Ultra-rich Californians who publicly claim to promote all sorts of liberal policies to protect the poor are failing this test in a big way. As reported by Gizmodo, the richest of the rich in San Francisco are putting up a huge fight against the building of what is being referred to as a “mega shelter” – a 200-bed facility to house the homeless – in their own backyard.
Wealthy residents of the Embarcadero waterfront area in South Beach have raised $101,425 to fight the building of the homeless center in court, insisting that residents will “terrorize the neighbors.” (Related: San Francisco turning into a giant toilet filled with human feces as leftist bureaucrats accelerate America’s plunge into Third World status.)
Massive gap between rich and poor
San Francisco is one of the country’s most expensive cities, with the South Beach neighborhood being one of the city’s richest neighborhoods. Of course, the San Francisco Bay Area also encompasses Silicon Valley, a global center for technological innovation, and home to the super rich.
Sadly, it is also facing one of the greatest homelessness crises in the country.
For years there has been a dramatic contrast between the concentrated wealth and political influence of the creative classes and the swelling homelessness epidemic in gentrifying cities like San Francisco and Oakland. Next door to the houses of young tech startup executives, families sleep in parked cars, while many workers must pay more in rent than they earn in wages. The Guardian recently reported that in East Palo Alto, one-third of schoolchildren are estimated to be homeless, meaning they have no secure form of shelter. More than 10,000 homeless people were stranded across San Jose and Santa Clara Counties last year on any given night, including hundreds of families with children. And that number doesn’t include the “hidden homeless,” the countless people without their own shelter who “double up” at friends’ houses. Sprawling homeless encampments dot the Bay, and the crisis is so endemic in some communities, activists have begun establishing homeless trailer camps in church parking lots.
Experts estimate that more than 4,300 people sleep on the streets of San Francisco every single night. (Related: There’s now so much raw human feces on the streets of San Francisco that a MEDICAL convention has canceled events there.)
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has vowed to do something about the escalating problem, and is an ardent supporter of the shelter, part of a greater plan to ultimately offer 1,000 new beds to homeless people in the area.
“We simply need more Navigation Centers, more permanent supportive housing, and more affordable housing throughout our city if we are going to change the conditions on our streets and help those in need,” Mayor Breed said in a statement.
Interestingly, the issue of the building of the shelter – more accurately described as a navigation center, a special facility designed to maximize cleanliness and resident safety – has divided even the wealthy, with some Silicon Valley tech giants throwing their weight behind the shelter’s supporters, while other members of the wealthy elite fight its construction tooth and nail.
The shelter’s supporters insist it will enhance the quality of life of hundreds of people without negatively impacting the safety of other residents.
“I’m confident this navigation center will make a positive impact on this neighborhood,” noted Matt Haney, the city supervisor representing the district. “There is data to support that. I have personally visited every navigation center in the city. They’re well run, they improve neighborhoods and they save lives. Our city is in crisis and the need for shelter is undeniable.”
Clearly, the chickens have come home to roost and it’s time for people to prove that they themselves can live with the policies they claim to believe in so passionately -- regardless of the potential for disaster. Learn more at Collapsifornia.com.
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