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by heymijo 3539 days ago
From your [0] link.

"Eight city departments oversee at least 400 contracts to 76 private organizations"

That says a lot about how spending $31,967.10 for every homeless person can amount to, well, no one seems to know.

I'm curious what happened in New Orleans and the other places referenced that have seen success helping their homeless populations. Knowing even a little bit about systems, layering more complexity (and money) on top of a dysfunctional effort in SF isn't going to meaningfully help.
4 comments
andlarry 3539 days ago
Yeah, and those private organizations (mostly non-profits) are very effective at lobbying, so it's hard to terminate contracts to consolidate services.

One thing to clarify is that, because some (~$60 Million in 2015 [3]) goes to housing assistance. The people helped by the budget includes more than 7,539 represented by the point in time count, so the $31K/person number is a bit high.

That said, SF spends a lot of money on homeless and the homeless population hasn't significantly decreased in over a decade.

[3] http://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/FileCenter/Documents/56... page 6

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heymijo 3539 days ago
That's a good clarification on the number of people the funds are going to help. Thanks.
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ryandrake 3539 days ago
> That says a lot about how spending $31,967.10 for every homeless person can amount to, well, no one seems to know.

The "76 private organizations" that all this money is being funneled toward probably know.

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kafkaesq 3538 days ago
That says a lot about how spending $31,967.10 for every homeless person can amount to, well, no one seems to know.

"As Randy Shaw points out (in an article that has other problems, but gets this absolutely right), almost half the money that the Chron identifies as “homeless” spending is actually money spend on people who are in supportive housing. That’s housing money, not homeless money."

http://48hills.org/2016/02/16/five-myths-about-the-homeless-...

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awinder 3539 days ago
Well considering that NO largely gentrified in the wake of Katrina (essentially the rich literally stealing from the poor), maybe we can look for a better model
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