A San Francisco Democrat said capitalism is to blame for the homelessness in the city.
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston of District 5 told U.K. outlet UnHerd, “I think what you’re seeing in the Tenderloin is absolutely the result of capitalism and what happens in capitalism to the people at the bottom rungs.”
“The biggest driver of why folks are on the street is because they lost their jobs, income or were evicted from their homes, usually for not being able to pay the rent. So you have major landlords literally causing folks to lose their homes, and real estate speculation making it impossible for folks to find an affordable place to live,” he stated.
Preston noted that arresting people for drug activity is “counterproductive.”
“I think it’s completely counterproductive to be arresting people for doing drugs, yes.”
Freddie Sayers, the interviewer with UnHerd, asked, “So you can’t arrest people for openly doing drugs? You can’t move or clear away camps. I can’t see how it’s gonna change this. Surely it will just get worse and worse?”
“Well the thing is, it has gotten worse, right?” the politician responded.
“Because the approach that we’ve taken is very inconsistent as a city, ramping up enforcement activities, whether it’s against, you know, sweeps of homeless people or drug use, doing a series of arrests, usually timed with some new cycle and then, a few days later, a few weeks later, a few months later, the same thing happens,” he explained.
