Small progress on homelessness

It doesn’t pay to be too optimistic on San Francisco’s unrelenting homelessness crisis. Yet the city is showing modest progress in taking down street tents and prying loose more money to expand programs. For weary residents, those steps sound like more of the same. Tents have gone away before, only to reappear. The city’s $350 million homeless budget is barely keeping pace with a population that hasn’t budged in years. New plans such as cordoned off “safe sleeping sites” and a flock of navigation centers to get people off the streets are the latest efforts to change the picture.

But the city is under extra pressure to do more at a critical time. The coronavirus has led to massive layoffs, especially in lowend work, and forced a maxedout shelter system to trim available beds, pushing more homeless people onto the streets. The results have turned the Tenderloin into ground zero where an already thriving drug trade deepens the crisis.

There’s no more graphic symbol of the trouble than a slapped together patchwork of tarps, tents and boxes spilling over the sidewalk in the area wedged between Civic Center and Union Square. People living and working amid this ragged village have felt trapped and harassed. Police weren’t sure what to do. The city looked the other way, tolerating the tents as a stopgap solution.

What’s happening now is a slow change in the dismal picture. Of some 443 tents, 172 remain. People are being moved indoors to cityrented hotel slots under the coaxing of counselors. A lawsuit by aggrieved neighbors and the UC Hastings College of the Law extracted a promise to cut the street campground by 70% this month. A problem brought to the boiling point by a runaway pandemic is getting a limited solution.

It won’t be cheap. With the city lining up some 2,000 hotel rooms, the nightly bill per occupant comes to $200 after totaling in security, counseling and other expenses. About 75% of the cost will be picked up by federal pandemic money, but city still faces steep costs for a new homeless program.

The overall results are not enough, and the city’s inept handling of a slowbuilding crisis is on full view. But the falling numbers represent a measure of success. There’s even a measure of political peace between Mayor London Breed and her progressive opponents.

The sight of human suffering is one thing, but just as important is finding the money to alleviate it. In this respect, the city took a giant step forward in unlocking the money that can nearly double its homeless budget.

A state appeals court sided with city lawyers defending Proposition C, a voterapproved measure in 2018 that taxed major businesses to aid homeless programs. The levy could yield $300 million per year, but the funds can’t be spent until court challenges play out. The ruling may be appealed, yet the plan stands on firmer legal ground. It’s an especially critical moment with the city facing a $1.5 billion budget shortfall that could imperil safetynet programs.

Along with the money injection, the case was notable because it rested on the argument that citizensponsored tax increases could be approved by a simple majority instead of a twothirds threshold. The eventual outcome could resonate beyond San Francisco and its homeless efforts to other cities with similar tax proposals brought by citizen initiatives.

Street tents still proliferate elsewhere in San Francisco. The close quarters, poor health and viral risks make camping out in alleys or side streets dangerous to the homeless and any passersby. Allowing the virus to spread in this population is a threat to all residents of the city, wherever they live. San Francisco needs to do much more, but it’s beginning to see modest progress.