Re:S.F. pays $61k/year for one tent to shelter the homeless
by the_only_law on Sunday March 07, 2021 @08:28PM
(#26381482)
Pretty sure I’ve told this story several times, but this seems like a decent thread to do so again.
A few months ago I watched a video from sometime in the early-2010s. I believe this was in LA. There was a punk guy who had in his youth experienced homelessness and decided he wanted to help people in that position. He begun crowdfunding for a project that would involve constructing small shelters that had locks, power outlets with a solar panel, etc. to help some people on the street. The project started out rather successful and some of the people receiving the shelters were very thankful and express the helpfulness of this.
Not too long later, the city came back livid. Some people were complaining about their property values dropping due to these shelters (which I don’t particularly get, is having unhorsed or tented people around you going to do better anyway) and the city brought up concerns about these being on the sidewalk taking up space. They offered to relocate the shelters somewhere where they weren’t a safety hazard but the city kind of just told them to fuck off and had them confiscated and destroyed. One of the recipients of one of the shelters commented about a police officer scoffing at him and making a comment a how he should “just get a job”. All the time, there was a city bureaucrat talking about hoe the man organizing this project was helping no one and how his grand plan to “end homelessness was the real solution. I imagine that worked out great.
A few months ago I watched a video from sometime in the early-2010s. I believe this was in LA. There was a punk guy who had in his youth experienced homelessness and decided he wanted to help people in that position. He begun crowdfunding for a project that would involve constructing small shelters that had locks, power outlets with a solar panel, etc. to help some people on the street. The project started out rather successful and some of the people receiving the shelters were very thankful and express the helpfulness of this.
Not too long later, the city came back livid. Some people were complaining about their property values dropping due to these shelters (which I don’t particularly get, is having unhorsed or tented people around you going to do better anyway) and the city brought up concerns about these being on the sidewalk taking up space. They offered to relocate the shelters somewhere where they weren’t a safety hazard but the city kind of just told them to fuck off and had them confiscated and destroyed. One of the recipients of one of the shelters commented about a police officer scoffing at him and making a comment a how he should “just get a job”. All the time, there was a city bureaucrat talking about hoe the man organizing this project was helping no one and how his grand plan to “end homelessness was the real solution. I imagine that worked out great.