"There are families who owe more than $30,000 in rent" as a result of the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Ofelia Bello, executive director of Youth United for Community Action -YUCA-. California's recent SB91 law could prevent these people from being evicted from their homes.
The SB91 contemplates use of $2.6 billionwhich California Governor Gavin Newsom obtained from federal funds, to cover 80% of rent arrears by people affected by COVID-19.
According to Bello, this law has advantages over the previous law created to prevent evictions, AB3038. For one, SB91 "is an extension of AB3088, but it also adds additional funds to help people with rent that has accumulated for almost a year.
"While AB3088 protects families from eviction, these families were still accumulating thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. We're talking about low-income families who were extremely impacted by the pandemic," Bello said.
With the new law, tenants' debt would be covered in an 80% and they would be relieved of debt. It should be noted that landlords themselves could apply for support to cover their tenants' debt.
One of the requirements to get the benefits of SB91 is to submit an application explaining that the person has been affected by the pandemic, as well as pay 25% of the debt to avoid eviction. However, if it is the landlord who applies, the tenant may be able to have the entire debt forgiven, and the landlord would get 80% of the debt on the condition that the 20% is forgiven for the tenant.
As such, this law could be a "win-win," said Bello. However, he explains that there are still doubts and concerns about the process that people who want to apply for this support will have to go through, "since many of the procedures are online and, ironically, because we are in the heart of Silicon Valley, the center of technological innovation, and we still have many low-income families who don't have the knowledge or the infrastructure necessary for electronic procedures. There are people who don't have computers in their homes.
Another concern expressed by Bello is that the call to apply for SB91 opens in mid-March and closes in August, "this is the time they have to distribute the funds and if not they have to return," so the community has little time to do the paperwork.
YUCA is based in East Palo Alto and is one of the organizations most involved in the fight against evictions. While they prioritize their focus on people in their area, anyone from other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area can contact the organization for referrals to another group in their area to help them.
YUCA's phone number is (650) 450-1920. More information can be found on the YUCA website: http://youthunited.net
California has seen only a glimpse of what climate change will bring in the future, and faces a two-pronged climate change challenge: finding cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for the changes that are expected even if global emissions fall.
And, greenhouse gas emissions pose a serious threat. The state experienced 7 of its 10 warmest years on record between 2012 and 2018, and the warming is expected to continue.
Studies predict that sea levels will rise 2 to 7 feet along the California coast by 2100, and the frequency of extreme events such as droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and floods is expected to increase each year.
It should be noted that higher temperatures result in more precipitation falling as rain - and less as snow - which will increase both the frequency and magnitude of flooding and decrease water reserves in the Sierra snowpack, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPI) said in a report.
The state has taken climate change very seriously and has set increasingly ambitious emissions reduction targets.
In 2018, then-Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order calling for California to become carbon neutral by 2045, while Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in 2019 to leverage $700 billion in investments to increase climate resilience, and in September 2020 he signed an executive order to make all new cars sold in California zero-emission by 2035.
The state's hope of reversing the seemingly unchecked process has increased after the arrival of Joseph Biden to the White House, the U.S. returns to the Paris Agreement and pledges to significantly reduce its emissions, turning towards a greener future.
A PPIC poll finds that about two in three Californians favor the state's emissions reduction targets, and most see California's global leadership on climate change.
The effects of climate change are already evident and will worsen over time.
Sea level rise threatens coastal infrastructure, homes and habitat. 75 percent of California's population lives in coastal counties, and by 2040, more than 1,500 miles of roads and 100 miles of railroads will be at risk of flooding.
Seaports, airports, power plants and sewage treatment plants have already experienced climate-induced flooding. Coastal habitat is highly vulnerable to sea level rise.
The "other great one".
A UCLA study also found that, over the next 40 years, the state will be 300 to 400 percent more likely to have a prolonged storm sequence as severe as the one that caused California's now legendary flood more than 150 years ago.
The Great Flood of 1862 filled the valleys with feet of water and drove gold rush miners and their equipment out of the mountains. In the Central Valley, the floods extended up to 300 miles long and up to 60 miles wide. One-third of the state's taxable land was destroyed and the then newly elected governor, Leland Stanford, was forced to paddle to his inauguration.
The situation could happen again, only with more catastrophic consequences because the state is much more populous than it was then. In 1862, California's population was 500,000; today, it is close to 40 million. Cities like Stockton, Fresno and Bakersfield are located in places that were inundated by the flood of 1862.
In the event of such a massive storm, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) already has a name: "The Big Other. The name is a nod to the well-known nickname for the next big earthquake that scientists expect to occur along the San Andreas fault; however, the USGS does not predict that the two would be linked.
In 2011, the USGS prepared emergency planning guidelines for such a storm, which scientists say could occur once every 100 to 200 years.
The costs of such a storm could easily reach $1 trillion, more than double the cost of any previous natural disaster, and would devastate California economically and force millions to evacuate.
The impact would be magnified because such flooding could affect multiple regions across the state, including the Bay Area, Central Valley and Los Angeles Basin. In a state with the sixth largest economy in the world, several massive industries, including agriculture, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, would grind to a halt.
The coming floods could even change the state's geography permanently, said the study's lead author, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the UCLA Institute for Environment and Sustainability and The Nature Conservancy.
He added that much of the San Francisco Bay Delta region is below sea level and a large enough flood could destroy the network of levees that hold back water, inundating vast swaths of currently dry land.
"I don't think most people in California really have an idea of the magnitude of this kind of event," Swain said. "Millions of people living in the Central Valley, at a minimum, would have to leave for a while, and many might have their homes in less than 20 or 30 feet of water. That includes much of Sacramento."
Perhaps the only good news with such a massive storm is that residents would probably have at least a few days to prepare, unlike an earthquake, when, at best, there are only seconds of warning.
National student loan indebtedness totals $1.7 trillionwhich are divided into among 43 million studentsThe situation of those who, every day, find it a little more difficult to meet their expenses and pay off a debt that seems like it will never end.
This situation has caused hundreds of thousands of students to think seriously about enrolling in any of the country's universities, as the payments could be chains that will be difficult to break for many years to come.
Gabriel Stewart went into debt for $52,000 after graduating as an audio-visual technician from SAE Expression High School in Emeryville. The expenses were compounded by having a child, so he had to live at his father's house for a few years. He was finally able to move out to live a married life in an apartment, but the burdens continue.
"I was about $52,000 in debt, I couldn't pay rent anywhere because, in addition to student loans, I had credit card debt and that really made it difficult for us to start a family and be free," she said during a briefing held by Ethnic Media Services.
Currently, Gabriel is still uncertain if he will be able to continue paying his debt tomorrow, because although he has moved on and gotten a job at a software company, his work payments have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Delayed payments on your student debt could affect Gabriel's ability to buy a car or shop for a home in the future.
"It's always living with that looming feeling of when the payments start again and how we're going to pay them ... It's a constant stress in my head," he detailed.
For Ro Khanna, representative of the 17th congressional district in California, the issue of student loans is a big problem nationwide, because while there are people who can pay them before the age of 30, there are many who cannot, because their income does not allow it.
The official said student loans should be forgiven for those earning less than $125,000 a year. However, it is unlikely to happen.
"We need to forgive those loans and we have the ability to forgive them. The president has the executive power to say that student loans can be forgiven. The president has already exercised the power to delay student records so he can delay the loans and he can say people don't have to pay for a while," he said.
He noted that if student loans are forgiven, people will be able to raise families, buy homes and start businesses.
"It's really lifting the burdens of this next generation so they can pursue their dreams. So progressives are going to keep pushing for the administration to do this," he added.
