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Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
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Mar 21 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
They're not "homeless encampments," they're open air drug scenes

In them, the strong take advantage of vulnerable addicts/mentally ill

A mayor went undercover in one last year & reported the the truth. Too few elected officials do so

And too few in the media report the truth
Reading this paper was an a-ha moment for me in my research for "San Fransicko"

It's about how Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Vienna, & Zurich shut down their open drug scenes

When I read it I realized they were describing "homeless encampments"

bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…
Amsterdam used its police and social workers to shut down its open drug scene

That required a functioning psych & addiction care system

California doesn't have one & Gov. @GavinNewsom won't create one

And so we cruelly revive addicts & send them right back out to OD again
California's open drug scenes are dens of human trafficking, prostitution, and rape, as I and others have documented at length

Does Gov. @GavinNewsom want to stop drug dealers from selling fentanyl to 15 and 16 year olds in California's open air drug markets?

If so, why isn't he doing anything to stop it?

Why is this being allowed to continue?

It's not about the money, says Newsom's own top mental health and homelessness advisor.

It's about the lack of leadership

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More from @ShellenbergerMD

Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 16
People understandably think progress is made when homeless encampments are "cleared," but they just move somewhere else

Until we create a statewide psych & addiction care system capable of treating the sick, we will never solve the homeless crisis

latimes.com/world-nation/s…
Without a doubt we need to shut down the open drug scenes ("homeless encampments"), ban illegal public camping, and provide safe & basic shelter

But no amount of shelter is going to address the root causes of addiction & untreated mental illness

Today, we spend billions on fire departments putting out encampment fires & reviving addicts who overdose — only for them to go right back to smoking fentanyl and setting fires

It's a perfect marriage of liberal & conservative nightmares

Read 16 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 16
Some people say it's wrong to require the homeless to sleep in shelters

But these barbaric murders of unsheltered people show how dangerous it is to let people sleep outside

Basic human decency demands universal shelter and a ban on public camping

apnews.com/article/suspec…
As mayor of San Francisco, California Gov. @GavinNewsom led the effort to make "Housing First" both statewide and federal policy

That, combined with tolerance of open drug use, resulted in an explosion of unsheltered homelessness

We are in a homeless humanitarian emergency

California should lead the world to

1. Create a statewide psychiatric and addiction care system, Cal-Psych

2. Establish a "Shelter First, Housing First" policy

3. Enforce laws & divert the sick into rehab/psych care
Read 7 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 15
People think we'll end homelessness by giving away housing, but Calif. proves the opposite

Nobody made homelessness worse than @GavinNewsom — just look at his 20 year record:

He won't fund basic shelter

He throws money at housing developers

He blames others for his failures
There's a role for housing for seriously mentally ill people like my aunt, who had schizophrenia, and lived in a group home

But Newsom has for 20 years worsened homelessness by offering free, unconditional housing to addicts who just need rehab

It gets worse.

In 2018, Newsom green-lit SF's disastrous "supervised drug consumption site" which has turned much of downtown SF into a massive open drug scene controlled by violent drug dealers which recently resulted in the death of a 16 year-old girl

sfchronicle.com/politics/artic…
Read 13 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 14
We have just six weeks until early voting

Six weeks to save our humanity

Let’s go

shellenbergerforgovernor.com/join-now/
Read 4 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 14
Many believe Calif. Gov. @GavinNewsom is unbeatable in November, but they are wrong

Not only are we going to beat him, we are going to create a new, governing majority that is capable of restoring our shared humanity & dignity

Here's how — and why

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-we-will-…
Like a lot of Californians, I have a full and happy life. My wife and I own a home in the Berkeley Hills from which we enjoy watching the fog roll underneath the Golden Gate bridge, and blanket the bay. Our children are healthy and happy.
We enjoy a safe and comfortable living as researchers and writers, seemingly far from the chaos and suffering in California’s downtowns.

But over the last few years, the rising chaos and suffering have increasingly troubled me.
Read 46 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 8
In December, Mayor @LondonBreed of San Fran promised a crackdown on drug dealing

Instead she delivered a supervised drug use site

Since then, the dealing has worsened so much that even street addicts want cops to crackdown

Now, Mayor Breed is calling for state & fed help
Today, Gov. @GavinNewsom will characterize his proposal for dealing with mentally ill homeless as "unprecedented"

In truth, Newsom is proposing to waste more money on a system that HIS MOST SENIOR ADVISOR SAYS CAN'T WORK
Newsom's proposal is doomed

It not only keeps in place but also *increases* funding for California's COUNTY-BASED approach to homelessness

Worst of both worlds

— 58 separate county systems with redundant, wasteful overhead

— Extremely sick people falling through the cracks
Read 12 tweets

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