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Prop C taxes large businesses to help homelessness
Published on 10/12/18, 10:00 AM
A gross receipts tax for companies earning more than $50M.
What’s the plan?
Prop C would implement an additional gross receipts tax on SF businesses that earn more than $50M a year. The tax, which ranges from 0.16% to 0.65%, is predicted to generate around $250-300M annually to fund a variety of homeless services, including:
- At least 50% to securing permanent housing
- At least 25% to offering mental health services for the homeless
- Up to 15% to preventing at-risk populations from becoming homeless
- Up to 10% to securing homeless shelters and access to hygeine programs
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How are we tackling homelessness now?
SF’s current homeless population is about 7.5K people, down from a peak of 8.6K people in 2004. Since 2014, SF has doubled its spending on homelessness, but its homeless population has stayed relatively constant over the same period of time. While some argue this demonstrates the City’s inability to effectively solve the problem, others contend that the City’s homeless population would be far worse if it wasn’t for the extra funding. Most of SF’s nearly $300M homeless services budget is currently dedicated to keeping at-risk populations in their homes and preventing them from falling back into homelessness.
A major challenge, however, is finding sustainable solutions for the chronically homeless – people who live outside all or most of the time and suffer from multiple problems. About 30%, or roughly 2,000, of SF’s homeless population is chronically homeless and each individual costs the City about $80K a year in police, ambulance, hospital, and other emergency services.
The City has determined that the best route to assisting the chronically homeless has been to place them in supportive housing, where services like mental health and employment counseling are provided on-site. But it costs about $400K/unit to construct and about $20K/year to lease or maintain a unit.
A major challenge, however, is finding sustainable solutions for the chronically homeless – people who live outside all or most of the time and suffer from multiple problems. About 30%, or roughly 2,000, of SF’s homeless population is chronically homeless and each individual costs the City about $80K a year in police, ambulance, hospital, and other emergency services.
The City has determined that the best route to assisting the chronically homeless has been to place them in supportive housing, where services like mental health and employment counseling are provided on-site. But it costs about $400K/unit to construct and about $20K/year to lease or maintain a unit.
Is more money going to solve the problem?
Opponents, including SF’s Chamber of Commerce and Mayor London Breed, argue that Prop C sets broad goals and spending categories without outlining specific tactics for achieving them. They argue SF should be focusing on finding flaws and efficiencies rather than rushing to pour more money into an already expensive system. Critics also say SF's homelessness problem needs to addressed at the regional, state, and federal level, not just locally.
On the other hand, proponents of Prop C, including Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff, view homelessness as everyone's responsibility. A number of community organizations supporting Prop C, such as Calle 24 and SF YIMBY, say Prop C is a modest tax increase tackling a critical issue in SF. SF’s Office of Economic Analysis also released a report describing Prop C as not only having minimal impact on the economy, but it also “will likely reduce homelessness in San Francisco, improving health outcomes and reducing the use of acute and emergency services in the city.”
On the other hand, proponents of Prop C, including Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff, view homelessness as everyone's responsibility. A number of community organizations supporting Prop C, such as Calle 24 and SF YIMBY, say Prop C is a modest tax increase tackling a critical issue in SF. SF’s Office of Economic Analysis also released a report describing Prop C as not only having minimal impact on the economy, but it also “will likely reduce homelessness in San Francisco, improving health outcomes and reducing the use of acute and emergency services in the city.”
iMessage storm
Damn, did you see Jack Dorsey and Marc Benioff’s Twitterfight about Prop C? https://twitter.com/jack/status/1050780155524857856 #teammarc
YAS, fighting words for sure 💥💥
Isn’t it weird that Mayor Breed is against Prop C? She campaigned on solving homelessness and it’d would DOUBLE our homelessness budget.
Breed gets a lot of flack for that, but Scott Weiner had a good tweetstorm backing her up. https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1050865013194338304
More $$$ isn’t going to solve the problem. Homelessness is a Bay Area/CA issue, not just SF.
More funding will give SF more flexibility to figure out the solution. $600M isn’t much in a $10B budget
Accountability matters. Prop C doesn’t outline any specific goals. How will we even know we’re making a difference?
Permanent housing. Mental Health Services. At-Risk residents. Homeless shelters. It outlines the % that will be spent in those areas.
My point exactly.
Should we move this to Twitter
Only if I can pretend to be @LondonBreed.
I’ll be @StephenCurry30.
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Pretty much all rights reserved © By The Bay 2018
Pretty much all rights reserved © By The Bay 2018