Where Did San Francisco's Homeless Go?

In the last few years, San Francisco has become notorious for chronic homelessness, drugs, crime, and human feces. But then poof! Welcome to America Uncovered. I’m Chris Chappell. This week, world leaders from 21 countries, including Communist Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden, are meeting in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, also known as APEC. This is huge for San Francisco. The last time San Francisco hosted a meeting with so many world leaders was back in 1945 when the UN Charter was signed. But that was almost 80 years ago. Since then the closest they came to such prestige was hosting a bunch of spiritual leaders in 1992. And that was in the very fictional movie Sister Act. San Francisco today isn’t really a place people think of as being ideal for leaders to meet. I’ve seen Waffle Houses at 3AM more sanitary than this. San Francisco is a Homeless Mecca… …full of drugs… …crime… …and human feces. But don’t worry. San Francisco leaders are racing to clean up. Because they’ve realized this madness has gone on long enough, and they have a duty to the citizens they swore to represent. Naaaah, I’m just kidding. They’re doing it to make sure they don’t make complete fools of themselves in front of world leaders. There’s nothing more embarrassing than having a guest step in dog poop and having to tell them that it wasn't from a dog. “A crewmember told me the action here today was in preparation for next week’s Apec summit. Cleanup teams and police are fanning across the city.” “Caltrans repaving major roadways like the Harrison Street offramp from the I-80. BART doubling down by deep cleaning their stations overnight more often.” “Scrubbing and powerwashing is happening all over the city.” “Yeah, the bottom of my shoes look clean, like—” “It’s noticeable how clear the streets look, and how few homeless encampments there are on major thoroughfares.” San Francisco’s cleanup has been *very* thorough, especially at homeless hotspots. They swept them under a rug, but I guess that’s slightly fancier than a tent, so… progress? City workers swarmed homeless encampments across the city, tossing mattresses, tents, chairs, and other street items into garbage trucks. Which is definitely the most humane way to deal with homelessness - throw away what little they own. They’ve also washed away human feces, urine, and crack pipes. At this point, crack has become the new San Francisco treat. Pipe-a-Roni. Speaking of crack pipes, San Francisco has also cracked down on drug markets. And not the way looters cracked windows in Walgreens. Increased undercover operations, surveillance, and prosecutions have led to so many inmates that San Francisco’s Sheriff’s Office announced that it would reopen its San Bruno jail annex. The results are impressive. At least for now. The UN Plaza, once an open air drug market… …has turned into a skateboard park and outdoor cafe with ping-pong tables and chess boards. I haven’t seen a glow up that impressive since Neville Longbottom. The Ferry Building, once full of homeless encampments, trash, and graffiti, Was power-washed and redecorated with newly designed crosswalks and murals. I’d say this is like putting lipstick on a pig, but in San Francisco, that might be something they actually do. Other places have also seen major cleanups, like Tenderloin… …and South of Market. And let’s not forget the druggie and homeless hotspot, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, It went from being so dangerous that the city told employees to work from home… …to being safe enough for pro-Palestinian protestors to block employees from entering the building, thus forcing them to work from home. The city has also created an APEC security zone, putting up tall fences. I wonder if the barriers are more for protecting world leaders, or more for keeping out homeless encampments? It might be the latter, because whatever space wasn’t fenced was filled with planters to keep homeless encampments off the streets. I wonder if those will be left there after APEC ends. So when it comes time to shine for the international press, San Francisco has managed to clean itself up to a fine polish. And in a real hurry, too. Which seems a bit insulting to residents. Some residents are wondering why San Francisco has refused to fix its homeless problem for years....but suddenly, it’s able to fix those problems—just when it’s time for a visit by US President Joe Biden and Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping , a man who’s waging war on the US, including a drug war thats pumping fentanyl onto the streets of San Francisco, and committing genocide against ethnic minorities. Also, where did all the homeless people go? I’ll tell you after the break. Welcome back. San Francisco really didn’t want to be the world’s laughingstock while hosting the APEC forum, so it has done a major facelift. Not only has it cleaned up its homeless and drug hotspots, but it has also pumped out murals all around the city. Man, those murals went up fast! I wouldn’t be surprised if the artists were on meth. Hm. Maybe the *new* new San Francisco treat is Ice-a-Roni. San Francisco Mayor