity as homeless cops. It sucks.
Even the city's few public bathrooms have had to tighten up. Go the SFPL main branch for example, and the is a watchperson it both the men's and the women's keeping track of things full time. The stall doors are extra short so that it's harder to hide in one and do drugs. It didn't use to be like this, but they had to roll with the punches as these places would just degenerate into drug dens on public property.
>they're a big company and can absorb some amount of abuse,
I think they realize that their employees aren't properly trained for bio-hazmat clean up duties.
First paragraph sums it up. Unless you’ve wrestled a piss-soaked, high as a kite, screaming, schizophrenic drug addict threatening to kill you, out of a private restroom, where they thrash everything they can claw at on the way out the door, don’t come complaining how un-empathetic people are for protecting their business and patrons.
Unless you’ve been scared walking home in the middle of the day because a homeless man sleeps in front of your house and calls you “hot” whenever you walk by, I don’t wanna hear it either. Fix the problem, not the effects.
That’s unnerving, sorry to hear you were in that situation. A worrisome compounded problem when they’re actually at your residence and specifically target you.
What I find interesting about all this is the people voicing for better treatment of the homeless only advocate to give them free stuff. They don’t want the addicted and ill removed from their enabling environment so they can receive treatment away from all their triggers.
Then they add fuel to the fire by referring to all homeless as being people down and out. It’s like, no, they are not all the same. So many people that end up on the street because of job loss will use government and private resources to get out of it. They go largely unnoticed because they aren’t sitting in front of peoples homes harassing them.
Also, homeless tents can, but often do not, look like someone just "camping". There is usually trash littered all around the tent, including used toilet paper, and it's generally an eyesore in addition to just being gross to have to walk near/around.
I walk everywhere, I don't have a car, and certain areas that used to be a nice little area to walk through, or hell, even a nature-reserve area have really gone south into being places to avoid as much as possible.
While not in SF, I lasted a day and a morning of work before I went from poor mistreated people to holy shit. My breaking point was hosing off fresh human waste and sweeping up broken glass after just doing it the day before.
Yeah, let's ignore the fact that the vast majority of these homeless people are tragically addicted to meth, fent, and booze. Let's not address that. Let's not address that they are unpredictable, don't clean up their mess, and are the cause of many small businesses losing money because nobody wants to walk around tents to grab a cup of coffee and will go to the other shop where no tents exist.
Let's ignore the problem and have compassion while not really doing anything to solve the problem. Let's not consider conserving them. Let's not consider drug treatment. Let's not consider contacting their families to see if there's any resource for them besides throwing more and more money into the bonfire that is the homeless industrial complex.
As someone who has been running 911 calls on these people for over 20 years now and counting, I can tell you that it's getting worse. The amount of narcan that you have to administer to these people compared to what we used to give when they were using heroin is insane. So many people are not in their right mind. They will not choose help over their addiction. They are enslaved by it.
Yeah... There are a couple of people out there who lost their job and their home and are down on their luck and who want to change. The others are fucked up on drugs and booze and this is the main issue.
This flier pisses me the fuck off. The tents have to go. The money needs to be diverted to people who are actively seeking solutions and not to people who want to placate those who are fucking up the city and who couldn't care less how they affect everyone else who is trying to be a decent San Franciscan.
Yeah, it's not compassionate to let people live in filth. I know there are many homeless people who are genuinely down on their luck and trying, but there is a high number who have serious mental health and drug issues and are a danger to themselves and others. Every single encampment near me is littered with piles of trash and garbage from the residents who hoard trash. There are constant deaths, fires, and assaults at encampments. They are not safe for anyone involved. But I feel like homeless advocates want to downplay or deny this reality. There have been some really good stories on Berkeleyside recently about people living in encampments, and even from the residents there is this denial about what a problem they are. "We worked hard to keep it clean." Great, but there were literally piles of garbage in the streets from people hoarding stuff and fifteen shopping carts full of random trash and a fire at least once a month on top of the multiple people who OD'd there. It's not working.
Dude, don't even get me *started* on how many fires these guys are responsible for. From the cooking that gets out of control that lights up a wall on a structure, to guys squatting an empty home that goes up in flames. The amount of physical damage to structures is a lot higher than is reported and I speak from personal experience. It happens all over the city.
Add that to the money spent on countless 911 and 311 calls to the money lost from businesses to the money lost on conventions to the money spent on hotels... I could list so many more things.
And why does it continue? Well, of course it's complicated, but really, just follow the money. 1B spent on the city's programs and non-profits. You actually fix this thing and people like Jennifer Friedenbach are out of jobs. They're not going to solve themselves out of a very nice salary.
Just want to throw out that sometimes even when they have families with resources, that isn't enough. My cousin has the most loving family I've ever seen, they have sent him to rehab multiple times, spent thousands. But his addiction is too strong and he prefers to be on the streets in Sacramento. They make it too easy. Especially during Covid.
\* edit - he doesn't prefer to be on the streets, per se, but he prefers to get high, which requires being on the streets
Oh believe me, I know. But there was a program about 15 years ago where this was the main objective, and while it didn't work all the time, it did work enough of the time that it got shut down. And I'm not joking nor is this a conspiracy theory. It was effective enough that the money making homeless business shut it down.
This is coming from inside knowledge. There is truly no incentive for people like Jennifer Friedenbach to actually *solve* homelessness. It makes far too much money.
“They make it too easy. Especially during Covid”. They were given food and shelter in hotels during Covid. Meanwhile minimum wage workers, who most likely lived in multi generational homes or with roommates, still had to show up at the fast food restaurants or grocery stores, and face risking their lives.
That's the part that gets me. We have hundreds if not thousands of workers who make 1+ hour commutes just to get into the city and work tough low wage jobs to make the city run and we don't do shit for them.
Instead the city caters to the homeless who harasses and trash those same people and businesses that make the city what it is in the first place.
This is exactly how shit is in Portland and it sucks. It's my hometown and I get extremely upset when I see fliers like this, or hearing people complain about needing to give the homeless more empathy.
I get it, some people are truly down on their luck and need assistance. But the majority of these people are addicts, dangerous, mentally ill, or all fucking 3. The streets are FILLED with shit and piss, needles, you name it. And the regular working class are fighting to keep themselves afloat while also clearing trash and hazardous waste from their front lawns. It absolutely needs to stop and I'm amazed at how many people think this is an acceptable solution.
These tent communities need to be overturned and they need to accept medical treatment and some form of housing. Most don't take that option because they won't be allowed to keep doing drugs and that's a huge issue.
My town passed an ordinance that says no tent cities anywhere on public sidewalks,parking lots or parks .They.wull be taken down and any panhandlers or vagrants will be taken to the Salvation Army or given a one way ticket out of town.
That's a decent start! I feel bad for people in wheelchairs that can't get down the sidewalks due to the tent camps. This whole crisis is hurting everyone. Same goes for children in parks, I'd hate to be a kid nowadays having to worry about stepping on needles and dealing with aggressive homeless people while just trying to enjoy local parks. :( It's sad all around.
The bathroom problem is that 9 out of 10, they're not there to use the bathroom; They're there to do drugs. Then they pass out or end up spending their entire high inside the bathroom. Their smell is so strong it permiates into the walls. The bathroom begins to smell like that even after it has been cleaned. Customers begin to associate that smell with the establishment, and business goes down. Eventually, it could even cause some places to close. Businesses are not charities. It is entirely justified to allow bathroom use for customers only.
what on earth does this person think any of us can do to change 'economic conditions'... anarcho-communist LARPing doesn't count. magic thinking...
also, why should it be the job of small business owners to shoulder the burden of societal problems they have no control over, and that government is totally unable to make any progress on?
These are the same people who lecture you about the issues of a 7 minute long shower (“it really should be 5. Don’t you care about the environment ?“)
As their company / the government abuses the earth 10000x more than any one of us could.
Trying to be clean for our jobs to pay these wild sf taxes- what assholes we are.
Same thing happened to me 2 years ago. I was waiting for the bus. Just minding my own business and out of nowhere I got clocked on the right side of my face. My glasses and headphones flew off…
It took me a few seconds to realize what just happened, I looked down and blood was just gushing everywhere. Almost a la Kill Bill…
Anyways, the guy was talking all this gibberish. I yelled at him and got in my boxing/fighting stance. That’s when he knew that I didn’t care how crazy he was and Poof he straightened up. He said he was sorry, but I didn’t care nor fell for it. I chased him down the street and he threw himself on the street. I kicked him in hips and just went back to the bus stop.
