The City That Never Thinks

Try stopping bear interaction with humans in Yellowstone Park by feeding the bears, petting and grooming them, and giving each bear its own cave. Now, any rational mentality would conclude that those efforts would not solve the problem.

Well, readers, that's exactly the methodology being employed by San Francisco city officials under Mayor Gavin Newsom to solve the homeless problem. San Francisco taxpayers are footing the bill for building houses for the homeless and providing them with social services, from food stamps to free bus tickets. Some city leaders even claim success.

Dariush Kayhan, the mayor's homeless policy director, makes the case that San Francisco has led the nation in innovative, and expensive, homeless solutions.

"Since January of 2004 (when Gavin Newsom took office), we have housed 5,186 homeless people," Kayhan said. "We have built close to 3,500 homeless units, with another 445 to be built next year. And we know that 90 percent of those we have put in housing stay housed."

By any measure, say Kayhan and Rhorer [Director Trent Rhorer of the Department of Human Services], the $190 million San Francisco spends annually helping the homeless is the highest per capita outlay of any U.S. city.

Doing the math, $190 million divided by 5,186 vagrants equals the astonishing sum of $36,637.10 per homeless person per year.

Thank you-u-u, San Francisco!

However, applause for feeding the bears in Yellowstone Park is never heard. In fact, feeding the bears is against park regulations. But in San Francisco, arguably an analogous circumstance, city officials trumpet and herald their good intentions to solve the homeless problem. This makes as much sense as the farmer patting himself on the back for solving his mice infestation problem by creating a path of cheese to the back door of his home while ignoring the fact that the cheese is still in the house.

Realistically, the situation in San Francisco borders on the hilarious.

And yet, after four years of a careful and well-resourced homeless plan, the city remains virtually where it was when Newsom took over. Single homeless men sleep in doorways, panhandlers pester tourists, and the number of homeless people, by official count, continues to grow.

A 2005 homeless person count came up with 2,655 people in the city. Two years later, after efforts to build units and house the chronically homeless, the total was 2,771.

The problem, Kayhan says, is that San Francisco has become a clearinghouse for other cities and states.

What? You mean putting cheese out attracts more mice? Homeless people are migrating in from other cities? The city fathers are shocked. There are more vagrants on the streets now than before. Who would have thought that passing out goodies would magnetically draw more homeless people? Uh -- not San Francisco's brain trusts, obviously.

Thankfully, the realization that feeding the bears in Yellowstone just keeps them around and draws their buddies has finally sunk in with the San Francisco elite and a solution has been proposed. Take care of San Francisco's homeless and deny new arrivals. New homeless people in San Francisco will be required to show proof of residency.

Let me repeat. City services will be denied to homeless people who can't show proof of residency.

So how you verify residency for someone who doesn't have a home? Rhorer says the Department of Public Health already is applying a residency requirement for other programs, like food stamps and social services. Applicants are cross-checked against other counties to see if they are receiving aid there and are asked to provide a statement from a service provider - not a homeless advocacy group - that the person has been in San Francisco for at least three weeks.

"That's right, pal. We want to see three week's of filth you personally left on our streets before we can give you any benefits."

The residency requirement for homeless people doesn't make a lot of sense from a simple logic standpoint nor does it even address the homeless problem. This ridiculous fix, resident homeless vs. non-resident homeless, only addresses a problem the city created in the first place by handing out goodies.

There's an old story about a man and his companion confronting a hungry bear in the woods. The moral of the story is that you can outrun a bear not by being faster than the bear but by being faster than your companion. In a convoluted sense, the homeless problem in any city can be minimized and it's not by spending $190 million a year for the homeless. Imagine homeless populations as a bear looking for sustenance and comfort. The homeless bear finds sustenance and comfort in San Francisco.

Any city that seriously wants to clean its streets of vagrants will make it less comfortable for the homeless than an adjacent city. "Sorry, here in Logicville, there are no goodies. However, here's a brochure of the attractive benefits being handed out in San Francisco. You can probably hop the next train."

Unfortunately, everything I've written is for nothing. Homelessness has become a political issue. Leftist politicians with their conspirators in the mainstream media along with advocacy groups (who, by the way, get paid for each homeless person and have reason to expand the population) have propagandized the issue throughout society to the point where the homeless are sympathetic victims that need to be helped. Anyone who espouses a different opinion is considered heartless, lacking compassion and generally evil. That's the current mindset in America.

Throw into the mess the fact that the federal government has now become a major player by allocating billions for homeless programs and homelessness in America becomes a massive federal welfare program with its attendant bureaucracy and political favoritism and infighting. And, all the while, the current generation of American youth is taught in school projects to live in cardboard boxes so a compassionate understanding of homelessness is learned.

Where does it end? It doesn't, however, in the meantime we'll see higher taxes, bigger government and equal or more homelessness in the United States. Remember, with liberalism, there are no solutions, only intentions.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.