Our Health Policy Matters

On a recent bright and sunny Monday afternoon, I took the sixteen-minute BART ride from Oakland – where I was doing some work – into downtown San Francisco.  I went to several places where people who are homeless tend to congregate.  What I saw made me wonder.  Do we realize that if we do nothing, up to half of the people who are chronically homeless are likely to die in the next ten years? I exited the BART train at the Civic Center/UN Plaza station.  When I arrived above ground, I saw more than a hundred homeless people in the vicinity of the station.  They were sitting or resting on the plaza, pretty much keeping to themselves. Scores of tourists, business people, and shoppers hurried about their business.  There was no interaction between the two groups.  It reminded me of the way old-time cartoons had the action layered on top of a static backdrop – a crowd bustling with activity set against the backdrop of stationary homeless people...

On a recent bright and sunny Monday afternoon, I took the sixteen-minute BART ride from Oakland – where I was doing some work – into downtown San Francisco.  I went to several places where people who are homeless tend to congregate.  What I saw made me wonder.  Do we realize that if we do nothing, up to half of the people who are chronically homeless are likely to die in the next ten years? I exited the BART train at the Civic Center/UN Plaza station.  When I arrived above ground, I saw more than a hundred homeless people in the vicinity of the station.  They were sitting or resting on the plaza, pretty much keeping to themselves. Scores of tourists, business people, and shoppers hurried about their business.  There was no interaction between the two groups.  It reminded me of the way old-time cartoons had the action layered on top of a static backdrop – a crowd bustling with activity set against the backdrop of stationary homeless people...