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0 pointsctlby10y ago0 comments

The city spends $167 million [1] for a homeless population no larger than 15,000 (and probably closer to 7,000) [2]. The wealthy city isn't leaving anyone to his or her fate. To the contrary, it's expending vast amounts of wealth with precious little to show for it.

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-spendi...

[2] https://sfgov.org/lhcb/sites/sfgov.org.lhcb/files/2015%20San...

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spikels10y ago

And that $167 million is just services specifically for the homeless. It does not included other city services which are heavily used by the homeless such as medical, housing, police, sanitation, etc - probably well over another $100 million - or the extensive private, non-profit and church spending.

mattlutze10y ago

To boot, that would be 6-7% of the city's 2.5B in receipts from 2012-2013:

http://sftreasurer.org/sites/sftreasurer.org/files/TTX_Annua...

That there's not a significant dent in the continuing issue raises some questions.

Expatistan's crowd-sourced info finds SF housing to be the most expensive in the world, and cost of living in general nearly there:

https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/san-francisco

zepto10y ago

That's between 12k and 20k per person. Way less than you'd need to provide accommodation and treatment for a person with mental illness. It's not surprising it doesn't work.

knowaveragejoe10y ago

The people blasting the city claim the city isn't doing enough, and when shown that they are actually are providing a remarkable amount of support, it still isn't enough. 12-20k annually is more than a significant chunk of the population earns in wages.

zepto10y ago

I don't really know what your point is. The amount may be a large dollar figure, but it is clearly not enough to solve the problem, therefore the problem still exists.

I'm curious how many people live in SF on 12-20k, but that's irrelevant. If someone has accommodation and is able to earn wages as a steady state, it is obvious that their costs will be less than a homeless person who needs mental health treatment, rehabilitation and maybe even education before they are employable.

The figure that employed people can survive on is well below the lower bound for what is needed to rehabilitate a homeless person.

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peanut_merchant10y ago

Throwing money at a problem is one thing. Intelligent allocation of that money is another.

I'm not saying it isn't allocated effectively, just that the numbers themselves do not tell the whole tale.

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trimbo10y ago

That's just the city's spending though. There (edit: is) other money: state and federal, private donations, churches, the VA system, and so on.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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spikels10y ago

mattlutze10y ago

To boot, that would be 6-7% of the city's 2.5B in receipts from 2012-2013:

http://sftreasurer.org/sites/sftreasurer.org/files/TTX_Annua...

That there's not a significant dent in the continuing issue raises some questions.

Expatistan's crowd-sourced info finds SF housing to be the most expensive in the world, and cost of living in general nearly there:

https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/san-francisco

zepto10y ago

That's between 12k and 20k per person. Way less than you'd need to provide accommodation and treatment for a person with mental illness. It's not surprising it doesn't work.

knowaveragejoe10y ago

zepto10y ago

I don't really know what your point is. The amount may be a large dollar figure, but it is clearly not enough to solve the problem, therefore the problem still exists.

The figure that employed people can survive on is well below the lower bound for what is needed to rehabilitate a homeless person.

1 more reply

peanut_merchant10y ago

Throwing money at a problem is one thing. Intelligent allocation of that money is another.

I'm not saying it isn't allocated effectively, just that the numbers themselves do not tell the whole tale.

1 more reply

trimbo10y ago

That's just the city's spending though. There (edit: is) other money: state and federal, private donations, churches, the VA system, and so on.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse