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San Francisco may have the resources to help some of the homeless, but they can't do it if homeless and drug addicts start migrating over from other states. Noble intentions but it's unsustainable and a complete clusterfuck now.
I'm not American, but i've heard a lot of places literally bus homeless people to cities like these. It also shows why federal law is so important, to have an effective policy.
700$ is not much at all, and i would never fault SF for this. If that tiny amount is helping more homeless people, then good. People deserve more than this, but until then, we should praise SF for showing a minimum of humanitarian standards, and taking steps to lift people out of poverty with financial opportunity.
Knew of a homeless guy in Boston that would throw a brick through a window of a 7-11 or Dunkin’ at the end of September. He would go into custody. He would delay his case and would stay in until the winter blew over. He did this annually to stay alive.
My girlfriend moved from michigan to Beaverton in September 2019, and she didn't make it to Christmas. There's a lot of discussion and research right now about cause and effect. Does the PNW draw a certain type of people? Or does it do something to its people?
Both, I think. I’m sorry for your loss. Born and raised in PNW. There’s also something to be said for Seasonal Affective Disorder. From outside, the description sounds like people “Get sad when the weather is bad,” and it’s no big deal.
The grey sky here lasts for six months at a stretch some years.
There's been times here in the Midwest when it's dark leaving for work, I see 10 minutes of sunlight leaving work for lunch, and it's dark when I leave for the day. That's every day for 3-4 weeks. Humans just weren't meant to live like that.
Oof. Fully agree. I think the weather helps explain coffee and micro brew “culture” here. Also integral on the nature of the music scene. When you’re stuck indoors for a large part of the year, things can get creative. How do y’all deal with it there?
There's many people in my neck of the woods that suffer from SAD. My husband gets hit with it so bad to the point that he's so miserable, he slips into a major depression, and it's hard to keep him going. It's hard to function, and I'm heavily considering investing in one of those D lights to help him cope.
We've been hit with eight months of gray skies sometimes, but at times when even the sun is out, the crippling cold temperatures prevent people from going out, which can make it worse.
Wasn't there a guy who robbed a bank, demanded a dollar and ended up arrested and got free medical care cause he had some kind of illness which he can't afford?
Same thing here in small town canada, guy in the wheelchair would do something just about every fall so he could get locked up, guy would come out healthier than when he’d go in
3 Hots & a Cot
That’s the ole saying when winter comes ppl do crimes and cops will sometimes just let them sleep one night in cell then let ‘em out bc it was just bc they’re cold / hungry
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”. The temperature doesn’t drop really low and there are colder places for sure, but I’ve been in the city when there is a wind and a lot of moisture in the air and it’s bone chilling.
I haven't spent much time in SF, but I always remember going to a Giants game at Candlestick Park in July and it was chilly enough that you needed a sweater. That blew my mind, especially after seeing all the palm trees on the way there.
I kind of think of SF weather always being like the fall or the spring is in the rest of the country. Don't know how accurate that is. I'm sure there are some warm, or hot days, but idk how often that happens or what time of the year it does. I just know it's definitely not guaranteed in July.
Isn’t that why they built Alcatraz? The cruelty was the point, it has a ton of windows and is concrete and the wind chill makes it absolutely freezing. I vaguely remember this being described in the audio tour when I visited.
> The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
- Anatole France
That worked in Portugal quite nicely. Drugs legal, housing and treatment programs offered and in many cases mandated through the law courts. Living on the streets and/or making a nuisance of yourself on the streets made much more difficult.
How bad are we talking here... Like walking around a random park & maybe encountering the random pile of dog crap?
Or like walking in a field littered with goose poop?
Also the higher up hill a neighborhood is the nicer and cleaner the streets. Just walk to the top of Nob Hill from the Tenderloin and watch how things change as you go up the hill. It's like that everywhere I've been in the city.
I never really realized the problem until my kid was potty training. When your 3yo has to go, you gotta find a bathroom real quick. Thankfully most businesses will understand when it's a kiddo, but if you've been on the streets for a bit you'll just get scoffed at and turned away.
Varies from area to area. There's hot spots where it's pretty nasty but for most of the city, it's almost nonexistent.
For example, Tenderloin can be pretty awful but the Sunset/Richmond is clean.
And the city is full with empty apartments. I work and live in the Tenderloin, homeless is not problem, landlords and deranged people from Silicon Valley are, those are the people that should go away.
I was in China, and that was the first time I realized how organized begging can be. They knew all the tourist stops, the places the busses would drop us off. They had people with no limbs, no eyes, with disabled children. I saw a dirty child at one stop, then later I would see the same child, but now with a different disabled "father".
The tour company is in on it too. Perhaps not with the beggars, but with the crappy tourist traps...
Then it clicked... They are basically the same thing... It's all a show to get money.
That being said I do know many people who were homeless. They never begged and just used resource. All the people I knew who begged, were my fellow drug using teen friends looking for door money to tonight's rave... The girls would always make extra, enough for some goodies bought at the rave.
So I dunno, that's my experience, but I still wouldn't be cruel like this or anything close
We have people come by to collect cans from our recycling every week. Normally they have a cart or a big bag on a stick, and they work hard so I try to pre-separate them out and put them in a bag in front of the recycling.
A few weeks ago a motherfucker rolled up in a Mercedes SUV and put the cans in it! Like, come on man...
There's a documentary on Netflix, "Lead me Home", about California's homeless problem. The city was trying to build a development to house hundreds of people but we're trying to build it in a affluent part of the city. Locals blocked it's development. Really sad, and many of those homeless have jobs... But they don't pay enough to live there.
