Anonymous wrote:We just spent 4 days in San Francisco and I gotta say there was some serious culture shock. I hadn't been for about 14 years, used to go yearly as a child/teen and the difference was striking. I remember seeing "hobo" types there before, people who train hopped and eccentric feral types - this was something else entirely. The city is teeming with packs of young adults and I was alarmed. I am not talking about homeless people, my heart goes out to people in that situation and expect there to be more in any major city, this was something else entirely.

Is this a new type of culture attractive to teens, a product of unemployment rates being high, or what? Is San Francisco just a mecca for them? When they would ask for money they were polite about it, then when we'd give they would be really rude and it was almost scary a couple of times. Front desk at our hotel called them crusties when my DH mentioned one encounter.

Example from our first day - there were 4 pretty dirty "kids" with a couple of dogs and one held his hand out and asked my DH:

"Sir, can you spare some change."
My DH handed him a $20 and said, "Get yourselves something to eat, do your dogs have food?"
"Yes, Sir, okay."
We started to walk away and we get "Hey, what about the rest of us." "You can afford more." "Just $20, your purse is worth 10 times that" and we got heckled by them for about a block while they followed us. One of the dogs started barking and growling and we heard "He loves the taste of rich assholes"

We saw these types of exchanges happening over and over. We saw one man hand a group two pizzas and he got a "F*ck you I'm vegan" and "give us the cash" I handed a girl about 8 dollars, all I had in cash and was about to ask her if she wanted to get some supplies at the little market before she said "Thats it? F*ck your day!"

I was pretty shocked and we stuck to pretty touristy areas and the marina district, but saw them every where we went.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is hilarious, especially the "but . . . but . . . but the DOGS!" posters, and the tourists who apparently walk around handing out $20s to beggars, and than are just SHOCKED that the beggars want more. Go back to Iowa, please.

They wouldn't be there except for the dumbass tourists giving them money. The people who actually live there don't give money to beggers.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is hilarious, especially the "but . . . but . . . but the DOGS!" posters, and the tourists who apparently walk around handing out $20s to beggars, and than are just SHOCKED that the beggars want more. Go back to Iowa, please.

Anonymous wrote:I'm the poster from page 2 that's from the Bay Area. I have been in public safety (both Law & Fire) officer here for my entire life. First off, the police don't harass these people at all, only if they are obviously out of line or committing a crime. Our politicians would never allow it plus they have no money so it's not worth citing them with a ticket. The fact is, every city in the Bay Area spends millions of dollars on these people, there is no reason to give them any more. Every possible service is provided and they know it. Like I said earlier, 99% of these people are living this way because of choice. They did not all of a sudden lose there job and get a home taken away.

Drugs, alcohol and mental illness is behind all of this. Most of suffer from mental illness simply because of years of substance use. And what does our great state do? they classify them as disabled and give the a monthly check for over $1,000. each month. Most of which is spent on drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Giving them money only supplies them with more.

Each and everyone of these people know exactly where to get free food and shelter each day. They know the system very well and use it to there benefit. It's so bad now that hundreds of these homeless are now living in the suburbs outside SF, many causing wildland fires from camping in the open space and accidentally burning down abandoned buildings they take over as shelter.

Anonymous wrote:Stop giving them your hard earned cash. You are paying enough in taxes already, they are typical free riders. I wish the state would just put them in some sort of "assisted living" where they would get food and shelter and woukd be free to do whatever as long as they stay inside the fence. I woukd be happy to pay extra in taxes if they all were taken to some remote area and stopped irritating me.

Anonymous wrote:Stop giving them your hard earned cash. You are paying enough in taxes already, they are typical free riders. I wish the state would just put them in some sort of "assisted living" where they would get food and shelter and woukd be free to do whatever as long as they stay inside the fence. I woukd be happy to pay extra in taxes if they all were taken to some remote area and stopped irritating me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travelers are gypsies. We're these people gypsies? Or were they just middle class white homeless kids?

"Travelers" is a British euphemism for what we Americans called "crusties." And yes, the term is a spin-off from the New Age and Roma Travelers that live in the UK and Ireland.

Obviously, the name Crustie is derogatory so it's no surprise that they self-identify as "travelers."

And no, I'd venture to say that most of the Crusties are NOT middle class white kids. Many are from poor families, children of prostitutes or addicts, running away from a broken home, scarred by abuse (physical or sexual), or are a product of the foster home system. Or, most likely, a combination of those listed factors. They are literally the children that "fell through the cracks."

Crusty isn't derogatory. They call themselves "crusty punks" and "gutter punks". And yes, they are mostly middle class white kids. I'm sure there is the odd few that fell through the cracks, but for the most part no.

Middle class means what exactly? Last I checked families who make $20K to over $250K are all considered middle class in America.

You are splitting semantics now. Most of these "kids" are travelers by choice. As a few who live in the area attested to, most could easily head back to their middle class homes, if their drug fog ever lifted.

I think you are severely discounting the degree trauma people in this sub-culture have experienced and rampant mental illness.

If they had somewhere positive they could go (i.e. a normal, health middle class home & family), most of them wouldn't be out traveling.

Um traveling is like a thing with some millennials. Chris McCandless is their god/hero.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know/knew a few of these kids (I was their age at the time and we hung out) and their parents very much wanted them home. The drugs and freedom were a big draw. These kids did eventually come home 5-7 years later worse for the wear but somewhat acclimated back to "regular" middle class life. Just one big adventure I guess.

Or their idea of a "gap year"...on meth.

Anonymous wrote:I know/knew a few of these kids (I was their age at the time and we hung out) and their parents very much wanted them home. The drugs and freedom were a big draw. These kids did eventually come home 5-7 years later worse for the wear but somewhat acclimated back to "regular" middle class life. Just one big adventure I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know/knew a few of these kids (I was their age at the time and we hung out) and their parents very much wanted them home. The drugs and freedom were a big draw. These kids did eventually come home 5-7 years later worse for the wear but somewhat acclimated back to "regular" middle class life. Just one big adventure I guess.

This. Its a cultural/social movement. No one is talking about the mentally ill/abused that wind up on the streets - that is a tragedy.

What I'm saying is that a large portion of the people that compose the cultural/social Crusty "movement" have serious issues - proclivity to addiction, bipolar disorder, manic depression, schizophrenia, abandonment issues, PTSD from physical or sexual abuse, no family to rely upon due to being raised in foster care, etc.

It's a bit of a chicken-egg dilemma - what makes a Crusty? Is it free will? Or are they suffering from some sort of trauma/mental illness that drives them to become a homeless traveler? I'd wager that it's the latter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know/knew a few of these kids (I was their age at the time and we hung out) and their parents very much wanted them home. The drugs and freedom were a big draw. These kids did eventually come home 5-7 years later worse for the wear but somewhat acclimated back to "regular" middle class life. Just one big adventure I guess.

This. Its a cultural/social movement. No one is talking about the mentally ill/abused that wind up on the streets - that is a tragedy.