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"(I'm not sure why) 24/7 security staff." Despite your doubts - homeless folks are not idiots. I live near a similar site. It has a no visitor policy, 24/7 sec

"(I'm not sure why) 24/7 security staff." Despite your doubts - homeless folks are not idiots. I live near a similar site. It has a no visitor policy, 24/7 security etc. I would call it a huge success relative to the surrounding homeless impacts. The issue for the homeless and many govt run programs is that it's often easier for govt to do nothing. Ie, your stuff is stolen, visitors etc cause problems etc. A huge amount of public housing really suffered from this - despite being govt run it was worse, not better. If you can carve a (small) space, no zoning issues, tent on pallet, secuirty for your stuff and yourself, no visitors causing trouble - you can give people some basic stability in sleeping etc. As to the $60K - you need to be comparing to costs in SF generally for services for a homeless person - I'd estimate $110 - $150K (higher end is if you include the excess ambulance runs etc). So this is relatively competitive.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
Something is seriously wrong if it costs $150k per year to be homeless in SF. 6 years ago, I lived there quite comfortably making only $70k BEFORE taxes, and was able to save a decent bit per year on top of that. Even now, I /only/ spend $90k per year - and my lifestyle is quite extravagant. It's just out of control if it costs almost twice as much money to have almost nothing.
- whoknowswhat11 5y ago
  SF does $600 million to $800 million per year just through DHSH. My guess is around 300 - 400 million through other depts (SF DPH etc). Behavioral health services alone run $500M and DPH is at $2.4 billion in their budget. I'm excluding Fire / Police / MOCD / other services (there are a ton). Rough numbers maybe $1B/year? for 8-12,000 folks? This is both very large, but SF probably only spends around 8-10% of budget on this - the SF budget is very large.
  - mardifoufs 5y ago
    That's crazy! I know american cities handle services that are handled at a provincial level here in Canada but the budget for the city of Montreal is only around 6B$ in Canadian dollars. And that's with all the costs that come from snow removal and the never ending repairs our roads need due to winter damage.
    - whoknowswhat11 5y ago
      Montreal is much larger though I think? Sf is 800K or so in population
- lazide 5y ago
  You also presumably were able to manage your own affairs, had a reputation and connections that meant you could get safe living quarters without being assaulted or having your stuff stolen, weren’t leaving dangerous biohazards around someone else needed to be paid to deal with - all of that adds up.
opportune 5y ago
Yeah getting your stuff stolen is a huge deal for homeless people because they don’t have much to begin with. So they value a lot the possessions they do have. Ever see a homeless camp or person with tons of black trash bags? That is everything that person owns. And the police probably can’t/won’t get that stuff back if it’s stolen. You may be thinking “who would steal stuff from homeless people?” Other homeless people, so in a camp where they’re concentrated it’s a real concern. There’s also the concerns that drug dealers will hang out at the camp/shelter since many of the homeless are addicted, and the ones that aren’t are vulnerable. Same with petty crime rings like shoplifters/fences.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago

Something is seriously wrong if it costs $150k per year to be homeless in SF. 6 years ago, I lived there quite comfortably making only $70k BEFORE taxes, and was able to save a decent bit per year on top of that. Even now, I /only/ spend $90k per year - and my lifestyle is quite extravagant. It's just out of control if it costs almost twice as much money to have almost nothing.

whoknowswhat11 5y ago
SF does $600 million to $800 million per year just through DHSH. My guess is around 300 - 400 million through other depts (SF DPH etc). Behavioral health services alone run $500M and DPH is at $2.4 billion in their budget. I'm excluding Fire / Police / MOCD / other services (there are a ton). Rough numbers maybe $1B/year? for 8-12,000 folks? This is both very large, but SF probably only spends around 8-10% of budget on this - the SF budget is very large.
- mardifoufs 5y ago
  That's crazy! I know american cities handle services that are handled at a provincial level here in Canada but the budget for the city of Montreal is only around 6B$ in Canadian dollars. And that's with all the costs that come from snow removal and the never ending repairs our roads need due to winter damage.
  - whoknowswhat11 5y ago
    Montreal is much larger though I think? Sf is 800K or so in population
lazide 5y ago
You also presumably were able to manage your own affairs, had a reputation and connections that meant you could get safe living quarters without being assaulted or having your stuff stolen, weren’t leaving dangerous biohazards around someone else needed to be paid to deal with - all of that adds up.

opportune 5y ago

Yeah getting your stuff stolen is a huge deal for homeless people because they don’t have much to begin with. So they value a lot the possessions they do have. Ever see a homeless camp or person with tons of black trash bags? That is everything that person owns. And the police probably can’t/won’t get that stuff back if it’s stolen. You may be thinking “who would steal stuff from homeless people?” Other homeless people, so in a camp where they’re concentrated it’s a real concern. There’s also the concerns that drug dealers will hang out at the camp/shelter since many of the homeless are addicted, and the ones that aren’t are vulnerable. Same with petty crime rings like shoplifters/fences.