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0 pointsrefurb10y ago0 comments

San Francisco has a $156M annual budget to address homelessness. That's not a small amount of money. First let's make sure that it's being spend efficiently.

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rahimnathwani10y ago

That's over $20k per homeless person, per year[0]

[0] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-homeless-populatio...

sandworm10110y ago

Or, rather than get bogged down in never-ending "efficient government" debates, we can increase spending today and simultaneously address efficiencies. Far too often the demand "efficiency first" is just a means to delay the actual commitment of resources.

rahimnathwani10y ago

If your doesn't work, do you upgrade your CPU or re-write your code? Sure, if your code sort of works but is maybe only 50% as efficient as you want, go ahead and upgrade your CPU.

But if your code is O(n^3) and just doesn't ever give you an answer, upgrading your CPU is throwing good money after bad.

The current system and people are not able to solve the problem, even after spending >$22k per homeless person per year. How much more do you suggest spending, and why do you think it would make any difference to outcomes?

knowaveragejoe10y ago

But what if the already non-trivial sum isn't being spent in the best way possible? It sounds like a lot of that is going to landlords in the form of rent; granted that's a burden off the people living there.

joosters10y ago

Most of which is spent on rent, so it ends up in the pockets of the landowners. And it doesn't go as far as it needs, thanks to the crazy high rents. It's a vicious circle.

refurbOP10y ago

And you can blame the city's policies for the high rents since they've absolutely refused to build more housing.

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0 comments

rahimnathwani10y ago

That's over $20k per homeless person, per year[0]

[0] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-homeless-populatio...

sandworm10110y ago

rahimnathwani10y ago

If your doesn't work, do you upgrade your CPU or re-write your code? Sure, if your code sort of works but is maybe only 50% as efficient as you want, go ahead and upgrade your CPU.

But if your code is O(n^3) and just doesn't ever give you an answer, upgrading your CPU is throwing good money after bad.

knowaveragejoe10y ago

joosters10y ago

Most of which is spent on rent, so it ends up in the pockets of the landowners. And it doesn't go as far as it needs, thanks to the crazy high rents. It's a vicious circle.

refurbOP10y ago

And you can blame the city's policies for the high rents since they've absolutely refused to build more housing.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse