[HN Gopher] It Is Costing San Francisco $5k/Month for Each Homel...
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       It Is Costing San Francisco $5k/Month for Each Homeless Tent
        
       Author : baron816
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2021-03-05 20:25 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sfist.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sfist.com)
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | So much cheaper to pay hotels...?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | sushid wrote:
         | Are you stating that it's NOT cheaper to pay for hotels? The
         | article explicitly addresses this
         | 
         | > The cost boils down to $190 per tent per night, which
         | includes 24-hour security, bathrooms, maintenance, and three
         | meals per day. This is cheaper than the per-day cost for the
         | hotel program, but the hotel program is getting 100% federal
         | reimbursement. (Thanks, Biden.)
        
       | aleister_777 wrote:
       | They don't actually cost that much. The corruption and grift
       | costs that much, but the tents are much less expensive.
        
       | noodlesUK wrote:
       | Seeing the horrible conditions homeless and desperately poor
       | people face in the US is one of the deeply shocking things about
       | coming from the EU. Even in poorer countries in Eastern Europe,
       | you don't see the kind of totally fucked up living situations
       | that you do in SF and Seattle. What can a person do to help with
       | this, as the government (at least federal/state level) seems to
       | have no desire to do anything about it? Is it because there's no
       | medical care available? Is it because of housing? Wages? What?
       | How do we fix this?
        
         | lupire wrote:
         | Those cities have the most homeless people because they have
         | the best weather and political support for homeless people to
         | survive than anywhere else. They are better not worse.
        
           | supersour wrote:
           | There's a similarly tragic problem with Vancouver East side.
        
         | bsder wrote:
         | Dunno about everywhere in Europe, but the area around Gare du
         | Nord struck me as pretty far down the scale.
         | 
         | Universal healthcare would sure be a good start in the US.
        
         | BitwiseFool wrote:
         | It's a really peculiar situation, and the cities you mentioned
         | spend hundreds of millions on homeless programs and the
         | politicians there have tried a slew of policies but to little
         | avail. You could always argue the government needs to do even
         | more, but it's wrong to say our politicians have no desire to
         | do anything about it.
        
           | robertlagrant wrote:
           | I know this sounds cynical, but I really think that
           | politicians' policies - which are just plans to spend other
           | people's money - are no substitute for motivated people
           | actually going out and making a difference.
        
         | nessguy wrote:
         | Are you sure there's not similar situations in Europe? I'm sure
         | the healthcare situation over there helps a lot, but it looks
         | like there's still groups of people living in tents in some
         | places. https://www.politico.eu/article/homelessness-qa-freek-
         | spinne...
         | 
         | I know Japan also has a bunch of homeless people living in
         | tents as well, I've seen them riding around collecting cans to
         | recycle for money.
        
           | nickfromseattle wrote:
           | I spent 8 months in Belgrade, Serbia.
           | 
           | I only saw one crazy homeless looking person, and they were
           | being actively treated by non-LEO services.
           | 
           | Europe, and Eastern Europe runs a tight ship when it comes to
           | unsheltered homeless.
           | 
           | BTW, fun fact - Serbia has the 6th highest per capita gun
           | ownership [0] and 173th lowest per capita murder rate. [1]
           | 
           | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilia
           | n_g...
           | 
           | [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intenti
           | on...
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-05 23:03 UTC)