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Comment by jbg_ | Hacker News Reader

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in the EU... Switzerland (which is not in the EU) is the only European country I've been to that does not have a very visible population of homeless people.

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20 years in Europe. I've never never never never tripped over crazy homeless. It's all I do in Berkeley and SF.

It's not a small, nuanced difference but literally night and day. Have you really seen tents downtown in any city in Europe?

I'm American but most Europeans I know struggle with living in the Bay Area because it's such a shock for them.

The parent of my comment was claiming that it is a solved problem everywhere outside of the US. My claim is simply that it is far from solved, and if someone thinks homelessness is "solved" in the EU, I can only assume they haven't been there.

You're saying it's worse in SF/Berkeley, and no doubt it is. But it's not "solved" in the EU.

That was me. I said, "Homelessness induced by mental health challenges" was solved in every other OECD country -- and it's true. In those countries there are programs to make sure people with significant mental health issues, especially those which would lead to homelessness, are placed in special care.

I've spent 20 years living in various countries in Europe. I stand by my statement.

SF is also an extreme example of homeless problems because of various factors (weather, systems which attract homeless, etc).

There's a homeless problem in other cities, but we don't have tents downtown.

I was in LA recently and there was an entire tent city in the heart of downtown Orange County.

The link below lists around 30 US cities with tent cities downtown.

Canada has also had this problem.

http://tentcity.wikidot.com/list-of-tent-cities

I have in Japan, I have seen drunks at 10am arguing and throwing shit at each other. It's not a US only problem.

Edit: autocorrect -.-

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in at least one of the following:

- The EU

- San Francisco or Oakland

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