March 30, 2007
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
So in light of the recent homeless survey, the question everyone is asking is Col. Tigh? Really? And what's with "All Along the Watchtower?"
Oh wait, that's "Battlestar Galactica."
Where were we?
Oh yeah, so the question everyone is wondering is what's with all the homeless people who came here from elsewhere? Why do they keep on coming here? It's a big and relevant question because according to the survey, 31% of the homeless just arrived from other places.
Well, according to Trent Roher, the reason they come here is the same reason we all come here: tolerance and culture. And Roher also adds, because "the city has one of the best public transportation systems in the country" which, yes, is slightly laughable but do homeless people come here because the N Judah is so nice?
The Coalition for the Homeless, however, is saying all those statistics are hogwash and that nobody comes here from elsewhere and every homeless person is just somebody who can't find housing. Gosh darn statistics, always telling you something that's not true.
|
Any dummy will tell you that they come here because SF tolerates them more than any other place..we feed them, give them health care, try to find places for them to sleep and let them panhandle and use drugs. The mayor's Homeless Connect program might as well be a banner ad for the homeless to come to SF.
The 31% statistic is useless without knowing how it compares with the out of town % in other major cities. Homeless people move around a lot so one would expect a pretty high rate of out of town folk in all homeless populations.
It's obnoxious when people try and score political points using crappy statistics.
1) damn you, sfist, for that spoiler! i didn't want to know!
2) as a service provider, my two cents is that its pretty equal -- a lot of people come here expecting rent to be cheaper, cost of living to be cheaper, and then when they flounder there's a net, but its not a particularly nice one. there are huge gaping holes in it, which people who have been here forever consistently fall though.
The homeless situation here is way out of hand compared to those "other" cities - its obvious to anyone who can find their nose in front of their face. NYC, Boston, Chicago...none of them compares to SF when it comes to complete disfunctionality of the homeless problem.
We coddle these folks out here, plain and simple. We don't punish anyone for doing drugs in public, squatting on street corners, shitting on front stoops. And anytime we try to clean up the mess, the Guardianista types scream bloody murder.
When you treat crackheads and drunks like its a "lifestyle" choice, you get what you get. If we'd start actually treating them like crackheads and drunks, you'd see this City get cleanup quick.
Dave not all homeless people are crack and alcohol addicted.While some maybe NOT ALL ARE!
They come here expecting housing and cost of living to be cheaper???
Are they homeless or retarded?
Sorry teacup, I tried not to give away too much but let's say whatever you think I said is not nearly as amazing as you think it is. Total mindfrak.
bluecanary, its totally legit; outside SF -- ie, the midwest and south -- we have this reputation of being welcoming, supportive, with remanants of the summer of love with open couches and easily found community. i had the same misconception when i first moved here, and i constantly meet people -- especially teenagers -- who heard that soandso moved here and stayed with their aunt and got a job in a week and why isn't is that easy for them? its been worse since Katrina. I wonder if the city factored that in while counting this year -- its an important question. I've met too many people who were displaced to here who were left with nothing and no way to pull themselves up.
on principal i hate the bus ride home program. i kinda love it because i see kids (who come out here with no money thinking it'll be easy) get tickets back to their parent's to go grow up a little. i know not everyone uses their tickets for that reason, but its nice to think that it happens sometimes.
and jon -- i dont even want to know. i'm at the end of season 2.5 and i just want everything to be ok. and for kara not to be pregnant cause she's drinking too fracking much.
I took part as a volunteer for this year's homeless count on January 31, here's how it worked (at least how they told us it was going to work) to the best of my recollection...
There were a couple hundred volunteers, some opening remarks by Angela Alioto, some other folks, and Gavin Newsom. In hindsight, he was pretty composed given that the Ruby Tourk thing had started breaking that day and would be in the papers the next morning.
Anyways, these were the instructions:
1. Cover every block within your area.
2. Do not approach or talk to any homeless people.
3. Not everyone who's panhandling or dumpster diving is homeless. Use your best judgement.
4. If there's a vehicle that you think people are living in, count two people per vehicle. For abandoned buildings, count three people.
So then we split up into groups and were given a map and a sheet to tally up the people we counted.
The entire city was broken into count areas, some were walking routes, most were driving routes. They were pretty clear that we were only supposed to count inside the shaded part of our map. Also, they said that SFPD and Parks staff would count in parks and other sketchy areas that they couldn't send volunteers into.
My group's area was around 9th and Irving, including the south side of Lincoln along Golden Gate Park. Certain spots were marked on the map where they thought we'd likely find homeless people, like an all-night donut shop on the corner of 9th and Judah.
For each person we saw, we had to mark down gender, race, approximate age, alone or in a group, and whether they had a shopping cart or pets. For vehicles or buildings that we counted as inhabited but couldnt' see into, they told us to leave all the personal info blank.
I ended up driving around with two city employees, and it was actually kind of difficult, especially when it came to vehicles. At 10pm, it's hard to tell the difference between a shitty van and a shitty van that someone's living in.
We counted fewer people than I would have thought, probably since most people would have already gone back into the park for the night. Again, they told us that city staff would be counting inside the parks.
Overall, it seemed like a decent system of counting, given the logistical challenge of trying to count every homeless person in the city in a single night. Any more personal data, like whether people came from out of town, would have been collected the following day by interviews (not conducted by volunteers) at service centers.
I took part as a volunteer for this year's homeless count on January 31, here's how it worked (at least how they told us it was going to work) to the best of my recollection...
There were a couple hundred volunteers, some opening remarks by Angela Alioto, some other folks, and Gavin Newsom. In hindsight, he was pretty composed given that the Ruby Tourk thing had started breaking that day and would be in the papers the next morning.
Anyways, these were the instructions:
1. Cover every block within your area.
2. Do not approach or talk to any homeless people.
3. Not everyone who's panhandling or dumpster diving is homeless. Use your best judgement.
4. If there's a vehicle that you think people are living in, count two people per vehicle. For abandoned buildings, count three people.
So then we split up into groups and were given a map and a sheet to tally up the people we counted.
The entire city was broken into count areas, some were walking routes, most were driving routes. They were pretty clear that we were only supposed to count inside the shaded part of our map. Also, they said that SFPD and Parks staff would count in parks and other sketchy areas that they couldn't send volunteers into.
My group's area was around 9th and Irving, including the south side of Lincoln along Golden Gate Park. Certain spots were marked on the map where they thought we'd likely find homeless people, like an all-night donut shop on the corner of 9th and Judah.
For each person we saw, we had to mark down gender, race, approximate age, alone or in a group, and whether they had a shopping cart or pets. For vehicles or buildings that we counted as inhabited but couldnt' see into, they told us to leave all the personal info blank.
I ended up driving around with two city employees, and it was actually kind of difficult, especially when it came to vehicles. At 10pm, it's hard to tell the difference between a shitty van and a shitty van that someone's living in.
We counted fewer people than I would have thought, probably since most people would have already gone back into the park for the night. Again, they told us that city staff would be counting inside the parks.
Overall, it seemed like a decent system of counting, given the logistical challenge of trying to count every homeless person in the city in a single night. Any more personal data, like whether people came from out of town, would have been collected the following day by interviews (not conducted by volunteers) at service centers. We were just there to count.
We haven't said, and wouldn't say, that no homeless people come to San Francisco from out of town. We've detailed our objections to that particular statistic on our blog.