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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

Whenever I hear these stories I always wonder, why California. Why not Kansas, Vermont or Arizona? What makes California, especially SF a target? Presumably if Nevada wanted to wipe the traces of their scheme better they would just pick random locations every time.

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The weather is more stable and less seasonal than in most other states. And California has richer cities and municipalities than most other states, so maybe there's a belief that the homeless will at least have a better shot at getting care here.

The cynical/realist motive: California is a really big state -- so it's an easy dumping ground for people to get tossed into and disappear.

Ah makes sense. I can see why some homeless given a choice would prefer SF. But I guess from Nevada's point of view I am not sure if they really do want to help or just want to get rid of them. Maybe if they sent them to Chicago in the middle of the winter, whoever made that decision could in theory be criminally prosecuted somehow.

Exactly, it's the same reason for the large homeless population in Vancouver, BC. It's the one major city in Canada that has a relatively mild winter.

The weather is a factor. It doesn't rain much in large parts of Cali. In those same areas, you are generally at low risk of freezing to death and in SF and a few other areas you also won'tbe dealing with excess heat. SF in particular has very homeless friendly policies. I took a class at SFSU years ago on Homelessness and Public Policy. That detail was highlighted during the class.

I believe it's a combination between of San Francisco's homeless support services (which aren't great, but are something), and Nevadan bigotry.

Compared to the rest of the US, they're pretty good.

Weather, as stated, plus SF is a pretty liberal town that at least tries to match wrods with actions. Arizona? So they could end up in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's concentration camps? (His term, not mine - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio#Tent_City)

But presumably in this case it is Nevada who is buying the tickets. That doesn't strike me as they particular care for the well-being of the homeless. Sending them to Arpaio certainly decreases the chance of them returning to Vegas.

- California has great weather

- San Francisco is really quite amenable to the homeless compared to most of the rest of the country

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