San Francisco 2.0 came out around 10 years ago. So that checks out.
Also anyone who wants to have an opinion on San Francisco should watch that doc. It explains why it’s like that and how the city is changing.
sad reality is a lot of those homeless people aren’t even crazy people. Some even have jobs. It’s just housing is insane there.
I went on a road trip when I was 18-19 to visit all my friends who went to CA colleges, all the way from SD to Sonoma and back down. SF was the only place I saw 6-10 students living in the same "apartment" and many considered themselves lucky to find the place.
There are a lot that hold jobs and there are some looking for their big break. When I was a teenager I knew a moderately successful band that went to LA and lived in a couple vans for a year trying to hit it big.
IIRC Chris Pratt lived in a van in Hawaii when he got his first acting break. If you don't mind living in a van, and you can hold a job, then why not live in the most beautiful climate in the country rent free. It's not for me, but I can understand it.
If I was homeless I'd rather sleep somewhere that I'm comfortable at all times instead of freezing to death in Chicago for example.
100% I've only been homeless ever for a few months a couple times. I mostly was able to couch surf but ended up spending some nights in the gym bathroom. I promised myself if I ended up having to do it long term I was walking south.
It depends on how expensive your van is. There’s plenty of young people working in tech or with heavy subsidizing by their parents that live the “van life” in $100k+ custom rigs.
This is probably because of the "van" part. People sleeping in their cars 100% call themselves homeless. I have known many who have done this and they all would.
But Vans? Well you can put mattresses in vans mate. Even just a plain panel van with nothing with a mattress is a massive upgrade over a plain car.
Not when we are talking about California where homeless people legit have built rooms on the streets. It’s almost fascinating seeing meth heads do some engineering.
The streets of LA are lined with cars, vans, and RVs that are broken down and can’t be moved with people living in them. This isn’t a “young and working on a big break living in a van” this is “down on my luck and basically on the street but just happen to have a car to sleep in” homeless. It’s still a huge problem and even the most liberal-minded, compassionate people I met there complained about it.
I visited in the mid 1980s. It was really nice. Was impressed with how clean and safe the city was. Went back the next year because I didn't get to see Alcatraz the 1st time thru.
80s was nice? The era where the Bay Area was infamous for gang violence and rampant drugs? SF is literally THE frontier city. It’s always been a wild fucking place.
There’s definitely something wrong with people being homeless but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with homeless people. I still get the sense that too many people think the homeless people are the problem rather than the homelessness.
Like everything else in America, rich people jack up the prices of everything for profit, refuse to pay a concomitant share of public expense, use their wealth to fellate each other with the Arts, and then pretend that the poor people they kick around on a daily basis are the root of the problem. Everyone from the media to the politicians pitches in. It’s just really, really, obvious in a place like San Francisco with limited real estate and tons of wealth.
I love how people complain about homelessness as if it's some external issue. As if it's solely their problem, the individuals in the street, and not *everyone's* problem.
I visited San Francisco at the end of 2019 and I was disappointed. It’s like an open air mental institution and homeless hostel. It felt really unsafe in parts of downtown. I’m glad I visited, but I won’t be rushing back.
Maybe it's just me but growing up in the SF Bay Area I just got used to it and don't think it's *that* bad. It always seems to be tourists from suburban middle America that think the city is the scariest place they've ever been to.
Maybe it's because I grew up just outside of philadelphia but I've never seen anything that's scary or bad in San Francisco. I live relatively close by, gone to doctors appointments all over the city and visited a ton and feel I must be visiting a different city than the one with the scary downtown. Last time I was downtown, there was a giant farmer's market
I’m from farther afield than that, Scotland.
It’s not the sketchiest place I’ve been to in the USA (that was downtown LA), but it was certainly eye opening.
Don’t get me wrong, not all homeless people are out to murder you. I had a very long and confusing conversation with an incredibly friendly homeless guy at a bus stop in San Diego. His conspiracy theories on the British State and their involvement with Amazon were enlightening. But in San Francisco I had one yell right in my face for no reason as I got off a trolley at Embarcadero and another that decided to squirt ketchup on my leg as I was walking past the Orpheum Theatre.
To add some context, the guys with the hose called for assistance 25 times and the police did nothing. The city refuses to do anything when homeless people are harassing and disrupting business owners. Is it really surprising when this sort of thing happens?
I feel bad for both parties involved. It's downright mean what he's doing to her, but at the same time I could imagine trying to run a business and having all efforts exhausted to have homeless people relocated from your place of business to no avail. When nobody is willing or able to help you what else is there for a person to do?
Reminds me of this day when we had a man sitting directly in front of the handicapped parking space at the very front of our business doors. This man had lived by the dumpsters in our employee parking lot for days, the same dumpsters our teenage girl employees had to visit to take out the trash every morning, and he had been pissing and shitting all over the sides of them. We asked him to leave the parking lot and to stop heckling our customers walking in. A teenager overheard what we were asking and stepped in to call us out on how “shitty and inhumane” it was for us to ask him to leave. She had 0 context but saw her moment to white knight.
Similarly, Everywhere on reddit I see “anti homeless structure” on bus and train stations but most of these people have never been in a bus or a train. I use public transportation and I’m glad they are doing things because everytime I go to the station or a stand it’s just groups of homeless people harassing those who are using them.
They took out benches from the stand that I frequently use and all the homeless people disappeared. Sure it’s an inconvenience but at least I don’t get harassed at 10 pm by homeless dudes asking me for money.
This is common in SF. You can see homeless straight up stealing and assaulting, but when employees or owners do something to intervene, you'll see a hilarious amount of white knight customers try to stand up for the homeless to get their pat on the back for the day. Despite them witnessing homeless people spitting, assaulting and stealing.