Kat Welbeck, Civil Rights counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center noted that the $1.7 trillion in student debt has become the second largest class of consumer debt in the country, second only to mortgages.
"Black and Latino debtors have less household wealth and take out more loans to pay for school, so they have more debt, which cuts into opportunities for long-term wealth creation," said Welbeck, who added that, over generations, the cycle is likely to repeat itself.
According to the organization Kat works for, about 90 percent of African-American and 72 percent of Latino students go into debt to pay for college compared to about 66 percent of white students.
In that sense, he noted that African-American borrowers have a debt of about 95 percent of their original balance even 20 years after starting college, while in the case of Latinos the debt reaches 83 percent of the total, a very different situation from white borrowers, most of whom pay off their debt about 12 years after starting college.
"If we're going to talk about creating a more equitable and just economy, we can't overlook the disparate effects of the student debt crisis and how it continues to perpetuate many systemic barriers that already exist in this country," he stressed.
In his remarks, Joe Jaramillo, a senior attorney with the Oakland-based Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA), noted that predatory entities, such as for-profit schools, are in particular need of student loan relief and aid.
And for-profit colleges have benefited the most from a business model in which students are pressured to take out expensive federal and private student loans with the promise of a quick education that leads to high salaries.
"There are currently more than a million students enrolled in for-profit schools and studies have shown that they are less likely to graduate, more likely to default on their student loans and more likely to end up with a higher debt load," he said.
The clients of these types of schools are mostly low-income Latino, African-American and older students whose debt is so high that they often end up with garnished wages, no social security benefits and no tax refunds.
"Private debts are treated like any other, such as credit card or loan debts which usually requires them to go to court, which can also be very damaging because many people can't afford legal representation," the lawyer said.
After taking out a school loan that generates such high debt, students "can't afford to buy a house, can't get a car loan, can't get credit because of the damage to their credit score, some are afraid to get married and saddle their partner with the debt.
Andrea Campos was left with $13,000 in debt after majoring in the criminal justice program at Heald College in Hayward - part of the Corinthians institution - and after years of having her debt passed from one creditor to another, HERA was able to help her get her debt forgiven without waiving her credits.
"This has impacted my life significantly ... I had the prospect of being hired, but was denied the opportunity because my debt-to-income ratio was too high and I was considered an at-risk type of employee ... I have also not been approved for credit cards, car loans or home loans," Andrea said.
Nikon announced this week that it is working on a new mirrorless camera whose name was just confirmed: the Nikon Z9, by name. One of its main features, in addition to having a sfull-frame-full-frame-tor and, they announce, "represents a leap in technology and performance".
Although "salto" is an understatement in Spanish. "A leap" would be more appropriate; in other words, an achievement that Nikon is hanging on to for 2021.
It is announced with an enlarged FX-format CMOS sensor; while full-frame, the sensor is slightly wider to compensate for the new wider film formats. The Nikon Z9, the company clarifies, responds "to the growing needs of professionals, advanced-level amateurs and cinematographers" given its new 8K resolution recording.
It is curious that Nikon is targeting advanced amateurs, since they count, as we have already seen in the count of Top Mirrorless Cameras 2021The Nikon Z9 is the perfect camera for you, with options that meet your needs and that are currently available on the market; but if you want to have the latest high-end, we won't take our eyes off the Nikon Z9 for this 2021.
And while the company hasn't mentioned technical specifications, they have promised improvements over the Nikon D6 and the Nikon Z7 II. The press release issued by Nikon still has some inconsistencies because, in its Spanish version, the name of the new camera is Nikon Z9The English-language statement, meanwhile, reads, includes the word "pro.
We can see that Nikon is committed to offering cutting-edge technology to its brand loyalists and they state that the new Nikon Z9 will offer "an unprecedented experience" in 2021. And it is poised to unseat "digital SLR cameras and mirrorless previous"
High-quality career and technical education programs offered by community and technical colleges can offer hundreds of students a pathway to well-paying careers. However, many of these plans switched to online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and several will remain so, widening the inequality gap.
