HOMELESS IN THE BAY AREA

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We are all shocked and appaled by the homeless people situation and living conditions in San Francisco. Let's share with you the latest article posted by Misha Weidman on its blog.

 

His article ''Homeless in the Bay Area'', posted on www.RealDataSF.com, compares San Francisco with other cities and counties in the US and sheds some light on how the situation is handled and on policies outcomes and consequences. Ultimately, it is trying to figure out what could be actual solutions. 

 

 

HOMELESS IN THE BAY AREA 

by Misha Weidman

 

 

The weather is turning chilly.  While most of us were enjoying a surfeit of food with friends and family indoors last week, the Bay Area's homeless were struggling to stay warm.  I've lived in this city for over 30 years, and the only other time I can think of when homelessness was this visible occurred during the mid-1990's, before the dot com bust. Then, like now, the city was doing well.

 

It’s easy to avert our gaze from the tent encampments that gather under the freeways and along certain streets. Meanwhile, home prices are at record levels. Surely we can do better.

 

 

SPUR is a leading urban planning organization focused on Bay Area development and government. In its September issue of The Urbanist (available here),  SPUR breaks down the demographics of homelessness by county and provides background on its causes. It also offers some policy directions, if not solutions.  Here are some takeaways from the article.

 

 

 

It should not come as a surprise that the most urban of counties, San Francisco, has the highest homelessness rate at about 0.85%.  With SF's population currently estimated at around 870,000, that puts the number of homeless at about 7,400 individuals.  I found it surprising, however, that the homeless rate in San Francisco has not gotten worse in recent years — if anything it's improved slightly (...

 

Read further on www.RealDataSF.com.

 

 

 

Retrouvez les toutes dernières publications de Misha sur son blog realdatasf.com, qui regorge d'informations documentées, imagées et argumentées sur San Francisco.