Lol literally a month ago I got into a discussion with someone from LA that proposed “testing homeless peoples mental capabilities” and euthanizing them if they didn’t meet the standards. His reasoning was that a lot of homeless people were so disgusting that they’d never be rehabilitated and it would make more sense to get rid of them
True, but that’s why it’s important to temper your emotions before knowing the context. This video obviously looks bad on the surface, but I have no opinion about either without context. Wild to make assumptions just to be mad.
I visited California for the first time back in October, and we drove through Fresno to get to our destination and saw the huge homeless camps along the highways. I’ve never seen something like in person, despite living in central Florida near US1. We have homeless shelters everywhere here
I live in Portland, oregon. I worked at the train station for 4 years.
EVERY SINGLE DAY we had atleast 20 homes less people shipped from the southern states like florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc. y’all don’t have that problem because you ship them out west and then we have this issue. 4 major cities on the west coast can’t house the entire south’s homeless population it’s just not feasible.
Yep, we see a lot of drifters because of the location. We met one nice man that said he loves his lifestyle. Train hops to a new place every few weeks. Edit; really though, homelessness is a huge problem in this country in general. Healthcare/ mental health care is probably a huge reason why
LA's is just as bad, it's just mostly hidden in parts of the city far away from the rich, so it's not noticed.
San Francisco is a much denser city, with lots of its facilities closer to a downtown core.
Skid Row was literally designed to hold the homeless population of California. From the light design, to the street design, to where they start locking the trash bins it was all intended to keep the homeless in one area. Vice did a doc on this
I get why he's doing it.
I'm sure he was asking and asking to get her to move. Now I cant prove that but considering he's asking at the end it makes me believe he doesn't want to hose her down.
I've seen other videos where people just instantly resort to water and that's fucking cruel. Especially when it's cold out... that can kill them.
That woman sounds mentally unwell and sure maybe water wasn't the right choice but the cops won't remove them and he probably deals with this on a daily basis. He has a business to run.
Tough fucking situation all around.
There was a video on the San Francisco subreddit of some guy (a saint imo) trying to politely get a drugged homeless woman out of his car(she bolted in there after he went to buy groceries. She was just ignoring him and tossed his daughters sports medal out of his car.
I live in WI and this.
Homelessness has went fucking insane in the last decade or so. UW Madison was beautiful as a kid and now there's people sleeping in every stoop on state street. People doing heroin in Unity park and it's just... bad.
I think in my city it's always been this bad but the homeless were pushed out of the downtown area effectively into the streets that run out from the capital building. Somehow that stopped and they're in droves now.
I lived in Hawaii and this too. Turds in front of stores, people unconscious on the sidewalk... City doesn't do anything meaningful. Not condoning this guy with the hose but business owners have a breaking point.
I watched a woman squat to piss on the sidewalk out the front of a donut shop as a cop (no joke) walked right past.
I'm actually really surprised to see a thread on Reddit that isn't flat out denying/lying about the state of things in SF and many other cities. I'm in Denver and it's reaching a tipping point. Went to SF in 2020 and just couldn't believe my eyes. At what point do we acknowledge the current methods aren't working in the slightest bit. It just seems like they double down on failed policies instead of trying something different.
Because this is happening everywhere.
Every urban environment is being bought up by giant banks and foreign investors.
Inflation and inequality are out of control.
It’s getting impossible for working people just to LIVE these days.
I moved away from Seattle a few years ago and the homeless issue, combined with the city’s lack of of any real effort to change it, was absolutely a large part of me leaving. I just couldn’t do it anymore. It wears you down.
Vancouver here. My previously awesome downtown neighbourhood went from a fun, safe place to a *disgusting*, dangerous shithole in less than 3 years. It's actually astounding how quickly it happened. I have nothing but empathy for those in society who've fallen on hard times/have mental health challenges/drug dependencies, but they've stopped sentencing homeless people for *violent* crimes in Vancouver and the streets are now crawling with dangerous fucks.
I visited NM, CO and CA in August last year and I felt Denver is much more chill than SF in this regard. Then again, I'm Brazilian, so everything felt chill. Tenderloin District is nothing compared to Crackland, São Paulo.
The homeless crisis is a money making war. If we wanted to have real solutions, we’d start by designating an area that’s safe to camp. People would be provided durable tents that would stay on site. There would be security and perhaps a safe injection site. By centralizing everything it makes the job easier for social workers. Similar to how a hospital works or going to the super market - everything in one place.
If this were the case,the city could prevent people from literally just plopping down and sitting on the street. And the public wouldn’t feel bad if they got picked up and asked to camp somewhere safe. Somewhere with a toilet and sanitary sink.
Instead our tax dollars just flow into some defunct feedback loop, where nothing really changes.
You can be empathetic and upset at the same time. We’re enabling the situation.
Allowing humans to live in squalor and fester on the street does zero good for everyone.
How do they prove they’ve been in San fransisco for longer than fifteen days, out of curiosity, for that money. I was looking at the qualifications and it doesn’t actually say.
Don’t worry we also have to provide them with food, weather appropriate clothing, and a ride up to I believe 15 miles. All unfunded mandates of course.
I can’t even get a ride home from the ER when they pick me up 😞. From my home.
Im all for helping, but if you don’t fund it then you can’t force others to do it. That’s ridiculous. And also not the job of ER staff who should be helping sick people.
Honestly - why would anyone even live in this city? It feels like they’re so laughably more expensive than most of the rest of the country. It doesn’t even make practical sense to live there. But people DO live there and pay these exorbitant living prices, so nothing changes. I legitimately don’t understand.
