Homeless people in the city

There is a Homeless Coalition that fights for rights of the homeless - to obtain services - http://www.sf-homeless-coalition.org/eng/about/ - I don't know anything about this Coalition. However I do know that the homeless issue is top of mind with Mayor Newsome - this is a press release from March: http://sfgov.org/site/mayor_page.asp?id=58094

Obviously the number is waaaaaaay too high still, but it is good to see the giv adressing the problem somewhat. I think they could be more proactive, as SF is supposed to be one the most beautiful cities in the world, and while it is, the homeless people situation can intimidate some people and really detract from the SF experience. Progress is being made though, which is a good thing.

AJ

Thought it might be interesting to revive another old topic. Is it just me, or does it seem like the homeless problem in SF has really waned. I remember that a few years ago--even before the 2007 and crash and all that--it seemed like the homeless issue was really making the news. But it feels like an eternity since I've heard it come up again. Anybody have any idea why?

That's true. I haven't really noticed the homeless people in SF as much.

But I have to say that I always thought the homeless people on Telegraph were a lot more aggressive and in your face than the ones I ran into in the city.

That is so true. Its one of the main reasons I avoid Telegraph whenever I find myself in Berkeley. I used to live right by People's Park when I was a student so I got pretty used to--to the point where get panhandled became like white noise. But after I had left for a while and come back I found the constant call for "spare change," a little unnerving.

I used to have friend who had a really conservative, former Vet kind of dad and when he would visit her it would be really funny. We'd be on Telegraph going somewhere and when some runaway panhandler would try to hit him up for spare change he would just growl, "Get a job!" For some reason it would really crack me up.

That is pretty funny. Truthfully though, I was never sure what the "right" attitude was towards the homeless. I mean on the one hand I felt like I should see them as objects of charity. I feel guilty when I don't try to help them out. On the other hand, I'm not sure that actually giving them money really helps.

My roommate and I were coming out of a Chinese restaurant one night back in college and there was this homeless guy there who asked us for money. I said I couldn't really spare it (though I always felt this was a lame excuse when you have just come out of restaurant). Anyway, so my friend offer to give the guy our leftovers, but the guy looked at our bag and said, "Whoa, man. I don't do Chinese food!"

Now I know the thought of eating someone elses Chinese food leftovers can't be all that appealing, but still, he is a homeless guy begging for money for food. Shouldn't he feel grateful for what he gets. Beggers can't be choosers, right?

The other day, I got hit up for spare change in Orinda. The guy claimed to need it to get on BART but his story didn't quite make sense. Could we be getting homeless people panhandling in Orinda? I have never, in ten years of living hear ever seen anything even remotely like a homelss person, but I remember that that happened to the town where I grew up. All of a sudden things started to decline like that.

I doubt you are beginning of the decline of Orinda. The poor guy was probably just genuinely stuck.

SF definitely seems to have a higher degree of homelessness than NYC overall. I guess it's neighborhood-by-neighborhood though, as the SOMA/Tenderloin area feels sketchy even in the middle of the day, while the homeless people in the Mission seem to keep to themselves, even at night.

However, I've been hit up by (multiple) panhandlers in the Walmart parking lot in Mountain View, so I suppose it's all relative. Why is it that it's so bad around here?

@StephSF: Really? Higher than NYC? I spent about three years in Manhattan when I was a kid and I seem to recall lots and lots of homeless folks. Maybe its just because I was only 9 and very impressionable--I probably had never seen a homeless person before then. And this was way back when Koch was mayor--so things may have changed.

I have heard that homeless problem really started to get bad after the social securtity net was gutted by the Reagan administration in the 80's--according to what I have read the cuts to the mental health agencies also explains the increase in mentally ill homeless people. I don't know if this is true. I think that many of these decisions are taken on the state level. But who knows.

NYC has cleaned up a lot since the mid-90s - not sure where you were growing up, but the Giuliani administration combined with several other factors (read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point for more information) really turned the city around.

To be fair, homelessness is still a problem there. Let me rephrase and clarify - relative to population densities, SF has a bigger homelessness problem than Manhattan. And it seems more widespread, rather than segregated to several neighborhoods as it is in NYC.

Yeah, I was in NYC way before that. That Gladwell book is pretty good. The police chief tried to do the same sort of "broken windows" type of move in LA but it didn't really work because LA was too spread out. He could really get lots of cops into one problem area because they would just move. He retired a couple of years ago, I think.

You need a city like New York or SF where things are packed together for it to really work well, I guess.