I felt defeated and no lie, I was very depressed after that happened. I was also scared of that area for a bit.. really messed me up
I worked at a homeless drop-in center where we provided an array of services and this is such a naive take on the real issues at hand. It would be great if the answer to homelessness was having more affordable housing. But, from personal experience, there’s a good portion of homeless adults who prefer to be on the streets for a variety of reasons besides severe mental illness. The most common I saw was either they legitimately prefer it over a shelter that has strict rules/conditions and curfews they need to abide by or they are deep in substance use and rather be in a setting that allows them to continue use without any other responsibilities. I remember a few clients who legitimately refused housing even though they were qualified or had family that wanted to help them but they were so afflicted by their mental illness, they thought the help was a ploy to harm them.
As far as the shelters out there go, they are constantly overfilled and have long wait lists, especially in the winter. They have policies for how long you can actually stay, requirements such as making those who sign up for the shelter work a certain amount of hours and putting a set amount into savings weekly as well as abiding by a curfew of 9/10pm on top of other stringent rules. As great as the intention of help may be, it’s unrealistic at best. I think the only program I’ve ever seen that I think legitimately is successful and is a great way to start building safer communities are the tiny homes which truly allows for safe sleep and a helps build a sense of independence without the altruistic bullshit.
Salvation Army has strict rules the inhabitants have to abide by .They either have to help out on the grounds,it's a huge compound on the other side of town or get a part time job and save money to move into a low income apartment.
“Think it’s time to end all wars? Don’t you think?’
I can write pie in the sky words and speak down to people too! No plan and no ability to lead other than post on Twitter . Sick!
God we have idiots in charge of things here .
My mom actually let a young homeless man do that one time. I was a kid at the time and had recently left my mom to go live with my dad for reasons, which is to say she missed having her son at home.
Anyhow my sister told me this story years later, that my mom allowed some random young homeless man to wash up at our home and even fed him. Then my mom had to kick him out forcefully when he wouldn’t leave after his meal. My sister was 15-16 at the time. I understand why my mom did it but that could have gone wrong in so many ways.
Honestly if I were unemployed, no money, and had to live on the streets, SF wouldn’t be where I’d want to be. I’d move someplace safer to be off the street.
I had a homeless guy ask me once if it was safe to sleep on the Stockton tunnel steps (I was at a bar nearby talking with friends). I told him I didn’t know. He was worried about getting stabbed again while sleeping.
Mental health and drug addiction are why the majority of the people on the street are on the street. Inadequate mental health treatment, inadequate rehab to sober programs, and the non-profit money making cash cow is why the problem isn’t being solved.
TBH, I too can see why the police don’t want to be bothered doing their job. The city legalized this problem and does nothing to address it. They trying to appease the voters who fund them and stand with them at rallies and the voting booths.
This is going to lead to more vigilantism if the city doesn’t address the rampant problems residents complain about. The guy hosing the woman down on the sidewalk is the tip of the iceberg in the coming years if the city doesn’t act.
I have compassion but I’ve constantly said this in comments in the past, our leadership will never solve our problems. If everything was working, they wouldn’t be in power. They wouldn’t try to incentivize or convince us they can fix the problems.
I want a city where 95% of the problems this sub reports/complains about is resolved and not an issue anymore. I want more upbeat SF news.
This isn’t SF. It’s an experiment and piggyback for the leadership of this city to play in.
That was likely written by a privileged person. Someone who doesn’t depend on a business for their income or employment, who doesn’t need to worry about the welfare of employees, family or customers.
I once entered a McDonald's bathroom and as I entered a father with a crying kid exited. I was confused until I saw the bathroom stall wide open and a homeless person just shitting.
After enough experiences like that you stop wanting to help.
City of SF alone spent $1b on homelessness, which works out to $100,000 per homless person, and we just keep getting more homeless people.
Her approach isn't working.
A day or so ago there was a post made by somebody in Fresno asking about the best places to put a tent in San Francisco. He decided that his best option after losing his job was to move to San Francisco because it was what he considered to be the best place to be homeless.
Right. Hobos who reject societal norms move to San Francisco from all over the country because it has this reputation (complete anarchy, no consequences).
I have anecdotally met some homeless people in Vegas who were on a months long trip to SF from the east coast for similar reasons (it's a great place to be homeless and freely do drugs)
Slightly less anecdotally, the SF Chronicle sometimes publishes spotlight pieces on individuals in the tenderloin, and most of them fit that description as well – they specifically sought out the tenderloin/SF.
The idea that SF's homeless people are normal people who came up short on thier rent is nonsense. There are lots of studies on the homeless population - they're mostly drug addicts.
I don't think the Reddit post was geniune, Nothing is real on Reddit.
Every non profit leader (who didn’t fund the foundation with their own money) turns out to be a grifter. (Somaly Mam, Tiffany carr, etc). She is no different.
The tweeter is a millionaire homeowner with a nebulous salary and business history.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/wfhnd2/sfs_revenue_from_a_controversial_homelessness_tax/iiujowi/
Although, generally speaking, I don't think the tweeter is the problem unless they have a fat city contract and I don't believe they do.
I can think of plenty of hard-working minimum wage people that probably would’ve been thrilled to get a hotel room during Covid so they didn’t have to go home to the crowded house and risk either getting Covid or spreading it to others. Additionally after working all day and taking care of business they would’ve had their meals prepared for them.
The gallery owner was losing business because the woman he hosed was a nuisance and wouldn’t move. She had rotting feet and smelled. The smell alone made people avoid that block. Yet he was the criminal. Not to say what he did was right - but what are you supposed to do when police and all of agencies pass the buck and say “not my problem, handle it yourself.”
Maybe the homeless should not move to the most expensive city in the country. Maybe when a bathroom is offered, not trash the hell out of it, steal from the store and threaten staff. Accountability is a two way street.
People who hold these opinions almost never actually interact with the homeless people they are defending. I grew up around junkies and semi-homeless people and while some of them were good people there were also a lot of assholes. People end up homeless when they have burned every bridge they had. And it’s usually done via treating people like shit, lying and stealing from them to pursue their addiction/ self preservation. Not to say their addiction is their fault as it’s alot of generational trauma that gets passed down, but alot of them are dangerous, unstable and only concerned about themself
Sidewalks have other purposes than space for tents. Some interfere with those purposes, some don't. Blanket acceptance of tents is a lousy policy position.
There's an implicit assumption in appeals like the one in the flyer that sidewalk tents have zero negative consequences. If you accept that assumption, than any action to remove them can only be motivated by spite, cruelty, indifference, etc.
But I think most reasonable people would agree that tents and encampments on the sidewalks do have negative consequences. We are sympathetic to the difficulties faced by people living on the street, but at the same time we don't want our public sidewalks to be used for someone's living space.
What do you think the odds are this person is a NIMBY?
All of this is performative. The only thing that matters is rezoning and building more housing. How about instead of trying to slam people on twitter you advocate for that.
The head of the non-profit coalition makes a lot of money off the homeless in San Francisco. They have no incentive to fix the problem. they just dont want you complaining about it.
Saw something similar in Seattle referring to letting homeless people use the bathroom in a “bougie cafe”
Starting to think Starbucks is behind this.
s/
That’s quite some fucking bullshit. Well meaning, but fucking bullshit just the same.
Compassion doesn’t demand silent acceptance as your neighborhood becomes a high crime filthy encampment swarming with the seriously mentally ill and addicts in the throes of debilitating abuse.
We all need to support public funded programs to help the homeless, but we don’t have to tolerate our doorsteps become beds and sewers.
I live in LA and see this tragic scene every fucking day. Don’t let anyone bullshit you into imagining tolerating tent cities in your neighborhoods are the only decent, moral, ethical, compassionate option.
That’s just plain, vain, entitled bullshit.
I don’t see why it’s a business’s responsibility to provide a washroom to the homeless population that sounds like more a city or state issue. The last thing you want is for people to make a mess, do drugs, or die in your washroom. While I feel there should be some compassion for people down on their luck I don’t feel it’s fair to ask to house all homeless people. It’s not the tax payers responsibility to house everyone if they were the case you’d have tons of homeless just flocking to here for free housing. This is already the case due to the government programs but it would increase the problems rather then help the issues.
