Conversation

Matt Haney
@MattHaneySF
We get contacted everyday by ppl wanting us to immediately get rid of encampments. People don’t disappear. They have to be somewhere. If not inside, they’ll be on your block or the next. I’m fighting for folks to be INSIDE. Join us: we need rooms, shelter, Mental Health SF.
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Jesse Powell
@jespow
People don’t just appear either. They’re drawn like a magnet, from all over the nation, to the failed policies and enabling system offered by SF. Somewhere doesn’t have to be SF. You have a duty to uphold zoning laws, at a minimum. Sidewalks aren’t for housing.
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KJ
@kjgong
This is categorically false. Folks end up without shelter here because at some point they stopped being able to afford rent. No one moves to the city with the highest rent in the world to get better street sleeping.
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Jesse Powell
@jespow
Rent is irrelevant when you're shopping for tent space. SF has a lot to offer if you are committed to street sleeping. Plenty of people actually do move to SF for all of its street amenities, the laissez faire attitude, lack of drug enforcement, good weather, public services.
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Jesse Powell
@jespow
It's free before and after. Sweeps are rare and easily avoided. The sidewalks are not zoned for residential. They're paid for by the people living in properly zoned units, paying $3000/mo for a studio apartment. Those people deserve to have their sidewalks, and zoning enforced.
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Jesse Powell
@jespow
I care a lot about it, which is why I'm so engaged with the topic. Our current policies are making the problem worse. We're wasting money and failing to actually care for the nation's homeless on a city's budget, in the most expensive city in the nation. We need serious reform.
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