According to a study by the Urban Institute, "structural racism and other systemic inequalities can limit access to and success in online career and technical education programs for students of color, especially Black, Latino, and Native American students.
The paper notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed racial inequities and accelerated the shift to online learning in career and technical education (CTE) programs.
As economic insecurity and disparities persist for African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and other communities of color, CTE programs that develop skills aligned with in-demand sectors can improve outcomes and mobility for communities facing structural barriers.
Many postsecondary CTE programs have followed the gradual shift toward online learning that has been occurring at colleges and universities for years, a trend accelerated by the pandemic and rapid change associated with remote education.
For while online education - and other forms of technology-enhanced education - can create opportunities for students who struggle to attend face-to-face classes, structural racism and other systemic inequalities limit some students' access to and success in online educational environments.
An example of this, details the document, are the low levels of reading comprehension due to school segregation and digital literacy gaps resulting from less exposure to technology, which causes unequal educational opportunities.
In addition, the lack of investment in broadband infrastructure in communities of color and the high costs of Internet devices and service have resulted in unequal access to technology, which can make online participation more challenging for African American, Latino, and Native American students.
Such barriers, he explains, are compounded when CTE programs do not offer access to needed technology or career-oriented academic advising supports, and when instruction is not responsive to students' needs.
The study notes that there are significant disparities in postsecondary CTE outcomes between students of color and Caucasian students in community and technical college programs, and these gaps are widest in online programs.
The study conducted in conjunction with several technical colleges suggests that career and technical education programs have increasingly moved online, following the general trend toward virtual learning at community and technical colleges.
Thus, by 2016, 46 percent of CTE students had taken at least one online course, whereas in 2000 only 10 percent had done so, and from 2000 to 2016, the proportion of CTE students enrolled in fully online programs increased from 3.0 percent to approximately 7.0 percent.
The extent to which CTE students participate in online courses or programs varies by major. During that period, approximately half of students in business and marketing-52 percent-and education-50 percent-completed at least one online course, and both sectors had the highest proportion of fully online students at 9.0 percent.
In contrast, CTE students in engineering and architecture were the least engaged in taking online courses-37 percent-and only 3.0 percent participated in fully online programs.
The study also reveals that, since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, nearly all students in CTE programs are expected to have taken at least one online course.
In that sense, the document explains that continuing with an online or hybrid modality would depend on the willingness of the students and the instructor, and the availability of good technological tools and the success of students in online and hybrid courses.
Among the most notable findings, it was found that while white students are the plurality in all sectors, they are most represented in trades - 56 percent - one of the highest paying fields, as well as engineering and architecture.
Meanwhile, African-American students are more represented in health sciences - 17 percent - while Latinos are more focused on consumer services - 29 percent - the latter sector being among the lowest paid.
Other students of color are more heavily represented in computer science and information technology - 19 percent.
The Hallmark House Apartments affordable apartment development is accepting applications for low-income Redwood City residents to access decent housing.
The apartments are scheduled to open this summer, and will be located at 531 Woodside Road, providing "much-needed" affordable housing options for the city, Hallmark details on its website.
Once completed, the Hallmark House complex will offer 72 one-bedroom apartments reserved for low-income residents.
Applicants' household limits must be less than 60 percent of the median household income in San Mateo County, according to the application page. For a three-person household, the maximum income to be eligible would be $93,960 per year, and the units would cost more than $1,900 per month.
It is worth noting that the new development, replaces an old property that burned down in 2013, which is why residents had to move to other spaces.
The contractor notes that all units have a private patio or balcony, walk-in closets, centralized heating and air conditioning, as well as an electric stove.
In addition, all residents of the complex will be able to enjoy the on-site recreation room, which will feature a kitchen, pool, elevators, trash chutes, central laundry, outdoor seating area, covered parking, and nearby public transportation.
