And how exactly would you solve the root problem of _other cities_ sending their homeless populations to those areas? Make it more miserable to be homeless there so they are forced to go somewhere else?

Law and order is one way. Homeless don't seem to gather in cities with Broken Window policing

[delayed]

You get what you pay for. You spend billions on homeless services you get more homeless people. You spend hundreds of millions on Law and order and you get law and order. You defund the police and you lose law and order.

I guess SF just have to stop the practice of dumping their problem on the rest of the country?

"Between 2005 to 2017, the city of San Francisco sent 10,500 homeless people out of town by bus.[1]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_homeless_relocation_pr...

According to the Guardian the free tickets to SF are in the 100s, while SF sent 10 000 away.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...

The root problem is drug addiction.

And mental illness; which is likely related

The biggest cause of homelessness is the cost of housing.

Sadly, no, it's drug addiction. 90% of the homeless in Seattle are drug addicted, alcoholic, or have mental health problems. About 10% are homeless for economic reasons.

So if I created a drug that cured drug addiction, corrected most psychological disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar, OCD, etc.), and raised IQ by 50 points (to get that "worthless" lower 50% up above the current average, that would be enough?

In fact I have created such a drug. Unfortunately at the moment I have neither the time to write down nor is this post sufficiently capacious to allow delineation of the significant factors involved in the development of the drug. However I do resolve to do so at a later time.

I have been offered billions to NOT release this drug or its derivatives b/c it's use would severely disrupt the USA wage structure: wages would plummet (as a tremendous number of highly-qualified amped-IQ former homeless entered the market), immigrants would suffer and indeed, everyone doing well would suffer. I have refrained from releasing the drug not for that reason but b/c, were I to do so, everyone who posts on HN would then hate me!8-)) But I digress...

My point is that, if we cured this problem(drug addiction) we would only be creating other problems. The only solutions that could work are socially unacceptable. Nonetheless I personally favor the "Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B" solution from "Hitchikers' Guide to the Galaxy":

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Golgafrinchan_Ark_Fleet_...

> if we cured this problem(drug addiction) we would only be creating other problems.

Like what problems, that they could then hold a job? Drug addicts can't hold a job. Their only interest/activity is drug seeking. This is why they are homeless.

I don't pretend to know how to cure drug addiction, but treating it as an economic problem is like giving cough drops to a lung cancer patient.

O ye of little imagination, how sad and frail thou appearest. Were only there a God to protect thee but I fear there is none and thou shalt die tangled on thine own snares.

Source? that's a pretty big claim.

And besides, this feels like a cause and effect issue. Are they addicted to drugs because they became homeless and it was the most humane way to cope outside of suicide? The alternative scenario where perfectly normal Seattle citizens get baked to the point where they can't keep a job seems fantastical.

Do you have a source for that? The numbers I’ve seen show about a third of homeless being drug addicted, and about a quarter with chronic mental health problems. I would assume there is quite a bit of overlap between those two groups.

It’s not just San Francisco, cities all over CA have similar issues (as well as the west coast - Portland, Seattle, etc).

I cannot fathom how you could possibly think how fecal vandalism just a San Francisco problem.

Cleaning literal blood and shit off the walls is a shared experience of “retail service” workers everywhere. This is both a hazard to workers and the customers that keep the place running.

Hell I had to do it at least weekly in an expensive sandwich shop in a small midwest city downtown that was 99% middle/upper class whites and no homeless or druggies in sight.

I cannot imagine having open bathrooms in an area populated with those more likely inflict problems.

I didn't say it wasn't a problem elsewhere, I said this:

> To the extent it is a problem in the rest of US, it's not a big enough problem to outweigh the benefits to the business of offering a public restroom.

There are a few cities where businesses have had to take the extreme measure of closing all public restrooms to combat this abuse. Most haven't.

As a data point, I personally know the owner of multiple restaurants in Minneapolis. He has very happily kept the bathrooms entirely closed to the public since covid -- breaking the law while doing so -- because people are trash and, if allowed, will wreck the bathrooms. Including shitting on the toilet bowl, the walls, floor, etc; drug use; and bathing in the sink, which makes a giant mess that he or his employees have to clean.