"clean up the city" = further brutalize the poor and unhoused.
What is that based on? My understanding from experts is that housing provides people with the stability to address their other problems. It's a valuable first step. Imagine trying to deal with whatever your problems are today if you also were homeless. Now imagine your problems are far worse, food is an issue, and emotionally debilitating.
Even well-housed people I know have a hard time dealing with their long-term problems. Add some more stress to their lives and they fall apart.
> ~50% of the homeless are severely mentally ill and/or on hard drugs
Where does that number come from? AFAIK, medical bills are a leading cause of homelessness.
Citation needed. Mental illness is very unlikely to improve if someone is sleeping under a bridge. Just like pneumonia.
Besides, free mental health services and nationalized healthcare exist for a reason.
Preventing violent crime; Streamlining emergency medical calls; Interrupting open air-drug dealing; Interrupting open-air substance abuse; Establishing safe passage and accessibility for citizens; Expanding housing resources; Interrupting illegal vending; Improving neighborhood cleanliness;
Only point 6 is about actually helping the homeless.
Now that a safe injection site is opening, we need no longer tolerate people injecting needles into themselves on the streets.
Maybe you think what's going on in the Tenderloin (and Soma) is acceptable. But if so, you're in the minority now. No one should be subjected to being harassed by psychotic people while picking up household necessities at Target on a Saturday afternoon. After all these years people's patience is wearing thin.
I definitely don't think things are good as they are now. And I would highly appreciate programs that help the homeless as well as cleans things up.
> What if I told you that there are plenty of people and families in the Tenderloin that face public safety issues on the daily on their way to school?
If you read the post I was replying too, bostonsre was describing this program as mainly about helping the poor, and with cleaning up as a side effect. In reality the program mostly talks about the cleaning up side of things. That's all.