3 ms·

When you have more than a billion dollar spent every year on homelessness, do they really want homelessness to end? Think about it. They call it “homeless indus

by fosk 4y ago

When you have more than a billion dollar spent every year on homelessness, do they really want homelessness to end? Think about it. They call it “homeless industrial complex” for a reason.

polynomial 4y ago
Would be interested what that number is just for SF. (Assuming $1B is national expenditure.)
- jdminhbg 4y ago
  Heh, no, the $1B is for SF: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-has-an-unprecedented-1-1-billion-to-spend-16318448.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-has-an-unpre...
- Swizec 4y ago
  I once heard the city spends around $50k/year per homeless person. The latest estimate for 2022 is 7,754 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco – https://sfgov.org/scorecards/safety-net/homeless-population https://sfgov.org/scorecards/safety-net/homeless-population That gives an estimate of $390,000,000/year spent on homelessness in San Francisco alone. Mind you the official definition of “homeless” is a lot stricter than people assume. Living in a car makes you not-homeless. Here’s a good podcast episode about that: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/according-to-need-chapter-2-the-homelessness-hotline/transcript/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/according-to-need-cha... My first question whenever thinking about these numbers is: If we just give them that money, will they stay homeless? I bet many would be more than able to get their life in order, if you gave them 50k … that’s more than minimum wage for SF.
  - twblalock 4y ago
    I bet almost all of them be be homeless again within a year. The problems that made them homeless in the first place are not just money problems.
    - Swizec 4y ago
      I think that’s where social workers (I think?) draw the distinction between chronically homeless and someone experiencing homelessness. The average person who experiences homelessness stays homeless for 237 days[1]. That’s the highest estimate I could find on google. Some were as low as 90 day average. I bet a lot of those people could fix the problem a lot faster, if you gave them minimum wage money for a year. [1] https://embed.clearimpact.com/Measure/Embed?id=100076098 https://embed.clearimpact.com/Measure/Embed?id=100076098
  - fosk 4y ago
    And yet somehow SF manages to spend $1.1B on homelessness: https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-spending-11-billion-san-francisco-sees-its-homelessness-problems-spiral-out https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-spending-11-billion-... Many wallets are being filled here, and there is no oversight on where the money is going and if it's working.

by fosk 4y ago

When you have more than a billion dollar spent every year on homelessness, do they really want homelessness to end? Think about it. They call it “homeless industrial complex” for a reason.

polynomial 4y ago

Would be interested what that number is just for SF. (Assuming $1B is national expenditure.)

jdminhbg 4y ago
Heh, no, the $1B is for SF: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-has-an-unprecedented-1-1-billion-to-spend-16318448.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-has-an-unpre...
Swizec 4y ago
I once heard the city spends around $50k/year per homeless person. The latest estimate for 2022 is 7,754 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco – https://sfgov.org/scorecards/safety-net/homeless-population https://sfgov.org/scorecards/safety-net/homeless-population That gives an estimate of $390,000,000/year spent on homelessness in San Francisco alone. Mind you the official definition of “homeless” is a lot stricter than people assume. Living in a car makes you not-homeless. Here’s a good podcast episode about that: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/according-to-need-chapter-2-the-homelessness-hotline/transcript/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/according-to-need-cha... My first question whenever thinking about these numbers is: If we just give them that money, will they stay homeless? I bet many would be more than able to get their life in order, if you gave them 50k … that’s more than minimum wage for SF.
- twblalock 4y ago
  I bet almost all of them be be homeless again within a year. The problems that made them homeless in the first place are not just money problems.
  - Swizec 4y ago
    I think that’s where social workers (I think?) draw the distinction between chronically homeless and someone experiencing homelessness. The average person who experiences homelessness stays homeless for 237 days[1]. That’s the highest estimate I could find on google. Some were as low as 90 day average. I bet a lot of those people could fix the problem a lot faster, if you gave them minimum wage money for a year. [1] https://embed.clearimpact.com/Measure/Embed?id=100076098 https://embed.clearimpact.com/Measure/Embed?id=100076098
- fosk 4y ago
  And yet somehow SF manages to spend $1.1B on homelessness: https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-spending-11-billion-san-francisco-sees-its-homelessness-problems-spiral-out https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-spending-11-billion-... Many wallets are being filled here, and there is no oversight on where the money is going and if it's working.