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It is not for the lack of money spent. San Francisco spent $300 million on housing homeless people in 2017. That’s $40k per homeless person in the city. I thin
by asabjorn 9y ago
It is not for the lack of money spent. San Francisco spent $300 million on housing homeless people in 2017. That’s $40k per homeless person in the city.
I think benioffs solution of spending by relocating homeless and vulnerable families outside the city is quite promising. Instead of the $500k per unit in SF it is conceivable to build more than 10 times more for the same prize elsewhere.
In one years city budget for homeless housing we could conceivably build housing for all if we are willing to follow benioffs solution, making necessary housing less of a lottery.
- c22 9y agoAnd then what? Do you bus them back to the city to panhandle on weekends or are they just supposed to stay in their new cheap and isolated housing twiddling their thumbs? Will you bring them snacks?
- asabjorn 9y agoSimilar to the Utah model you provide social services that help rehabilitate. We can also structure it similarly to theirs. The goal is to free people from the cycle of homelessness. As you can see in the article there is very little that would not improve upon the current situation.
- c22 9y agoThis Utah model[0][1][2][3]? I'm all for getting the homeless into homes, and for the chronically homeless perhaps sending them somewhere cheap and giving them a lifetime of social services is the answer. But the majority of homeless are not chronically so, these people need economic opportunities, and the places with the cheapest housing are also the places with the fewest economic opportunities. If we want to prevent this class of homeless from slipping into the former group then finding ways to provide them housing in booming cities is preferable. [0] https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-a-model-for-solving-chronic-homelessness.html https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-... [1] http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homelessness-expert-says-operation-rio-grande-is-a-disaster-at-annual-utah-summit/ http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homel... [2] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-shelters-20170707-story.html http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-shelters-20170707-s... [3] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solved-homeles_b_9380860.html# https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solv...
- asabjorn 9y agoSo do you have a different proposal that is better? At least to me the current solution does not seem like much of a solution, it is expensive and leaves most undersupported at best, and any rehabilitated social client would have to contend with that: - SF metro area is the 8th most expensive in the world - only a one bedroom costs $3600 - low skilled entry level jobs are moved elsewhere https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/www.wired.com/2016/03/those-entry-level-startup-jobs-theyre-now-mostly-dead-ends-in-the-boondocks/amp https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/www.wired.com/2016/03/those-... There are large areas not far from San Francisco that is much cheaper. Personally I moved to Oakland, and even that relatively short move makes a huge difference.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoUtah is kind of at a sweet spot here, with housing that is not ridiculously expensive, and yet with decent amounts of economic opportunity. Not Silicon Valley levels of opportunity, but I'm not sure that most homeless should be looking for Silicon Valley-type jobs as their first step.
- c22 9y agoEven with Keurig people in Silicon Valley sometimes need someone else to make their coffee. There are good arguments for having a range of affordability in housing so the people working these service jobs don't have to commute 4 hours on a bus every day.