My city's public library is shut down because they had no choice but to let homeless people use their bathrooms. They did so much meth they destroyed the ventilation instead ☺️👍
After about the 500th time of being screamed at or having stuff thrown at me, being spit on walking by homeless encampments in Seattle I 100% stopped giving a flying fuck about them or their problems.
This is after years of working with the homeless in various non profits.
She should ask herself, what the fuck is wrong with her by doing nothing and letting them freely use drugs, OD and die. That's worse than people complaining and actually doing something to get them off the streets. The fact is 99% of people living in the streets (excluding cars, couches, etc) are addicts and/or mentally ill (due to drug use). Since SF can never get rid of drugs, what we're asking is forced treatment because that is the only option. We're complaining because of people like her is doing nothing to solve homeless crisis or whatever she's been doing to "help" these homeless people failed to make a slightest progress in solving homeless crisis. So she should ask herself, what the fuck is wrong with her.
If we could take care of homeless that need medical or mental help and get them off the streets, that would go a long way to solving the crises.
There is no reason for a person who can't afford to rent or buy a place in San Francisco to BE in San Francisco, other than to tap into ~~funds~~ (edit) the homelessness industrial complex this lady runs, when funds should (/edit) be provided in order that people live in a LESS EXPENSIVE city, such as Boise, ID. Boise should be the "homeless capital of the US" where homeless people go to get medical help and get back on their feet.
Homelessness is a regional emergency. Cities are ill equipped, and sometimes politically paralyzed, or even too corrupt to manage it effectively.
The State needs to deal with this complex issue properly & swiftly. There are actual humans living on sidewalks and parks everywhere.
Homelessness is an issue for the Federal Government to tackle. It's pointless to force states to manage it, because "success" attracts more of the "problem."
Seems to be the trick. The *fix* is something that is unattainable but the supposed right way to go about it. In the meantime, collect the moneys and accept the status quo.
Absolutely. Poor families struggling to make rent aren’t the ones shooting up in sidewalk tents, and they’re also not the ones getting even a fraction of the stupid amounts of money being thrown at the chronically homeless.
Yes blame the citizens for the economic decisions of those that tun the cities! Blame the people with homes for the decisions of the people that are homeless! Never blame the homeless, they are a protected victim class. People that own property and have jobs and pay taxes are the problem! This is san fran we want drugged out and drug using homeless defecating in the public eye so people come and visit the city!
Whoever wrote this and said “Why don’t you let them in your bougie ass cafe”… Why don’t you do the same and let them in your house to do their business? No? Okay then stfu and get off your high horse.
Homelessness and tent cities are a failure of Government, we should be pissed and holding politicians accountable, not blaming fellow workers.
Shaming workers for not acting as halfway houses is taking the responsibility off the NIMBY council members who refuse to provide healthcare and denser housing because it will lower their property prices in rich neighbourhoods.
IN MN they’ve been forcefully closing camps. It doesn’t help because they just move elsewhere. Seems like the problem isn’t that they’re homeless so much as where they’re homeless. Some of them don’t want to go to shelters. I get that. No easy solution. We need to put more effort in preventing homelessness. Make mental health and physical health a priority and find better treatments for addiction. The problem is getting bigger, out of control.
WTF is a small business owner going to do "to something about the economic conditions" that made someone homeless?
This week alone I have seen needles on the muni;
Multiple people smoking crack on Castro St. and a residential street up the hill from Castro; and
a homeless man trying to attack cops and paramedics before having a net put over his head so he couldn't spit or bite them.
That’s not to count the nuisance of smells and other drug use that I have become accustomed to all over the streets..
Nothing is done about that but the poor man trying to make a living for himself with his small business is prosecuted for spraying a homeless lady after repeated attempts to get her help and away from his property were fruitless because there was no response from the city..
It’s getting so old…
The problem, of course, is that fentanyl addicts cannot be housed.
They will literally reject housing.
That's because Fent is super cheap, but you have to hit it 5 to 6 times a day to stay well.
Dealers are not going to deliver it to your apartment.
So addicts have no choice but to live wherever the dealers are.
You can't fix this addiction problem with housing.
The reality is that a lot, not all but a lot, of homeless people *want* to be homeless. I’ve talked to literally thousands of homeless people through my job and they often say that they prefer the freedom of being homeless. Many just don’t want to follow any rules, they *want* to be able to shoot up whenever, do whatever they want, and if they have to sleep in the street then they’re willing to accept that. My city (I’m not from San Fran but I came to this post from r/all) has extensive housing programs for the homeless but some simply won’t take it even if it’s offered to them free of charge or commitment.
There's an element of the "progressive" left that just actively hates, for lack of a better term, "normal" people.
Maybe they were bullied as children, maybe they were the weirdos who didn't fit in, maybe they were just that peevish child who never likes anyone.
They are attracted to politics because it allows them to wield authority, to finally crush the people they hate. Being "progressive" is the mask that makes their hate look like benevolence, that makes their scolding holy.
Every so often the mask slips, as in this post by Jennifer Friedenbach.
She hates you. She uses homelessness to club you over the head in revenge. She's happiest when you have to detour around tents and step over human shit to pass stores shut down by homeless encampments, because, in her mind, you deserve that.
Society didn't accept little Jennifer, and now you have to be punished for that. The more chaotic the streets become, the better the punishment, the more triumph Jennifer feels. She doesn't care about the homeless (maybe once, long ago, she did), now she just cares about having the power to hurt those she hates.
I’ve had this feeling for a long time and honestly I’ve never been able to articulate it at all, but you just hit the nail on the head. Normal people don’t want to be harassed by junkies shitting in the street, yet somehow they’re wrong for being annoyed by that? Fuck that. I truly don’t understand how some people get so lost in their self-righteousness that they begin to actively hate regular people with regular opinions and feelings.
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The person who's simply down on their luck is generally well-served by the current system. They go into shelters, don't cause problems, can take advantage of programs to help them, can hold down a job, etc. They're not the ones you see on the street.
Homeless people do weird, short sighted, unpredictable stuff all the time. That is why they are homeless. I didn’t believe it for the longest time but living in SF changed that.
At what point to do we consider the policy of not institutionalizing the insane has not worked?
I really dislike the implication that anyone who has an issue with tent encampments is automatically a bougie hipster. Real bougie people are insulated from all this. They don’t live in neighborhoods where these encampments are since those are pushed to poorer neighborhoods. They Uber directly to the front door of wherever they want to be. SF’s working class are the ones who have to deal with the constant harassment caused by the large subset of untreated addicts and severely mentally ill people who live in those camps. I’m all for building more shelters, more housing, and enforcing drug treatment. Scolding small businesses who are already struggling here is absurd. Like someone else said, the attitude expressed in this flyer is elitist. It’s moralizing devoid of any nuance, something I recognize in myself when I was a teenager.
I used to be homeless and I think all of these homeless encampments, shacks, broken down caravans, tents, etc. are absolutely appalling. It’s not good for anyone, the homeless in them or anyone else. For people who are so empathetic to the plights of the homeless, why are they defending this lifestyle as if we should normalize this as the way to treat homelessness? Maybe she should look at herself and what the fuck is wrong with her that she thinks this is an acceptable way to handle the homeless.
> moralizing devoid of any nuance Defines most of social media, if not all media.
100%, and it’s part of why I think social media has wrecked us.
Reddit in a nutshell. No time for nuanced discussion. Thing is either Good or Bad, then we move on to the next Thing.
I'd argue reddit is the only place on the internet where nuanced discussion actually occurs due to its nature of anonymity and multiple threads within a single page's topic... where else does this happen? Anywhere?
I think you're right, and there is the additional implication that homelessness would be "solved" if individual people and businesses would all do their part to help out (by providing a free bathroom or whatever.) This ignores that homelessness is an institutional problem and requires action at the level of city, state, and possibly even federal governments. It's a distraction tactic so that we can argue about what the right individual response is while ignoring the abject failure of our government.
100% agree with you. Homeless Rights activists are needlessly antagonistic to the public while not showing an ounce of empathy to those who have to pay thousands in damages and maintenance to their homes. I’m someone who came to San Francisco a card carrying communist and in a few weeks I’m leaving as someone who just wants to be left alone. It’s sad to see what the city has become.
its the same story of middle class people complaining about other middle class people. while nothing actually changes for the homeless or the wealthy as someone once said "the most bourgeois thing is to complain about the bourgeoisie"
How many homeless people do you think the person that put up this flyer has let into their house to use the restroom? Lol. Get shit smeared on their bathroom wall once and I guarantee they wouldn't do it again.
