Editorial:

The Chronicle Recommends on five S.F. ballot propositions

No issue confounds and divides San Francisco more than homelessness. Every neighborhood sees the issue, from the tent encampments to dazed drifters. The city is responding with an ever-changing offering of services, one-stop navigation centers and shelter options at a yearly cost of $350 million.

Proposition C offers the hope that for another $250 million to $300 million per year, the civic disgrace of homelessness can come closer to an end. It’s a tempting pitch, especially when the new bill will be paid by 300 to 400 of the city’s top businesses for a citywide priority.

For residents frustrated with the near-standstill conditions, Prop. C might sound like a breakthrough. Instead it would lock in existing spending levels, direct new spending in ways that can’t be amended and subject the city budget to costs that will fluctuate wildly if the economy slides.

The measure comes from homeless service providers, not a broad range of civic groups. There is nothing in Prop. C about enforcing laws against street tents, aggressive panhandling, offensive conduct — or compelling treatment on people with serious mental illness.

San Francisco has been making progress in tracking its spending on homelessness, with an effort to make its considerable existing investment more efficient and effective. But that process is not complete and, if anything, the huge infusion of Prop. C money would relieve pressure on the bureaucracy to identify and eliminate spending that is duplicative or ineffective.

City investment on programs for homelessness has steadily grown, not shrunk, and the pressure for more help keeps building. San Francisco is willing to experiment and take risks, as evidenced by the widening numbers of navigation centers and the possible opening of a city-sponsored drug injection center. We agree that the investment should increase, but not in this magnitude and not in this way.

Prop. C suggests that money, alone, is the cure-all to homelessness. It is not. Vote no on C.