San Francisco used to be famous for cable cars.
Now it’s getting well known for its “poop patrol” 
and maps that warn people about the ubiquitous presence of human excrement.
Why are people defecating on city sidewalks? Because there’s a major problem with government-created homelessness thanks to rent control and zoning restrictions.
And homelessness gives us our topic for today because we have an astounding example of government waste.
More specifically, a story from the San Francisco Chronicle nicely summarizes the efficiency and competence of the public sector.
An experiment to put a homeless shelter in a San Francisco public school gym has so far been a costly failure, …costing taxpayers about $700 for each person who spends the night.
…only five families have used the facility at 23rd and Valencia streets in the Mission, with an average occupancy of less than two people per night… The facility is completely empty several nights each month, Kositsky said, although shelter workers are on-site seven nights a week and through holidays, whether anyone shows up or not.
I’ve been to San Francisco many times. Hotels are not cheap.
But I’ve never had to pay anywhere close to $700 per night.
Though maybe this San Francisco program is a bargain since it costs the state $1.3 million per year to house a homeless person.
So why did the city create this boondoggle? For the same reason that many programs are created. Politicians and bureaucrats exaggerated about a problem.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen and the school’s administrators…advocated for the shelter, saying there were dozens of families facing homelessness at Buena Vista Horace Mann who needed someplace to sleep. The principal at the time, Richard Zapien, said he had identified 60 families in unstable housing.
But here’s a passage that captures the real story.
This program was created to funnel money to a non-profit group and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that officers of this group are supporters (campaign cash, get-out-the-vote, etc) of the politicians who created the program.
The city has been paying the nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services $40,000 per month to manage the shelter, and if it were to be successful, would spend up to $900,000 per year to serve up to 20 families at a time with all-night staffing, food and support services to help them find permanent housing.
In other words, we have another example of how government is a racket.
No matter how flawed and foolish a program may be, 
never forget that it’s putting unearned money in the pockets of some group of people. And that group of people know how to play the game, since they then recycle some of the loot back to the politicians.
Politicians don’t care if the money is wasted. They don’t care if there’s rampant fraud.
They’re simply buying votes. With our money.
P.S. There is a sure-fire way of reducing this kind of corrupt behavior, but don’t hold your breath expecting it to happen.
P.P.S. Though you may want to hold your breath if you visit the city.
International Liberty 
[…] San Francisco’s government had a different program for the homeless that cost about $700 per night. So maybe the new approach described in above […]
Reblogged this on Additional survival tricks and commented:
Melbourne, the capital of the State of Victoria of Australia, is also following a similar path:
Spending on questionable issues are now 85/15 times of spendings on on core function of fixing roads and removal of rubbish.
it’s a good example of the early stages of socialist decay… if California continues on this course… in a decade or so it will resemble Venezuela… but in all likelihood… before that time comes the state will be bankrupt… and will have secured some sort of federal bail out… California might well be the 6th largest economy in the world at this point… but Venezuela was the wealthiest country in south america when the socialists came to power… and now they are killing and eating their household pets… homelessness has many causes… but one of the major contributors is drug use… legalize and destigmatize recreational drug use and a huge part of the homeless problem will disappear… there are effective treatment programs that can be implemented… we do not have to accept homelessness and drug overdose deaths as inevitable… at this point we are losing close to 70k Americans every 12 months… most of the deaths are a result of synthetic opioids… being sold by drug cartels which were created by government drug prohibition… that’s over 5,800 people dead every month…if terrorists were killing that many of our people month in and month out… the government would surely use the military to stop the carnage… that’s not to mention the number of displaced people… and government costs associated with their homelessness…. legalize recreational drugs.. make treatment plans available in every state… and send our military after the drug terrorists… withing a year… the dynamic will change… add spending caps… and term limits…and perhaps we can re-energize constitutional governance… reduce homelessness… and save hundreds of thousands of lives… it’s worth consideration….
The city of Austin is becoming more like San Francisco. It also now has a growing homeless problem. With a city council of 10, only 1 is a conservative on fiscal and social issues. Many of the same issues are beginning to show in Austin, such as land use restrictions which are driving up the cost of housing, and of course the homeless problem, and too much spending on frivolous programs. Sound familiar? Seems a lot of people are moving from California to Texas and many — not all — bring their failed policies and politics with them.