San Francisco Rethinks Cash Aid to Homeless

The Los Angeles Times ^ | 8/26/02 | Rone Tempest

[GeneD]

SAN FRANCISCO -- As other cities slashed cash payments to their homeless populations in recent years, San Francisco held out, living up to its national image as a city of compassion and tolerance.

But buffeted by the dot-com collapse and other economic woes, many San Franciscans today see themselves as America's last soft touch. Some say the city's reputation for generosity has made it a magnet for street dwellers, whose numbers fluctuate between 7,000 and 10,000. Tourism promoters complain that aggressive panhandlers are driving visitors away.

Recent public opinion polls show that a large majority of city residents favor a proposal on the fall ballot that would slash homeless general assistance payments to roughly one-fifth of what they are today....

San Francisco voters list homelessness as by far the most serious problem facing the city....

[Dog Gone]

No, no, no. Keep them, San Francisco! We need one moronic city that encourages homelessness by subsidizing it. The rest of the country thanks you! We have to send them someplace.

[ASDFGHJK]

California was the only place I've ever been where the homeless formed a union.

[Dog Gone]

[Ole Okie]

California was the only place I've ever been where the homeless formed a union.

A few years ago, welfare recipients were demanding a few weeks vacation per year.

I truly didn't understand how people who did nothing would know when they were on vacation, unless they got paid extra for their vacations from doing nothing. But I do seem to remember a union being mentioned in that process.

Have the homeless actually formed a union?

[Mr. Jeeves]

Have the homeless actually formed a union?

Are you kidding? Most of them can't even form a coherent sentence.

Homeless advocates, on the other hand, act just like a union - demanding high-paying city jobs and large amounts of city money to carry out their mission: registering "progressive" voters and getting additional city jobs for their domestic partners.

[Bullish]

"I can guarantee you that over 70% of this money is going right back into drugs....."

It's more like 80% easy.

Nothing short of a Gulliani type crackdown will even put a dent in the homeless bum problem in SF. When liberals muck things up it takes a lot of hard work to repair and un-muck them.

[hoosierskypilot]

They might not have run out of money if Willie Brown had not decided to pay for sex-change operations for city employees out of city funds. San Fran is the epitome of lunacy.

[RightOnline]

Having spent more than my share of time in The City, I can only say that never has such a beautiful city been so s**t upon by idiotic liberals. What they've done to San Francisco over the last couple of decades or so is criminal.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

ping

PS If you're in the City vote YES on N and go to www.wewantchange.com

[ASDFGHJK]

Have the homeless actually formed a union?

When I was in Santa Barbara in 1985, there was a 'homeless coalition.' they even had a newspaper, if I recall correctly.

[amstaff1]

Ahhh San Francisco...An ongoing freak show in a beautiful geographical setting. I've lived in the area and worked in the city for the last 14 years to discover one thing. The city is quite possibly the source for all the dysfunction in the universe. One thing they haven't learned. When dealing with people, there truly is such a thing as to much tolerance.

[lizma]

Most of the homeless are severely mentally ill.

For liberals to ignore this just to insight an emotion response to further their cause is heartless and shameless.

[Pining_4_TX]

Ah, the first rule of economics - what you encourage (subsidize), will increase, and what you discourage (tax), will decrease. So, taxing productive people and paying bums leads to fewer of the former and more of the latter. This is so simple, so basic, why do people have to keep relearning it?

[Redcloak]

The problem is, obviously, that they're not spending enough! Don't the greedy have enough already? They have more than anyone could reasonably expect to use in a dozen lifetimes. The City shouldn't give in to the selfishness of some of their "citizens". True citizens of the City and the World know what their duty is. They must take away from those who's greed blinds them to the suffering of their fellow man and give to those less fortunate. The mere pittance that the greedy fatcats have allowed the homeless didn't have a hope of success. How is one supposed to feed a family or provide them a home on a few dollars a day? Only through granting the homeless the equivalent of a true living wage will the problem be solved.

I hope that I didn't lay it on too thick!!

[Clemenza]

Nothing short of a Gulliani type crackdown will even put a dent in the homeless bum problem in SF. When liberals muck things up it takes a lot of hard work to repair and un-muck them.

Eight years of Giuliani and they are still here (they never left!) although they are no longer "aggresive" like they were in the Koch era.

[cinFLA]

Have the homeless actually formed a union?

They DO get a cost-of-living adjustment in SF due to the higher cost of drugs living in SF.

[Vidalia]

Just pass out the good stuff from the evidence rooms, bypassing the dealers and "steppers", and let your EMT teams know that they will be making overtime pay for the next few weeks...