SF tents for homeless cost $60k each, city wants more

Many people were shocked to find that the affordable housing lobby ends up charging cities upwards of $500k to build new "affordable" units. But how about more than $50k for a tent? The SF Chronicle examines the madness.

San Francisco’s homelessness department is pushing to continue an expensive tent encampment program that it says is crucial for keeping people off the sidewalks, despite its high price tag of more than $60,000 per tent, per year.

The city has six so-called “safe sleeping villages,” where homeless people sleep in tents and also receive three meals a day, around-the-clock security, bathrooms and showers. The city created these sites during the pandemic to quickly get people off crowded sidewalks and into a place where they can socially distance and access basic services.

The program currently costs $18.2 million for about 260 tents. Unlike the city’s homeless hotel program, the tent villages are not eligible for federal reimbursement. Some of the sites have been run by nonprofits Urban Alchemy, Dolores Street Community Services and Larkin Street Youth Services.

This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the whole thing here.

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity

Image by Euan