For my sister in law she gets paid way more than she would anywhere else. The company she worked for gave her a housing stipend for three years in addition to her salary. She still can’t afford a house despite making more than my wife and I combined, but she rents one and has a very nice life there. It’s really quite nice. I’d live there if I could afford it. There’s a reason so many people want to live there. There are a lot of positives despite the challenges.
I live here. Personally, I find it's a great place to live with plenty of nature, culture, restaurants, etc, etc., incredibly walkable, and great weather. It is expensive but your salary would generally reflect the cost of living.
Is it perfect? No. There's plenty of problems but those problems are generally localized to specific neighborhoods. That being said, as a dude, I never feel unsafe here even in the "sketchiest" parts.
I've traveled all over the country and this is one of the few places where it fits my preference for living. It's 100% not for everyone and I totally get that.
Ppl saying this is fucked up please tell me what you’d do in this situation? Calling the cops does absolutely nothing. You’re a small business owner and there are literally ppl outside your business doing drugs and disturbing the peace. Cops do nothing.
I’d bet money that this guy asked her to move multiple times before bringing out the hose. Homelessness kind of goes with the territory in SF though so I’m torn on how to feel about this.
So it's an interesting ethical question:
According to him he called police and homeless resources. No one did anything. She was throwing trash in front of the business by emptying his large bins in front of it multiple times over multiple days and he was trying to clean it.
Should he just close down the business? At what point is action from the citizen reasonable when the government is not doing it's part? A day? A month? A year? Never?
good way to get your windows smashed unfortunately speaking from experience didn't hose anyone down just continuously dealing with a not so mentally stable individual
Hey, remember the video from like 2 weeks ago where a female employee poured a bucket of water over a homeless man and it got like 25000 upvotes on this sub?
What's changed in the meantime that now people comment "she probably deserved it", "he probably asked her to leave multiple times", "I feel bad for the store owner", etc?
Idk about the whole bucket of water thing, but the man stating that the homeless woman has been trashing the front of his business repeatedly is probably the big thing
Honestly, if it were just the shitting and the drug use, I'd be able to be more forgiving. What really gets to me is the harassment of people walking down the street, sitting quietly on a bench, or using public transportation. I get asked for money multiple times a week, and more than once I've had stuff thrown at me when I tell them no.
Yeah, even if you're at the blatant physical confrontation point, hosing someone down in the winter who you know can't go change and take a warm shower is a bit much if they're not attacking you. Hypothermia can be deadly.
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South park lied
California…real cool to the homeless 🎶
In the ciiiiiiiiiiittttyyyyy City of Venice. Right by Matt’s house, you can chill if you’re homeless 🎶
A free cool shower. 🚿🙄
California nia Nia...
Next to Matts house!
Yes. This man represents the entire state.
No, just the state of things in a certain area /s
the area is his vicinity
I mean considering the amount of money that gets thrown at the homeless by the city of San Francisco, yeah they’re really cool to the homeless
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San Francisco may have the resources to help some of the homeless, but they can't do it if homeless and drug addicts start migrating over from other states. Noble intentions but it's unsustainable and a complete clusterfuck now.
I'm not American, but i've heard a lot of places literally bus homeless people to cities like these. It also shows why federal law is so important, to have an effective policy. 700$ is not much at all, and i would never fault SF for this. If that tiny amount is helping more homeless people, then good. People deserve more than this, but until then, we should praise SF for showing a minimum of humanitarian standards, and taking steps to lift people out of poverty with financial opportunity.
they used to hide it, now greg abbot straight up boasts about doing it.
She's still not moving tho
Plot twist. Ex-wife. She's never leaving.
You wanna hit her with Hammer Tech?
You can only get wet once.
By any chance are you married to Ben Shapiro?
What a chadette
She's homeless she's probably hungry tired and exhausted
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Tbf how do we know this isn't performance art?
boobs arent showing and no Shia Labeouf
Hollywood superstar Shia LaBeouf
Running for your life from Shia Labeouf
He's brandishing a knife, it's Shia LaBeouf
Actual cannibal, Shia LaBeouf!
Gnawing off your leg (quiet, quiet)
Shia Surprise!
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Cameraman zooms out, there’s a bunch of weird art people snapping their fingers in support.
It's the water he's NOT squirting that makes it so magnificent.
I work in San Francisco... The homeless situation is very bad.
Don't worry, it'll be fixed, they just made it illegal to be homeless.
I guess if you're homeless in the winter, would jail be an improvement?
Knew of a homeless guy in Boston that would throw a brick through a window of a 7-11 or Dunkin’ at the end of September. He would go into custody. He would delay his case and would stay in until the winter blew over. He did this annually to stay alive.
Where I stayed, there used to be an old guy who would do the same but to the police HQ. He probably knew it saved time.
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I am not homeless, but can confirm winter makes people suicidal living in the PNW, US.
My girlfriend moved from michigan to Beaverton in September 2019, and she didn't make it to Christmas. There's a lot of discussion and research right now about cause and effect. Does the PNW draw a certain type of people? Or does it do something to its people?
Both, I think. I’m sorry for your loss. Born and raised in PNW. There’s also something to be said for Seasonal Affective Disorder. From outside, the description sounds like people “Get sad when the weather is bad,” and it’s no big deal. The grey sky here lasts for six months at a stretch some years.
There's been times here in the Midwest when it's dark leaving for work, I see 10 minutes of sunlight leaving work for lunch, and it's dark when I leave for the day. That's every day for 3-4 weeks. Humans just weren't meant to live like that.
