Baltimore born, raised and living here still.

My startup adventures have prompted many visits to San Fran and in turn I witnessed the plight of the homeless there. It does not exist on any scale like it does there whether it's in Baltimore or New York City where I lived a year after college.

There's not much you can do re: the homeless in San Francisco, but it bothers me and makes me feel bad.

Overall not a fan of San Francisco for a variety of reasons.

Sure, they would love a place to stay, as long as someone else took care of it and paid all the bills. But the same difficulty with life that causes them to be where they are -- whether mental, physical, or abuse related, is going to prevent them from being self-sufficient even if the rent they have to pay is zero. In terms of being unconstitutional, maybe it is, but it's the only solution to this problem. People who are unable to take care of their basic needs and defecate on the streets need to be forced into group home situations until they demonstrate an ability to handle the difficulties of managing self-care.

> In terms of being unconstitutional, maybe it is, but it's the only solution to this problem. People who are unable to take care of their basic needs and defecate on the streets need to be forced into group home situations until they demonstrate an ability to handle the difficulties of managing self-care.

You're advocating for in-prisoning people who cannot afford or, for whatever reason, can't live in a home. That's really awful and lacking in empathy. That's almost like debtors prison.

The vast majority of these people will actually stay in a home if you provide one. The majority of them in SF, however, do not have access to any type of shelter because the existing shelters are far too overcrowded and any attempts at building new shelters get held up for years by people who don't want homeless people in their neighborhoods.

The solution to helping someone is providing them with healthcare (preventative is far cheaper than reactionary care for the tax payer) and providing them with a place to stay. Currently we don't really do either, especially in SF.

Not to be rude, but you sound like the out of towners we are sick of already in the bay area.

Please read grandparent's other posts. They are thoughtful, born from experience, and (IMHO) dead on.