SF Homelessness: More of the Same with a Lot More Money

(Examiner photo)

Just two months ago we did a quick-and-dirty estimate of the direct cost of homelessness on San Francisco's budget:

My calculator shows that $600,000,000 ➗ 8,000 = $75,000 per homeless person per year.

That number needs to be nearly doubled. Headline: Mayor Breed wants to add more than $1 billion to fighting homelessness in San Francisco over next two years

I won't bother quoting from the article. There's the usual blather about "investment" in this program or that, how San Francisco has messed up in the past but this time it really means to solve the problem, how the homeless will now be incentivized to behave, etc.

Two years from now, after doing the same thing only with (a lot) more money, the homeless will still be with us.

I'll see your $1 billion and raise you another.