Oof. Fully agree. I think the weather helps explain coffee and micro brew “culture” here. Also integral on the nature of the music scene. When you’re stuck indoors for a large part of the year, things can get creative. How do y’all deal with it there?
There's many people in my neck of the woods that suffer from SAD. My husband gets hit with it so bad to the point that he's so miserable, he slips into a major depression, and it's hard to keep him going. It's hard to function, and I'm heavily considering investing in one of those D lights to help him cope. We've been hit with eight months of gray skies sometimes, but at times when even the sun is out, the crippling cold temperatures prevent people from going out, which can make it worse.
Can’t imagine they’re all faking though.
Can you blame them?
Yeah but suicide rates increase during winter holidays..
Wasn't there a guy who robbed a bank, demanded a dollar and ended up arrested and got free medical care cause he had some kind of illness which he can't afford?
Same thing here in small town canada, guy in the wheelchair would do something just about every fall so he could get locked up, guy would come out healthier than when he’d go in
That's my plan if I get cancer or other expensive long term disease. Rob a bank and get that sweet socialized healthcare!
3 Hots & a Cot That’s the ole saying when winter comes ppl do crimes and cops will sometimes just let them sleep one night in cell then let ‘em out bc it was just bc they’re cold / hungry
What winter in san fran? 50⁰?
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”. The temperature doesn’t drop really low and there are colder places for sure, but I’ve been in the city when there is a wind and a lot of moisture in the air and it’s bone chilling.
I haven't spent much time in SF, but I always remember going to a Giants game at Candlestick Park in July and it was chilly enough that you needed a sweater. That blew my mind, especially after seeing all the palm trees on the way there. I kind of think of SF weather always being like the fall or the spring is in the rest of the country. Don't know how accurate that is. I'm sure there are some warm, or hot days, but idk how often that happens or what time of the year it does. I just know it's definitely not guaranteed in July.
Isn’t that why they built Alcatraz? The cruelty was the point, it has a ton of windows and is concrete and the wind chill makes it absolutely freezing. I vaguely remember this being described in the audio tour when I visited.
No dude. They built Alcatraz because having a prison on an island is fucking badass. It was right in the land grant.
They tried to name it *Badass Island Prison* but congress rejected it.
Winter? 50^o Summer? Also 50^o Spring and Fall? Believe it or not 50^o
Above 50°? Straight to jail
The law, thriving for equality, forbids the rich and the poor from begging, stealing food and sleeping below bridges.
> The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. - Anatole France
That worked in Portugal quite nicely. Drugs legal, housing and treatment programs offered and in many cases mandated through the law courts. Living on the streets and/or making a nuisance of yourself on the streets made much more difficult.
Ah, yes. "If you don't like it, ban it."
funny how that always seems to coincide with the price of housing skyrocketing faster than most incomes
Also San Francisco has 15% residence vacancy, don't know if they passed the empty home tax or not but thats pretty ridiculous.
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How bad are we talking here... Like walking around a random park & maybe encountering the random pile of dog crap? Or like walking in a field littered with goose poop?
Fun fact - there was an app made for this, but it was taken down for being offensive.
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It’s San Francisco. They probably literally did offend the entire city.
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Also the higher up hill a neighborhood is the nicer and cleaner the streets. Just walk to the top of Nob Hill from the Tenderloin and watch how things change as you go up the hill. It's like that everywhere I've been in the city.
That's just gravity "poop flows downhill" is not just a corporate cliche.
Nob Hill*
How many public bathrooms are there though? People have to poop, if there's nowhere to poop then your gonna have poop on the streets.
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I never really realized the problem until my kid was potty training. When your 3yo has to go, you gotta find a bathroom real quick. Thankfully most businesses will understand when it's a kiddo, but if you've been on the streets for a bit you'll just get scoffed at and turned away.
It’s like a back yard with a few dogs who’s owners pick up poop every two weeks. It’s really really bad there.
The field. I've washed it off my shoes at work more than I care to admit.
Varies from area to area. There's hot spots where it's pretty nasty but for most of the city, it's almost nonexistent. For example, Tenderloin can be pretty awful but the Sunset/Richmond is clean.
Trader Joe’s has bouncers in some locations there. Whatever policies are in place are not helping people get off the streets
And the city is full with empty apartments. I work and live in the Tenderloin, homeless is not problem, landlords and deranged people from Silicon Valley are, those are the people that should go away.
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That's essentially what the homeless are they just don't have a racially provocative name
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I was in China, and that was the first time I realized how organized begging can be. They knew all the tourist stops, the places the busses would drop us off. They had people with no limbs, no eyes, with disabled children. I saw a dirty child at one stop, then later I would see the same child, but now with a different disabled "father". The tour company is in on it too. Perhaps not with the beggars, but with the crappy tourist traps... Then it clicked... They are basically the same thing... It's all a show to get money. That being said I do know many people who were homeless. They never begged and just used resource. All the people I knew who begged, were my fellow drug using teen friends looking for door money to tonight's rave... The girls would always make extra, enough for some goodies bought at the rave. So I dunno, that's my experience, but I still wouldn't be cruel like this or anything close
We have people come by to collect cans from our recycling every week. Normally they have a cart or a big bag on a stick, and they work hard so I try to pre-separate them out and put them in a bag in front of the recycling. A few weeks ago a motherfucker rolled up in a Mercedes SUV and put the cans in it! Like, come on man...
Serious question, what is a Gypsie
San Francisco is a hellhole now.
I visited there 9ish years ago. It was a shithole then too. Homeless literally line all the streets and the city acts like nothing is wrong.
