Is there anything that can be done to improve the quality of life of these individuals? they are living in squaller and last time I went for a job along that route I saw a man yelling at two women . He didn't hit them, but he gestured with his hand and they backed off and ran a short distance. In any case, this area is a lawless part of town since it is under the freeway overpass (part of Caltrans) and within the city of oakland just at the border with Emeryville.

the short answer dogtown is that it is complicated. shelters are not always pleasant places to be and many of these individuals are addicted to drugs/paranoid schizophrenic or both. Many of them do not like to be confined in a shelter as that makes them feel trapped. Also, if they want to use drugs or alcohol, that is more difficult in a supervised environment. there is something like over $20K budgeted per homeless person in San Francisco and there are still plenty of people living under the overpass. I look at homelessness as a very extreme alternative lifestyle that is a potpourri of bad luck, bad choices, burned bridges, and to some extent extreme defiance against social "norms."