"Solving" is perhaps too strong a word, but there's a lot of wisdom in this post.
San Francisco has between 7,000–14,000 homeless people. And to support them, we have roughly 1,145 shelter beds. Leaving the majority of our homeless to figure out “where to sleep” and “how to survive” on a daily basis.
Now here’s the kicker!
It costs the city $61,000/yr between ER’s, jail, and support services per homeless person living on the streets. And only $12,000/yr to provide a homeless person with permanent housing, giving them free safe housing, instead of suffering on the street. So buying the homeless housing is not only the right thing to do, it’s also saves the government a lot of money. Over $40,000/yr per person!
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We need to create an affordable and scalable homeless housing plan, which ensures no one is ever left to fend for themselves on the streets. The system breaks the moment people have nowhere safe to sleep. Depression sets in, substance abuse rises, crime rises, and the costs to the rest of us rise dramatically.