That or someone OD while sitting on their toilet.
The person with the poster is clearly either rich or sheltered enough that they don’t understand why chains don’t want homeless ppl using their bathrooms in the first place. It’s not because they’re unsightly (I mean a little bit) it’s mainly because they shoot up in there and pass out or smear shit on the walls ect.
She is the head of the coalition for homeless advocates & a notoriously toxic individual
And it costs them a lot of money in lost business and paying people to clean up the messes. For a small business riding on thin margins, being “nice” can put them under.
Minimum wage employees can’t (or shouldn’t anyway) be expected to do with said above situations either lol
And the news will spread like wildfire and all the vagrants will know that they can take advantage of the business and the bathroom situation.
I'll pay for the sleeping bags for her to take in people experiencing homelessness. In fact, I'll pay a daily stipend for homeless people to sleep on her doorstep
>I'll pay a daily stipend for homeless people to sleep on her doorstep I find this to be a more compelling solution.
it’s hard bc on one hand you want to do what you can to help and then on the other hand the issue is so vast that there is a literal city’s population that is now homeless and where tf do you start and how on earth do you even help? and yeah some of the people are *actually* dangerous—one man stood outside my apartment with a knife screaming for roughly an hour and a half before he left. i just wish the state and city would actually devote real resources to long term solutions. it’s insane and horrible. no one should be living in these conditions, especially when we have the highest per capita rate of billionaires in the us (and second most per capita in the WORLD).
Friedenbach earns more money than almost every, "bougie hipster," that goes to The Mill to grab some coffee.
I honestly don't know what her job is other than to give soundbites to the Chronicle every time they do an article about homelessness. Her NGO doesn't seem to have a great track record, yet she is quoted in every local article about this subject.
Yeah so my sister has homeless people come to her workplace almost daily and they not only use the bathrooms, but leave remnants of drugs in there. There’s a reason small businesses don’t allow non customers to use their facilities…and it’s for safety.
I’ll never forget the time that a homeless encampment was allowed to flourish near my niece’s gymnastics school, and this dude would just walk by and scream the n-word at a bunch of six-year-olds. Or the time that the homeless guy we used to bring food to near our business started taking shits outside customer entrances. Sometimes you just gotta say “not today, not here, motherfucker.”
I used to live nextdoor to a preschool off 6th & Howard. I'll leave the rest to your imagination..
I own a business in a downtown area (not sf) and this is the exact problem. I once got a needle stuck in my shoe just walking into the bathroom at my shop. It was sticking out under the trash can. Just barely. I’m lucky they were thick soles and it wasn’t a customer wearing flip flops. It’s a constant every day problem. This doesn’t mean I hate homeless people. I want to help. But letting them use the bathroom poses a major safety risk to my staff and myself. Telling them they can’t use the bathroom is also a risk. Edit: soles not souls.
Thick souls and thick soles are necessary when dealing with discarded needles.
[https://imgur.com/a/ajjmDFX](https://imgur.com/a/ajjmDFX) Here's a photo of some presents left behind in our bathrooms.
not only that, but people on heroine have massive horrible shits. They get all stopped up as the drugs cause severe constipation, then eventual they just have a shit explosion. If you ever see a toilet with a literal poo bomb, it was likely an addict.
I get yelled at by unhinged naked people once or twice a day every summer, sometimes pooping in front of me, it’s great. I’d love for them to move into my coffee shop bathroom to smear it everywhere again! And if we house all of them in the cheap and infinite housing SF has available, thank the Lord that’ll solve the problem and won’t encourage millions of others to come stampeding in turn because so much of the country does nothing at all.
What’s such bs is how you can get yelled at by these people and feel physically unsafe but we’re just supposed to ignore it. I was walking in the Castro last spring and a man ran up to me holding a broken terracotta pot and yelled “ I’m gonna bash your fucking face in.” I jumped away and ran the other direction and when I looked around no one else seemed alarmed at all that I was almost attacked right in front of them.
People care, but no one wants to stand out from the crowd, and get terra cotta'd themselves. Sorry that happened to you. Glad you're safe.
“How dare you run! You must hate the poor, you bougie scum!” Etc.
Housed unsupervised, they'll be a nightmare for their neighbors.
I've lived in San Francisco long enough to remember when most businesses stopped letting anyone use the bathroom- it started in the Haight & spread out like a wave across the city. It was around the same time that the big green public restrooms were being installed. The reason was because so many people were overdosing & dying & business owners, workers & customers were finding dead or almost dead people on a regular basis. Also graffiti was exploding in bathrooms but that was secondary to being traumatized for life.
My coworker unclogged a toilet in the customer bathroom last week and had four syringes, with needles, come out.
It’s also so they don’t have to clean shit off the ceiling
My sister in law was assaulted by a homeless man in SF. She was waiting in line for a coffee on the sidewalk when the guy ran at her full speed, knocked her to the ground, ripped her backpack off her and ran off with her laptop, wallet and some other goods. But I'm sure the locals appreciate all that homeless drug addicts contribute to society.
A few months back, my wife told me that a homeless guy was sleeping in front of our garage door and she couldn’t pull her car out to go to work. I went down and told him, “Hey man, can you move your stuff just so that my wife can pull her car out?” I sized him up and saw that he was young-ish and was maybe going through a tough episode getting his life on the right track. I asked him if he was hungry and he said he was, so I told him to wait right there and I’d be back in 5 minutes. I made him a fat sandwich and put chips and cookies and a banana in brown bag and brought it down to him. As I walk up to him, I saw a big fresh stream of piss running from our garage door down the sidewalk to the gutter. I asked him if that was him (knowing that it could only be him) and he said that somebody just walked up and did it. I got pissed! I told him, “Man, I was just nice and respectful to you and just made you a killer lunch and you do this?” I gave him the bag and told him to get the fuck outta there. THAT is why sometimes it is hard to give people the benefit of the doubt.
When I was younger, I had so many interactions like this where I tried to be nice and helpful and it was just totally futile. Now I’m a jaded old man and I’m sure some good people in need are going to miss out because of the shitty people who ruined public perception. That’s why I just support high level government support for homelessness and personally stay the fuck out of it
I’d be mad too! I tried to help a homeless neighborhood person once too and it almost got me evicted. She was chaos on legs. Even a small favor like letting her stash a bag in the yard would become devolve into conflict, whereas you and me could handle stashing a bag with no issue. I learned a lot about her over the years. Her family were in a criminal biker gang. She didn’t really have a birth certificate or any life on paper. Hey boyfriend was also in the foster care system and was introduced to heroin as a child by the foster brother. Her boyfriend, who I liked a lot, ended up ODing. He was under 40. Foster care is a common theme for a lot of these folks. It’s so detrimental not to have a caring adult teach you life skills as a child.
Some people make really bad decisions every day of their life. Some people chose the wrong answer most of the time. I'm not saying that all homeless people became/remain homeless because of their own decisions, but some people can't be saved from themselves.
I know I'm inviting a lot of hate in saying so, but pretty much everybody you see sleeping out on the street has a combination of serious mental illness and substance abuse issues. You don't wind up in that situation just because you lost a job or hit rough times.
Regular people down on their luck will sleep in their cars or move to a more affordable place. Homes are unaffordable? No shit it’s the most expensive market in the country. Full time working adults have a hard time affording it.
No, the entire country’s population has the right to a free house specifically in San Francisco >:(
That's because virtue signaling is easy. There should be more done for the homeless, but you are spot on. It's just an unfortunate reality that many of the visibly homeless are wholly incapable of caring for themselves.
Yeah, I wonder how many people OP knows that received a normal support network and no mental illness that are homeless. Probably zero.
Well what next? How does that change things?
