4 ms·

What happens when the next group of RV dwellers show up? You just gave away homes in one of the most expensive and desirable locations in the country. Isn’t it

• carapace 4y ago
  > What happens when the next group of RV dwellers show up? Build more housing and give it to them. > Isn’t it reasonable to expect your homeless population to backfill with other RV dwellers looking for the same? Yes, but there's only about 500,000 homeless people in America. It would not quite double the city population. (Last I checked we were around 800,000.) Park Merced alone could hold thousands more families if we converted the garden apartments and townhomes to towers, although that wouldn't be the only option. The entire Sunset District is almost all single-family homes. SF is a young city, there is lots of room. > It sounds so wasteful to buy such expensive real estate, lose property tax revenue, and assume perpetual maintenance costs just to house a fraction of the homeless you could elsewhere. Perhaps, but compare that to the opportunity cost to society of keeping all those families living in RVs. That's the real waste, eh? Give them homes, let their kids grow up in stable homes, check back in three generations, eh?