The City of San Francisco is on the cusp of enacting unethical sit-lie laws without giving the homeless an alternative to living on the streets. Shelters are not solutions and that is where Care+Not-Cash has failed to provide long-term solutions to ending homelessness for residents of District 6 and the entire city.
Establish day centers as well as safe houses so that people living on the streets have physical spaces to access referral resources and basic human needs. Day centers are the best alternatives to sit/lie laws and shelters.
Create day centers that give the homeless access to services that can help them find housing, locate health services, attend education classes, and utilize job placement.
Build public toilets accessible to the homeless community so they're not inhumanely forced to use the streets as toilets. They're not dogs and should not be treated as such.
Replace Care-Not-Cash with Housing-Not-Cash. Care-Not-Cash has failed to provide long-term solutions to homelessness. It has placed an emphasis on shelters alone, and has disproportionately displaced families with teenage children, immigrant families, and LGBTQ families.
Allocate space for safe houses that encourage drug users to leave the streets to use drugs. This will result in a reduction in the number of drug-related arrests, overdose-related death, and in costs that the city currently spends on housing over 1,000 people in the four county jails in District 6. A study has shown how similar safe-injection sites in Vancouver, Canada have reduced HIV infections.
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