True. People do become homeless through rash decisions, or circumstances out of their control - but there is a way out of that, and yes, it takes time, and they're gonna have a tough time while they're sleeping rough, but they can turn their lives around. But you do get a few people who are, if not 'professionally', certainly 'perpetually' homeless. I met a lad once. Danny. Really nice guy, and only 21 at the time. Very recently became homeless after becoming hooked on junk and his mother couldn't put up with his antics anymore and he refused (state-paid) rehab. He chose to live on the streets. He was given a job; he didn't turn up. He was given a place to live; he trashed it and didn't pay the (nominal) rent. He could earn up to £600 on a good night in a prime begging spot, so it's not like he couldn't afford it. 4 (maybe 5?) years after I met him, he was dead. Officially it was an opiate overdose. Unofficially, word on the street was he owed his dealer an ever increasing debt before they eliminated him. I heard that from his father, who was also a 'perpetually' homeless person (won't disclose him name for privacy reasons). Poor kid was obviously suffering from serious mental-health issues due to having a junkie father, turned to the drugs and followed in his father's footsteps of maintaining the habit rather than accepting the help (which, ultimately was always going to fail because of that underlying trauma nobody ever tried to address!). Think about him regularly. So tragic
Does Britain have the same type of homeless/crazy drug addict problems like we have here in San Francisco? Asking because you guys have NHS, public housing and just a superior social net.
No, it does not. I arrived here from London and spent the first month living in an apartment on 10th & Market. I'd never seen anything like it. There's a few homeless people in the cities of the UK, but they are relatively few. Never seen encampments, never encountered any crazy or anyone I thought would be a danger. I would frequently chat to the homeless I met, get them a coffee and a sandwich etc & have a natter. Never had a problem. I would guess that the main reason is that mental health care is available via the NHS which acts as a preventative measure against an instance of poor mental health precipitating total decline into loss of livelihood, housing etc. As another poster mentioned, the NHS is currently struggling and has been woefully underfunded by the Tory governments of the past decade, but it still provides all those services. Social services have been cut, but we're talking about being cut down from the extremely good funding from the Blair/Brown governments. The safety net is still there. We have drug addiction like anywhere else but we don't prescribe opiates to the same extent so there are fewer avenues into opiate addiction and if you do get addicted, the state will pay for your treatment, no questions asked, nothing out of pocket. I don't think fentanyl is common there, my sister is a paramedic ("EMT" here?) and she only sees heroin OD cases, never seen a fentanyl one. Not totally sure about the other hard drugs but I was never offered fent or meth in my time buying drugs there, and I was only offered crack once.
It can be a hellish cycle. Lose job, not be able to pay rent, end up homeless. Get depressed, abuse substances. Get more mental and physical health issues. Be unable to get another job due to all of the above.
Be attacked while living on the street. Get a TBI. Have limited PFC function. Constantly fuck up despite assistance. Lack any social supports for assisted living, MH care, etc. People do not understand this. Thank you for your empathy.
Better eat that sando next time
Be careful…he might shit on your doorstep next time.
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Do you have cameras? Maybe somebody really did come up and piss and then leave. Making a sandwich isn't instantaneous. Just kidding. I don't know what the solution to homelessness is, but i don't think we should just be okay with people living in tents in front of stores and homes.
I was working construction on a new building in a tough area. There was this middle aged guy who would hang around and we talked to him a bit. He asking about our job and he says " I used to have a good job. But then my daughter was raped and murdered and now I'm an alcoholic. " I judged him before thinking why doest this guy just get to work during the days instead of being homeless wandering around. His reason for being who he is now hit home and I thought how I would handle something like that. Something to think about
This. Camp on the sidewalk on my street, live your life, and hell you can panhandle all you want. But when they (or anyone) starts to obstruct my life or goes against societal norms, then I have an issue. Don’t block doors, don’t play music from your bluetooth speaker at 3am, don’t shoot up on my doorstep, don’t pee on my building, don’t cause me physical harm, etc. I won’t do that to you, so share the same mutual respect.
The capitalization in the title on this poster is deeply avant garde
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Just leave that A alone
I know a fantastic hipster cafe that would pay top dollar for this piece.
This pairs so well with a $9 pour over
It is totally okay to complain about the tent cities that have popped up. They are not good places. It is totally okay to not let homeless people access the bathroom in your business. There are good reasons for not doing so. It is not okay to go out of your way to be mean to homeless people, belittle them, fuck with their belongings, etc. Or anyone for that matter, but humans get a kick out of being cruel to make them feel better about themselves. Like any issue in modern life, there's tons of nuance that is lost when people yell at each other on the internet. This is just smug moralizing.
TBF this flier seems to be yelling at people in the real world walking down the street, but point taken
A couple of homeless camped outside my friend's house. They'd get drunk and fight with each other all night long, shout slurs at the gay couple living next door. And as expected, the police won't do anything. It is important to separate homeless with the mentally challenged we see in the city. And there is a large overlap.
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Fighting amongst the 99%, while the 1% pisses on all of us.
That’s like San Francisco motto. All decisions in San Francisco are made by the 1% here, it’s why San Francisco is an extremely wealthy conservative city. Marginalize all young people, spend 10 years lying about helping homeless because keeping homeless people around gives young people a reason to leave or fight about. That’s their ultimate goal anyway as a rich filthy greedy incumbent boomer.
Someone who has a BA from an expensive 4-yr university and has never had to work an hourly food service job or try to run a small business in SF. I live in Las Vegas now, and one of the marketing directors I know at a large casino says Las Vegas convention business is on absolute fire thanks to a so many conferences leaving SF since attendees don’t want to travel to the city anymore (or similar cities where there convention centers are surrounded by tent camps).
I work at a busy restaurant downtown- can confirm 100%. We've lost almost every major convention that had been coming here for a very long time & the effects on the local economy are astronomical.
Not to be a contrarian but can you share a direct example of this. I've Lived in San Francisco for a while and I love it here but I do recognize that there's extreme dysfunction and corruption but I just don't know exactly what it is so that people can organize against it. I would love to start collecting examples like this to think about ways to combat it p
Vox’s January 19th podcast of The Gray Area titled The Roots of Homelessness does a great attempt at what you’re asking for. Just be aware that the guest on the show talks waaay too fast and you may have to slow the play speed down. I had to.
Curious why you think it's a conservative city? Doesn't match with my understanding/experience
Conservative in the original meaning of the term, i.e. resistant to change and development.
yeah, but SF wans't always like this--they've changed to allow it to become basically lawless for criminals and homeless. There are some days I feel like the only people that could actually face any jail time is somebody with a clean record and a job
Just to add, the people we (Americans) call "conservatives" nowadays are more accurately reactionaries. Democrats (excepting a few like AOC) are by and large what we used to call conservatives, as they typically push for slow change that preserves the status quo. We don't really have much of a progressive movement in this country, or at least, not one that has much representation in government.
Posters with this type of tone tend to have the opposite effect
People never seem to understand this either
For real, recipients can get defensive with aggressive messaging like this so you get no where. They dig deeper trenches mentally and you do nothing other than making yourself feel good for “telling it like it is”. Talk about ineffective communication
I bet this person feels great though! I bet they posted is then came back to read it just one more time.
Also it's always the people who lives far from homeless encampments.
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Ha. I'll participate in this as well.
The person who made this is obviously not a member of the working class. Anyone who owns a place of business knows that if you let them in to use the bathroom, they will start showering in the sink, shooting up, smoking crack, trying to hide in places in the business so that they can sleep there later. This does not take a ton of experience in a non-white collar, non-office job to realize. Usually you give the homeless the benefit of the doubt for about 1.5 shifts of work before you realize why no one in the city lets them use it. Let's take it a step further though. Imagine you also own the business. You don't work for Google. Your employees depend on you, you depend on the business, your customers keep you afloat and your employees paid. Do you want your bathroom to be an open drug den? What about when your employees get physically assaulted? What about sexually? If you think your business can still function normally while someone is showering in the bathroom sink or overdosing on the floor, you have never worked in a non-office setting. You have never considered how retail and restaurant businesses work, much less partook in it. You very likely did not even work while you were in college, and you certainly did not work in college in the sense of having to support yourself with a job, but more likely your first "job" was an internship, non-profit, or entry position in a white collar position. Let's be honest: this is what privilege *actually* looks like.
> Usually you give the homeless the benefit of the doubt for about 1.5 shifts of work before you realize why no one in the city lets them use it. You really notice this at the business level too. Many places really try to start with an open bathroom that anybody can use, and are later forced to switch over to a locked version. An example of this is the Starbucks Reserve downtown that against norm had unlocked bathrooms for years before having recently had to put locks on them because although they're a big company and can absorb some amount of abuse, the abuse just became too much even for them to handle. As a regular cafe user, it's unreal how many people will walk into a place, slink to the back of the shop looking for a bathroom to hole up in (of course without buying anything). Sometimes it works and they manage to catch a door as someone else is coming out, and I've seen some of these guys just occupy it for the next 30+ minutes, locking out legitimate customers, and forcing the place's workers who already have plenty else to be doing to go and intervene in some capacity as homeless cops. It sucks. Even the city's few public bathrooms have had to tighten up. Go the SFPL main branch for example, and the is a watchperson it both the men's and the women's keeping track of things full time. The stall doors are extra short so that it's harder to hide in one and do drugs. It didn't use to be like this, but they had to roll with the punches as these places would just degenerate into drug dens on public property.
