During my sociological studies I was asked to make a presentation on homelessness. At that time it was for me only a distant phenomenon. I did not know then that one day I would be living in a city where homeless people are actually my neighbors, and it is not because we live in a poorer area of the city.
Homelessness in San Francisco and the Bay area is a serious problem, fought for more than decade by the local administration. Between six and fifteen thousand people live on the city’s streets. It is the largest per-capita number of homeless people in all major cities in the United States.
What is amazing, is that this isn’t a depressed area of the country, but rather the most expensive city in the U.S.
Millions of dollars have already been spent, but there is no end in sight.
It does not matter where you are, whether it be the entrance to an exclusive shopping mall or the downtown subway, or at the door of a fancy restaurant, you will often find yourself stepping over someone half-conscious on the street. Dying homeless people remind me of pictures from Third World countries. I’ve seen a lot of similar scenes.
Police officers are seen around, but they do not hurry to act. San Francisco is liberal city, so even though encampments are illegal, and the law says they must be torn down, the law is not enforced. Even the City Hall area is among those that I would most likely avoid. What would Police do anyway? If every homeless lawbreaker were arrested, the city’s jails would overflow.
I can not say which approach is more effective: liberal or conservative, especially when compared with the recent incident in Los Angeles. The local policeman shot dead in broad daylight a mentally ill homeless man. Like many of those from San Francisco, his severe mental problems led to being on the street after being released from institutional care.
Fortunately, as far as fragrance and esthetic-cognitive unpleasenteries, I did not experience any greater trouble.
However, in various conversations, I hear people complaining about the aggressiveness of the homeless, but this had not been our experience in general. Of course, no sooner do I write this than we were confronted by a frightening screaming homeless woman, while we waited for Uber.
This year in San Francisco a new mobile center for the homeless is set to be opened. Unlike other centers of this type it will be available during the day and located near actual encampments. The goal is for these centers to get entire encampments off the street simultaneously, as psychologists find that there is a strong group identity.
So maybe there is hope for all the residents of San Francisco ….
Ps. We are feeling good. Stay tuned for an update on how we are preparing for our upcoming changes.
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| Some benches are designed to prevent homeless people to sleep on them |
Here is a camp in the center of San Francisco, adjacent to the Mozilla and Gap headquarters, and just a short walk to some of the most expensive restaurants in the city.
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Some areas are homeless-free, especially those on the hills. Residents of these areas lobby against local public transportation, so that homeless people don’t relocate there.
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