I Left My (Homeless) Heart in San Francisco
by John Lawrence, September 12, 2019
If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair ... and bring money ...lots of it. If you want to rent a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment, 1000 square feet, it'll cost you $4100! And don't forget the $4100. deposit. Or you could rent a 600 square foot studio for $3300 plus a 2 month security deposit. So you're looking at about $10,000 either way. No wonder there are so many homeless there. Figures from 2018 showed that California had 129,972 homeless people — the biggest street population of any state and 24% of the nation's total. San Francisco, with perhaps the most visible problem of homelessness, has the state's highest rents, home costs and income inequity between rich and poor. San Francisco has officially about 10,000 homeless. However, unofficially , there are a lot more. The Federal point-in-time count does not count people living in RVs or other vehicles nor does it count families living in single rooms, shelters or studios.
San Francisco has more billionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world. It also has more people living in Third World conditions or worse than any city in the US. San Francisco's homeless count has jumped 30% since 2017. Elsewhere in the Bay Area the numbers were even worse. In the East Bay’s Alameda County there was a 43% increase since 2017. In Santa Clara County the number jumped 31% over the last two years. San Francisco city government has blamed the rise in homelessness on big tech companies that have moved to the area, including Twitter, Salesforce, NVIDIA and Eventbrite. They say the businesses have brought high-paying jobs with them, which has caused housing prices to soar and pushed people who can't afford to keep up financially out of the area or onto the streets.
Bingo! There is no rent control in San Francisco or most other California cities. But help is on the way. On September 11, 2019 California lawmakers passed a statewide cap on annual rent increases for most tenants, the boldest step yet to address an affordable housing crunch that has helped push people into the streets. Reuters reported:
The bill limits annual rent increases to 5% after inflation and takes effect from March of this year. It also imposes restriction on evictions without cause - a significant factor in the state’s burgeoning homeless population.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has put affordable housing at the top of his priorities since taking office in January, brokered the negotiations on the legislation. He said he would sign the bill, one of a batch of laws being passed in the final week of the legislative session.
“In this year’s State of the State address, I asked the Legislature to send me a strong renter protection package,” Newsom said in a statement after the bill passed. “Today, they sent me the strongest package in America.”
California is the third state to impose rent controls after Oregon and New York. But limiting rent increases to 5% will do little to solve the housing crisis because rents are already at levels many people cannot afford. In San Francisco average citizens cannot walk the streets without fear of being accosted by mentally deranged homeless. Sanitation conditions on the streets are deplorable with piles of garbage intermixed with human feces and garbage. Recent estimates at building "affordable" housing for the homeless came in at $600,000 per unit. That's because, just as rents and home costs have skyrocketed, so have construction costs.
The solution, in my opinion, is to create safe, sanitary outdoor spaces for the homeless at various locations throughout the city. Public campgrounds with areas for vehicle parking would allow them and the general public including backpackers a secure place to be free from the relentless "move on" of police who hound the homeless to get away from businesses when the owners complain. Public campgrounds could be set up at far less cost than public housing. They should include sanitation facilities, showers, dumpsters, security, lockers and other improvements which would represent a considerable improvement over living on public sidewalks both for the homeless and for the citizens walking the streets and utilizing businesses in areas which have become unsafe and unsanitary. Social services could be provided at such locations which are far more cost effective in getting homeless people back to a normal way of life than would be actual housing sans those services. Shelters would only be needed in inclement weather which there is not too much of in California. Transportation should be provided to homeless services or those services including meals could be dispersed to these public campgrounds which would be open to the public so that they could not be considered homeless concentration camps. These could be provided at minimal cost. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: "An estimated 100,000 homes are sitting empty in the San Francisco metro area." There is also a lot of vacant city owned land which could be turned into public campgrounds at minimal cost.
At the same time local ordinances could be passed forbidding camping on public sidewalks. So the streets would be cleaned up immediately. Average citizens could breathe a sigh of relief, and the homeless would be at least marginally better off. This is necessary because otherwise America is condoning the creation and permanent embodiment of an underclass of subhuman human beings. What they need is clean, secure places to be and social worker type help to address their problems whatever they are. Drug addiction is not confined to the homeless. Major segments of the population are also addicted to some type of drugs or at least they are users. Most that have money don't let their addiction land them up in the streets. They can be highly functioning.
To better understand the homeless situation, you must understand that homelessness is not the major problem. The major problem has to do with the fact that a whole bunch of people have lost their way and need help getting back on track. They need a helping hand or a guiding light more than they need a home. In years gone by, families helped and supported those who could not fend for themselves or make ends meet. It is important to understand that the homeless have no such people in their lives willing or capable of doing this. If they had family resources, their families would get them off the streets. It is not a function of drug addiction. There are some very highly functioning drug addicts. It is a function of not having the mental resources that would induce them to be living constructive lives. That's where a social worker comes in to help them get back on track. More money should be spent on this than on building unaffordable "affordable" housing.
The summer of love in Haight-Ashbury turns out to have been a summer of broken dreams and false hopes. Don't bother with wearing a flower in your hair if you're going to San Francisco. Tony Bennett left his heart (and his wallet) there.
