By Julie Pitta : sfrichmondreview – excerpt
The job of a journalist is to inform and educate. The discussion prompted by last month’s column on homelessness made me realize, all too painfully, that many of my Richmond neighbors hold mistaken beliefs about unhoused people. Some of those misconceptions, intended or not, seem tailor-made to justify denying unhoused people the support they so desperately need.
I’ll attempt to set the record straight on the most frequently repeated myths regarding homelessness…Unhoused People Are Not “From Here…Unhoused People Come to San Francisco Because of the City’s Welcoming Attitude Toward the Homeless…Unhoused People Prefer Life on the Streets…Unhoused People are Responsible for Crime…Most Unhoused People Lost Their Homes Due to Addiction and Mental Illness…
The sight of unhoused people is distressing and has caused some of us to lash out at the most vulnerable in our community, both in word and deed. Our frustration must be focused our City’s leader, Mayor Breed, who has failed to grapple with this humanitarian crisis. Breed must do better…(more)
Thanks for trying to separate the discussions about un-housed people from all the other problems on the street. I’m not sure that anyone knows the answer to all the questions regarding who they are and what they need other than a place to stay, but, what we do need is to separate the problems and investigate them as non-related before we make assumptions that they are all linked together.
What we do know if that the reduction in local control brought to us by our state representatives who forced unwanted street improvements and up-zoning as a solution to the “homeless problems” have not resulted in a more friendly, livable downtown SF. Following the path of density and traffic calming across the city we see a trail of boarded up storefronts, un-housed people, crime, violence, and trash along empty streets and sidewalks. You may walk down Market Street to see what west side neighborhoods have to look forward to as they are forced to “ share the pain” that comes with displacement and gentrification. It is not a pretty sight.
How fitting that the solution to a red light street in the Mission is to close the street and consider designating another street to “share the pain”. What happened to finding a cure?