It is important for applicants to have proof of income on hand, such as: last 2020 pay stub along with most recent pay stub, social security award letter, current unemployment claim award letter, tax return for the most recent 2 years if self-employed, child support documents -current-, county assistance -Cal-Works, current letter-, retirement income, or any other not listed above.
This artsy local non-profit organization goes mobile in April. Casa Círculo Cultural will schedule public arts and cultural activities in Redwood City's parks and commons.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected our way of life in more ways than one. Nonprofits had to adjust and, to be honest, struggled in many new areas. Casa Circulo Cultural, a truly vibrant, grassroots, local nonprofit organization that uses multidisciplinary arts to create cultural programming that reflects the experiences of Latino communities, transformed itself to continue to provide services to the San Mateo County community. Among other activities, and to follow the social distancing guidelines, they started doing online classes and live streaming events through our social networks.
The effects of the pandemic, such as social isolation, will continue for the rest of the year and will remain - perhaps - for a long time. Humans are social beings, and we can't just stick to online interaction, which generates stress, depression and feelings of loneliness.
In the effort to adapt, Casa Círculo Cultural will not only continue its online activities, but will also expand to implement the CCC - Mobile program. This program will hold cultural and artistic activities in parks and public places in Redwood City beginning in mid-April. They will continue to follow social distancing and take all safety precautions. CCC-Mobile activities will include art workshops, plays, health talks and sports activities.
The CCC-Mobile program will use a medium-sized RV-type vehicle with a Casa Círculo Cultural bathroom and kitchenette, and a table and chairs as an office. The vehicle will transport tents, speakers and other materials needed for outdoor activities.
It is planned that this unit will visit one or two parks per weekend and offer three one-hour activities for 15 children per class.
This will contribute to the emotional and physical health of the city's inhabitants. It will also facilitate the necessary reappropriation of our parks as ideal spaces for coexistence and community communication, which unfortunately was fragmented during the pandemic.
Silicon Valley is not feminist, it neglects women's power in tech; unequal wages and low or no credit are constant.
Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The world of computing and technology has had women since its inception, many of them pioneers in the field, however, to date remain hidden figures in the archives of what is now one of the most important industries and with the highest number of profits worldwide.
Discrimination, unequal wages and little or no credit for women are the constant in the sector that embraces Silicon Valley.
According to Statista, if you want to work in a fair environment in the tech industry, it's best to move to Kansas City, which, while it doesn't have a great reputation in the sector, at least has the smallest gender pay gap nationally, with women being paid two percent more than men in the industry.
But if a woman's dream is to reach the "mecca" of the U.S. industry, it should be taken into consideration that the cities within Silicon Valley have a considerably larger gap between men and women, placing them even below the country's average, as they earn 16 percent less than men in the area.
Digging deeper into the numbers, the picture is worse. Women represent only 35 percent of the staff hired and almost never occupy technical positions, let alone management positions, because according to an analysis by the auditing firm Ernst & Young, 99 percent of venture capital resources are used to finance projects that have at least one male entrepreneur.
While the percentage of women employed across all job sectors in the U.S. has increased 47 percent, the five largest tech companies on the planet - Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft - only have a workforce of about 34.4 percent women, according to Builtin.
Notably, African-American and Hispanic women, who majored in computer science or engineering, are less likely to be hired for a technology position than their white counterparts.
Women in Technology Figures
26 percent of computer-related jobs are held by women.
Only 3.0 percent of computer-related jobs are held by African American women, 6.0 percent by Asian women, and 2.0 percent by Hispanic women.
50 percent of women reported experiencing gender discrimination at work.
43 percent of Americans believe women create a safer and more respectful work environment than men. Only 5 percent of Americans believe men create a safer workspace.
48 percent of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs report discrimination in the recruiting and hiring process.
