California has taken a bold step forward and banned plastic straws, but it can’t seem to do anything about the ever burgeoning ranks of its homeless. From Mac Slavo at shtfplan.com:
The homeless crisis in the Democrat stronghold of California has reached epic proportions. Even after throwing billions of dollars at the problem, the state is unable to solve the epidemic they created.
And California’s plan to throw billions of dollars more at the issue won’t do much either. The problem isn’t a lack of money. The problem is the socialist policies in place that make homelessness inevitable. There are now nearly 60,000 homeless people living in Los Angeles County, a 12% increase from the previous year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
According to National Interest, Los Angeles is not the only county suffering under the weight of freedom-trampling socialist regulations that make it difficult for the average person to even get by, let alone afford a roof over their head. Other localities in California also saw substantial increases compared with 2017, when they last conducted a count, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. In San Francisco, the number [of homeless people] rose 17% while Alameda County, which includes Oakland, saw a 43% increase. Homelessness grew 42% in San Jose over the past two years and 31% in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley.
Wealthy Elitists Freak Out As Hordes Of Homeless People Take Over Their Neighborhoods All Over The West Coast
“Even in the good old days, there was a Skid Row. Now the beggars, drug addicts, and lost souls are all over the city,” wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnist Carl Nolte.
The city is out of control. Traffic is a mess, but it’s rare to see a traffic control officer. Trucks are double-parked everywhere. The city is dirty—a friend just back from Mexico City was astounded to find the streets there far cleaner than the ones in her native city. There is so much human waste on the streets of San Francisco the city formed a ‘poop patrol’ where workers are paid $71,000 a year, about the same as the average school teacher. -Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle
Nolte even nails the direct cause of the problem and it’s California’s government and the people who elect them.
To cope with these problems, the citizens have continued to elect weak city governments, all built on compromise and deals with competing pressure groups. At City Hall, everybody is responsible for everything and nobody is responsible for anything.
To make a complex problem worse, the city has so many rules and regulations that it has become nearly impossible to build anything. And the city desperately needs new housing. San Francisco has the highest building costs in the country. Architects and builders say it costs an average of $650,000 to build an ordinary San Francisco home these days. Even affordable housing is not affordable. Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle
To those who continue to warn of the destruction of socialist policies, this is obvious. To those who want everything handed to them after it’s first stolen from someone else, it looks like a utopia. But that’s because it’s easier to vote for politicians to “steal from the rich” than it is to beat the politicians own rules and become rich. Humans have lost their sense of individuality and their freedom in the process of taking the easy road.
California’s government also seems to have more pressing matters to attend to anyway, like banning plastic straws, plastic bags, and paper receipts. They’ve also begun providing free health care coverage to illegal immigrants while their homeless population burgeons. California maintains a generous welfare regime, and it’s temperate and generally pleasant weather make it a natural haven for homeless people.
But the best way for the state to help the people is by doing the one thing the state won’t do: get the hell out of their way.
It was a brief two-question survey that spoke volumes: “Do you favor or oppose making health care benefits available to young low-income illegal immigrants in your state? Is it offensive to refer to someone who has entered this country illegally as ‘an illegal immigrant?’”
“The California ranch-house lifestyle — founded on sunshine and ample backyard space for a pool — has become increasingly unaffordable for middle-class families in urban areas where most jobs exist. Living space has tightened and become impossibly pricey for too many,” the Los Angeles Times 
