[soraki_soladead]

As mentioned, many of these are very common in other large cities (EDIT: fine, in the US). I'm going to call out this one because its frequently mentioned and seems harder to tackle than the other problems:

> Mentally ill people in high-traffic areas that openly use drugs and defecate on the sidewalk.

What is the solution to this? Round them up and put them in jail? Bus them to another city? Forcibly enroll them at a mental health facility? Improving housing costs somehow? Free housing for the homeless? Maybe walk-in drug clinics?

Some of these solutions sound inhumane. Others appear to be politically impossible at the scale needed. So what's the solution and why are the people who live there against it?

[petesergeant]

> What is the solution to this

Many other large cities handle this well, so it seems to pretend there aren't solutions? I've spent recent time in London, New York, and Bangkok -- as well as a number of smaller cities -- and there's nothing like what I saw in SF.

[orwin]

So, from what I've heard when I was 'visiting' tenderloin: there used to be a lot of vets who came in SF after the Vietnam war (heard that from a Vietnam veteran btw, so it might be a bit of a perception bias), and they basically were accepted. This brought more vets/homeless, and with them drugs to 'treat' PTSD, and this started a feedback loop.

[ratg13]

New York paid for bus,train, and plane tickets for homeless to make them someone else’s problem.

https://nypost.com/2019/10/26/nyc-homeless-initiative-sends-...

Would not file this under “handling it well”

[petesergeant]

“The Special One-Time Assistance (SOTA) program provides one year’s full rent up-front for eligible Department of Homeless Services (DHS) clients to move within or outside New York City.”

So, NYC gives homeless people a year of rent anywhere those people think they’ll be able to make it work, including NYC. And the program seems to save the city money.

[soraki_soladead]

According to this the SOTA program requires the income to make rental payments beyond the one year: https://www.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/sota.page

“SOTA is only provided to households whom DSS has determined will likely have the future ability to pay the rent once they no longer have the SOTA grant to cover their rent.”

That sounds like a very high bar for people in the situation of needing rent coverage and especially if they have mental illness and/or drug addiction. Note that busing people to another city appears to be a separate program.