
Drone photos show S.F.'s first city-sanctioned tent encampment - jelliclesfarm
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/slideshow/Safe-Sleeping-Village-SF-City-Hall-homeless-tent-202514.php
======
carapace
Disclosure up front: I was homeless for about four and a half years at one
point, and I'm from San Francisco.

On the one hand, I can't believe it took a EXPLETIVE DELETED pandemic to get
_San Francisco_ to do the simple, cheap, obvious, _humane_ thing. On the other
hand, thank God we're doing it now.

Most homeless people who aren't actually mentally ill, who are just having a
hard time, just need a safe place to keep their stuff, sleep at night, and
clean themselves and their stuff. If we provide _that_ they can get back to
being stable productive members of society on their own.

We can also identify the folks who need more help due to mental illness and/or
personal problems.

It also helps to keep drama, petty crime, and drug use low when you have
"entrances that are monitored by officials 24 hours a day."

And it helps with the pandemic too!

> The Safe Sleeping Village model is being piloted as a short-term, temporary
> method ...

Let's hope "short-term, temporary" means "until we solve homelessness" and not
"until we feel safe kicking everyone back to the curb", eh?

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Why is this a good idea? The number of homeless people increased because they
turned people out of shelter beds.

[..] The new village is part of a pilot program to bring organization around
the growing number of tents covering city sidewalks. A city count at the
beginning of the month revealed a 71% increase in tents citywide since January
and 285% increase in the Tenderloin, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

"The City has estimated that an increase has occurred based on having had to
reduce the number of shelter beds," the city said in a statement.[..]

~~~
carapace
Ah I missed that part. I assumed that these folks were "overflow" from the
available spaces without thinking about it. I've heard although I don't know
if it's true that we're sheltering people in Moscone Center.

The good thing is letting people have a safe stable place to live even if it's
just a tent in Civic Center. Instead we typically send police to roust folks
and take all their stuff.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Do homeless people come to San Francisco because services are not available in
cheaper CoL elsewhere?

I don’t think public spaces should be used to house homeless people in tents.
Public spaces and commons belong to everyone.

~~~
carapace
> Do homeless people come to San Francisco because services are not available
> in cheaper CoL elsewhere?

It was ~20 years ago now, and I can't speak for every homeless person
obviously, but no, SF has (had?) a rep as being a bit tougher and more
dangerous than other West Coast cities. There's a "hub" of sorts around Haight
St. for travelers but most SF city homeless folks are not involved w/ the
hippies and travelers.

> I don’t think public spaces should be used to house homeless people in
> tents. Public spaces and commons belong to everyone.

I absolutely agree. Let me clarify that I don't think this move is an absolute
good, just that it's much better than rousting people and taking their stuff.

Ideally, we would construct ~0.5 million houses and apartments and everyone
can just live inside if they want to, eh? (The last thing I read said the
national housing shortfall in the USA is around 400,000 units!)

~~~
jelliclesfarm
I agree. The solution for homelessness is to build more homes. The problem
seems to be that everyone wants to live in the same high cost of living
metro/urban areas. There are cheaper places in California where everyone can
be housed.

Having said that..not specifically about homelessness but more re housing
affordability(because they can be connected) I like the Singapore model..where
high density home complexes are built and given out on 99 year leases for
different income levels. Over 76% of Singapore’s population is housed this
way. It takes the pressure off housing affordability. But then
again..Singapore is a benevolent dictatorship...their way of governance won’t
fly in California.

