How much would you give to regain someone you had lost, or save the life of someone you might soon lose? Most people, especially Christians, know the story of the prodigal son who, before his father was anywhere near death, insisted on taking what would be his inheritance, went off to a distant land, spent it on debauchery, and then, facing starvation, sheepishly returned, willing to be a slave if only his father would have him back. His father, upon seeing him in the distance, rejoiced, and told his servants to kill a fatted calf and prepare a feast to celebrate his son’s return. His other son, who had stayed home and worked hard, was furious at his father’s response to his brother’s return.
A dear friend of ours, a young woman who sparkles with love and light, was shocked when her doctor told her that she had stage 4 cancer, a terrifying diagnosis with a dire prognosis. A year later, through miracles made possible, in part, by Joe Biden’s “moonshot” cancer initiatives, she was able to report to her friends and family that she was completely cancer free. I can’t imagine anyone reading this column thinking “Yeah, but how much money did they spend to save that one life? Why should any of my tax dollars be spent on that? Is someone auditing how that money is spent to make sure it isn’t being wasted?” Yet, those are the questions I’ve gotten each time I’ve written a story about programs successfully tackling homelessness. Perhaps you are one of those naysayers, now thinking, “but homelessness is different — the homeless person is to blame for their situation!” Is it too far from Christmas for me to say “humbug?”
A woman I met told me this story. “I was in a terrible car accident and when I came out of surgery my husband was by my side, crying, so happy that I had survived. Then he told me something shocking. My brother, whom I hadn’t seen in 25 years, was also in the hospital. He had been homeless for many years and had suffered a heart attack and got bypass surgery. A few months later, we were both healed and he was off drugs, rebuilding his life with the help of a local nonprofit. I never dreamed I would have him back but there he was! I was so grateful.”
Let’s do some math. Treating stage 4 cancer for a year costs between $50,000 and $200,000. Bypass surgery costs between $50,000 and $200,000. We spent $6.5 billion on bypass surgery and $173 billion on cancer care in 2020. Worth it? Most people would say yes, though, I have to toss in my belief that if we had universal health care like other countries, we’d spend less and get the same or better results
Now, let’s look at the fight against homelessness. LifeMoves, a core organization working to end homelessness in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, invested nearly $60 million dollars in 2022 to serve just over 7,000 clients. That equals around $8,500 per client. Worth it? I think so. Yes, in the last five years California has spent nearly $20 billion dollars trying to move people from homelessness into stable lives and housing. Is there waste amidst that spending? Yes. People will correctly point to the San Francisco debacle of trying to turn an old parking lot into a space where homeless folks could live in RVs. Millions of dollars and a few years later, six people have lived in that parking lot, in miserable conditions.
In my columns I’ve shared the stories of County Executive Officer Mike Callagy and his dedication to eradicating homelessness here including: LifeMoves, operating the Navigation Center and other sites across the region, HIP Housing, and JobTrain, that helps thousands of people each year move from tenuous lives to stable, productive and secure lives. And they all do so with complete transparency, their audited financials and GuideStar.org ratings a testament to how every penny is spent and how success is measured. San Mateo County agencies and NGOs gather monthly, using a proven national crime-fighting process, for mutual support and accountability. On next year’s ballot is a measure that would increase auditing and require detailed success metrics for money the state spends on homelessness.
I believe money invested in this county on eliminating homelessness is worth it. Lives are saved, many who were once lost are found. Each human life is precious and whether we save a life through cancer treatment, heart surgery or a program to overcome other obstacles humans encounter, we can either be the angry brother or the joyous father celebrating the return of his prodigal son. I choose joy.
Craig Wiesner is the co-owner of Reach And Teach, a book, toy and cultural gift shop on San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos.
Thank you, Craig, for yet another thought-provoking column! Although I don’t have the math to back it up, let me just mention the cost of the unnecessary, unwinnable wars that we were lied into by Republican, minority selected WH inhabitant George W. Bush. By cost here, I mean both in terms of dollars, lives, lost national reputation around the world, - and homelessness! How many homeless are a direct or indirect result of those wars? No matter how much math we use, the cost is immeasurable! Have we learned anything?
Jorg, you are obviously terminally ill, you lie, lie and distort. Even your story about your country stopping world world II was a lie.. you are invested in yourself, your lies, your lies, your country, your lies are the mirage a of a sick individual who needs far more help than then mentally ill homeless. Your truth is what circulates in ONLY your head and is based on what YOU WANT to be true, but is never based on what is the truth. The mentally ill need help....
Well summarized, Not So Common. All of our dear readers know Jorg’s only valid points are his exclamation points. I’m proud to say Jorg once awarded me six exclamation points. Other contributors have received their fair share of exclamation points so six may not be the record. For a while, Jorg went crazy with commas but that may be because his exclamation point key broke.
WOW, what an impressive NotSoCommon revelation! I am so impressed! Even without ever having met me, not even read any of my books, you saw right through it all, and exposed what I have so successfully been able to hide from all my family, relatives, neighbors, students and friends in many countries. Not even my teachers, nor the professors in two graduate schools realized how incredibly dumb I was, while I successfully faked it all, - until you in your wisdom saw through it all. Not even my doctors understood what was so wrong with me!
However, in all honesty, I have to correct one misunderstanding, though! No one, not even I in my wildest fantasies, have ever accused the Norwegian heavy water saboteurs of ending WWII. All they have been blamed for, was the horrible act against Hitler to prevent him from getting the heavy water he so badly needed for his a-bomb development, thus jeopardizing Hitler’s great MGGA plans. Those sabotage actions were so horrible that Hollywood even found it necessary to make a movie about it, “The Heroes of Telemark”, with no one less than Kirk Douglas starring.