Positively, women's earnings are outpacing men's when it comes to high-skilled jobs.
Currently, women are still severely underrepresented in software engineering at only 14 percent of the total workforce, while in computer-related jobs it is only 25 percent.
In the last 20 years, hiring of female software engineers has only increased by 2.0 percent, so we need to recognize the women who have been helping make our lives so much easier through technology for years.
The established women of Silicon Valley
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO
When one mentions the company Facebook, the first thing that comes to mind is Mark Zuckerberg, however, number two is a woman. Sheryl Kara Sandberg is the current chief operating officer of the social network. She is an American economist, author and CEO, as well as the founder of Leanin.org.
In June 2012, she was elected to the executive committee, becoming the first woman to serve on this committee at Facebook. According to Forbes, Sanberg is the most powerful woman in the tech world.
Previously, Sheryl was vice president of online sales and operations at Google.
Her foundation is dedicated to female empowerment, and bears the same name as the book and bestseller she published in 2013.
Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO
The world's leading real-time streaming platform has a woman's signature. In 1998, in her fourth month of pregnancy, this woman rented her garage in Palo Alto -California- to some students who were developing a novel project. They were Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The "invention" was Google.
After years of good suggestions, the Santa Clara County native is now the CEO of the video platform, where she has implemented pro-worker measures such as remote work and 22 weeks of paid maternity leave.
In her thousands of talks and speeches she has made very clear the importance of family. The priorities of the historian, publicist and economist are her five children and her husband, so she has made it clear that she does not answer calls or work emails after six in the evening.
Anna Lee Mraz Bartra. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Listen to the article8M March. Mexico City, 2020. Photo: Jiroko Nakamura
When I asked as a girl why the April 30th celebration of childhood was called "Día del Niño" (Boy's Day literally because in Spanish the masculine is used for both genders), I was confused. When I was the girl in the classroom who wanted to play soccer, even if it meant being the only one, I was called weird. When I went outside to play with my neighbors and they talked about "Viejas" (a derogatory way of referring to a woman), I was annoyed and asked them not to do so, sometimes they would walk away. When my mother explained to me that feminism was the struggle for equality for women, I responded that all women should be feminists, it was only logical. And so, I got tired of feeling alone and, for many years, I gave up the fight.
Something was gnawing inside me as I went through adolescence, the fire still quiet. But, when men looked at us lustfully when walking with my friends from the car to the club, a spark ignited; when a man put his hand down the blouse of my friend who was walking down the street, a spark ignited; when a colleague heard an idea of mine in a meeting and repeated it louder to make it his own, a spark ignited; when I heard the stories of women in shelters fleeing from drunken, abusive husbands, a spark ignited. When my students cried with me about being hurt before, a spark ignited.
And when I realized that every woman I know has suffered some kind of sexual violence, the fire lit.
8M March, Mexico City, 2020. Photo: Jiroko Nakamura
That fire inside of me, which had been dormant for so many years, lit the way for me to connect with other fires.
This is what feminism feels like, a warmth that runs through your body and takes away the cold left by abuse or mockery. It is the light that shines from the chest, welcomes you from the shadows and rejection. It is the vibration that shakes off mistreatment, hurtful words and clears the sky to allow you to fly.
It is the individual and the collective, for your fire does not burn alone. It absorbs the energy of the others, in a give and take of strength. When we realized it, we were thousands. And Latin America ignited. It ignited with rage, indignation and courage.
It does not come from nothing this flame that now threatens to set fire to the doors of all the palaces and glass roofs; for wise women, ancient witches and powerful dinosaurs had already loaded with stones, logs and ocote. They had already created their own fires that knocked down more than one monument.
They pass us the baton, a heavy, dangerous baton with a giant warning sign on it: "It won't be easy." And it is not.
The struggle is imperfect, we make mistakes. We listen to each other, but sometimes we don't. We don't always agree and we throw it up for debate. We want to run before we walk and we stumble. Some of us want to change everything, aware that it will also change us inside.
