Homeless Deaths

Mitch Katz says that they counted homeless deaths for several years and the numbers were somewhat static.

What's to be gained by using scarce resources to count when those dollars could fund direct service?

How many of those homeless deaths were from drugs and alcohol, vs. the number of people who died from the elements and being outdoors.

The City can certainly help with the latter, but the former depends on the individual taking some responsibility for their own behavior.

1. work
2. hospital
3. jail


Big brother doesn't want you to hear this.


Watch them delete it.

Between the wars in Germany, there was rampant inflation, unemployment and homelessness. However, vagrancy and public drunkenness remained crimes, as they remain on the SF lawbooks. Enforcement consisted of herding those unable or unwilling to work into large, sprawling tent cities on the outskirts, at the ends of streetcar lines. They were clean, orderly and well-regulated camps, much like one sees in U.S. army photos. The City of Berlin knew that 'homelessness' is bad, but "vagrancy" is worse. In the USA, these words are not used correctly.

Would our local vagrants choose to live in such a tent city if it were provided, free of charge, somewhere near Walnut Creek out the Ygnacio Valley Road? I wonder. Our bums choose the local streets and the freedom of unemployment.

I am trying to find out information about a woaman named Barbara Clint who died under a train in SF around Jan. 10th this year. She had been living at the residential hotel where I currently reside, had some serious mental problems was put in the hospital and then released unprotected and incapable of protecting herself out on the streets. She was a beautiful human who had been an important part of the music scene in SF in the 80s and I feel that there are important people in this scene who could do benefits to honor this woman in her death and perhaps work to prevent further tragedies of this sort.

Thank you for any help that you can offer

Linda

Mental health care cuts both ways. 20 years ago many people who had mental illness were commited. This practice was stopped and people were "released" with little or no oversight. The process to committ someone involuntarily is signifigant and costly. Then we are "jailing" the mentally ill.

This subject deserves more attention but there are servere drawbacks to either side of the coin.

I think the gov't (city state Federal) could solve the problem of homelessness partly, by setting aside money from the checks people get and putting them directly into paying for a room. I know that's just part of the problem. But if a person got a check and a part was fed directly into a room, then the person would have a guaranteed room. And then they could do whatever they want from there but at least they would be off the street. That's the main issue. Is people dying on the street.

I am a registered nurse who has worked for 12 years for agencies that service needs of homeless persons, including homeless psychiatric patients and street-addicts. In that setting, I have unexpectely come to understand how remarks such as yours about homeless people who are alcohol/drug dependent are naive and rife with "blame," both of which are useless in this context. Addiction is an utterly debilitating disease that effectively erases any ability to make choices, i.e. to "take responsitilibty" for one's life. In other words, it is NOT a moral choice. Such an attitude is a relic of a long-discredited concept of alcoholism/addiction as moral failure that clinicians who specialize in this disease began to reject in the the 1930s. Our conservative politicians do not scruple, however, (do politicians ever scruple?) at subtly using such an antiquated paradigm to undercut the political position of those who would advocate for such as have been unable to cope with life as we know it in these United States. This is particularly germane to the case of Vietnam veterans, speaking of which...

...20th Century history of this "republic" give us two egregious examples of government agency promotion of addiciton in deadly forms: 1) the supply by military leadership with herion for our troops in Vietnam, proceeds of sale of which were used to hire mercenaries (which were undoubtedly needed, since our own personnel were fucked up and nodding in the trenches) and the attendant supply of heroin to streets of Harlem and poor areas of other American cities in the 1970s through similar channels; and 2) the purveying of cocaine--crack and otherwise--to poor parts of NYC (where I live) and other cities throughout the US, via CIA-owned quasi-military transport (does anybody really think the big suppliers in Colombia and elsewhere trouble themselves to own ocean-worthy vessels to get cocaine to these shores, when the CIA is more than willing to be their transport contractors?)

Therefore, there is a crucial lack of information/understanding in your message concerning how our cities became saturated wtih drugs as they have, and, particularly, the case of our grotesquely-treated veterans,19-20 year old boys when they left, returning as ruined human beings who never had the chance to become men after the military got through with them. Such a group accounts for a large segment of whom we see passed out on the sidewalks, nodding on street corners, or unaccoutably belligerent to passers-by. Compounding this tragedy, of course, is the disturbingly high incidence of HIV disease and Hepatitis C in this population, which, in fiscal terms, is costly to all of us.

