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A comment on Why are there so many crazy bums on San Francisco streets?.

Re:Why are there so many crazy bums on San Francisco streets? by theorique on Sunday December 01, 2013 @08:24PM (#6830578)
One answer that I had heard was that it's been standard practice for various municipalities to buy vagrants one-way tickets to SF. (Don't know if it's true or apocryphal.)

(edit: TIL it is called "greyhound therapy" as described in brandur's comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6830558)

That, combined with the mostly hospitable climate for homelessness, and the municipal tolerance for ... unconventional ... lifestyles, would explain at least part of it.

Also, it's where the 60s "happened", so at least some of the head cases can be attributed to taking too many strange drugs.

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Re:Why are there so many crazy bums on San Francisco streets? by benmccann on Sunday December 01, 2013 @11:25PM (#6831586)
The first estimates I found on Google show 130,000 homeless in California with 500-1,500 sent here via "greyhound therapy". It's not a small amount, but it's still only ~1% of the homeless population.
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