{"id":18463,"date":"2021-04-20T13:43:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T20:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=18463"},"modified":"2021-04-20T13:43:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T20:43:50","slug":"money-for-safe-sleeping-sites-or-permanent-supportive-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/04\/20\/money-for-safe-sleeping-sites-or-permanent-supportive-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Money for \u2018safe sleeping\u2019 sites \u2014 or permanent supportive housing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Legislation by Sup. Rafael Mandelman aims to get people off the streets — but homeless advocates are not supporting it. That’s The Agenda for April 18-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ByTIM REDMOND<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-APRIL 18, 2021\u00a0(48hills.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board of Supes Budget and Finance Committee will consider Wednesday\/21 <\/strong>a proposal to mandate \u201csafe sleeping sites\u201d for any unhoused person in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the plan by Sup. Rafael Mandelman, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing would have to come up with a plan within 18 months to guarantee that anyone sleeping on the sidewalks or the parks or in buses or anywhere else can have a shelter with functioning toilets and showers \u2013 on demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Are tent cities and temporary shelters the long-term solution to homlessness?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Jennifer Friedenbach, the director of the Coalition on Homelessness, is not a supporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an April 15 oped,<\/a> she argues that the plan \u201cwould cost an outrageous amount of money without ending homelessness for one person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue here is whether shelter \u2013 that is, temporary congregate settings that may include safe campaign sites \u2013 ought to be a city goal, or whether the money that SF has (and it\u2019s a lot of money, soon to be more) should go to creating, buying, and preserving permanent affordable and supportive housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friedenbach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help us save local journalism!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to San Francisco\u2019s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the cost of the city\u2019s safe sleep programs over the last year amounts to about $61,000 per tent. This is well over the cost of a private market subsidy with support services for a single household, priced at about $40,000 per year, and over two times the average cost of rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, The total price tag of this legislation is $244 million, equal to our pre-pandemic homeless department\u2019s entire budget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

More:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it would be flawed even in the best of times, this legislation is being discussed at a time when the opportunity is ripe for San Francisco to set ambitious goals for increasing its permanent housing stock, including the creation of 10,000 units authorized by Prop. K and the Mayor\u2019s ambitious Homelessness Recovery Plan for over 2,500 new permanent housing units for homeless people. Between the millions of expected federal relief dollars specifically slated for addressing homelessness, the hundreds of millions of available Prop. C dollars, and the new funds provided by Prop. I, the city has the opportunity to invest in the acquisition and construction of thousands of units. In combination with the over 1,700 people currently in SIP hotels with the guarantee of being moved into housing, this could put a huge dent in the skyrocketing population of unhoused San Franciscans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For decades, ever since Ronald Reagan stopped funding public housing in cities and cut the social safety net to the point where unemployed and disabled people could no longer afford private housing, homelessness has been a problem in US cities \u2013 and most of the solutions have involved shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is the get people off the streets \u2013 political leaders say it\u2019s for their own health and safety, but it\u2019s also to clear neighborhoods of tent encampments \u2013 and into temporary situations that can, on occasion, lead to permanent housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there isn\u2019t enough affordable permanent housing in the city. There could be a lot more if the city would be more aggressive about using the money we have (and can borrow) to buy hotels that are now empty and will be for years to come. That\u2019s what Friedenbach is saying: Take the money we have from Prop. C, and we will likely get from the federal government under Biden, and use it to buy permanently affordable housing, as fast as we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandelman told me he disagrees with her position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we should just leave people who don\u2019t have a permanent housing option to fend for themselves,\u201d he told me. \u201cIt\u2019s inhumane for them and irresponsible for the neighborhoods. It would be good not just to create more permanent housing but to manage the needs of people tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the legislation mandates a plan \u2013 and if it\u2019s too expensive, the board doesn\u2019t have to fund it. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure the policy is right,\u201d he said. \u201cSan Franciscans don\u2019t want people camping on the streets, but also don\u2019t want people to have to camp.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than 40 years, the city has failed to address homelessness for a long list of reasons (including a failure to prevent evictions and a profound failure to link new office development to affordable housing<\/a>). Almost all of the mayors since Dianne Feinstein have in one way or another used shelters as a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s never worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city \u2013 and the state \u2013 has also failed, fundamentally, to put up the money for mental-health treatment. In California, prisons and jails became the answer to mental health. That was, and is, a massive and inexcusable human-rights failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the issue before the board is: Do we spend money now to get people off the streets, into temporary situations that don\u2019t always lead to permanent housing? Do we put that money instead into long-term solutions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we worry about tonight \u2013 or tomorrow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing begins at 9am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legislation by Sup. Rafael Mandelman aims to get people off the streets — but homeless advocates are not supporting it. That’s The Agenda for April 18-25 ByTIM REDMOND -APRIL 18, 2021\u00a0(48hills.org) The Board of Supes Budget and Finance Committee will consider Wednesday\/21 a proposal to mandate \u201csafe sleeping sites\u201d for any unhoused… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18463"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18464,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18463\/revisions\/18464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}