Hacker News Reader

Comment by hezralig | Hacker News Reader

I know plenty of homeless people in San Francisco without drug issues. The reason they are on the street or living in their cars or crashing on a friends couch in between either other spot? They cannot afford rent. Both friends I am currently in contact with are also CURRENTLY employed.

View on HN

I know lots of normally functioning adults who cannot afford rent in San Francisco. Many of them have bigger, nicer houses than my apartment - elsewhere than San Francisco.

That's dope. Are any of them employed in SF, grew up in SF, and have no social supports outside of SF?

I can think of more people who switched languages and continents than who still live in the city where they grew up. Establishing yourself in a new place where you don't know anyone isn't easy or painless, but compared to literally sleeping under a bridge? Come on.

> Both friends I am currently in contact with are also CURRENTLY employed.

Genuinely curious, what is the estimated income of your two homeless friends? And do they have any limitations on their salary potential?

You know people who can't afford rent in one of the most expensive cities in the world to rent in? Shocked - shocked I tell you! If only there were a solution...

As a Vancouverite I'd appreciate it if you didn't compare your extremely affordable city to my own. /s

If you're crashing on a friend's couch, you're not homeless.

Everyone cohabitates with family and friends at some point in life. It's very different than sleeping on the street.

When you live on the street and sometimes can crash on a friend's couch, you are homeless.

yet this part of their statement is still true, let's focus on solving 70% of the problem and then we can debate the rest

> This has little to do with the availability of housing, or the cost of housing. Some people will simply refuse to live in the housing that is provided. Many are so mentally ill and addicted to drugs that no amount of money we give them, either directly or indirectly, will get them off the streets.

I agree. Most people who are homeless at any given time are not homeless due to chronic drug abuse.

People that choose to make a lifestyle of it should be dealt with forcefully. And no I'm not saying to beat them up although I'm not against rounding them up and dropping them in the wilderness just like a racoon. It's not a permanent solution but deters the lifestyle and is much cheaper than rehabilitating people that don't want it.

come on this is anecdotal

Everything in this thread is anecdotal

Reply on news.ycombinator.com