From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Why San Francisco Is a Homeless Mecca   
   By The Editorial Board, Aug. 6, 2023, WSJ   
   California has spent more than $20 billion on housing for the homeless since   
   2020, yet public encampments continue to grow. As San Francisco progressives   
   are learning, government can build more shelter, but that doesn’t mean the   
   homeless will use them.   
      
   The city of San Francisco released data last week showing that 55% of homeless   
   individuals rejected shelter when offered it. Days earlier a giant fire   
   destroyed a housing complex under construction. The blaze is under   
   investigation, but residents in the    
   area say they repeatedly complained to the city about fires igniting around   
   homeless encampments.   
      
   Mayor London Breed threw her hands up in response. “We can’t force people   
   to accept or stay in shelters and we’re unable to prevent people from   
   setting up an encampment in an area that was just cleaned. This is the   
   situation we are in,” she    
   tweeted Wednesday.   
      
   She’s right. San Francisco is under a federal injunction that bars officials   
   from enforcing laws against camping or sleeping in public spaces as long as   
   its homeless population exceeds available shelter beds. As we recently   
   explained, the Ninth Circuit    
   Court of Appeals has ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and   
   unusual punishment creates a right to vagrancy.   
      
   Many homeless prefer to live on the streets where they can freely use drugs.   
   “People are coming here for so many different reasons including the ease of   
   access to getting these drugs,” Ms. Breed recently noted.   
      
   Since 2016 San Francisco’s homeless budget has ballooned to $672 million   
   from $224 million, yet the number of homeless in shelters has increased by a   
   mere 736. That equates to $609,000 in higher annual spending for each   
   additional person in shelter.    
   This is on top of the $20 billion that Democrats in Sacramento have thrown at   
   the homeless problem.   
      
   A 2018 local ballot measure championed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff   
   increased San Francisco business taxes by some $300 million annually to build   
   more homeless housing. Yet the tax increase has merely given businesses   
   another incentive, on top of    
   rampant crime and shoplifting, to move jobs out of the city.   
      
   San Francisco’s homeless epidemic is a result in large part of the familiar   
   problems of drug addiction and mental illness. But a particular problem is the   
   refusal to prosecute drug crimes. In 2014 California’s Prop. 47, which was   
   backed by Gov. Gavin    
   Newsom and other progressives, effectively decriminalized drug use and   
   shoplifting. Localities can’t use the threat of jail to induce addicts to   
   receive treatment.   
      
   Democrats in Sacramento plan to ask voters next year for approval to borrow   
   $15 billion more to reduce homelessness. Only a progressive could imagine that   
   will this work any better than the last tens of billions. How about instead   
   repealing the    
   misconceived law that is fueling the problem?   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-san-francisco-is-a-homeless-mec   
   a-drug-prosecutions-treatment-344aac97   
      
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