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We continue to fail the #unhoused population of California, and we need to help them. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/san-francisco-coronavirus-homeless-shelter
I am not some ivory-tower concern-monger: used to commute to San Francisco and every day dodged human feces, needles, or drugged-out dudes making eye contact and shambling toward me. In situations risky to me personally I like to keep my personal distance...of more than six feet.
But as ever I prescribe fully to egoistic altruism as a concept: We need, need, need to help others to keep ourselves safe (and sane, and human besides). This is true indirectly at all times; in #COVID19 times it is imperative -- all lockdowns are moot if we fail the homeless:
In 2019 (!) San Francisco's OFFICIAL homeless count (the ones registered and receiving services from authorities) was about 18k, a 30% increase from 2018. Hard to extrapolate, but let's follow the trajectory of OFFICIAL numbers and say 2020 has 23,400 homeless ppl on the streets.
NOT housing, and NOT treating just under 25k people has COVID-19 implications that are staggering. A friendly reminder of how exponential models work: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/SiteAssets/Pages/HumanCoV/SocialDistancing.pdf
(Thank you, Alaska; that's exactly the visual representation I feel we need to understand.)
End thread -- to all people who have power, i.e. are citizens and voters: For everybody's, for YOUR sake, please put pressure on elected officials to house and help the homeless, for real, not for publicity.
#COVID19 warning for the whole thread, of course.
