[KZerda]

There's also a fourth thing to take into consideration. The pandemic caused a lot of people in san francisco to start working from home, so a huge number of people who would normally be in higher profile areas, like in downtown, aren't there. BART, for example, has been running at a third the ridership it was pre-2020 (1). Thus, the few people left, especially the homeless, become all the more visible. When all you see are homeless people when walking down Market Street, it becomes easy to think that the problem is a lot more out of control than it is.

(1) https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/202204%20MRR.p...

[rossdavidh]

Excellent point, thanks. I could easily imagine that going into a downward spiral, where the lack of non-homeless leads to more discomfort, leads to even fewer non-homeless, until it becomes a no-go zone.