Spotted the guy who's never been to downtown San Francisco ;)

It is an order of magnitude worse there than just about anywhere else I've been (and I have traveled a lot)

Spotted the guy whose never been to downtown LA. It is much worse down south considering the weather is much better.

But really, only Alaska is relatively immune from this problem given that they just give homeless people a bus ticket to LA when winter hits.

Homelessness in Anchorage (Alaska) is a real issue. There are hundreds of chronically homeless, and not enough shelter beds to go around. Many winters 10+ people freeze to death on the streets.

There aren't any regularly operated buses from Anchorage to the rest of the US, and I'm fairly certain there aren't any homeless deportation programs (which would probably involve flying people commercially - there is a ferry, but its not really cheaper).

So my mom mentioned this to me, so it's only anecdata, while she hadn't lived in anchorage since the 60s, my info could be a bit out of date.

I once accidentally stumbled into a street downtown LA in my early 20s. It was full of druggies and gangsters. I never felt so scared of my safety before. I definitely felt eyes staring a me like I didn't belong there.

I have travelled to many countries where some places are considered dangerous for travellers. And never have I been more afraid than that day.

I took a grey hound as a kid across country and made the mistake of getting out at LA to look around. It felt like the walking dead at the time! Was aggressively pan handled, lost five bucks, came out of it ok. But SF has nothing on LA.

I stayed in SF for a couple weeks when I interned at a startup.

I live in Toronto, we have homeless people here too. So I guess the only real way to solve this is with data?

I believe that 'worse' in this case must mean that the homeless people are more visible.[1]

[1] http://fusion.net/story/148372/san-francisco-homelessness/

Big Data TM. I hear IBM has enterprise solutions to all of those.

Not to the extend that SF has. I have never seen so many homeless people before. And its not like they were starving at all. I heard they get paid by the government a $1000 a month. I even saw some reading books at the park.

> I even saw some reading books at the park.

I mean... homeless people read books. Seems like a good use of time to me when you're unemployed and homeless. It sounds like you think is a problem for some reason?

It's just not something I see homeless people do. So I was quite unfamiliar with the sight. Everyone has the right to do what they want with their time, but for me, I would imagine trying to find a proper job would be more important. Off course, I don't know about their situation so I shouldn't judge.

Who do you think would hire a homeless person walking in off the street? There are other aspects to life that need stabilizing before they think about finding work.

If you see a non-homeless person reading a book, do you automatically assume they are neglecting their spouse, kids and job? And do you not have anything more important to do than read HN?

Sometimes people need leisure, homeless or not.