Homelessness continues to grow in San Francisco

as the GOP candidates for president get ready for tonight's big debate in Simi Valley the topic on many Californians Minds is the housing crisis and the candidates have already been slamming President Biden on this issue Osama you've been visiting homeless encampments around the country to make their Point ABC zareen Shaw explores an encampment in the heart of San Francisco to learn more about what's driving this problem and what an expert there on the ground says needs to happen experience [Music] in parts of San Francisco this scene is a regular occurrence housed Americans moving Street to Street like Anthony who says he's been living in a tent for the past three years right after Kobe it was horrible out here what were you doing before then mostly Chef work being in the restaurants you know they shut them down you know it's hard to supplement the the income and alert and you were initially paying 1200 for rent to share a room yep Anthony is one of the 170 000 unhouse Californians struggling to find a permanent home the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management telling us in a statement unfortunately most people either declined to engage decline offers of shelter or have shelter already and we cannot compel people to come inside but homeless Advocates say the city's current 3 000 shelter bed system is not always appropriate for everyone as of today there are at least 350 unhoused individuals still on that wait list nationally homelessness has risen to over half a million people the Golden State now makes up nearly a third of the nation's homeless population the reasons are numerous the High Cost of Living from the tech Boom the economic downturn during the pandemic and mental health crises all adding to San Francisco's homeless population Jennifer friedenbach the executive director of the Coalition of homelessness is one of the people working tirelessly to find Anthony and others long-term shelter will you have Politics on your mind every day yeah I mean this is a manufactured issue homelessness it was created by a lack of investment many across the state say they're frustrated with the growing encampments in their cities it looks like a junkyard on our block and it's just not safe it's appalling it's absolutely appalling it's not safe it's unsanitary over the summer President Biden announcing an extra three billion dollars in investment but on the campaign Trail GOP Presidential hopefuls have used a homeless crisis to slam Democratic Leadership Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former president Donald Trump investing in ads targeting California voters no wonder why we've had so many people move from San Francisco to Florida over the last few years we will ban urban camping violators of these bands will be arrested but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they're willing to be rehabilitated many of them don't want that freenbach says this essentially criminalizes the homeless what are the top three things the Federal Government Can Do In This Moment the Federal Government Can quickly invest in housing vouchers the federal government needs to invest in prevention so that their short medium and long-term housing subsidies when there's a catastrophic health issue or a loss of job or something like that is happening having those prevention dollars is key and thirdly I'd say is a huge thing is an investment in Behavioral Health some of the solutions are already happening on the streets just not fast enough for either party during the end of our time with Anthony he was offered a place to stay that would get him off the streets but there are still thousands of people tonight still on California streets looking for a place they can call a permanent home zorin Shah ABC News Los Angeles and the cost of living just so expensive and all those people without a home yeah well hey there GMA fans Robin Roberts here thanks for checking YouTube channel lots of lots of great stuff here so go on click the Subscribe button right over right over here to get more of Awesome videos and content from GMA every day anytime we thank you for watching and we'll see you in the morning on GMA

Channel: Good Morning America

Views: 185,843

Keywords: abc, campaign, francisco, gma3, homeless, homelessness, housing, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-103533356, san, supply, unhoused

Id: Nwa3ae3jdtY

Length: 4min 35sec (275 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023