I have a new short story in Issue #11 of Compelling Science Fiction called “Targeted Behavior.” It’s about a tech startup in San Francisco attempting to “solve” homelessness via pharmaceutical means (which, as you might guess, doesn’t go quite as planned). It’s free to read online, but please consider subscribing or purchasing the Kindle edition anyway. Editor Joe Stech is doing great work.
Like anyone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, I think about homelessness everyday. It’s impossible not to, given the current state of the housing crisis. Thousands of people live on the streets without permanent shelter, some of them quite visibly in tents or sleeping rough, others (who might sleep in their cars, or couch surf) much less so.
So how do we solve it? It feels like a massive, intractable problem, given that many cases of homelessness involve mental illness and/or drug abuse. But many cities have effectively reduced (and in some cases nearly eliminated) homelessness with bold, common sense city planning. Phoenix, Houston, and the entire state of Utah have all had major success by implementing Housing First policies, where housing is heavily subsidized without preconditions. The idea is that some level of economic security helps a vulnerable person address whatever behavioral or health issues that might have led to their condition. Once a person has shelter and food, it’s much easier for them to recover their health, address any addiction or mental health issues, and become a contributing member of society by getting a job or via some other productive and/or prosocial behavior.
Ideally, Housing First works in conjunction with an effective national healthcare program (the U.S. has great healthcare in many places if you don’t fall through the cracks or go bankrupt from medical bills) and mental health parity (which doesn’t exist at all in the U.S., despite the Mental Health Parity Act). And most importantly, the abundant availability of low-income and middle-income housing.
Oakland is currently building large numbers of new housing units, including many that are low-income, and has officially adopted a Housing First policy. These measures will help, but unless San Francisco takes similar measures, the situation may not improve. San Francisco’s mayoral candidates have made big promises. We’ll see how it plays out. The crisis is currently CODE RED as far as I’m concerned, with tent cities popping up all over the place.
As a Bay Area tax payer, I’m happy to fund any evidence-based initiative to solve this problem (and by solve, I mean get people into homes, not just get them out of sight).
Update: London Breed, the new mayor of San Francisco, appears to be something of YIMBY, which is good for new housing development.
Update #2: Oakland opens second TuffShed community.
Ed
I just read “Targeted Behavior”. I really enjoyed it. Even though it was a short story, the characters were really well developed.
It was thought provoking and actually plausible that something like that could happen.
On an entirely different tack… did you maintain the hair exercises? If you did, it’d be good to have an other update.
J.D. Moyer
Thanks Ed, glad you enjoyed the story!
I have, a few minutes a day, but I’m probably done posting on that topic. Too much controversy and unwanted attention.