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"The average per-night cost — $190 — is $82 less than what the city pays to shelter someone in the city’s homeless hotel program. But unlike the hotel program,

"The average per-night cost — $190 — is $82 less than what the city pays to shelter someone in the city’s homeless hotel program. But unlike the hotel program, the tents are not eligible for federal reimbursement. According to city data, 314 people live in 247 tents. Fifteen spots are open." These costs don't make much sense. You could rent the homeless apartments for this. You could just rent them a nice hotel room. How does it cost more to rent a hotel room for a homeless person than it does for a home-ful person? Shouldn't the city be getting some kind of discount and just pass out keys and rooms in bulk? "The security guards personally knew many of the people who walked in. They screened everyone for COVID-19 symptoms with a temperature check and reminded to keep their masks on at the site." What do you do if you're homeless and have covid? The security guards stop you from going to your tent?

redis_mlc 6y ago
LA is reported to have spent $500,000/homeless person over 3 years for their new homeless condo building. It's built on the beach no less. That's $14,000/month per person, though if the building is still standing after 3 years, there could be some value leftover (unless it's burned or flooded.) Cities have abjectly failed, so at this point it will take some kind of federal czar to sort out SF and LA. (A judge could render a consent decree, as with police oversight or prison overcrowding in troubled cities.) You could argue that the failure of Democratic mayors to prevent the burning of their cities, an existential threat, is an indicator that they will never address the homeless problem.
abernard1 6y ago
And for the hotels, that's $272 a night. $272 * 365 = $99,280 a year! So San Francisco is spending $100K a year per person and billing that to the federal government / everyone else in America. Meanwhile, median income in the U.S. is $31K a year, or 1/3 of that.
curryst 6y ago
> How does it cost more to rent a hotel room for a homeless person than it does for a home-ful person? Shouldn't the city be getting some kind of discount and just pass out keys and rooms in bulk? No. Given the rates of mental illness and drug addiction in the homeless community, I would expect a higher than normal number of issues. It's also bad for brand; no one wants to be "the homeless hotel", so there's going to be an upcharge for that loss. And lastly, the homeless aren't likely to be responsible for their incidentals (I can't imagine the hotel would allow that), so damage is more likely. I don't think that's anything related to being homeless, just that people are less careful with things they won't have to pay to replace. I doubt police would do car chases if they had to do it in their own car (not a comment on police, just government workers generally). So no, I really don't think anyone will rent the city all of their rooms to house the homeless, and especially not at a discount. A big part of the problem is that people don't want to be near the homeless, so they tend to devalue anywhere there are a lot of them. This is why the Navigation Centers are so unpopular; no one wants their home/business to lose value because it's near a shelter. Everyone agrees we should build them, and everyone agrees we should build them somewhere not near them. So they just don't get built. And unfortunately, having good services for the homeless can end up attracting more homeless people. If you start offering a nice hotel room to all the homeless people, what homeless person in their right mind wouldn't head to SF?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Rebelgecko 6y ago
>How does it cost more to rent a hotel room for a homeless person than it does for a home-ful person? Homeless people are probably more likely to cause damage to the hotels, and hotels are less likely to recoup their costs from the person responsible. There's also been ~20 deaths (mostly overdoses) which I imagine puts extra strain and costs on the hotels. I don't know if they're still doing it, but at least for a while SF had a program where they supplied Project Room Key participants with drugs and alcohol so that they'd be more likely to self-medicate in their hotel rooms and less likely to be out and about. I think that might also end up leading to more property damage + smoking fees
- DrScump 6y ago
  hotels are less likely to recoup their costs from the person responsible As long as the costs are recouped from the city instead, would they really care?

redis_mlc 6y ago

LA is reported to have spent $500,000/homeless person over 3 years for their new homeless condo building. It's built on the beach no less. That's $14,000/month per person, though if the building is still standing after 3 years, there could be some value leftover (unless it's burned or flooded.) Cities have abjectly failed, so at this point it will take some kind of federal czar to sort out SF and LA. (A judge could render a consent decree, as with police oversight or prison overcrowding in troubled cities.) You could argue that the failure of Democratic mayors to prevent the burning of their cities, an existential threat, is an indicator that they will never address the homeless problem.

abernard1 6y ago

And for the hotels, that's $272 a night. $272 * 365 = $99,280 a year! So San Francisco is spending $100K a year per person and billing that to the federal government / everyone else in America. Meanwhile, median income in the U.S. is $31K a year, or 1/3 of that.

curryst 6y ago

> How does it cost more to rent a hotel room for a homeless person than it does for a home-ful person? Shouldn't the city be getting some kind of discount and just pass out keys and rooms in bulk? No. Given the rates of mental illness and drug addiction in the homeless community, I would expect a higher than normal number of issues. It's also bad for brand; no one wants to be "the homeless hotel", so there's going to be an upcharge for that loss. And lastly, the homeless aren't likely to be responsible for their incidentals (I can't imagine the hotel would allow that), so damage is more likely. I don't think that's anything related to being homeless, just that people are less careful with things they won't have to pay to replace. I doubt police would do car chases if they had to do it in their own car (not a comment on police, just government workers generally). So no, I really don't think anyone will rent the city all of their rooms to house the homeless, and especially not at a discount. A big part of the problem is that people don't want to be near the homeless, so they tend to devalue anywhere there are a lot of them. This is why the Navigation Centers are so unpopular; no one wants their home/business to lose value because it's near a shelter. Everyone agrees we should build them, and everyone agrees we should build them somewhere not near them. So they just don't get built. And unfortunately, having good services for the homeless can end up attracting more homeless people. If you start offering a nice hotel room to all the homeless people, what homeless person in their right mind wouldn't head to SF?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Rebelgecko 6y ago

>How does it cost more to rent a hotel room for a homeless person than it does for a home-ful person? Homeless people are probably more likely to cause damage to the hotels, and hotels are less likely to recoup their costs from the person responsible. There's also been ~20 deaths (mostly overdoses) which I imagine puts extra strain and costs on the hotels. I don't know if they're still doing it, but at least for a while SF had a program where they supplied Project Room Key participants with drugs and alcohol so that they'd be more likely to self-medicate in their hotel rooms and less likely to be out and about. I think that might also end up leading to more property damage + smoking fees

DrScump 6y ago
hotels are less likely to recoup their costs from the person responsible As long as the costs are recouped from the city instead, would they really care?