This is clearly an assault on the homeless, the youth, and will very negatively affect day laborers that line the streets each day looking for work. The law is being pushed by businesses in particular but residents have also complained about the aggressive panhandling, urine soaked doorways etc.
Homelessness is a huge problem in the US, and San Francisco, with its relatively mild climate, has its advantages. When I first arrived in the area from London via NYC in 1973, I was stunned by the number of people lying in the streets, so many of them obviously mentally ill, I had not seen it to the same extent in Britain which has more social services, a public health system in particular (I have heard that this has changed somewhat). There is no doubt that the homeless can be overly aggressive at times and the rantings of some of the mentally impaired can be scary for some, but it is rare for the rest of us to be victims of the homeless, it is more likely the other way round.
The millionaire Democratic mayor will use his mayoral option to hold a referendum and go over the heads of the board of supervisors if they oppose him; he is intent on punishing the homeless, youth and others who are victims of market forces.
Overwhelmingly a couple of trends are the main cause of homelessness. One is the shortage of affordable housing and the other is the increase in poverty and inequality in the US. The lack of health care and addictions are others. Most working class people can't check in to the Betty Ford home for alcohol abuse. The recent economic crisis has worsened the situation as people have been forced out of their jobs, their homes, and often on to the street. In 2009, 190,360 California homes were lost to foreclosure following 236,000 in 2008 according to DataQuick which began tracking foreclosures in 1988.
A National Coalition for the Homeless report, adds:
“There was a 32% jump in the number of foreclosures between April 2008 and April 2009. Since the start of the recession, six million jobs have been lost. In May 2009, the official unemployment rate was 9.4%. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that 40 percent of families facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters and 7 million households living on very low incomes (31 - 50 percent of Area Median Income) are at risk of foreclosure.”
The NCH points out that, “If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.”. The Federal support for low-income housing fell 49% from 1980 to 2003 according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, (2005).
I have been involved in some rental and housing struggles with the Campaign For Renter’s Rights here in the East Bay and have had to watch sheriffs forcibly evict homeowners from their shelter. This isn’t illegal! There are millions of empty homes and perhaps millions of people that need shelter yet this situation exists because a home, which for most of us is a shelter in society, is an investment to bankers that rule society. They want it to bee seen as an investment and make laws that encourage people to treat it as an investment, so we have people without homes and homes without people; isn’t that civilized?
Many of the homeless are mentally ill. If you are not mentally ill on the road to homelessness, being homelessness long enough will make you mentally ill. Many are also veterans, victims of the banker’s predatory wars abroad.
Mayor Newsom and others like him, political representatives of the capitalist class, have no problem with sheriffs forcing people out of their homes on behalf of moneylenders and throwing them in jail for trespassing if they try to get back in. As mayor, Newsom has laid off workers and forced them (with the cooperation of the Labor leadership) to take drastic cuts. Teachers alone have been facing huge cuts in pay through unpaid furloughs and cutbacks in public services; this isn’t illegal and will increase homelessness.
Our solidarity must be with the homeless and demand a viable alternative which would include more jobs, free medical care and affordable shelter; this society has the money we know that
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In 2009 Canada officially reported 150,000 homeless people based on shelter populations. The actual figure is closer to 200,000-300,000 is you look at those who do not use shelters because of deplorable conditions ,those who are homeless and living with friends and family.
65,000 of the official count are youth.
This does not even come close to estimating those who are on the verge of homelessness or are under housed.
The vast majority of homeless do not have mental illness and addiction challenges. Huge numbers are women and children and older women without pensions who have worked for decades in low paying jobs without any benefits. Many are struggling new immigrant families.
In 2009 Canada spent only $64 per capita
on social housing. Since the mid-nineties approximately 2/3 of the cost of social housing were downloaded to municipalities.The City of Toronto in an attempt to abdicate responsibilty to provide safe, decent housing for poor and nearly poor individuals and families, a program was called Streets to Homes was created and homeless individuals were put into private homes, with a minimum of regulation and standards, enriching slum landlords.
Next Month G8/G20 thugs are meeting for 3 days in rural Huntsville and Toronto Ontario .
The Federal government is spending 1 BILLION dollars on security to to "protect" these political representatives of the international robber capitalists from the people- One billion dollars for 3 days of meetings.20 times the amount spent in Britain for the G20 summit in April 2009.
The entire social housing budget in Ontario in 2009 was less -829 million.
No wonder working people, the unemployed and precariously employed , wome , children and youth will protesting in the streets that week in June.
ONE BILLION dollars of OUR money has been spent to build security walls and pay all levels of policing to protect these very same thieves who bailed out the banks and are taking our jobs, throwing working people and the poor onto the streets, betraying our First Nations communities and robbing our youth of a decent future.
The very least they can do is foot their own bill to "protect" their evil hides from the the people they are robbing and starving
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