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Comment by drngdds | Hacker News Reader

Is that a general trend or just location-specific? I've heard about homelessness being a big issue in SF and Seattle but I live in a big city (NYC) and I haven't seen anything like that.

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My opinion on this. Cities which see themselves as bastions of progressiveness are less inclined to crack down on homelessness (since many are people who need help rather than punishment). If they try to fix the social issues around it (provide housing, services, etc.) then I suspect you'd see an influx of homeless people into those cities (thus not really solving the problem). Especially in cities where you can live on the streets year round without weather killing you. It's a tough problem because cracking down on homeless people I feel tends to leak into cracking down on other marginalized groups (the poor, minorities, etc.).

I don't want to read anything into this that wasn't intended but are you saying that society should be harder (crack down) on homeless people but not on other disadvantaged people?

I'm saying that it can't just do that even if some people want exactly that. Personally I feel the optimal solution is a nation wide social support program but that will never happen in the US. Beyond that I'm as stumped as everyone else.

Homeless camps are unsanitary which leads to horrible diseases; Drew Pinsky is trying to get action by screaming about typhoid fever and the plague. Its not simply a matter of compassion for the homeless, there is also a public health angle.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/1/drew-pinsky-...

I live in Manchester, UK, and this hits the spot. Homeless people move here from less tolerant towns in Southern England, and we end up with a problem. The weather is more like Seattle than SF but pretty tolerable bar a couple of months - which is when all alarms go off and you get huge appeals to find places where to host them to avoid dozens of deaths.

I think of myself as a very progressive guy (son of communists and all) but this is not sustainable, it’s unfair to unload national problems on individual cities just because they are traditionally more compassionate, and it’s obviously unfair to the homeless who end up moving even further away from whatever small support network they have near home.

It is unfair there are so many homeless. It did not used to be like this.

In NYC if you see "homeless people who repeatedly inhabit the same location or establish encampments" report them and they'll be moved on or arrested & their belongings thrown out.

https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02253

It freezes in the winter in NYC, which forces homeless people to make contact with the System.

The NYPD also run beat patrols (uniforms on foot, in pairs) which are scarce/absent in SF and Seattle.

Its also a big problem in LA, but I'm not sure about other cities

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