&gt; Every time the topic comes up, people from across the country start commenting on SF&#x27;s homelessness woes. I live in SF, and consider our homeless situation unique. There are lots of mentally ill people, who have been hanging around for many years, thanks to good weather and generous people (and the easy availability of some drugs). Most of these people are NOT your typical &quot;lost my job, lost my apartment, and hence am homeless&quot; types. Many of them are so mentally ill that putting them in a mental institution is the only option. They simply cannot take care of themselves.<p>Pretty much every coastal county along the West Coast and Florida has this &quot;problem&quot;. It is not some unique snowflake SF problem. Yes, it may be 2-3x more common among the homeless but that isn&#x27;t enough to consider them as anything other than people in need of help.<p>You are simply factually wrong about the &quot;uniqueness&quot; of your problem by any reasonable measure.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;local&#x2F;california&#x2F;la-me-homeless-national-numbers-20151120-story.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;local&#x2F;california&#x2F;la-me-homeless-natio...</a><p>&gt; Los Angeles city and county have the most chronically homeless people in the country, and nearly all of them sleep on the streets, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.samhsa.gov&#x2F;disorders" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.samhsa.gov&#x2F;disorders</a><p>&gt; According to SAMHSA’s 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) (PDF | 3.4 MB) an estimated 43.6 million (18.1%) Americans ages 18 and up experienced some form of mental illness. In the past year, 20.2 million adults (8.4%) had a substance use disorder. Of these, 7.9 million people had both a mental disorder and substance use disorder, also known as co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sfgov.org&#x2F;lhcb&#x2F;sites&#x2F;sfgov.org.lhcb&#x2F;files&#x2F;2015%20San%20Francisco%20Homeless%20Count%20%20Report_0.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sfgov.org&#x2F;lhcb&#x2F;sites&#x2F;sfgov.org.lhcb&#x2F;files&#x2F;2015%20San...</a><p>&gt; The most frequently reported health condition was drug or alcohol abuse (37%), followed by psychiatric or emotional conditions (35%).<p>Homeless people are more like to be disadvantaged groups. [e.g. Poor people with one or more disadvantages, such as mental illness]<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;healthsciences.utah.edu&#x2F;utahaddictioncenter&#x2F;healthcare_professionals&#x2F;Training_Modules&#x2F;module1.htm#substance" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;healthsciences.utah.edu&#x2F;utahaddictioncenter&#x2F;healthcar...</a><p>&gt; 8.1% of the general population are illicit drug users of 1 or more times a month<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.niaaa.nih.gov&#x2F;alcohol-health&#x2F;overview-alcohol-consumption&#x2F;alcohol-facts-and-statistics" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.niaaa.nih.gov&#x2F;alcohol-health&#x2F;overview-alcohol-con...</a><p>&gt; Adults (ages 18+): 16.6 million adults ages 18 and older3 (7.0 percent of this age group4) had an AUD in 2013. This includes 10.8 million men3 (9.4 percent of men in this age group4) and 5.8 million women3 (4.7 percent of women in this age group4).<p>Similarly, it isn&#x27;t surprising that a good chunk of them have used drugs&#x2F;alcohol as any addiction is a disadvantage economically. However, the general population has those problems too to a substantial degree.