Here's a news flash for you: many of the people who live in the Tenderloin Housing Clinic have dispositions that are different from those who do not require assisted housing. In other words, people who are able to take care of themselves tend not to wind up in assisted housing; and those who are may find that they do not have much in common with the folks around them.

For example, check out some of the videos on the Bluoz blog -- he's was the tenant of a hotel when it was transferred to the stewardship of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and found that his new neighbors were not always easy to get along with. Lately, he's been documenting the repeat offenders: people who disrupt the peace day after day, sometimes to the point that police come, but are allowed to remain in the clinic.

So, what's to be done? Who knows. Some of the folks in the housing clinic are never going to "get better" -- obstacles such as mental illness, substance addiction, neurological trauma, and plain old bad judgment are so great that even if there was enough counseling and treatment, they might never be able to live without assistance.

And what's the alternative to putting them in a housing clinic? Forcible institutionalization? Prison? Who's going to pay for it? And is it going to cost more than the tens of millions that the city already spends on imposing a semblance of order in the lives of disadvantaged individuals?