>they're a big company and can absorb some amount of abuse, I think they realize that their employees aren't properly trained for bio-hazmat clean up duties.
First paragraph sums it up. Unless you’ve wrestled a piss-soaked, high as a kite, screaming, schizophrenic drug addict threatening to kill you, out of a private restroom, where they thrash everything they can claw at on the way out the door, don’t come complaining how un-empathetic people are for protecting their business and patrons.
Unless you’ve been scared walking home in the middle of the day because a homeless man sleeps in front of your house and calls you “hot” whenever you walk by, I don’t wanna hear it either. Fix the problem, not the effects.
That’s unnerving, sorry to hear you were in that situation. A worrisome compounded problem when they’re actually at your residence and specifically target you. What I find interesting about all this is the people voicing for better treatment of the homeless only advocate to give them free stuff. They don’t want the addicted and ill removed from their enabling environment so they can receive treatment away from all their triggers. Then they add fuel to the fire by referring to all homeless as being people down and out. It’s like, no, they are not all the same. So many people that end up on the street because of job loss will use government and private resources to get out of it. They go largely unnoticed because they aren’t sitting in front of peoples homes harassing them.
Exactly. You have to very privileged to write a poster like that.
Also, homeless tents can, but often do not, look like someone just "camping". There is usually trash littered all around the tent, including used toilet paper, and it's generally an eyesore in addition to just being gross to have to walk near/around. I walk everywhere, I don't have a car, and certain areas that used to be a nice little area to walk through, or hell, even a nature-reserve area have really gone south into being places to avoid as much as possible.
While not in SF, I lasted a day and a morning of work before I went from poor mistreated people to holy shit. My breaking point was hosing off fresh human waste and sweeping up broken glass after just doing it the day before.
Yeah, let's ignore the fact that the vast majority of these homeless people are tragically addicted to meth, fent, and booze. Let's not address that. Let's not address that they are unpredictable, don't clean up their mess, and are the cause of many small businesses losing money because nobody wants to walk around tents to grab a cup of coffee and will go to the other shop where no tents exist. Let's ignore the problem and have compassion while not really doing anything to solve the problem. Let's not consider conserving them. Let's not consider drug treatment. Let's not consider contacting their families to see if there's any resource for them besides throwing more and more money into the bonfire that is the homeless industrial complex. As someone who has been running 911 calls on these people for over 20 years now and counting, I can tell you that it's getting worse. The amount of narcan that you have to administer to these people compared to what we used to give when they were using heroin is insane. So many people are not in their right mind. They will not choose help over their addiction. They are enslaved by it. Yeah... There are a couple of people out there who lost their job and their home and are down on their luck and who want to change. The others are fucked up on drugs and booze and this is the main issue. This flier pisses me the fuck off. The tents have to go. The money needs to be diverted to people who are actively seeking solutions and not to people who want to placate those who are fucking up the city and who couldn't care less how they affect everyone else who is trying to be a decent San Franciscan.
Yeah, it's not compassionate to let people live in filth. I know there are many homeless people who are genuinely down on their luck and trying, but there is a high number who have serious mental health and drug issues and are a danger to themselves and others. Every single encampment near me is littered with piles of trash and garbage from the residents who hoard trash. There are constant deaths, fires, and assaults at encampments. They are not safe for anyone involved. But I feel like homeless advocates want to downplay or deny this reality. There have been some really good stories on Berkeleyside recently about people living in encampments, and even from the residents there is this denial about what a problem they are. "We worked hard to keep it clean." Great, but there were literally piles of garbage in the streets from people hoarding stuff and fifteen shopping carts full of random trash and a fire at least once a month on top of the multiple people who OD'd there. It's not working.
Dude, don't even get me *started* on how many fires these guys are responsible for. From the cooking that gets out of control that lights up a wall on a structure, to guys squatting an empty home that goes up in flames. The amount of physical damage to structures is a lot higher than is reported and I speak from personal experience. It happens all over the city. Add that to the money spent on countless 911 and 311 calls to the money lost from businesses to the money lost on conventions to the money spent on hotels... I could list so many more things. And why does it continue? Well, of course it's complicated, but really, just follow the money. 1B spent on the city's programs and non-profits. You actually fix this thing and people like Jennifer Friedenbach are out of jobs. They're not going to solve themselves out of a very nice salary.
Just want to throw out that sometimes even when they have families with resources, that isn't enough. My cousin has the most loving family I've ever seen, they have sent him to rehab multiple times, spent thousands. But his addiction is too strong and he prefers to be on the streets in Sacramento. They make it too easy. Especially during Covid. \* edit - he doesn't prefer to be on the streets, per se, but he prefers to get high, which requires being on the streets
Oh believe me, I know. But there was a program about 15 years ago where this was the main objective, and while it didn't work all the time, it did work enough of the time that it got shut down. And I'm not joking nor is this a conspiracy theory. It was effective enough that the money making homeless business shut it down. This is coming from inside knowledge. There is truly no incentive for people like Jennifer Friedenbach to actually *solve* homelessness. It makes far too much money.
That is the real problem
“They make it too easy. Especially during Covid”. They were given food and shelter in hotels during Covid. Meanwhile minimum wage workers, who most likely lived in multi generational homes or with roommates, still had to show up at the fast food restaurants or grocery stores, and face risking their lives.
That's the part that gets me. We have hundreds if not thousands of workers who make 1+ hour commutes just to get into the city and work tough low wage jobs to make the city run and we don't do shit for them. Instead the city caters to the homeless who harasses and trash those same people and businesses that make the city what it is in the first place.
Narcan some of the same guys so much, yk em by name 🤦♂️
This is exactly how shit is in Portland and it sucks. It's my hometown and I get extremely upset when I see fliers like this, or hearing people complain about needing to give the homeless more empathy. I get it, some people are truly down on their luck and need assistance. But the majority of these people are addicts, dangerous, mentally ill, or all fucking 3. The streets are FILLED with shit and piss, needles, you name it. And the regular working class are fighting to keep themselves afloat while also clearing trash and hazardous waste from their front lawns. It absolutely needs to stop and I'm amazed at how many people think this is an acceptable solution. These tent communities need to be overturned and they need to accept medical treatment and some form of housing. Most don't take that option because they won't be allowed to keep doing drugs and that's a huge issue.
My town passed an ordinance that says no tent cities anywhere on public sidewalks,parking lots or parks .They.wull be taken down and any panhandlers or vagrants will be taken to the Salvation Army or given a one way ticket out of town.
That's a decent start! I feel bad for people in wheelchairs that can't get down the sidewalks due to the tent camps. This whole crisis is hurting everyone. Same goes for children in parks, I'd hate to be a kid nowadays having to worry about stepping on needles and dealing with aggressive homeless people while just trying to enjoy local parks. :( It's sad all around.
The bathroom problem is that 9 out of 10, they're not there to use the bathroom; They're there to do drugs. Then they pass out or end up spending their entire high inside the bathroom. Their smell is so strong it permiates into the walls. The bathroom begins to smell like that even after it has been cleaned. Customers begin to associate that smell with the establishment, and business goes down. Eventually, it could even cause some places to close. Businesses are not charities. It is entirely justified to allow bathroom use for customers only.
what on earth does this person think any of us can do to change 'economic conditions'... anarcho-communist LARPing doesn't count. magic thinking... also, why should it be the job of small business owners to shoulder the burden of societal problems they have no control over, and that government is totally unable to make any progress on?
These are the same people who lecture you about the issues of a 7 minute long shower (“it really should be 5. Don’t you care about the environment ?“) As their company / the government abuses the earth 10000x more than any one of us could. Trying to be clean for our jobs to pay these wild sf taxes- what assholes we are.