They call it radical, liberal, philosophical, equality, difference, abolitionist, Marxist, white, colonial, decolonial, postcolonial, anarcho, institutional, lesbian, black, cultural, separatist, cyber, eco, dissident, queer... It comes in all shapes, backgrounds, tones, sizes, colors and smells.
And it's uncomfortable, it's bitter to dig into one's own coding. That's why we embrace and sing in unison, like someone who puts sugar in medicine. We cry and laugh hand in hand, we share what is difficult. And we irritate, because we are changing things, but there is still a long way to go.
The struggle is still needed as long as they keep killing and disappearing our sisters.It goes without saying how repulsed I am that this happens every two hours in Latin America. The United States is not far behind, as in 2018 nearly two thousand women were murdered, mostly at the hands of their intimate partner. I can't understand why I can't find more recent data, but it's clear to me that the murder of Vanessa Guillén is not the only one of its kind in this country and it touches a chord in all aspects.
8M March, Mexico City, 2020. Photo: Jiroko Nakamura.
It will be a long way off as long as we continue to earn less than our male counterparts in the job market. The fight will be necessary as long as the girl I teach dance on Saturday mornings to doesn't cry because her older brother is the only one allowed to play video games because "that's for men". It will be necessary as long as they look at us with lust in the street, as long as they touch us, and it will continue to be necessary as long as they continue to make laws about what to do with our bodies, without our authorization.
This movement has been around for 3 centuries, no matter what you call it, the objective is common. And we will continue to burn until we break everything.
8M March, Mexico City, 2020. Photo: Jiroko Nakamura.
In the wake of the rising number of homeless in San Francisco, officials have raised concerns as shelters have had to reduce the number of people they help due to COVID-19, and the cost of housing homeless people in tents has reached more than $16 million.
San Francisco is paying $16.1 million to house homeless people in 262 tents in vacant lots around the city, where they also receive services and food.
When you do the math, it's clear that the cost of supporting each of those tents on the land is more than $61,000 per tent per year.
That's more than double the cost of an average one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, so why waste money, especially when the city is projected to have a budget deficit of more than $650 million over the next two years.
The six tent sites, called "safe sleeping villages," are monitored 24 hours a day, with food distribution, clean water, garbage collection and access to toilets.
It should be noted that the tent program is not eligible for federal reimbursement, and the $16.1 million allocated for the program in the current budget is a fraction of the more than $300 million spent annually on homeless services.
While the program is expensive - the average nightly cost per tent is $190 - it is $82 less than what the city pays to house the needy in its homeless hotel program.
However, the hotel program, which offers four walls, a bed and a private bathroom, costing about $21 million a month, is reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
During last Wednesday's budget committee hearing, the department's acting director of homelessness, Abigail Stewart-Kahn, pointed out that tent sites are not eligible for federal reimbursement because they are considered a group shelter.
He added that the city struggled to create other options for the homeless, as indoor shelters were closing early in the pandemic, and officials did not have time to conduct a more thorough contract bidding process, which may have reduced operating costs.
In that regard, Stewart-Kahn said the department is "conducting an analysis" on the tent program and figuring out how it can move forward with the program.
The city, which originally thought the program would be reimbursed by FEMA, has paid for it through a combination of state grant money, the city's general fund and money from a 2018 business tax; so stated the department Wednesday.
Residents near the designated tent areas have expressed anger and raised complaints about pests and drug use in the spaces.
The executive director of the city's Coalition for the Homeless, Jennifer Friedenbach, said San Francisco made the right decision at the beginning of the pandemic to create the program, but she said the program should be expanded at the current rate. Instead, she called for investing that money in more stable options, such as housing subsidies.
It is necessary to understand that indoor shelters can cost millions of dollars to build and operate, while affordable housing can cost at least $700,000 per unit. Both proposals could take years to build.
