4 ms·

City of SF Spends $8k per Homeless Person, per Hotel Room, per Month

8 points by Alupis 6y ago

dublinben 6y ago
The original title of the article is "S.F. to begin moving homeless out of hotels soon. Some might get housing, others ‘safe’ tent sites" not the currently sensationalized one.
- onecommentman 6y ago
  More politicized than sensationalized. The opening paragraph mentions the US taxpayer is paying 75% of that...6K a month. For the rest of the country, that’s the takeaway.
rootsudo 6y ago
I find it a bit ironic, that, instead of renting out the empty apartments, they jumped to hotels and paid 50%+ more than market rate. It makes sense, as it's open, active and there's no real demand otherwise from business travelers or tourists. But, wow, $8,000 a month in social services just for being in San Francisco. That's what a low end tech person makes in SF, after taxes (approx.) 8,000*12=96,000 While it's a annual 1.5% city income tax for residents (payroll tax.)
- dogma1138 6y ago
  It’s easier to negotiate with a few hotels than with 1000’s of individual landlords. It also puts them in one place where they can be easily monitored and where social services can find them. Hotels also can provide food, cleaning and laundry services which many homeless might need. Unless you have a large stock of concentrated social housing this is quite likely the most cost effective option. It simplifies negotiations, doesn’t involve housing contracts, takes advantage of existing infrastructure and available services and doesn’t trigger NIMBYism. They might be overpaying but one can easily understand why they went with this option.
apta 6y ago
How is this level of incompetent management and spending tolerated? Yes, provide housing for the homeless, but who thought it was remotely a good idea to waste money like this?
commonturtle 6y ago
You could 25x their budget and everything would still suck. Money is not the problem, competent governance is. Until they fix that the public should refuse any further tax increases.
- WalterGR 6y ago
  How are you measuring competent vs. incompetent governance?

8 points by Alupis 6y ago

The original title of the article is "S.F. to begin moving homeless out of hotels soon. Some might get housing, others ‘safe’ tent sites" not the currently sensationalized one.

onecommentman 6y ago
More politicized than sensationalized. The opening paragraph mentions the US taxpayer is paying 75% of that...6K a month. For the rest of the country, that’s the takeaway.

rootsudo 6y ago

I find it a bit ironic, that, instead of renting out the empty apartments, they jumped to hotels and paid 50%+ more than market rate. It makes sense, as it's open, active and there's no real demand otherwise from business travelers or tourists. But, wow, $8,000 a month in social services just for being in San Francisco. That's what a low end tech person makes in SF, after taxes (approx.) 8,000*12=96,000 While it's a annual 1.5% city income tax for residents (payroll tax.)

dogma1138 6y ago
It’s easier to negotiate with a few hotels than with 1000’s of individual landlords. It also puts them in one place where they can be easily monitored and where social services can find them. Hotels also can provide food, cleaning and laundry services which many homeless might need. Unless you have a large stock of concentrated social housing this is quite likely the most cost effective option. It simplifies negotiations, doesn’t involve housing contracts, takes advantage of existing infrastructure and available services and doesn’t trigger NIMBYism. They might be overpaying but one can easily understand why they went with this option.

apta 6y ago

How is this level of incompetent management and spending tolerated? Yes, provide housing for the homeless, but who thought it was remotely a good idea to waste money like this?

commonturtle 6y ago

You could 25x their budget and everything would still suck. Money is not the problem, competent governance is. Until they fix that the public should refuse any further tax increases.

WalterGR 6y ago
How are you measuring competent vs. incompetent governance?