Nothing new - they refuse to treat the drug addicted and mentally ill.
They house them and then, the consequences surprise them.
From City Journal:
San Francisco’s “Housing First” Nightmare
To residents of San Francisco’s Sixth District, the deplorable conditions of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels are no longer a great shock. In the Tenderloin, Civic Center, and South of Market neighborhoods, where most of the approximately 70 SROs are located, these city-run buildings have been terrible for as long as most can remember. And they’re getting worse.
The horrors of SROs were put on display to the public in a recent San Francisco Chronicle feature. The story tells of people living in buildings with collapsing ceilings, toxic mold, vermin, noxious odors, constant noise, broken appliances, and unchecked violence. It also notes that at least 166 people fatally overdosed in these hotels in 2020 and 2021. This official number, however, is suspicious for being so low. San Francisco’s medical examiner reported at least 1,300 overdose deaths citywide in the last two years, most commonly for illicit fentanyl combined with other drugs.
How can the places that the city has deemed appropriate for the economically distressed be so bad? It’s not because of a lack of funds. San Francisco has an eye-popping $1.1 billion homeless budget, much of it spent on such supportive housing.
And this ray of truth:
The dilapidated state of SROs is only a symptom of the disease. Housing isn’t a cure. Unless cities address the underlying problem of untreated mental illness and addiction, every building set aside for the homeless under the Housing First approach will deteriorate, and the people desperately needing help won’t get it.
The mentally ill and adicted need to be institutionalised but nobody has the stones to do it. This all started under President Kennedy's Community Mental Health Act of 1963. Gotten worse since then. I have written about the Community Mental Health Act and its fallout several times before:
Sometimes, the old ways are the best. This whole failure was started by activists. We need to remember this quote:
Activists are just people who have learned how to use the media to their own ends. They are not "more" correct. They are not in the majority. They are not smarter. They are just loud.
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