Re:Stripe to move to South San Francisco
by harimau777 on Thursday October 24, 2019 @06:31AM
(#21343205)
I agree with you that homelessness isn't as simple as just saying "mental health".
However, when people talk about homelessness being such a big problem in SF, I think a lot of what they are talking about is the subset of homeless people who are "violently mentally ill". That's something that I saw a lot more of in SF than in cities in the Mid West. By "violently mentally ill" I mean things like:
- Yelling at pedestrians that they are the incarnation of Satan and were going to use their demonic powers to strike them down.
- Using racial slurs for minorities that walked past.
- Purposely invading people's personal space.
I don't know why this would be a greater problem, or a more visible problem, with the homeless in SF compared to other places. Maybe in the Mid West it is difficult for people who are too mentally ill to survive the winter. Maybe other cities use anti-vagrancy laws to round them up.
However, when people talk about homelessness being such a big problem in SF, I think a lot of what they are talking about is the subset of homeless people who are "violently mentally ill". That's something that I saw a lot more of in SF than in cities in the Mid West. By "violently mentally ill" I mean things like:
- Yelling at pedestrians that they are the incarnation of Satan and were going to use their demonic powers to strike them down.
- Using racial slurs for minorities that walked past.
- Purposely invading people's personal space.
I don't know why this would be a greater problem, or a more visible problem, with the homeless in SF compared to other places. Maybe in the Mid West it is difficult for people who are too mentally ill to survive the winter. Maybe other cities use anti-vagrancy laws to round them up.