A tropical disease common in developing countries is spreading through Berkeley homeless encampments while courts block cleanup, and a federal judge took three months to act after rats tested positive for leptospirosis. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is sitting on 32 empty housing units that cost taxpayers $625,000 each, BART's Transbay Tube was shut down for 12 hours after an encampment fire the agency knew about and couldn't get cleared in time, and San Francisco's experiment with near-zero drug enforcement has produced a body count—810 overdose deaths in 2023 alone, triple the pre-policy level. Across California, the same pattern keeps emerging: courts, nonprofits, and city agencies making decisions that protect the system while people die in it.
Leptospirosis, common in underdeveloped countries, spread through Berkeley's Harrison encampment—and courts continued to prevent cleanup efforts.
Los Angeles emptied a building that was already housing people. Four years and $625,000 per unit later, it still houses nobody.
BART knew about the encampment, had legal authority to clear it, and asked Oakland nicely. Then it burned.
Drug arrests collapsed to zero. Overdose deaths tripled to 810 per year. The data is in, and so is the body count.
162 people have died of overdoses in their buildings since 2020. Their solution? Help the residents use drugs.
San Francisco's two most 'progressive' supervisors were the only no votes on Mayor Lurie's shelter for drug users. The body count speaks for itself.
A Seattle frontline worker exposes what we all see in the encampments—and why California banned the cure.
$30 billion stolen in unemployment fraud alone. California's gubernatorial candidate says fix it before raising taxes.
San Jose's mayor has cut homelessness 25% while Sacramento lets good policies die in bureaucracy. He's running for governor.
Dean Preston championed Providence Foundation as a model partnership. Now two employees face fraud charges.