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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">https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...
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& #39;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& #39;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">https://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/i...
(Thank you, Alaska; that& #39;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& #39;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.