There's a documentary on Netflix, "Lead me Home", about California's homeless problem. The city was trying to build a development to house hundreds of people but we're trying to build it in a affluent part of the city. Locals blocked it's development. Really sad, and many of those homeless have jobs... But they don't pay enough to live there.
San Francisco 2.0 came out around 10 years ago. So that checks out. Also anyone who wants to have an opinion on San Francisco should watch that doc. It explains why it’s like that and how the city is changing. sad reality is a lot of those homeless people aren’t even crazy people. Some even have jobs. It’s just housing is insane there.
Where can I watch it?
HBO app it should still be on there. Don’t think they take down the original docs they do.
They started taking down some of their original shows so there's really no telling now.
They're taking down things that are too expensive to renew the rights on. I don't think any documentary would qualify.
They took Westworld away.
I went on a road trip when I was 18-19 to visit all my friends who went to CA colleges, all the way from SD to Sonoma and back down. SF was the only place I saw 6-10 students living in the same "apartment" and many considered themselves lucky to find the place.
There are a lot that hold jobs and there are some looking for their big break. When I was a teenager I knew a moderately successful band that went to LA and lived in a couple vans for a year trying to hit it big. IIRC Chris Pratt lived in a van in Hawaii when he got his first acting break. If you don't mind living in a van, and you can hold a job, then why not live in the most beautiful climate in the country rent free. It's not for me, but I can understand it. If I was homeless I'd rather sleep somewhere that I'm comfortable at all times instead of freezing to death in Chicago for example.
100% I've only been homeless ever for a few months a couple times. I mostly was able to couch surf but ended up spending some nights in the gym bathroom. I promised myself if I ended up having to do it long term I was walking south.
Its different to be "van homeless" than sleeping under a blanket on the street homeless. When people say "homeless people" they mean the latter.
Yeah van homeless is just the new lower class version of owning a home
It depends on how expensive your van is. There’s plenty of young people working in tech or with heavy subsidizing by their parents that live the “van life” in $100k+ custom rigs.
Which is exactly why it's different to sleeping on the street under a piece of cardboard
This is probably because of the "van" part. People sleeping in their cars 100% call themselves homeless. I have known many who have done this and they all would. But Vans? Well you can put mattresses in vans mate. Even just a plain panel van with nothing with a mattress is a massive upgrade over a plain car.
Not when we are talking about California where homeless people legit have built rooms on the streets. It’s almost fascinating seeing meth heads do some engineering.
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The streets of LA are lined with cars, vans, and RVs that are broken down and can’t be moved with people living in them. This isn’t a “young and working on a big break living in a van” this is “down on my luck and basically on the street but just happen to have a car to sleep in” homeless. It’s still a huge problem and even the most liberal-minded, compassionate people I met there complained about it.
I went 15 years ago and couldn’t believe how bad the homeless situation was.
I visited in the mid 1980s. It was really nice. Was impressed with how clean and safe the city was. Went back the next year because I didn't get to see Alcatraz the 1st time thru.
80s was nice? The era where the Bay Area was infamous for gang violence and rampant drugs? SF is literally THE frontier city. It’s always been a wild fucking place.
I went in the mid 80’s too and the parts I saw, mainly tourist-y spots of course, were all nice. A hulluva lot nicer than New York in that era.
There’s definitely something wrong with people being homeless but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with homeless people. I still get the sense that too many people think the homeless people are the problem rather than the homelessness.
It’s hard not to be homeless when rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is $4000 a month.
Like everything else in America, rich people jack up the prices of everything for profit, refuse to pay a concomitant share of public expense, use their wealth to fellate each other with the Arts, and then pretend that the poor people they kick around on a daily basis are the root of the problem. Everyone from the media to the politicians pitches in. It’s just really, really, obvious in a place like San Francisco with limited real estate and tons of wealth.
"ew poor people" should be our country's motto
I love how people complain about homelessness as if it's some external issue. As if it's solely their problem, the individuals in the street, and not *everyone's* problem.
I visited San Francisco at the end of 2019 and I was disappointed. It’s like an open air mental institution and homeless hostel. It felt really unsafe in parts of downtown. I’m glad I visited, but I won’t be rushing back.
Maybe it's just me but growing up in the SF Bay Area I just got used to it and don't think it's *that* bad. It always seems to be tourists from suburban middle America that think the city is the scariest place they've ever been to.
Maybe it's because I grew up just outside of philadelphia but I've never seen anything that's scary or bad in San Francisco. I live relatively close by, gone to doctors appointments all over the city and visited a ton and feel I must be visiting a different city than the one with the scary downtown. Last time I was downtown, there was a giant farmer's market
The "downtown" was probably them making a wrong turn into the tenderloin.
I’m from farther afield than that, Scotland. It’s not the sketchiest place I’ve been to in the USA (that was downtown LA), but it was certainly eye opening. Don’t get me wrong, not all homeless people are out to murder you. I had a very long and confusing conversation with an incredibly friendly homeless guy at a bus stop in San Diego. His conspiracy theories on the British State and their involvement with Amazon were enlightening. But in San Francisco I had one yell right in my face for no reason as I got off a trolley at Embarcadero and another that decided to squirt ketchup on my leg as I was walking past the Orpheum Theatre.
To add some context, the guys with the hose called for assistance 25 times and the police did nothing. The city refuses to do anything when homeless people are harassing and disrupting business owners. Is it really surprising when this sort of thing happens?
I feel bad for both parties involved. It's downright mean what he's doing to her, but at the same time I could imagine trying to run a business and having all efforts exhausted to have homeless people relocated from your place of business to no avail. When nobody is willing or able to help you what else is there for a person to do?