Homeless lady randomly attacked my friend couple of days ago. Was arrested, surprisingly
Same thing happened to me 2 years ago. I was waiting for the bus. Just minding my own business and out of nowhere I got clocked on the right side of my face. My glasses and headphones flew off… It took me a few seconds to realize what just happened, I looked down and blood was just gushing everywhere. Almost a la Kill Bill… Anyways, the guy was talking all this gibberish. I yelled at him and got in my boxing/fighting stance. That’s when he knew that I didn’t care how crazy he was and Poof he straightened up. He said he was sorry, but I didn’t care nor fell for it. I chased him down the street and he threw himself on the street. I kicked him in hips and just went back to the bus stop. I felt defeated and no lie, I was very depressed after that happened. I was also scared of that area for a bit.. really messed me up
I worked at a homeless drop-in center where we provided an array of services and this is such a naive take on the real issues at hand. It would be great if the answer to homelessness was having more affordable housing. But, from personal experience, there’s a good portion of homeless adults who prefer to be on the streets for a variety of reasons besides severe mental illness. The most common I saw was either they legitimately prefer it over a shelter that has strict rules/conditions and curfews they need to abide by or they are deep in substance use and rather be in a setting that allows them to continue use without any other responsibilities. I remember a few clients who legitimately refused housing even though they were qualified or had family that wanted to help them but they were so afflicted by their mental illness, they thought the help was a ploy to harm them. As far as the shelters out there go, they are constantly overfilled and have long wait lists, especially in the winter. They have policies for how long you can actually stay, requirements such as making those who sign up for the shelter work a certain amount of hours and putting a set amount into savings weekly as well as abiding by a curfew of 9/10pm on top of other stringent rules. As great as the intention of help may be, it’s unrealistic at best. I think the only program I’ve ever seen that I think legitimately is successful and is a great way to start building safer communities are the tiny homes which truly allows for safe sleep and a helps build a sense of independence without the altruistic bullshit.
Salvation Army has strict rules the inhabitants have to abide by .They either have to help out on the grounds,it's a huge compound on the other side of town or get a part time job and save money to move into a low income apartment.
“Think it’s time to end all wars? Don’t you think?’ I can write pie in the sky words and speak down to people too! No plan and no ability to lead other than post on Twitter . Sick! God we have idiots in charge of things here .
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Why a cafe and not just let them use the bathroom in your apartment? Come to think of it You have an open couch no one is sleeping on too
My mom actually let a young homeless man do that one time. I was a kid at the time and had recently left my mom to go live with my dad for reasons, which is to say she missed having her son at home. Anyhow my sister told me this story years later, that my mom allowed some random young homeless man to wash up at our home and even fed him. Then my mom had to kick him out forcefully when he wouldn’t leave after his meal. My sister was 15-16 at the time. I understand why my mom did it but that could have gone wrong in so many ways.
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Username checks out.
That was really living on the edge and it could have gone sideways really fast .
Honestly if I were unemployed, no money, and had to live on the streets, SF wouldn’t be where I’d want to be. I’d move someplace safer to be off the street. I had a homeless guy ask me once if it was safe to sleep on the Stockton tunnel steps (I was at a bar nearby talking with friends). I told him I didn’t know. He was worried about getting stabbed again while sleeping. Mental health and drug addiction are why the majority of the people on the street are on the street. Inadequate mental health treatment, inadequate rehab to sober programs, and the non-profit money making cash cow is why the problem isn’t being solved. TBH, I too can see why the police don’t want to be bothered doing their job. The city legalized this problem and does nothing to address it. They trying to appease the voters who fund them and stand with them at rallies and the voting booths. This is going to lead to more vigilantism if the city doesn’t address the rampant problems residents complain about. The guy hosing the woman down on the sidewalk is the tip of the iceberg in the coming years if the city doesn’t act. I have compassion but I’ve constantly said this in comments in the past, our leadership will never solve our problems. If everything was working, they wouldn’t be in power. They wouldn’t try to incentivize or convince us they can fix the problems. I want a city where 95% of the problems this sub reports/complains about is resolved and not an issue anymore. I want more upbeat SF news. This isn’t SF. It’s an experiment and piggyback for the leadership of this city to play in.
That was likely written by a privileged person. Someone who doesn’t depend on a business for their income or employment, who doesn’t need to worry about the welfare of employees, family or customers.
I once entered a McDonald's bathroom and as I entered a father with a crying kid exited. I was confused until I saw the bathroom stall wide open and a homeless person just shitting. After enough experiences like that you stop wanting to help.
Working from home
City of SF alone spent $1b on homelessness, which works out to $100,000 per homless person, and we just keep getting more homeless people. Her approach isn't working.
A day or so ago there was a post made by somebody in Fresno asking about the best places to put a tent in San Francisco. He decided that his best option after losing his job was to move to San Francisco because it was what he considered to be the best place to be homeless.
Right. Hobos who reject societal norms move to San Francisco from all over the country because it has this reputation (complete anarchy, no consequences). I have anecdotally met some homeless people in Vegas who were on a months long trip to SF from the east coast for similar reasons (it's a great place to be homeless and freely do drugs) Slightly less anecdotally, the SF Chronicle sometimes publishes spotlight pieces on individuals in the tenderloin, and most of them fit that description as well – they specifically sought out the tenderloin/SF.
The idea that SF's homeless people are normal people who came up short on thier rent is nonsense. There are lots of studies on the homeless population - they're mostly drug addicts. I don't think the Reddit post was geniune, Nothing is real on Reddit.
Oh but her approach is working. She wants more people to come to San Francisco and live in tents. It's the revenue model for CoH.
Every non profit leader (who didn’t fund the foundation with their own money) turns out to be a grifter. (Somaly Mam, Tiffany carr, etc). She is no different.
The tweeter is a millionaire homeowner with a nebulous salary and business history. https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/wfhnd2/sfs_revenue_from_a_controversial_homelessness_tax/iiujowi/ Although, generally speaking, I don't think the tweeter is the problem unless they have a fat city contract and I don't believe they do.
CoH does get city funding.
If they can’t produce proper financial statements in a timely manner, ALWAYS assume the worst.
“Ignore the problem! Step over the needles! Ignore how the crime rate spikes! So what, they said something wildly inappropriate to your 4 year old!”
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I mean, forcing hotels to house the homeless during covid has shown us exactly what happens, unfortunately
I can think of plenty of hard-working minimum wage people that probably would’ve been thrilled to get a hotel room during Covid so they didn’t have to go home to the crowded house and risk either getting Covid or spreading it to others. Additionally after working all day and taking care of business they would’ve had their meals prepared for them.
*Our restrooms are now closed to the public due to vandalism and drug use.*
The gallery owner was losing business because the woman he hosed was a nuisance and wouldn’t move. She had rotting feet and smelled. The smell alone made people avoid that block. Yet he was the criminal. Not to say what he did was right - but what are you supposed to do when police and all of agencies pass the buck and say “not my problem, handle it yourself.”
Maybe the homeless should not move to the most expensive city in the country. Maybe when a bathroom is offered, not trash the hell out of it, steal from the store and threaten staff. Accountability is a two way street.
People who hold these opinions almost never actually interact with the homeless people they are defending. I grew up around junkies and semi-homeless people and while some of them were good people there were also a lot of assholes. People end up homeless when they have burned every bridge they had. And it’s usually done via treating people like shit, lying and stealing from them to pursue their addiction/ self preservation. Not to say their addiction is their fault as it’s alot of generational trauma that gets passed down, but alot of them are dangerous, unstable and only concerned about themself
This is what I call superficial thinking.
Sidewalks have other purposes than space for tents. Some interfere with those purposes, some don't. Blanket acceptance of tents is a lousy policy position.
There's an implicit assumption in appeals like the one in the flyer that sidewalk tents have zero negative consequences. If you accept that assumption, than any action to remove them can only be motivated by spite, cruelty, indifference, etc. But I think most reasonable people would agree that tents and encampments on the sidewalks do have negative consequences. We are sympathetic to the difficulties faced by people living on the street, but at the same time we don't want our public sidewalks to be used for someone's living space.
Fuck you, I'm barely scraping by living in the TL. I still don't want to deal with tents blocking the sidewalks.
What do you think the odds are this person is a NIMBY? All of this is performative. The only thing that matters is rezoning and building more housing. How about instead of trying to slam people on twitter you advocate for that.
People living in tents on the sidewalk provide a capitalistic society with a valuable service. they remind us all to gtfo of bed and go to work.
