Writing at City Journal, Heather Mac Donald takes a fine-grained look at homelessness in San Francisco. Apparently she has both a strong stomach and an insensitive nose.
Mac Donald discovered the old truth - if you subsidize something you get more of it - is alive and well in San Fran. It's likely no city spends more on the homeless, or has more of it.
What she learns is that virtually 100% of the unhoused are either on "one or more addictive substances" or insane, and in too many cases, both. The picture she paints is grotesque in the extreme, a classic case of good intentions leading to bad outcomes.
San Francisco's policies have made it a magnet for every shot-down no-hoper who wants to stay stoned and out of the clutches of the dreaded "helping people." Living there has to be the pits for normal folk who have housing.
We, who don't live in or choose to visit San Francisco, should be thankful they provide this vital service - luring human refuse off our streets and warehousing them on theirs. Very noble of them to do so, entitling them to unlimited virtue signaling at our expense.
