the majority of the city's homelessness budget goes to keeping people in no-contingency housing units, permanently. what happens when the city can't pay the bill?
That was a heart-wrenching piece, Sanjana. Some men just want to watch the world burn. There is no other way to explain the nihilistic ideology and incompetency governing our fallen cities.
NYC is building tent cities over kids' soccer fields in parks and in hospital parking lots. Danny Meyer's restaurants have closed in a luxury hotel that has now been converted into migrant housing. The sanctuary city has taken in 100,000 illegal immigrants who are mostly military aged men and don't have asylum court dates until 2030. Mayor Adams is begging for federal funds to cover the problem he created.
Wow. This piece is revelatory, including as to policy decisions made with knowledge of consequences that, if the consequences were openly acknowledged as part of the decision-making, would change the decisions. Brilliant and disturbing. Thanks to Sanjana and Pirate Wires for this sobering piece.
This makes me so angry it’s hard to put it into words. My cousin died alone in a hotel room a few days ago. Didn’t even know he’d lost a place to live. The way we just sort of let people walk right into hell is shameful.
I love love love loved this piece as a Bay Area native and SF resident. The only thing that I think could be improved is the last line about SF 'burning'. The addiction epidemic and rampant homelessness in mid-Market, Tenderloin, SOMA is a human tragedy of huge proportions and absolutely there is no excuse for it. But still... most of SF is still really nice. My kids go to (public) school here, have access to amazing culture, parks, beaches, food, people. I have a great job I love, live in a tight knit community, and meet new and interesting people every day. So do many people. I think this kind of hyperbole can turn moderates like me off, when I am very open to (in fact begging for) this message. I love the detail, statistics, and clear explanations of how data was gathered. I'd love for more people in SF to understand this. It's a tiny nit but I had to say, thank you for putting this info out there and the research. Would love to learn more about how the money (or votes) flow to incentivize politicians to keep this racket going.
I was wondering whether or how much longer providing “infrastructure and sustainability supports… to more BIPOC-led organizations and organizations deeply rooted in historically marginalized neighborhoods and communities” while “specifically focusing on supporting the capacity-building efforts of Black-led organizations” will be legal. Seems like affirmative action?
Also it’s a shame the Sf is a such a mess. As far as I know, housing first has been fine in Houston, Salt Lake?
I think California will bail them out. And the Fed will bail California out. In fact, there might soon be "matching grants" or some other federal BS, subsidizing "housing first" policies specifically. There's a strong desire on the left to turn housing into exclusively a government-provided and government-controlled service; perhaps they've started to do it from the bottom up, hoping to get more people by crowding out the free market. I just hope we get an R in office before that happens.
Sad when perpetuating a bureaucracy is more important than actually helping people literally dying on the streets. It is unfathomable to me that a billion dollars a year can’t solve this problem because of an blind ideological movement.
This is some awesome writing on a touchy subject! Michael Shellenberger and Leighton Woodhouse at Public are also doing great reporting on this, but I think at this point their frustration is so extreme that the headlines look so reactionary. This just turns off all of the people who need to hear what they are saying.
San Francisco's Homeless Ticking Time Bomb
Great work on this, Sanjana.
That was a heart-wrenching piece, Sanjana. Some men just want to watch the world burn. There is no other way to explain the nihilistic ideology and incompetency governing our fallen cities.
NYC is building tent cities over kids' soccer fields in parks and in hospital parking lots. Danny Meyer's restaurants have closed in a luxury hotel that has now been converted into migrant housing. The sanctuary city has taken in 100,000 illegal immigrants who are mostly military aged men and don't have asylum court dates until 2030. Mayor Adams is begging for federal funds to cover the problem he created.
Escape from New York is a cult classic from 40 years ago that predicted our current state of affairs: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/escapefromnewyork
Wow. This piece is revelatory, including as to policy decisions made with knowledge of consequences that, if the consequences were openly acknowledged as part of the decision-making, would change the decisions. Brilliant and disturbing. Thanks to Sanjana and Pirate Wires for this sobering piece.
This makes me so angry it’s hard to put it into words. My cousin died alone in a hotel room a few days ago. Didn’t even know he’d lost a place to live. The way we just sort of let people walk right into hell is shameful.
Great diagnosis of political pathology
Stalinesq
I love love love loved this piece as a Bay Area native and SF resident. The only thing that I think could be improved is the last line about SF 'burning'. The addiction epidemic and rampant homelessness in mid-Market, Tenderloin, SOMA is a human tragedy of huge proportions and absolutely there is no excuse for it. But still... most of SF is still really nice. My kids go to (public) school here, have access to amazing culture, parks, beaches, food, people. I have a great job I love, live in a tight knit community, and meet new and interesting people every day. So do many people. I think this kind of hyperbole can turn moderates like me off, when I am very open to (in fact begging for) this message. I love the detail, statistics, and clear explanations of how data was gathered. I'd love for more people in SF to understand this. It's a tiny nit but I had to say, thank you for putting this info out there and the research. Would love to learn more about how the money (or votes) flow to incentivize politicians to keep this racket going.
Time to answer an eternal question: who benefits?
I was wondering whether or how much longer providing “infrastructure and sustainability supports… to more BIPOC-led organizations and organizations deeply rooted in historically marginalized neighborhoods and communities” while “specifically focusing on supporting the capacity-building efforts of Black-led organizations” will be legal. Seems like affirmative action?
Also it’s a shame the Sf is a such a mess. As far as I know, housing first has been fine in Houston, Salt Lake?
I think California will bail them out. And the Fed will bail California out. In fact, there might soon be "matching grants" or some other federal BS, subsidizing "housing first" policies specifically. There's a strong desire on the left to turn housing into exclusively a government-provided and government-controlled service; perhaps they've started to do it from the bottom up, hoping to get more people by crowding out the free market. I just hope we get an R in office before that happens.
Sad when perpetuating a bureaucracy is more important than actually helping people literally dying on the streets. It is unfathomable to me that a billion dollars a year can’t solve this problem because of an blind ideological movement.
This is some awesome writing on a touchy subject! Michael Shellenberger and Leighton Woodhouse at Public are also doing great reporting on this, but I think at this point their frustration is so extreme that the headlines look so reactionary. This just turns off all of the people who need to hear what they are saying.