I don’t think you understood my point. If I lived in Austin, I would have voted for Prop B. But I live in San Francisco, and trust me, I am familiar with the research over homelessness. Affordable housing s the problem. I meant that the current municipal approach is a waste of money because it does nothing to address the underlying causes of homelessness. In 2018, SF approved a tax on gross receipts to bring in another $300 million per year for homeless services. I opposed it. The root cause of homelessness is that, as another poster noted, the median house price in SF is $1.5 million. It costs $700k to build a new unit. Median price for the nine Bay Area counties is around $800-900k. And yet, by my count, the confederacy of dunces that is the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has built less than 1,000 affordable housing units in the past twenty years. Housing needs to be affordable to address homelessness.
Homeless are of course attracted to cities because cities offer the services they need, which is precisely my point - cities like SF and Austin are futilely trying to provide what California, Texas and the federal government should be providing. The bulk of homeless in a given city are from that region - it’s inaccurate to think of them all as grifters from Missouri. Nationally, about 80% of homeless in a city had a residence there prior to being homeless. But there needs to be regional collaboration on housing. It makes no sense to build housing in SF when it’s much cheaper in Sacramento, or in Austin when it’s cheaper in La Grange.
This is a very complex issue. I am disgusted as anyone when I wake up to someone smoking meth on my doorstep or see some guy scream and upend a family’s table outside at a Michelin star restaurant (all within the past month), but I try to think about to address this dispassionately.