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Ask HN: Would you pay $10/month to eradicate homelessness in SF?
This is for people that live/work in San Francisco.
There are currently ~7.5k homeless in SF and the number is growing each year. I'm curious if it's possible to build a startup that tries to eradicate this problem in the most efficient way possible that is not non-profit. Or does something like this already exist?
I know that the city is spending $241m/year to try to tackle the problem. However, as I understand it most of the funds go toward providing housing for the homeless. This might seem counter-intuitive, but I don't think providing housing today is the best long-term solution. I think the best solution would be to do everything we can to enable the homeless to start generating money for themselves again. The fundamental problem arises because the healthcare and social welfare system are so bad in the US on a federal level (and not primarily because of the increasing housing prices in SF, like many think it is). But I think we can build a for-profit, hyperlocal system that helps a city's population.
I also don't think that non-profits are the solution. With non-profits, often there is no pressure to make the best possible product because income is only loosely coupled with how good the product is.
Unlike other social causes, this is something that touches SF residents every day and makes their lives worse. This may sound harsh, but it's the reality. And therefore I think people would pay even they have zero altruistic tendencies.
How would I solve this issue and is it possible to get enough subscribers to tackle this issue quickly? Who knows.
I think it must be possible to provide an "anti-homelessness subscription" to the SF population. Half the price of Netflix and it helps to eradicate homelessness. I know that I would pay $10/month in a heartbeat if it would help solve this issue. What about you? Would you pay or do you have ideas how this could be approached?
- jeffmould 9y agoI think you may be over-simplifying the problem of homelessness. I agree that housing in itself is not a total solution. I also agree that healthcare and our social welfare system are a mess to some extent. However, there are many other things that need to be considered. Drug abuse, lack of willingness to seek out/receive services, individuals that choose to be homeless. Taking a long-term homeless person with a substance abuse issue to gainful, successful employee supporting themselves is not going to happen overnight and most likely not within a year. The support system required to solve the issue is massive at scale. With that said, I do believe there has to be a better way to address the problem. One of the best solutions I have seen in a while came from HandUp (https://www.handup.org https://www.handup.org). They basically created a crowdfunding platform to help homeless people obtain the things/services/etc.. they need. This I believe is similar to what you may be envisioning. I think the best solutions come connecting the individual to the right services/programs and ensuring they remain connected. You have to accept you will never have a 100% solution, but if you can touch just 10% you have made a drastic improvement in so many lives.
- shafyy 9y agoYou're absolutely right, it's a super complex issue and thinking that we can remove the issue 100% is wishful. Thanks for sharing HandUp, I'll have a look. As you say, I think any improvement in the right direction would already impact many lives positively.
- cimmanom 9y agoMy understanding is that the rationale behind the housing-first movement is that all the other interventions are much more likely to succeed for someone who has stable housing. There are a few reasons for this. One is simply that it's easier for social workers to follow up on someone when they know where to find them. Another is that in order to become eligible for most types of assistance, one needs to list a home address on the applications. This includes job interventions, adult education, food stamps, and the medical benefits that support addiction and mental health interventions. Perhaps the most important is that stable housing removes one of the greatest stressors from a formerly homeless person's life. If you're constantly worrying about where you're going to lay your head at night and whether you'll be safe there, that's a) a constant source of anxiety that's capable of exacerbating mental health conditions or driving someone to drugs; and b) doesn't leave the mind free to worry about longer term fixes for the situation. Moreover, the prevalence of drugs on the street and the lack of anything else to do with one's time, other than worry, also drives people to use them and makes breaking existing addictions harder. Even a television would be at least a distraction. Organizations that not only perform interventions but also study their efficacy have found that compliance rates for things like taking daily or weekly medications are much higher if people are first put into stable housing. I applaud your desire to address the problems of homelessness in ways that existing players are failing to. You may first want to research what has already been learned in this space.
- shafyy 9y agoThat's a great insight, thank you. Yes, I know virtually nothing about the issue, that's why I made this post :-)