The plan for what to do when people decline services is the big deal.
So many ask me, why all these tent cities? Why all these people on the street. Is San Francisco so poor, why don’t they help?
Because they don’t want a clean shelter bed where they have minimal behavior standards. They want to get high, be loony, and be abusive.
In my opinion if you are sleeping on the street (not accidentally napping, but, crashed out), publicly intoxicated and that means with any drug, abusing others, holding or using illegal drugs (and they should be illegal), publicly urinating or defecating, in possession of stolen goods - you should just do jail time. Involuntary psych for those who are assessed as seriously crazy.
In year’s past, they’d be taken to insane asylums for their and the public’s safty.
But homeless crazies have “rights” to be cray cray.
Yes.
San Francisco spends millions on the homeless every year. They provide shelters that have beds, food, washer & dryer facilities, recreation, telephone access, and human assistance for psychological and medical needs. Not only that, SF runs a vanpool service that picks up homeless and transports them from and to shelters. I've seen the inside of these shelters, they're full of high and nutty homeless. SF also provides free needles and other drug materials so they can continue getting high. Throwing money at the homeless doesn't work.
What works is to clear the streets constantly, tossing out homeless debris, to send the message that they can't just plop down anywhere and impact residents. Move them along and force them to get help and pick themselves up. Otherwise they multiply like the vermin most of them are.