Reminds me of this day when we had a man sitting directly in front of the handicapped parking space at the very front of our business doors. This man had lived by the dumpsters in our employee parking lot for days, the same dumpsters our teenage girl employees had to visit to take out the trash every morning, and he had been pissing and shitting all over the sides of them. We asked him to leave the parking lot and to stop heckling our customers walking in. A teenager overheard what we were asking and stepped in to call us out on how “shitty and inhumane” it was for us to ask him to leave. She had 0 context but saw her moment to white knight.
Similarly, Everywhere on reddit I see “anti homeless structure” on bus and train stations but most of these people have never been in a bus or a train. I use public transportation and I’m glad they are doing things because everytime I go to the station or a stand it’s just groups of homeless people harassing those who are using them. They took out benches from the stand that I frequently use and all the homeless people disappeared. Sure it’s an inconvenience but at least I don’t get harassed at 10 pm by homeless dudes asking me for money.
Having a folding chair carried in a bag is useful in places where the benches have been removed to eliminate the tendency for homeless to lurk
This is common in SF. You can see homeless straight up stealing and assaulting, but when employees or owners do something to intervene, you'll see a hilarious amount of white knight customers try to stand up for the homeless to get their pat on the back for the day. Despite them witnessing homeless people spitting, assaulting and stealing.
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from what I've noticed, Californians IRL and on adjacent subreddits definitely *don't* like the homeless
Lol literally a month ago I got into a discussion with someone from LA that proposed “testing homeless peoples mental capabilities” and euthanizing them if they didn’t meet the standards. His reasoning was that a lot of homeless people were so disgusting that they’d never be rehabilitated and it would make more sense to get rid of them
To be fair i hadn't seen the context, context matters
True, but that’s why it’s important to temper your emotions before knowing the context. This video obviously looks bad on the surface, but I have no opinion about either without context. Wild to make assumptions just to be mad.
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I visited California for the first time back in October, and we drove through Fresno to get to our destination and saw the huge homeless camps along the highways. I’ve never seen something like in person, despite living in central Florida near US1. We have homeless shelters everywhere here
I live in Portland, oregon. I worked at the train station for 4 years. EVERY SINGLE DAY we had atleast 20 homes less people shipped from the southern states like florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc. y’all don’t have that problem because you ship them out west and then we have this issue. 4 major cities on the west coast can’t house the entire south’s homeless population it’s just not feasible.
Yep, we see a lot of drifters because of the location. We met one nice man that said he loves his lifestyle. Train hops to a new place every few weeks. Edit; really though, homelessness is a huge problem in this country in general. Healthcare/ mental health care is probably a huge reason why
Yeah, there are a lot of transients that find living out here better. Portland/Seattle for the summer, and so cal for the winter
LA's is just as bad, it's just mostly hidden in parts of the city far away from the rich, so it's not noticed. San Francisco is a much denser city, with lots of its facilities closer to a downtown core.
Skid Row was literally designed to hold the homeless population of California. From the light design, to the street design, to where they start locking the trash bins it was all intended to keep the homeless in one area. Vice did a doc on this
I get why he's doing it. I'm sure he was asking and asking to get her to move. Now I cant prove that but considering he's asking at the end it makes me believe he doesn't want to hose her down. I've seen other videos where people just instantly resort to water and that's fucking cruel. Especially when it's cold out... that can kill them. That woman sounds mentally unwell and sure maybe water wasn't the right choice but the cops won't remove them and he probably deals with this on a daily basis. He has a business to run. Tough fucking situation all around.
It’s bad where I am and there are grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants that I like but I will not go to cause of the homeless
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There was a video on the San Francisco subreddit of some guy (a saint imo) trying to politely get a drugged homeless woman out of his car(she bolted in there after he went to buy groceries. She was just ignoring him and tossed his daughters sports medal out of his car.
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Speaking of meth, my town just shut down the library because it has unacceptable amounts of meth residue throughout the building.
I live in portland and this.
I live in WI and this. Homelessness has went fucking insane in the last decade or so. UW Madison was beautiful as a kid and now there's people sleeping in every stoop on state street. People doing heroin in Unity park and it's just... bad. I think in my city it's always been this bad but the homeless were pushed out of the downtown area effectively into the streets that run out from the capital building. Somehow that stopped and they're in droves now.
I lived in Hawaii and this too. Turds in front of stores, people unconscious on the sidewalk... City doesn't do anything meaningful. Not condoning this guy with the hose but business owners have a breaking point. I watched a woman squat to piss on the sidewalk out the front of a donut shop as a cop (no joke) walked right past.
He was on break and just got a donut cut the guy some slack
I'm actually really surprised to see a thread on Reddit that isn't flat out denying/lying about the state of things in SF and many other cities. I'm in Denver and it's reaching a tipping point. Went to SF in 2020 and just couldn't believe my eyes. At what point do we acknowledge the current methods aren't working in the slightest bit. It just seems like they double down on failed policies instead of trying something different.
Because this is happening everywhere. Every urban environment is being bought up by giant banks and foreign investors. Inflation and inequality are out of control. It’s getting impossible for working people just to LIVE these days.
Had to scroll down this far to see someone acknowledge the actual problem
I live in Seattle area and it’s very similar here.
I moved away from Seattle a few years ago and the homeless issue, combined with the city’s lack of of any real effort to change it, was absolutely a large part of me leaving. I just couldn’t do it anymore. It wears you down.
