I had to read the story in the San Francisco Chronicle twice to let the facts sink in. Over the last three years, The City has budgeted and spent $821 million in public funds on programs to address homelessness. My thought, and also the question posed by the piece, was that the problem must have surely improved. But the answer was no! “(D)espite all the money and effort, reality on the streets hasn’t improved. In many ways, homelessness in San Francisco is as bad as ever,” said the story. My God!
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!So, I decided to look a little deeper and ask the question, just how many homeless people live in San Francisco anyway? And the astonishing answer was also on the pages of the Chronicle, which has nobly established a “homeless” project to track, research and comment on programs serving the homeless and their degree of success. According to the newspaper, there are 6,686 homeless on the streets in San Francisco pursuant to a point-in-time count conducted in January 2015. The newspaper calls city efforts to address the problem “a disgrace.”
And that is an understatement! $821 million divided by 6,686 equals $122,793 per homeless person. If you divide that sum by 3 to account for three fiscal years of spending, the total is $40,931 per homeless person. In other words, just San Francisco (remember there are also federal and state programs that fund homelessness assistance) has been spending over $40,000 a year, for several years, on every homeless person in the city, and is not making any progress at all in helping to get this troubled community off the streets!
While San Francisco’s liberal politicians are squandering huge sums of money on ineffective homelessness programs, and continuing to raise taxes by claiming deficits and rising needs, one thing is for certain. They are darn well NOT going to give in to that awful President Donald Trump and cooperate with federal authorities on enforcement of immigration laws against criminal illegal aliens like the one they released from jail, who famously murdered Kate Steinle with a stolen gun. Oh, and they aren’t going to give up their lawsuit either to make sure they are paid the federal grants they say they are due for helping to enforce federal immigration laws, even though they won’t help enforce those laws. Go figure.
Things haven’t changed much since Willy Brown was Mayor, have they…..
except for getting worse.
They’re spending $40,000 per year on each homeless person? In Baghdad by the Bay? I’m throwing in the towel, gonna become homeless and move to San Francisco.
I lived there for 10 years. It was gross. The San Francisco Examiner published a shit map. Basically,Market St., Mission Street and Van Ness are caked with shit. There was a store a block away from where I lived called real foods. People would come in and shop and tie their dogs to the parking meters. The dogs would shit. No one would clean it up. They got the food delivered on pallets and the guys delivering it would just drop the pallets on the shit. There are 120,000 dogs in a lot more than 6000 homeless and they’re all shitting all over the place it’s unbelievably bad that it dries the wind blows right up your nose
Bummer almost a $ Billion of our money for nothing…Shameful- many are mentally ill why did we stop treating that. Some are just mega-losers with no ambition but to take advantage steal & criminal activities. Let’s not forget it was the drug capital where House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi lives.
We stopped treating the mentally ill because they didn’t want to be treated and the early social justice warriors got a legal decision they had to be let out if they wanted out.
San Franshitsco, huh???
Figures…
I live in San Francisco. Because of the greedy, corrupt politicians, people don’t get help. One “minister” at a loudly touted church downtown is paid about $10 per plate for feeding the homeless. If the homeless go into housing, the tenderloin agency demands they give them all their money and dole it out….and keep a portion of it. It is a racket. Part of the paperwork they have to sign? They have to say they are a criminal of some kind. One guy told me it was that they were a pedophile. I do not know if it is true, but you know there is theft involved! Someone needs to look at all the “agencies” and who else gets what. It would be easier and cheaper to have housing and social workers/psychiatrists involved, with a common dining area and food provided there. Or vouchers for real food. They refuse to pick up the mentally ill and it is really, really bad.
PS for the person saying it has not changed here in San Fo sWillie Brown was Mayor, why do you think he still is not? He controls everything here still! Mayor Ed Lee gets his marching orders from him, some say everyday, often at the Olympic Club. I see him almost everytime I go City Hall, on the phone. Look at who is Senator from from California. Willie’s former girlfriend. Kamala Harris. He hasn’t stopped. It’s why California is messed up. Willie.
Turns out it’s not just the San Francisco homeless who are batshit crazy. The ENTIRE CITY is batshit crazy.
But then, we already knew that.
One lifelong resident, a DemLib, summed up the current problem very concisely. No one is really trying to SOLVE the problem, because there are so many agencies making big money (AKA ripping of the taxpayers) by “caring” for the homeless.
What else can you say? Voting has consequences……Enjoy !
How great minds of the leftist, liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat waste hundreds of million of taxpayer dollars to do feel good nothing. Your elected them so keep paying.
It started to get bad under Agnos, then got worse as each Mayor came in. Always follow the money. Where is all this money going? I used to live there and watched the City deteriorate year by year. It’s filthy. Now I am in San Diego. Same problem. They keep pumping money into the problem and it gets worse. Tents line the streets for blocks and blocks downtown. No one seems to realize that it’s a health problem. You can’t have people living on the streets.
San Francisco deserves EXACTLY what it got, they voted for it and more will come, because the are LIBERAL- PROGRESSIVE and A SANCTUARY CITY…………
San Franciso deserves EXACTLY what it has, they voted for it they got it.
GOOD LUCK HOPE YOU GET MORE OF THE SAME.
Why is an affluent nation like the USA faced with so many horrific social, economic and moral crises? Because, by and large, Americans do not take God seriously in their lives. All it takes is a very tiny percentage of Catholic priests to abuse minors and they can laugh at the Church and all its teachings. All it takes is a few corrupt TV evangelists and they can be as cynical as they want towards Christianity and we are all a bunch of hypocrites.
Well, sorry, simply not true. Even Jesus had a traitor amongst his very chosen (Judas) but did that make the other 11 apostles phonies and liars? Did it make Jesus’ teachings worthless and false? Of course not. It brought out the realities of humanity. We are weak vessels and some may fall but that does not excuse us from doing what we know is true and honorable. God has revealed Himself in many ways, one cannot turn his back on that and pretend they have the perfect excuses to ignore one’s Creator and giver of life and eternal life.
So when mankind chooses to do it “My Way” and then become self-absorbed and ego driven and to heck with heavenly matters, do not be surprised how many horrible sites and times we bring upon ourselves. Quite frankly, I would rather be the smelly mentally ill homeless dweller than a well dressed pretender of goodness who really cares only for himself and for his wants here on earth. That… is the most tragic story.
There’s a reason its called the Homeless Industrial Complex.
Wanna get rich? Start a non-profit serving the homeless in SF.