Homeless Leaving San Francisco

On January 26 and 27, a census of the homeless population in San Francisco found that 6,248 people were on the streets, in jails, in shelters, and in rehab and emergency centers. The total homeless was 28% less than the number compiled during a prior census (8,640) in October 2002.

The reason attributed for the decrease in homeless people is that the city of San Francisco reduced the amount of monthly pay for vagrants from $410 to $59 as part of its welfare-slashing Care Not Cash program. As a result, the homeless are slowly migrating away from San Francisco. One would imagine that everyone in the city would be overjoyed with the good news, but that's not the case. According to Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness, "It's an outrageous undercount, politically motivated."

Since the power, influence, and revenue of the homeless advocacy groups is directly tied to the actual number of homeless, it is understandable that they would be outraged and highly critical of any report that the number of homeless has decreased. The only time the homeless advocacy groups are happy is when the numbers of vagrants increases.