London Breed says, “We want people, especially (those) who are coming here from other places, to experience San Francisco for themselves so that they can tell the story from their own experience of walking the streets and visiting other parts of our city” Which is a fancy way of saying that she wants San Francisco to look good while it’s in the spotlight. She went on to say, “We want to make sure that the real story of San Francisco is told.” The real story of San Francisco? That’s spending $2,800 a month on a studio apartment and getting your car’s catalytic converter stolen more often than street sweeping. In presenting a beautiful facade to the world while hiding an ugly underside, San Francisco is joining a time-honored tradition shared by such noteworthy places as the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, all of which have something in common. I can’t quite put my finger on it. But Mayor Breed and other California officials are hoping not for a “doom loop”, but a “bloom loop” from these efforts. After all, if San Francisco can convince international tourists that all is well there, they can bring in money, which can be put to actually properly solving the problems in the city. Because more money is the answer and money thrown at terrible policies is definitely not the real problem. To residents, it just looks like California officials care more about looking good in the spotlight than the safety and wellbeing of their citizens. Were they motivated more by that than concern for the safety of its residents? California Governor Gavin Newsom admits it’s true. All of it. “I know folks say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this places and all those fancy leaders are coming into town. That’s true because it’s true. But it’s also true for months and months and months prior to APEC we’ve been having different conversations. “Any time you put on an event, by definition, you know, you have people over to your house, you’re gonna clean up the house.” That’s shocking. Gavin Newsom — in front of a live crowd — actually just… told the truth! Now I’ve seen everything. And what does he mean they were having different conversations? What were they before? The residents of San Francisco were saying, “Hey, can you do something to stop the spread of crime, drug abuse, and homelessness?” While Newsom was saying, “What’s an appropriate amount of hair gel to make me seem presidential? because a new poll shows that I’d lose to Trump if I replaced Biden next year, so… does America like my hair more crunchy or less crunchy?” Newsom’s remarks were slammed, with many taking them as a slap in the face. And a “disgrace” Newsom really put his foot in it if he’s actually planning on running for the 2024 presidential election. Besides, if the goal really was to not be the world’s laughingstock, then San Francisco was already years late on that. Chinese outlets have already called San Francisco a “total failure,” A “Garbage city,” And pointed out how it’s in a “death loop.” Which especially hurts coming from the Chinese Communist Party. But what about the homeless, where did they go? Well, thanks to federal court rulings, there are a lot of restrictions limiting California’s ability to sweep away homeless encampments. San Francisco has some flexibility enforcing laws against homeless people who refuse shelter. And offering shelter is always an option. So San Francisco’s been adding shelter beds. San Francisco’s still in the process of opening hundreds of homeless shelter beds, with 30 beds announced last Friday at Natoma and Eight Street. And knowing how incompetent San Francisco leaders are, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason it’s taking so long is they can’t figure out the IKEA instructions for building the beds. But for those homeless who do want to get off the streets, they’re faced with a strained shelter system. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city ran out of funds to open up special shelters. But don’t worry, we won’t see the homeless come back out and wreck San Francisco again, right? One resident told the Daily Mail, 'This is like a partial Band-Aid. It will fall off in a week.” From the look of things, it seems like San Francisco’s just moving the homeless out of sight temporarily. One homeless man speaking to the Daily Mail said, “The police just told me that there's a major conference, that the president is coming, and asked if we could stay away for a week”. Just a week? What happens after? Also, asking the homeless — many of whom are addicts — to take time off something is quite a move. So will San Francisco go right back to the mess it was in as soon as APEC ends? I think it would take a miracle to stop it. And unfortunately, They haven’t seen many spiritual leaders since 1992. Now here’s a video I want to show you from my latest project, Deep Thoughts While Gaming, where I talk about philosophy and politics while playing video games. This episode is about people’s relentless pursuit of power using Lies of P. Check it out! And as always click on that orange button to support America Uncovered on Patreon. Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching America Uncovered.