so I’m talking with a couple of THC employees about this SF Weekly article that comes out, and the reaction I get?
“Gee, I thought there would be something shocking, but this like nothing we haven’t seen before”
Well, that’s the point actually, that within THC, this is normal. What was in the article had been circulating as rumors for months, so it was old news for people within THC. THC is such an insular world separated from the rest of society, that things like this can go on for years, and people end up thinking it’s normal.
If extortion, crack dealing, loan sharking, and pimping is normal in a place responsible for getting homeless people off the streets, then it makes no sense to ask why there is so many homeless back on the streets again. The very thing that supposedly solves the problem is actually the cause of it
it’s literally a revolving circuit of modern day slavery > bring em in, get em hooked, spit em back out again (raise rents) repeat process over and over again, ad nauseum
it’s disgusting in my opinion and there’s a whole lot of people in this racket that are completely jaded as a result.
I remember young, bright eyed, idealistic, college kids darn near volunteering to help the homeless here some years ago. They come in here perky and eager as you could imagine. These days, after dealing with this mess after a couple years, they have that ‘vacant look’….I mean that “lost, blank look in their eyes”
spit em out and find a replacement for these ‘volunteers’ is the policy
and you wanna know where the real problem lies?…Even if the local management knows of really bad problems, no matter how many times they themselves complain, it’s the main Tenderloin Housing Clinic office that resists it every time. It’s the top attorneys at THC that will nearly always say no, no matter what. It’s Randy Shaw that hangs on for dear life to every last tenant, no matter how many rocks he’s sold
why?, because under Care not Cash, and the Mayors office, they make a BIG deal about getting homeless off the streets, and out of your face. I’ve seen press releases of 97% retention rates for homeless people in these hotels.
I’m here to tell you that people pay a big price for that extra 10 %. And it’s usually that extra 10% that causes all the problems..They’re up all night, every night, wheeling and dealing, banging on doors, keeping people awake. There is no way in hell anybody getting off the streets and into a ‘safe clean affordable housing’ will ever be able to make it under conditions like that.
the suspicion of course, and mentioned in the article, is that this is EXACTLY what Randy Shaw and THC and Department of Human Services want
because this guarantees the status quo, in perpetuity
and twas ever thus, we go back to square one