Millionaires from San Francisco can be made to pay for the homeless

San Francisco decided to fight homelessness at the expense of the rich.

Фото: Depositphotos

San Francisco is known around the world for its problems with drugs and homelessness. Some streets are so dirty that officials have launched a special "patrol". A young tech worker created Snapcrap, an application through which one can report pollution in a particular place. In the morning, subway passengers pass by homeless people. In the city center, the sick and infirm stagger or use wheelchairs, and sometimes half-dressed people can be seen.

The situation is so terrible that a coalition of activists gathered enough signatures to take action against the homeless in the city by voting on November 6. As a result, hundreds of the richest companies in San Francisco can be made to pay for thousands of homeless and mentally ill people. This measure will attract 300 millions of dollars a year - as much as the city is already spending to fight homelessness.

“This is the worst it's ever been,” says Marc Benioff, founder of cloud computing giant Salesforce, who supports the measure, although his company would pay an extra $10 million a year if Proposition C passes. “Nobody should have to live like this.” . They don't have to live like that. We can keep an eye on this."

Proposition C is a battle between supporters of big business and social services that require corporate America to pay for resolving inequality exacerbated by their success. In San Francisco, it also became an intriguing struggle between the newly elected mayor of London Breed, who is on the side of the city’s chamber of commerce, urging not to vote, and philanthropist Benioff, whose company is the largest private employer in San Francisco with 8 400 workers on staff.

Last year, the city of San Francisco spent $ 380 million from a budget of $ 10 billion for services related to homelessness.

Cities along the West Coast are struggling with rampant homelessness, partly contributed to by the growing number of well-paid technical jobs, with the result that low-income people cannot afford to rent or buy housing. A family of four in San Francisco who earns 117 000 dollars a year is considered low-income.

Proposition C in San Francisco is different in that the tax will mainly be collected from revenues, not from the number of employees. This measure was included in the bulletin by citizens, not elected officials.

Internet payment processing company Stripe has declared its opposition and has contributed 420 000 dollars to the campaign against Proposition C.

In the event of a positive outcome, this measure will affect 400 enterprises. At least half of the new income will be directed at solving the housing problem, and a quarter at services for people with serious behavioral problems.

Фото: Depositphotos

A one-day count in 2017 showed that in San Francisco there were 7500 people without permanent housing. More than half of the people lived in the city for at least ten years.

Tracy Mixon and her daughter, Malia, 8 years old, among the homeless.

47-year-old Mixon, originally from San Francisco, lives and works in the notoriously dangerous area of ​​Tenderwein. They had to leave the apartment this summer, partly because the company that managed the property lost its federal accreditation.

One of the most difficult tasks was to find a place to sleep on the day when mother and daughter were kicked out of the shelter.

“I have to keep her away from people who do drugs,” she said. “I have to protect her from them.”

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