Homelessness: Props for Trying

The Post (booking.com image)

Cheap hotels--under $100 per night--in San Francisco were built in the early 20th century. They're located on blocks of the City that are distant from the tourist haunts, and the buildings struggle to remain on the right side of respectability.

The City of San Francisco will lease 151 rooms in two of these hotels, the Abigail and the Post, to get the homeless off the streets.

The city hopes the first occupants at both hotels will be able to move in by April. The Post will charge $1,300 a unit per month and the Abigail will charge $1,400. Residents will be expected to pay 30% of their income — whatever it may be — toward rent, with the city subsidizing the remainder.

The Abigail (Loopnet image)

Housing programs always need on-site monitoring to prevent the importation of behaviors like drug use, prostitution, and overcrowding. This pilot program will be supervised by two non-profits, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and Episcopal Community Services.

There's much to be hopeful about. If the room subsidy is, say, $800 per month or about $10,000 a year, that would still be much less than the City's $25,000-$36,000 annual expenditure per homeless person. (To be fair, job training, health care, etc. will make the costs higher than $10,000 per year per hotel resident.)

The oversight by motivated charities, not indifferent bureaucrats, has a good chance of identifying problems earlier. Also, the housing is available immediately, instead of waiting for the units to be built years from now.

The project risk is much lower than the cost of building shelters that turn in to white elephants, so give them props for trying.