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Comment by cswhnjidd | Hacker News Reader

How do you know that? Research usually suggests that the most important factor in homelessness is unaffordable housing.

The kind of homeless people in SF is not the same as the kind that can't afford housing. The homeless people in SF have given up on life. They're drug addicts. They're violent. They've been homeless for a long time even.

Even if you give them free housing, they'll mess it up somehow. They can't hold down a job. They don't take care of the home. They'll abuse the home until it's unlivable.

If it's truly unaffordable housing, why the hell are they in SF? Go to somewhere that is 1/4th the price. Plenty of places in the US.

Source: Lived in SF for 20+ years.

It's a well known fact homeless people come and stay in California for the mild weather. A lot of homeless are drug addicts and mental health issues. They can't hold down a job being that way. Normal people would just move or leave.

Why are they coming to SF and not all going to LA then?

Of course all the research (admittedly limited, but there is no research showing this “well known fact”) this well know fact is just false.

Progressive capture of most institutions makes a lot of research questionable in this particular world of ideas.

This one seems like a pretty simple question to answer: randomly poll 100 homeless people and ask whether they become homeless in California or came there homeless from elsewhere.

Not hard, not complicated.

Exactly, common sense tells me that surviving the weather is the primary concern for most people if they ever lose shelter.

SF and LA are both in California. There are many factors why they don't ALL go there but LA has a significantly bigger homeless population than Oakland and SF.

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