I can see two factors at play. The first, of course, is corruption and waste. But the second is that we don't know the counterfactual. It's very difficult to g

I can see two factors at play. The first, of course, is corruption and waste. But the second is that we don't know the counterfactual. It's very difficult to guess how many homeless people there would be in SF if that money hadn't been spent. If $240M moved the needle from 10k down to 6k (for a net drop of 4k), was it worth it? What if it was 20k (net -14k)? We have no idea what that number actually is. We're looking solely at the difference and trying to make a judgment on the subtrahend.