California has a population of nearly 40 million people—and has nearly one-third of the nation’s homeless population: 171,000.            

The majority of that population consists of hardcore drug addicts, hardcore alcoholics, the mentally ill, and those who refuse to work for a living.  

“Untermenschen“ is a German word meaning: “subhumans.” The abbreviated version of this is “Unters.”

And that’s why many Californians—even in San Francisco—are finally starting to yell: “Unters away!”

In a June 1, 2022 interview interview with The Spectator World, Michael Shellenberger, author of San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, blamed liberal ideology for this epidemic:

“The first thing is that they don’t enforce laws. They don’t enforce laws against people that they consider victims, which includes addicts and the mentally ill. And if you don’t enforce laws it turns out people don’t follow them and you don’t have functioning civilization.

Michael Shellenberger

Michael Shellenberger, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

“The second is that they have pursued a radical de-incarceration, de-policing and decriminalization agenda, which has removed penalties for many laws, including shoplifting $950 worth of goods, or possessing three grams of fentanyl and meth, enough to produce paranoid psychosis. And they’ve pursued a so-called housing first anti-shelter policy.

“So they’ve defunded the shelters. The governor himself has established that housing should be a right. That anybody who comes to San Francisco or Los Angeles should have their own apartment unit in those cities. That is the state policy. It is so ridiculous. It is shocking to even say that that is what the policy is, but that is what it is.

“What we need is pretty straightforward. We need to enforce laws. We need a shelter-first housing-earned policy and you need statewide psychiatric and addiction care like they have in every civilized country.

“We’re reviving people from overdose six, nine, twelve times and then sending them right back onto the streets to smoke more fentanyl. It’s bonkers.

“Fifty percent to 75 percent of all fires put out by the San Francisco and Los Angeles fire departments are in homeless encampments. My own research, and the research of others, shows that most of these are arson fires, people just getting back at each other.”

Some cities are fighting back.

• Los Angeles filed a lawsuit over encampments endangering public welfare that authorizes the clearing of people from public spaces.
• In 2021, the Los Angeles City Council prohibited people from sleeping in public spaces.
• The city of Riverside quickly followed suit.
• Los Angeles banned camping near schools and daycares. The reason: Children were being  threatened and frightened by Unters in a growing number of encampments..
• Sacramento has banned camping along sidewalks and along the scenic river trail. 

Yet San Francisco refuses to confront Unters in a suitably aggressive way.

In 2022, this population in San Francisco was officially estimated to be 7,754.

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen“ campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBs—drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums—until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing. 

But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.

And when “homeless” people are placed in subsidized housing, their mental illness, irresponsible addiction to drugs and/or alcohol and/or generally sloth-like habits usually trash those premises.

Since 2015, eight Navigation Centers have been opened throughout San Francisco; six are in operation.

Among the “amenities” they provide:

• Meals
• Privacy
• Space for pets
• Space separate from sleeping areas
• Laundry
• Access to benefits
• Wi-Fi

Hundreds—if not thousands—of their occupants are meth or heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery. 

Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.

“Navigation Centers” boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist. 

Huge areas of the city are covered in feces, urine, trash and used hypodermic needles. Hospitals overflow with patients that have fallen ill due to the contamination.

The city budgeted $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2021-22 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 7,754 DDMBs provides the figure of about $128,925 per DDMB per year.  

And what is the legacy of allowing San Francisco to become a Roach Motel for undesirables? 

• Sidewalks are littered with tents, sleeping bags, human feces and urine, used hypodermic needles and empty cans or bottles of alcoholic beverages.
• Elevators in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system are often unusable because “homeless” people urinate and/or defecate in them.
• Restaurants have been forced to close because they’ve become havens for DDMBs. A Burger King at Civic Center Plaza recently suffered this fate. So did a McDonald’s in the Haight Ashbury district. 
• Tourists—and residents—are daily forced to sit next to filth-encrusted men and women who reek of urine and/or feces in restaurants and movie theaters, as well as on buses.

It is a recipe for guaranteed disaster.    

Run by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH), the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program provides a host of amenities to drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and parasitic thieves and scammers.  

Otherwise known as Untermenschen, the German word for “subhumans.”   

Or Unters, for short.        

It works in two stages:    

Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.

Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes. 

“Managed alcohol and tobacco use makes it possible to increase the number of guests who stay in isolation and quarantine and, notably, protects the health of people who might otherwise need hospital care for life-threatening alcohol withdrawal,” says DPH spokeswoman Jenna Lane.

A typical cockroach scene

Notice the word “guests.” As if San Francisco—or any city—should welcome hordes of drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums as assets to its community. 

“Many isolation and quarantine guests tell us they use these substances daily,” says Lane, “and this period in our care has allowed some people to connect for the first time with addiction treatment and harm reduction therapy.”

DPH said in a statement that these “guests” are screened for substance addictions and asked if they’d like to stop or have support to reduce their use.

If they say they want to remain alcoholics and/or drug addicts, they’re provided with their substance of choice.

The department also provides methadone for “guests” who are addicted to opioids.

DPH staffers have helped people buy “medical marijuana,” the agency told local affiliate ABC7.

But the agency doesn’t “facilitate purchases of recreational cannabis,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.

A typical San Francisco scene: Unters’ tents in front of City Hall

When they’re not swallowing alcohol or injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “guests” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.

Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums—the four groups that make up 90% of the “homeless” population.

“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”

“Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso told the Chronicle in October, 2021. 

“During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.” 

“Why are the shelves empty?” a customer asked a clerk at a Walgreens store.

“Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all,” replied the clerk.

As a result, Walgreens has closed 11 stores in San Francisco. 

One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft. 

CVS Pharmacy has instructed its employees to not intervene because the thieves so often attack them.

Many shoplifters then sell their stolen goods on the street—often near the store where they stole them.

Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.

The maximum sentence they could get: Six months. 

Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk. 

Some stores in the city are refusing to let themselves be ripped off.

Target’s largest store, at Geary and Masonic, is guarded by armed security from IPS. Its officers wear dark green uniforms resembling those of sheriff’s deputies and carry .40 caliber automatics.

They are unfailingly courteous—but don’t hesitate to restrain anyone who poses a threat to customers or is apparently stealing merchandise.

Of course, corporations aren’t in business to lose money. So costs for such security are passed on to customers.

Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city’s available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably so, since they’re peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums. 

But another reason why many of these shelters go unused is: They don’t allow their “guests” to drink up or drug up.

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen“ campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBs until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing. 

Why do California politicians—especially those in San Francisco—cater so fervently to hardcore drug addicts, hardcore alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work?                                

In his 2021 bestseller, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, author Michael Shellenberger provides the answer. According to its dust jacket:

“San Francisco and other West Coast cities — Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland — had gone beyond merely tolerating homelessness, drug dealing, and crime to actively enabling them.

“San Fransicko reveals that the underlying problem isn’t a lack of housing or money for social programs. The real problem is an ideology that designates some people, by identity or experience, as victims entitled to destructive behaviors. The result is an undermining of the values that make cities, and civilization itself, possible.”

In December, 2022, the Palo Alto-based cloud computing company VMware canceled its contract with the Moscone Center for its 2023 conference and said it would relocate the event.

No specific reason was given. But it’s almost a certainty that the city’s refusal to get tough on the druggies, drunks, mentals and bums who infest its streets and accost its tourists is a major one.

This is only the latest blow to a city that depends overwhelmingly on tourism for its economic prosperity—if not survival.

San Francisco saw the steepest drop of any major metro with a loss of $1.68 billion—or 68.8%—when compared with 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on the city. Huge numbers of tech workers who once flooded into San Francisco began working at home. And a great many of them still do.

Thus, those businesses—such as restaurants—which had benefitted from their presence are now desperate to stay afloat.

But even before the pandemic, an exodus of high-profile conventions had already started—such as Oracle’s CloudWorld—which left San Francisco for Las Vegas.

Unlike VMware, CloudWorld did cite the reasons for its departure: Filthy street conditions and exorbitant hotel prices.  

San Francisco’s politicians—its Mayor and the 11 members of the Board of Supervisors—like to think of the city as a city-state. That is: As a power comparable to ancient Sparta or Athens.

Reality proves otherwise.

San Francisco is not an economic powerhouse like New York City. It’s not an entertainment capital like Hollywood. It’s not a political center like Washington, D.C.

Here is what San Francisco is:

• It’s a small (46.87 square miles) city with a relatively modest population (815,201).
• Its largest industry is tourism,
• This generates more than $8.4 billion annually for the local economy and supports over 71,000 jobs.  

And if the tourism industry disappears, so will San Francisco. 

Meet the new untouchables of San Francisco: Hardcore drug addicts. Hardcore alcoholics. The mentally ill. Parasitic scam artists/thieves who refuse to work for a living. 

If you doubt it, consider the following:

If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.

According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average [monthly] rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $2,879.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 739 square feet.”

So unless you’re a hugely successful IT professional—or narcotics dealer—your chances of being able to afford a San Francisco apartment are lower than Donald Trump’s of winning a “Mr. Congeniality” contest.

But there’s hope for you yet—if you’re a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum (DDMBs). 

Why? 

Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.

Run by the city’s Department of Public Health (DPH) it’s called the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:

Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.

Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes. 

According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:

“The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.

“Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.”   

But the agency doesn’t require that its addict “guests” remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.

After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.”

Except that the reports weren’t false.

The program is funded by private philanthropists. Nevertheless: 

• DPH administers and oversees the program.
• It’s staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and security personnel.
• The department manages, stores and distributes the substances.
• Employee time is involved.

Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding. 

Spend any amount of time in California, and a new foreign word will enter your vocabulary: Untermenschen.      

In German, this means “subhumans.”   

Or “Unters,” for short.

California has a population of nearly 40 million people—and has nearly one-third of the nation’s “homeless” population. The majority of that population consists of hardcore drug addicts, hardcore alcoholics, the mentally ill, and those who refuse to work for a living.

In short: Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums—or DDMBs.  

And their numbers are growing much faster in California than in other states, according to an analysis of federal data by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Tent encampments block pedestrians from walking along sidewalks. And when pedestrians aren’t contending with tents, they’re forced to navigate around empty beer cans, empty wine bottles, piles of human feces, pools of human urine and used hypodermic syringes.

California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, has a plan for addressing this catastrophe. He will ask allies in the Democratic-controlled Legislature for a measure on the 2024 ballot to authorize funding to build residential facilities where up to 12,000 people a year could live and be treated.    

But 12,000 is essentially meaningless when the numbers of Untermenschen in California are estimated at 171,000.   

And how much does Newsom want to spend on people who make absolutely no positive contribution to society?  From $3 billion to $5 billion.

The money would partially come from general obligation bonds that would go toward construction of “campus-style” facilities along with smaller homes and long-term residential settings.

“Modernizing” California’s Mental Health Services Act is another goal of Newsom’s office. It would cost at least $1 billion every year for housing, treating drug abuse and providing other services.

  Gavin Newsom 

On March 16, Newsom announced a plan to spend about $30 million to build 1,200 small homes across the state to help house people living on the streets. The homes can be assembled quickly and cost a fraction of what it takes to build permanent housing. Federal courts have ruled cities can’t clear homeless encampments if there are no shelter beds available.

This is a difficult time for California. The state has an estimated $22.5 billion deficit, with state revenues falling as the stock market slows.

And many Californians are convinced the state is headed in the wrong direction. After years of growth, the state’s population has been dropping.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California’s total population declined by more than 500,000 between April 2020 and July 2022. California is one of only 18 states that saw its numbers decline and had the fourth biggest drop as a share of its population.

The reasons: They’re seeking more affordable homes and a better quality of life.

And a major reason for their unhappiness:  The state’s intractable “homeless” problem.

Decades ago, being “homeless” meant you lost your home due to fire, flood or earthquake. For a few weeks or months, you lived with friends or family as you searched for a new residence. Then you resumed your former life as a productive citizen. 

Today, being “homeless” means living for years—even decades—on the street. Selling drugs, using drugs, getting drunk, staying drunk, living in filth, refusing treatment for drug and/or alcohol addiction, refusing even shelter from the cold, rain and terrors of street life—these are the realities of most of today’s “homeless” population. 

To fully understand the consequences of this, one needs only to look at what this population has done to San Francisco.

In 2022, the San Francisco “homeless” population was officially estimated to be 7,754. Of these, 3,357 were staying in shelter. Many of those who could find shelter refused to make use of it—or were refused entry due to their rampant drug and/or alcohol addictions.

If it’s a mystery why so many people would prefer to live on the streets—especially during a cold and rainy winter—it’s equally mystifying why so many politicians cater to this population.

Politicians are notorious for “going where the votes are.”

Thus, during his first meeting with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (November 28 – December 1, 1943) in Tehran, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said he could not openly support Stalin’s ambitions to conquer Poland.

The reason: The 1944 Presidential election was fast approaching. And Poles made up a substantial portion of the voters FDR needed to win a fourth—and unprecedented—term. He could not afford to alienate them.

Yet drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and bums are infamous for not showing up at the polls on Election Day. So what can be the reason San Francisco politicians cater so fervently to this population?

In his 2021 bestseller, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, author Michael Shellenberger provides the answer. 

According to its dust jacket:

“Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse.

“Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison.

“But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem. What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies.”