Gee, I Wonder Why There is Homelessness in San Francisco?

I know that the real roots of homelessness are complicated. But in cities such as San Francisco, I’d go ahead and say that the fact that the median home price is $1.35 million is a big ol’ part of it. Now, the biggest thing one can do to solve homelessness is build more affordable housing. It won’t solve 100% of the homelessness crisis, but it will go a heck of a long way. So we could do that in a city like San Francisco,….oh who am I kidding? Like the NIMBYs of that city are ever going to allow even a tiny fraction of the needed housing to be built. But it’s not as if rich people aren’t going to pretend like they care and throw a bunch of money at “studies.”

A San Francisco billionaire is donating $30 million to the University of California, San Francisco, to research root causes of homelessness and potential solutions.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a city native, has embraced homelessness as a philanthropic cause, pumping millions into a 2018 city measure to tax wealthy companies to pay for homeless services.

The five-year initiative funded by Benioff and his wife, Lynne, will conduct academic research, provide testimony and fact sheets, and train people who have been homeless as expert speakers. The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative will be part of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, led by Dr. Margot Kushel.

The $30 million contribution is the largest-ever private donation to fund homelessness research, according to Salesforce.
“The world needs a North Star for truth on homelessness,” Benioff said in a statement. The initiative “will be that North Star, providing the latest research, data and evidence-based solutions to ensure we’re investing in programs that will help solve the homelessness crisis.”

Some San Francisco residents are frustrated with technology companies like Salesforce, a cloud-based software business, saying they contribute to inequality with high-paying jobs that drive up housing prices.

More than 4,000 people sleep on the streets every night in the city, where the median price of a two-bedroom home is $1.3 million. A family of four earning $117,400 a year is considered low income in San Francisco.

I mean, look, there are worse things that a rich guy could throw his money at. But c’mon. The answer is your own income in your own city! Build. More. Housing. Also, please contact me for my bank information so you can deposit my $30 million check.