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Comment by dventimihasura | Hacker News Reader

Yes. Homelessness in San Francisco tended to diverge from the national average over this period. So did San Francisco housing prices. This was the period of many unprofitable Bay Area and San Francisco unicorns.

Now, I shared my beliefs. Let's hear yours. What do you think happens when one group of people like tech workers in a city is handed large salaries that are not constrained by market forces like profitability? How does that help someone in that city who is not a tech worker?

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Correlation doesn't equal causation. Having lived in SF during that period, there was a lot of governmental policy that contributed to that rise in homelessness. Saw the same thing in Oregon: homelessness increased when housing prices increased but there was also measure 110 which decriminalized all drugs. SF's similarly lax policies probably have more to do with their homeless issue than their housing prices. If it were purely housing prices, these people would just move to somewhere cheaper. And before you say, they can't move, they surely could move into Oregon when meth became de facto legal.

For a lot of addicts, the criminal justice system is their only chance at substance abuse help (mostly because they won't seek it on their own on the outside as we've seen in Oregon).

> Correlation doesn't equal causation.

I know, but I wasn't asked for causation or proof. I was asked for data, or evidence. Presumably, I was being asked for evidence consistent with my hypothesis and unlikely to have occurred by random chance. That's what I gave.

Besides which: I never claimed that this was the only factor. I claimed it was a factor. Elsewhere, I acknowledged that there are other factors. I'm sure the the Oregon policies you list are among them.

Everybody not-tech and many tech did move to Sacramento and Oregon. They must have missed all the locals there screaming about getting priced out over the last half decade.

Layoffs and back-to-office mandates are the best thing that could happen to SF.

bingo

And homelessness is out of control in Sacramento, arguably worse than SF. But, I'm sure that has nothing to do with the influx of people and rising housing costs

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