[michaelteter]

I cannot speak about SF as I have no experience there; but as an American with a lot of recent experience in Netherlands and recent but less lengthy experience in Germany, I have been surprised by how bad the homeless/mentally-ill/drugged-out situation is around train stations in Germany compared to the Netherlands.

It would be expected to encounter such people in the biggest city (Berlin), but I also saw it in half a dozen other cities I spent some time in. It was very confronting and very uncomfortable as I would have compassion on mentally ill or otherwise "hard luck" people, but in some cases there was real risk of aggression. At the very least, I couldn't wait (for a train) outside a station because of the very loud yelling (at invisible enemies) that some of the people would do.

I asked a couple of Germans about this situation, and they said that while there are social services and mental health services available, the state seems to have a problem keeping up with the mentally unstable people. The people will get some time in help but then scatter to the wind, revert to their drug use, and turn up outside a station somewhere (where they will remain, day after day, for some period of time).

I wonder why this seems to be much more of a problem in Germany compared to NL. Perhaps it's just a matter of population scale? General way of life and social services aren't so different between the neighboring countries.