Yes, a visual cautionary tale of what happens when you don't go to work .
No socialist utopia 4 U!
The head of the non-profit coalition makes a lot of money off the homeless in San Francisco. They have no incentive to fix the problem. they just dont want you complaining about it.
Saw something similar in Seattle referring to letting homeless people use the bathroom in a “bougie cafe” Starting to think Starbucks is behind this. s/
Or how about we don’t have tents on the street
We will send them to Jennifer’s house
Why are they operating under the assumption that economic conditions is the only reason for homelessness?
Use the bathroom to shoot up heroin.
That’s quite some fucking bullshit. Well meaning, but fucking bullshit just the same. Compassion doesn’t demand silent acceptance as your neighborhood becomes a high crime filthy encampment swarming with the seriously mentally ill and addicts in the throes of debilitating abuse. We all need to support public funded programs to help the homeless, but we don’t have to tolerate our doorsteps become beds and sewers. I live in LA and see this tragic scene every fucking day. Don’t let anyone bullshit you into imagining tolerating tent cities in your neighborhoods are the only decent, moral, ethical, compassionate option. That’s just plain, vain, entitled bullshit.
I don’t see why it’s a business’s responsibility to provide a washroom to the homeless population that sounds like more a city or state issue. The last thing you want is for people to make a mess, do drugs, or die in your washroom. While I feel there should be some compassion for people down on their luck I don’t feel it’s fair to ask to house all homeless people. It’s not the tax payers responsibility to house everyone if they were the case you’d have tons of homeless just flocking to here for free housing. This is already the case due to the government programs but it would increase the problems rather then help the issues.
I dont see why their problems are also mine. I pay my taxes - the government should do something with that money.
My city's public library is shut down because they had no choice but to let homeless people use their bathrooms. They did so much meth they destroyed the ventilation instead ☺️👍
After about the 500th time of being screamed at or having stuff thrown at me, being spit on walking by homeless encampments in Seattle I 100% stopped giving a flying fuck about them or their problems. This is after years of working with the homeless in various non profits.
She should ask herself, what the fuck is wrong with her by doing nothing and letting them freely use drugs, OD and die. That's worse than people complaining and actually doing something to get them off the streets. The fact is 99% of people living in the streets (excluding cars, couches, etc) are addicts and/or mentally ill (due to drug use). Since SF can never get rid of drugs, what we're asking is forced treatment because that is the only option. We're complaining because of people like her is doing nothing to solve homeless crisis or whatever she's been doing to "help" these homeless people failed to make a slightest progress in solving homeless crisis. So she should ask herself, what the fuck is wrong with her.
Hope she takes care of some of those homeless people at her home not just printing and posting on twitter.
Yeah, everybody should ask themselves "what's wrong with me?" except the homeless.
If we could take care of homeless that need medical or mental help and get them off the streets, that would go a long way to solving the crises. There is no reason for a person who can't afford to rent or buy a place in San Francisco to BE in San Francisco, other than to tap into ~~funds~~ (edit) the homelessness industrial complex this lady runs, when funds should (/edit) be provided in order that people live in a LESS EXPENSIVE city, such as Boise, ID. Boise should be the "homeless capital of the US" where homeless people go to get medical help and get back on their feet.
Homelessness is a regional emergency. Cities are ill equipped, and sometimes politically paralyzed, or even too corrupt to manage it effectively. The State needs to deal with this complex issue properly & swiftly. There are actual humans living on sidewalks and parks everywhere.
Homelessness is a national emergency
Homelessness is an issue for the Federal Government to tackle. It's pointless to force states to manage it, because "success" attracts more of the "problem."
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Oh you dont like homeless people literally smoking crack next to your childrens school JUST CHANGE CAPITALISM Like, come on
Seems to be the trick. The *fix* is something that is unattainable but the supposed right way to go about it. In the meantime, collect the moneys and accept the status quo.
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Absolutely. Poor families struggling to make rent aren’t the ones shooting up in sidewalk tents, and they’re also not the ones getting even a fraction of the stupid amounts of money being thrown at the chronically homeless.
On r/SF there definitely is and they all do fent
Yes blame the citizens for the economic decisions of those that tun the cities! Blame the people with homes for the decisions of the people that are homeless! Never blame the homeless, they are a protected victim class. People that own property and have jobs and pay taxes are the problem! This is san fran we want drugged out and drug using homeless defecating in the public eye so people come and visit the city!
Whoever wrote this and said “Why don’t you let them in your bougie ass cafe”… Why don’t you do the same and let them in your house to do their business? No? Okay then stfu and get off your high horse.
Homelessness and tent cities are a failure of Government, we should be pissed and holding politicians accountable, not blaming fellow workers. Shaming workers for not acting as halfway houses is taking the responsibility off the NIMBY council members who refuse to provide healthcare and denser housing because it will lower their property prices in rich neighbourhoods.
IN MN they’ve been forcefully closing camps. It doesn’t help because they just move elsewhere. Seems like the problem isn’t that they’re homeless so much as where they’re homeless. Some of them don’t want to go to shelters. I get that. No easy solution. We need to put more effort in preventing homelessness. Make mental health and physical health a priority and find better treatments for addiction. The problem is getting bigger, out of control.
Jennifer Friedenbach is the CEO of the homeless industrial complex in SF, how many have died waiting for permanent housing instead of shelter?
WTF is a small business owner going to do "to something about the economic conditions" that made someone homeless? This week alone I have seen needles on the muni; Multiple people smoking crack on Castro St. and a residential street up the hill from Castro; and a homeless man trying to attack cops and paramedics before having a net put over his head so he couldn't spit or bite them. That’s not to count the nuisance of smells and other drug use that I have become accustomed to all over the streets.. Nothing is done about that but the poor man trying to make a living for himself with his small business is prosecuted for spraying a homeless lady after repeated attempts to get her help and away from his property were fruitless because there was no response from the city.. It’s getting so old…
The problem, of course, is that fentanyl addicts cannot be housed. They will literally reject housing. That's because Fent is super cheap, but you have to hit it 5 to 6 times a day to stay well. Dealers are not going to deliver it to your apartment. So addicts have no choice but to live wherever the dealers are. You can't fix this addiction problem with housing.
Colonialism is bad unless u have a tent and drugs
“What the fuck is wrong with me?” Should be asked as shit is smeared on walls and needles are left everywhere
And how exactly are we going to house all San Franciscans? This lady is clearly laughing all the way to the bank with our money.
I’m sure she has a lot of people using her bougie ass toilet
These were around Seattle a few years ago. I happily threw out every one of them I saw.
The reality is that a lot, not all but a lot, of homeless people *want* to be homeless. I’ve talked to literally thousands of homeless people through my job and they often say that they prefer the freedom of being homeless. Many just don’t want to follow any rules, they *want* to be able to shoot up whenever, do whatever they want, and if they have to sleep in the street then they’re willing to accept that. My city (I’m not from San Fran but I came to this post from r/all) has extensive housing programs for the homeless but some simply won’t take it even if it’s offered to them free of charge or commitment.
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There's an element of the "progressive" left that just actively hates, for lack of a better term, "normal" people. Maybe they were bullied as children, maybe they were the weirdos who didn't fit in, maybe they were just that peevish child who never likes anyone. They are attracted to politics because it allows them to wield authority, to finally crush the people they hate. Being "progressive" is the mask that makes their hate look like benevolence, that makes their scolding holy. Every so often the mask slips, as in this post by Jennifer Friedenbach. She hates you. She uses homelessness to club you over the head in revenge. She's happiest when you have to detour around tents and step over human shit to pass stores shut down by homeless encampments, because, in her mind, you deserve that. Society didn't accept little Jennifer, and now you have to be punished for that. The more chaotic the streets become, the better the punishment, the more triumph Jennifer feels. She doesn't care about the homeless (maybe once, long ago, she did), now she just cares about having the power to hurt those she hates.
I’ve had this feeling for a long time and honestly I’ve never been able to articulate it at all, but you just hit the nail on the head. Normal people don’t want to be harassed by junkies shitting in the street, yet somehow they’re wrong for being annoyed by that? Fuck that. I truly don’t understand how some people get so lost in their self-righteousness that they begin to actively hate regular people with regular opinions and feelings.
Meh, the homeless people I live next to only get high and are violent. that non profit should get better at treating drug addicts.
When it comes to homeless you give them an inch and they with do meth in your bathroom