question: Why does San Francisco have so many homeless people?
comment: It's down to the cost of housing, which is shockingly high in that area; the climate, in which a homeless person can live without freezing; and the permissive culture, in which homeless people are not treated too badly.
passages: San Francisco has several thousand homeless residents, despite extensive efforts by city government to address the issue. The dramatically larger prevalence of visible homelessness in the city (relative to other large US cities) is widely noted by visitors as well as residents, and as of 2018, is starting to impact the city's largest industry, tourism (a $9 billion industry), as one large doctors' group has decided to move their annual convention elsewhere after members' concerns about threatening behavior, mental illness, and assault on one of their board members.
   Section::::Current efforts to address the issue by region.:San Francisco.:Navigation center.
   As of 2014, the city is believed to have approximately 7,000 homeless residents. As of 2015, approximately 71% of the city's homeless had housing in the city before becoming homeless, while the remaining 29% came from outside of San Francisco. This figure is up from 61% in 2013. Of that 71%, 51% had lived in San Francisco for less than 10 years before becoming homeless; 11% had only lived in San Francisco for a year before becoming homeless. By 2016, according to a report by urban planning and research organization SPUR, San Francisco had the third highest per capita homelessness rate (0.8% or 8 in 1000 persons) of all large US cities, as well as the third highest percentage of unsheltered homeless (55%). ("Unsheltered" means sleeping somewhere not designated as a permanent living location, and includes tents, automobiles, and RV's, but does not include people staying in designated homeless shelters.)
   Section::::Current efforts to address the issue by region.:Richmond.
  
  Section::::Current efforts to address the issue by region.:Richmond.:Legislative efforts.
   Homelessness, historically, has been a major problem in the city and remains a growing problem in modern times.
  
  In 2017, 7,500 homeless people were officially counted in the city, two-thirds of whom were dealing with serious health issues like mental illness or HIV.
   Section::::Current efforts to address the issue by region.:San Francisco.:Social innovation.
   Homelessness has been a chronic problem for San Francisco since the early 1970s.
  
  The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major U.S. city.
   Section::::Prevalence and visibility by city.
  
  Cities in the United States, including the city of San Francisco buy one-way free bus tickets for homeless relocation, this has been occurring over the last three decades. From 2010 to 2017, an estimated "20,000 homeless people have been sent to and from within the mainland US". There have been numerous reports and lawsuits between cities regarding homeless and patient dumping.
   Section::::Prevalence and visibility by city.:Richmond.
   As SPUR explains in one of their publications:
   Section::::Historical background.:Gavin Newsom (2004-2010).:Other programs.
   In 2014, the City of San Francisco spent $167 million annually on housing homeless residents. By 2016, total spending (including housing and treatment) was believed to be $241 million annually. However, much of this spending is focused on housing the formerly homeless, or those at risk, and not the currently homeless. The city's shelter program has approximately 1,200 beds, and several hundred people are on a waitlist to be housed. Even with 1,200 shelter beds and several hundred on waiting list, most homeless avoid the shelter for various reasons such as: overcrowding, safety, and rules that, among other things, separate people experiencing homelessness from their possessions, pets, and loved ones. In 2015, the Navigation Center shelter was created to address these issues.
   Section::::Current efforts to address the issue by region.:San Francisco.:Legislative efforts.:California SB 1045.
   Section::::Historical background.:Feinstein years (1978-1988).
  
  Dianne Feinstein, was the first mayor of San Francisco that had to address the homeless issue. Her administration operated under the belief that the growing homeless problem was a temporary issue that was an effect of a recent recession. The response to the problem was to open temporary shelters that would provide a sandwich and a bed for a night with the hope that those served could find permanent housing soon. This program proved to be underfunded and unprepared for the demand of residents and the homeless population continued to grow.
  
