Man, it sounded like such a brilliant idea. Take the thousands of poor souls off the streets and put them up in empty hotels with toilets, beds and food to slow the spread of coronavirus.
This is what actually happened.
1/2 How's the "hotels for homeless" plan going? Deception, destruction, dope, and death. Special thanks to the brave & caring souls who spoke out. YOU made this story happen. https://t.co/ybvOGBuEAq
— Erica Sandberg (@EricaJSandberg) June 24, 2020
In a Fox News report, we learned that the people who were reassigned as disaster workers had been librarians who were reassigned to the homeless hotels. They were totally unequipped for what they had to deal with. Far from treating the hotels as refuges, they descended into squalid hellholes rife with sexual assaults, drug overdoes, suicides, guns, violence and filth.
“They are not just horrified, they are traumatized by what they see. You have mattresses that have feces on them, blood, hospital bands on the floor. What people are seeing is so horrible that they walk out and they say, ‘I don’t want to go back in there.'”
FOX News
From the New York Post:
“If neighborhood residents were more aware of the influx of these new guests, who frequently suffer from drug addiction and severe mental illness as well as having criminal backgrounds, they might object. Consequently, the city has evoked emergency-disaster law to keep the information private. Officials refuse to notify the public about what is happening in their community and are blocking the press by withholding the list of hotels and preventing reporters from entering the properties. The Department of Emergency Management has attempted to spin the secrecy by claiming, “Disclosure of the names of hotels where people are being sheltered could jeopardize the privacy and safety of the vulnerable people whom the City has placed there if the public and the press become aware of the circumstances of their placement and could increase the risk that they will be subject to discrimination or harassment on the basis of their health status or status as an unsheltered person.”
The city of San Francisco faced backlash when it announced it was giving cannabis, methadone, alcohol and cigarettes to homeless people sheltering at the hotels provided by the city amid the COVID-19 pandemic (seen above).
According to a statement released by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, these substances are not bought with the taxpayers money. However, the department did not explain where the funds were coming from or what is being done for those with opioid-related addictions. San Francisco health authorities argued many of the homeless being sheltered right now could face life threatening situations if faced with sudden withdrawal.
We have to get better at this. San Fransisco is Nancy Pelosi’s District. It’s time she and the SF authorities faced up to their responsibilities and stopped hiding behind failed liberal tropes. Bring back the mental institutions, implement proper rehabilitation schemes, introduce work programs tied to proper help, especially for the former military, the homeless families and the runaways. Self-reliance can be taught.