The landless in San Francisco

Tree Hugger - Now, in San Francisco Bay, more and more people are living on boats without paying for the marina, just throwing a hook overboard and anchoring. According to Jim Carlton in the Wall Street Journal, it is becoming a serious problem.

The ragtag collection of some 200 barges, sailboats, and other mostly decrepit vessels in which they live and store their belongings is a sign of an affordable-housing crisis in California that is being felt particularly acutely in the San Francisco Bay Area.

But this would be the Wall Street Journal talking, because they are not "homeless," their homes just happens to float, and they just happen to be "landless." Some of these undocked floating homes are well-maintained and some are not. Some are doing it as a lifestyle choice, not because they are poor. They are what's known as "anchor-outs" and have been a "tradition since the California Gold Rush."

People who own multi-million dollar properties are furious that they have to look at these boats and barges, complaining that “they’re all filthy, because they have no place to bathe.”