  Section::::Historical background.:Agnos administration (1988-1992).
   Homelessness has been a chronic and controversial problem for San Francisco since the early 1970s when many mentally ill patients were deinstitutionalized, due to changes which began during the 1960s with the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid. The homeless population is estimated to be 13,500 with 6,500 living on the streets. The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major U.S. city. Rates of reported violent and property crimes for 2009 (736 and 4,262 incidents per 100,000 residents, respectively) are slightly lower than for similarly sized U.S. cities.
  
  Section::::Languages and ages.
   The city of San Francisco has been dramatically increasing expenditure directed to alleviate the homelessness crisis: spending jumped by $241 million in 2016–17 to total $275 million, compared to a budget of just $34 million the previous year. In 2017–18 the budget for combatting homelessness, much of which is directed towards the building of new shelters and expanding capacity, stood at $305 million.
   Section::::Historical background.:Gavin Newsom (2004-2010).:Care Not Cash (Prop N).
   Since the 1960s, San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area have enacted strict zoning regulations. Among other restrictions, San Francisco does not allow buildings over 40 feet tall in most of the city, and has passed laws making it easier for neighbors to block developments. Partly as a result of these codes, from 2007 to 2014, the Bay Area issued building permits for only half the number of needed houses, based on the area's population growth.
   The homeless are a visual reminder for the Bay Area of the increasing struggles of the homeless with impoverishment due to the high cost of living. They particularly occupy common public spaces frequented by the middle and upper classes.
  
  Section::::Prevalence and visibility by city.:San Francisco.
   The city government of San Francisco has attempted to establish various outreach programs in order to help the homeless population. According to the city's government, "current outreach efforts to inform park dwellers about support services are limited, and efforts that do take place are not documented in a way that makes it possible to analyze their efficiency or success". The Community Housing Partnership's program "Transitional Age Youth Housing" is available for younger homeless individuals, but it is not enough because of limited resources available. Overall, however, San Francisco has shifted its focus of emergency shelters to neighborhood support systems.
   "For anyone who believes, based on their own eyes, that San Francisco has the worst problem with homelessness in the country, this statistic — the number of unsheltered homeless people per capita — is the “smoking gun.” East Coast cities have adopted a very different set of strategies, emphasizing shelters as a low-cost, temporary solution and in many cases forcing people to go into those shelters, as opposed to allowing them to choose to sleep in public spaces. Indeed, New York State has a “right to shelter” law that compels the city and state to provide shelter beds to all New Yorkers who are homeless by “reason of physical, mental, or social dysfunction.” While some critics decry the New York approach as “warehousing” homeless people, it’s clear that they have been vastly more successful than large California cities in getting people at least minimal shelter and in addressing the quality of life impacts on city residents. By making “real housing” with wraparound social services the only acceptable solution, without having enough money to actually scale up that solution, Bay Area cities, especially San Francisco, have created the conditions in which thousands of people are living on the streets."
   Section::::The health impact of homelessness.
   Feinstein's successor, Art Agnos, took a more involved approach to address the homeless problem as part of a broader progressive mayoral campaign. Agnos' view of homelessness was that it was the result of structural inequalities and could only be resolved by intervention from state welfare programs. Under his direction, two multi-service buildings that provided mental health counseling and substance abuse support in addition to housing were opened to benefit the homeless community.
  
  Section::::Historical background.:Agnos administration (1988-1992).:Camp Agnos.
   In his last year, Newsom expanded the quality of life laws within the city by successfully passing Proposition L in a public vote, which banned city residents from sitting or lying on sidewalks between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
  
  Section::::Causes of homelessness.
   As of 2017, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) have noted at least 76 encampments and about 800 individuals living homeless. About 50% of homeless residents lost their Richmond homes and ended up on the streets. According to the City of Richmond's memo on Homelessness Policies and Initiatives, “Richmond is already Contra Costa County’s predominant location for homeless shelter beds.” With a population of about 110,000 people, about 9.7% of the total population of the Contra Costa County, Richmond is a 55.4% contributor to Contra Costa County homeless shelter beds. Homeless persons from across the Bay Area are sent to Richmond shelters, thus making it hard for the City of Richmond to deal with the city's own homeless population.
  