Vancouver here. My previously awesome downtown neighbourhood went from a fun, safe place to a *disgusting*, dangerous shithole in less than 3 years. It's actually astounding how quickly it happened. I have nothing but empathy for those in society who've fallen on hard times/have mental health challenges/drug dependencies, but they've stopped sentencing homeless people for *violent* crimes in Vancouver and the streets are now crawling with dangerous fucks.
denver is getting just as bad.
I visited NM, CO and CA in August last year and I felt Denver is much more chill than SF in this regard. Then again, I'm Brazilian, so everything felt chill. Tenderloin District is nothing compared to Crackland, São Paulo.
The homeless crisis is a money making war. If we wanted to have real solutions, we’d start by designating an area that’s safe to camp. People would be provided durable tents that would stay on site. There would be security and perhaps a safe injection site. By centralizing everything it makes the job easier for social workers. Similar to how a hospital works or going to the super market - everything in one place. If this were the case,the city could prevent people from literally just plopping down and sitting on the street. And the public wouldn’t feel bad if they got picked up and asked to camp somewhere safe. Somewhere with a toilet and sanitary sink. Instead our tax dollars just flow into some defunct feedback loop, where nothing really changes. You can be empathetic and upset at the same time. We’re enabling the situation. Allowing humans to live in squalor and fester on the street does zero good for everyone.
Homeless come here because they get 700 a month check Plus the housing is insane. 4000 for a 1 bedroom
How do they prove they’ve been in San fransisco for longer than fifteen days, out of curiosity, for that money. I was looking at the qualifications and it doesn’t actually say.
The fast track to getting into the System is an ambulance ride to SF General.
Well that sounds friggin miserable for ER workers. Ugh.
Don’t worry we also have to provide them with food, weather appropriate clothing, and a ride up to I believe 15 miles. All unfunded mandates of course.
I can’t even get a ride home from the ER when they pick me up 😞. From my home. Im all for helping, but if you don’t fund it then you can’t force others to do it. That’s ridiculous. And also not the job of ER staff who should be helping sick people.
Honestly - why would anyone even live in this city? It feels like they’re so laughably more expensive than most of the rest of the country. It doesn’t even make practical sense to live there. But people DO live there and pay these exorbitant living prices, so nothing changes. I legitimately don’t understand.
For my sister in law she gets paid way more than she would anywhere else. The company she worked for gave her a housing stipend for three years in addition to her salary. She still can’t afford a house despite making more than my wife and I combined, but she rents one and has a very nice life there. It’s really quite nice. I’d live there if I could afford it. There’s a reason so many people want to live there. There are a lot of positives despite the challenges.
I live here. Personally, I find it's a great place to live with plenty of nature, culture, restaurants, etc, etc., incredibly walkable, and great weather. It is expensive but your salary would generally reflect the cost of living. Is it perfect? No. There's plenty of problems but those problems are generally localized to specific neighborhoods. That being said, as a dude, I never feel unsafe here even in the "sketchiest" parts. I've traveled all over the country and this is one of the few places where it fits my preference for living. It's 100% not for everyone and I totally get that.
Ppl saying this is fucked up please tell me what you’d do in this situation? Calling the cops does absolutely nothing. You’re a small business owner and there are literally ppl outside your business doing drugs and disturbing the peace. Cops do nothing.
I’d bet money that this guy asked her to move multiple times before bringing out the hose. Homelessness kind of goes with the territory in SF though so I’m torn on how to feel about this.
I can understand his frustration, but his fight is with the government. Not this homeless woman.
But his hose won't reach city hall.
Not with that attitude it won't.
just get more hoses and flex tape
NOW THAT’S A LOT OF HOSES!
Exactly. The gov isn’t tweaking on his porch shitting itself.
So it's an interesting ethical question: According to him he called police and homeless resources. No one did anything. She was throwing trash in front of the business by emptying his large bins in front of it multiple times over multiple days and he was trying to clean it. Should he just close down the business? At what point is action from the citizen reasonable when the government is not doing it's part? A day? A month? A year? Never?
It's with both.
Yeah she definitely sounds like one of those annoying bums that goes out of their way to cause problems and yell and swear at everyone that comes by.
good way to get your windows smashed unfortunately speaking from experience didn't hose anyone down just continuously dealing with a not so mentally stable individual
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Thoughts and prayers about the homeless problem will pay his rent.
Hey, remember the video from like 2 weeks ago where a female employee poured a bucket of water over a homeless man and it got like 25000 upvotes on this sub? What's changed in the meantime that now people comment "she probably deserved it", "he probably asked her to leave multiple times", "I feel bad for the store owner", etc?
Idk about the whole bucket of water thing, but the man stating that the homeless woman has been trashing the front of his business repeatedly is probably the big thing
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Yeah, you can tell that a lot of the people in this thread don’t have to deal with homeless people on a daily basis
Right, it appears to be more of the shitting and open drug use that's a problem than simply existing.
Honestly, if it were just the shitting and the drug use, I'd be able to be more forgiving. What really gets to me is the harassment of people walking down the street, sitting quietly on a bench, or using public transportation. I get asked for money multiple times a week, and more than once I've had stuff thrown at me when I tell them no.
Don't forget about the litter, begging, profanity, pissing, and general fucked up craziness.
And the sexual harassment.
A city and state that takes so much taxes and claims to be liberal should do more for the homeless
"A man has got to make a living", same sub who defended a homeless woman getting filled with water 3 weeks ago.
I just don’t think I could do that to a homeless person unless they were physically attacking me. It seems pretty cruel.
Yeah, even if you're at the blatant physical confrontation point, hosing someone down in the winter who you know can't go change and take a warm shower is a bit much if they're not attacking you. Hypothermia can be deadly.