“…everybody deserves a granite countertop.” – San Fran-sicko
For the first time in California history, a congressional seat was lost, following the results of the 2020 census. Even worse for the Golden State, this loss came before draconian Coronavirus protocols sent myriads of businesses and families packing. Unfortunately, Cali’s mostly perfect weather is no longer enough to overcome some of the highest taxes in the country, its anti-business mentality, and the growing scourge of homelessness. But as you will soon see, the street people of San Francisco aren’t the only ones suffering from a serious bout of derangement.
California’s top cities were some of the first to see a resurgence of smash and grabs. And why not, following voter approval of Proposition 47 in 2014, which essentially legalized crimes by lowering offenses like shoplifting, and other delinquent behavior, to misdemeanor status. California’s lax criminal justice system, policing, and policies,California’s lax criminal justice system, policing, and policies have only emboldened its criminal sector and drug culture. Prosecutors increasingly pass on charging certain criminals, following new social justice initiatives. Liberalism fought the law, and the crooks won.
Assigning blame in the single-party state of California is easy, with less than a quarter of its state and federal representatives identifying as Republican. Yet, fault can also be found in California’s progressive party slide to the Bolshevik left, leaving many of its finest cities unlivable and in decline, with San Francisco taking top billing.
With only a fifth of San Francisco’s homeless native to California; the rest are drawn by the drugs and then stay for the cash. Yet, rather than intervene to help the homeless, progressives encourage them to thrive as they are. In several areas around the city, individuals are left largely alone to shoot up, consume alcohol, steal from local businesses, and then threaten anyone who gets in their way. Poop maps identify where San Francisco’s finest have left their latest load. Perhaps worst of all, California’s castoffs blend in, become invisible, and are lost in a crowd of dysfunction.
In Michael Shellenberger’s 2021 book, “San Fran-sicko”, Shellenberger explores how progressivism has worsened the problems in the nation’s largest cities, especially for the homeless. In an attempt to restore dignity to individuals suffering from mental illness, drug addiction, and disaffiliation, these progressives have only enabled their poor behaviors by outright subsidizing their unhealthy habits and then preventing accountability with soft on crime policies. Shellenberger further details the illogical decisions that have resulted in incarceration over treatment, and lawlessness over institutionalism. While homelessness grew in California, it decreased throughout the US, making it difficult for officials to blame anyone but themselves.
San Francisco, unsurprisingly, has the least affordable housing in any city in America, despite a multitude of affordable housing policies. A scarcity of housing is a creation of progressive policies that set price controls, which ultimately lower the number of units—making cities with affordable housing policies, cities with the most homelessness. California officials made matters worse by discouraging the building of temporary shelters in favor of permanent housing. Temporary housing requires that clients abstain from using drugs and alcohol, while permanent housing gives addicts the privacy and space they need to feed their addiction. But housing isn’t the main culprit responsible for increased homelessness. Untreated drug addiction and mental illness are. And housing can’t solve that.
Without institutional options for care, the mentally ill end up incarcerated. A third of prisoners in California already suffer from mental illness. When left to roam the streets, these vulnerable individuals stop taking medication and often become combative. Legitimate concerns over past abuse of mental health patients, along with inhumane conditions at some facilities, continue to be used as an excuse for not addressing treatment for severely ill homeless people. But untreated mental illness has only made the homeless situation worse.
Many progressives also believe that poverty must first be solved before addictions can be addressed. But poverty is only one piece of the puzzle. The homeless are primarily a collection of addicts and the mentally ill, a bad situation made worse by poor policy. Yet, city officials continue to uphold the belief that homelessness is beyond the control of the victim, and not based on any bad choices or decisions they’ve made in the past. Victimhood has enormous social capital not only for the exploited but also for their saviors. Victimhood not only prevents people from recovery but also keeps them from reconnecting with families or other guardians to help them regain stability in their lives.
Through chronic taxation and misallocation of resources, progressive policies in major cities, including San Francisco, have only increased the homelessness they hoped to solve. To make San Francisco, and other once-great cities livable again, officials must refocus their efforts on reclaiming their streets and returning safety to all their citizens. If progressives don’t soon act, they will have nothing left but the mayhem they nurtured.
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