Putting aside the matter of possible war with Iraq, is it too much to suggest that such a history--and this is only recent history--is sufficient for us to wonder if our great and unaccountable--and unaccountably expensive--protector, the Pentagon, is doing immeasurably more harm to our society and national life, than ten September 11 attacks could do?

People with substance abuse problems are, by definition, mentally ill. People with mental illnesses are, by definition, not responsible for their own behavior.

>>> People with substance abuse problems are, by definition, mentally ill. <<<

B.S. They're simply SELFISH. The guy who repeatedly gets hauled to S.F. General costs the City of SF $1 million a year. That would buy a lot of textbooks for schoolkids, build 20 new playgrounds, or do any number of other things that would benefit MANY people in the City instead of one person's selfish desire to be high all the time.

Most S.F. residents woke up to this reality in the last election. "Care Not Cash" will finally send some of these leeches packing.

About 20 years ago, the left fought to have mentally ill people released from institutions, saying they were free to make their own decisions and could not be held against their will.

You can't have it both ways. Either these people are responsible for their actions, in which case their addictions are their fault, or they're not responsible, in which case we should commit them to treatment involuntarily. Which is it?

See:

http://www.intrepidsoftware.com/fallacy/fd.htm

There is at least one other alternative, make treatment available to all who want it. At present, this is not the case.

Also, it is well worth noting that homeless substance abusers are not homeless because they are substance abusers, but because they are poor. Rich substance abusers live indoors.

The 1 million dollar homeless person is a myth spawned by false news reports. This was aired 2 months ago on an major SF news station. There were no offical numbers given on the heath care cost of the individual interviewed. Why are you not asking the important question of "Why is healthcare so damn high?" Please do no believe everything you see on the idiot box. They are all lies. The truth is "Care not Cash" is "Kill not Cash" . It will cause people already on the edge to go over the edge. Watch the "news" and see the crime rates go up. So when that "homless junkie who has "done it to himself" jacks your ass because he thinks you got money and needs food, drugs, or is just pissed because he has to live on $59 a month and you don't. Ask Gavin Nutcase if his "bold idea" really works. And hey, any of us can live in America on $1.97 a day, right. After all the budget cuts in services go through. (Which they will because sheep who sleep will let it happen) Welcome to the American dream. Suker!

danny boy....put the pipe down and smell the coffee.

you wrote :

"20th Century history of this "republic" give us two egregious examples of government agency promotion of addiciton in deadly forms: 1) the supply by military leadership with herion for our troops in Vietnam, proceeds of sale of which were used to hire mercenaries (which were undoubtedly needed, since our own personnel were fucked up and nodding in the trenches) "

That is the biggest pile of BS that I have ever read...I am a Viet Nam Vet...and yes, i did dabble with a few of the local drugs while in country...

But, no way..no how...was any gov't agency involved.Nor did any of my money make its way back to some clandestine group to buy mercenaries...sheesh..get real..were you over there ?? i suspect that you are talking out your a$$ and have bought some BS conspiracy theory hook, line and sinker..

Heroin, Pot, Opium was a plentiful commodity on the streets of most towns and villages...A great big bag (and I mean a lunch sack) of Thai stick cost me a buck..and the kids that were selling it laughed as they knew that they were ripping me off...I should have only paid 50 cents...Oh..well...

But no CIA agents were among them....

A cap of heroin (about 4 grams) went for 5 dollars and it was 95% pure...

No conspiracy...just opportunity..

Osama bin Laden destroyed most of the opium fields of Afganitan... The rest is History.

you wrote:
>>>Osama bin Laden destroyed most of the opium fields of Afganitan... The rest is History.<<<

He probably destroyed the seasonal crop..but the fields are still there..and as far as history...well, the demand for heroin has not decreased and drug lords in the Golden Triangle have stepped up to fill the void left by Afghanistan...

Most of the refined heroin finds its way to the European market...probably why they are so into appeasement..just leave us alone man...don't ruin my high.....