Jorg - I believe many of us just think of you as a smart provocateur. You could not possibly believe yourself when you write your comments and occasional LTEs. In a way you have become entertaining and that is likely what your imaginary army of admirers have concluded some time ago. They let you dwell on your self-declared superior opinions with a smile. Keep it coming, we all need distractions from time to time.
Thank you so very much, MAGA-hatters! (Yes, 2 ts!) You are giving me so many points for my next publications, for free! Knowing how much some of you are struggling economically, I should probably offer you some pay for all the valuable stuff, and interesting insights, like how sensitive tight MAGA hats make your toes! Wow! I learn something every day!
This is too funny… Not so bad, Not So Common. Your previous observation of Jorg’s self-adoration and excuses as to why he’s not able to provide examples of Trump’s misdeeds is so on the mark here. My congratulations on quickly garnering four exclamation points from Jorg – sounds like you hit close to home. And then we have Dirk scoring six more points. Winner winner chicken dinner.
Craig - please correct your reference to Biden's moon-shot medication. This was actually signed off by President Trump as follows: "On May 22, the Senate passed S. 204, the 'Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act', and sent it to President Trump who signed it on May 30, 2018, creating a uniform system for terminal patients seeking access to investigational treatments." Biden and his gang have a habit of taking credit for prior presidents' accomplishments but we are now accustomed to his lies, deceptions and exaggerations.
Yes, Mr. Wiesner, let’s do the math and look at a few items you’ve conveniently left out… In California, over $30 billion lost to EDD fraud, $billions already wasted, and continue to be wasted on the union giveaway known as the train-to-nowhere, $1.3 trillion in unfunded liabilities. You want money, stop the waste and you’ll have some. In the US, have you taken a gander at Rand Paul’s Festivus Report for 2023, to start, showing $900 billion in waste? You want money, stop the waste and you’ll have some. But not to worry, Rand Paul has more Festivus reports showing government waste.
Money invested in this county is worth it, but not from government trying to pick winners and losers. No matter what you do, eliminating homelessness will never occur because more than half of the homeless don’t want homes. What we can do is eliminate waste, which Democrats are not in favor of, as results in California and the nation show. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if folks working to house the homeless buy more houses on their salaries than the number of people they actually house.
There are no silver bullets, all the issues brought up are challenging and difficult to fix. Hurrying up and being in a rush is also not a great idea. For health care we have baby boomers entering a period when the health care demand will likely increase for the next decade and a half to eventually decline. It would be more prudent to wait until there is a decline and purchase those struggling health care system at a fair price (if you wait to long the private market will step in and buy these assets) to create universal health care, versus paying high prices at the same time the public and private sector have nosebleed prices due to supply and demand imbalances (might end up killing both).
Similar situation in housing public can build some housing but should not be in too much of a hurry because the product being built since the great financial crisis has been studios and one bedroom that are in high demand now, but likely to be in less demand as younger people move on to create families and/or want bigger spaces. The government should establish sinking funds now, so they are able to step in and buy at times of falling price (again at a price slightly higher than the private market is willing to pay). The response to the Great Financial Crisis might have saved the banking system and economy, but we are now dealing with the consequence (housing shortage and homelessness) due to government intervention and the execution of a bad deal.
You correctly point out that California has spent more than $20 billion over the past five years trying solve the homelessness problem, and that “there is waste amidst that spending.” So, why is someone questioning whether such spending is being audited a “naysayer”?
I am a “yeasayer” to helping the homeless. Folks who are homeless… for whatever reason… deserve our help. However, if you are supporting a blank check approach to the homelessness crisis, the numbers show that approach is not working.
California represents 12% of the country’s population, but 28% of the country’s homeless can be found in California. The number of homeless currently stands at about 181,399… that’s almost a 10,000 person increase over the previous year. Divide that $20 billion by the number of homeless. The result is $110,254 per person. Now, that may not be a favorable comparison as some of that $20 billion was made available to persons who were not homeless. But regardless how the numbers are crunched, the state is spending an enormous amount of money that is not producing the desired result either monetarily or more importantly in delivering the help homeless folks deserve.
Unless and until our legislature addresses homelessness in a meaningful way, more money will be spent chasing an ever increasing number of homeless. HUD reports the five US cities with the greatest rate of unsheltered are all in California: San Jose region, Los Angeles, Oakland region, Long Beach, and Sacramento. All our legislators need to do is look out the Capitol windows to see the magnitude of the problem.
Here are a couple of other numbers to ponder. Twenty years ago, as a mayoral candidate, Gavin Newsom proposed a plan to end homelessness in San Francisco. San Francisco’s problem was supposed to be solved in ten years… that didn’t happen. Our Governor has served as a San Francisco supervisor, San Francisco’s mayor, lieutenant governor and our governor. That’s 26 years on the front lines of the homelessness crisis. So, where is the leadership to tackle the homelessness problem?
With a $68 billion state deficit staring California’s taxpayers in the face, it’s likely funding for some state programs will have to be cut. This fiscal reality comes at the worst time for trying to develop viable programs to address homelessness. As a “yeasayer” to helping the homeless, I support spending the money that is needed to get unsheltered persons off the streets. However, spending billions without accountability as the homelessness problem grows has not worked.
Here's a story that gives me huge hope, AND, an example worth following. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/headway/homelessness-tiny-home-austin.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Mk0.Kd8H.4z9cx4rmEBPp&smid=url-share
Thanks, Craig, for sharing a link to a positive story about the Community First! program in Austin, Texas helping some homeless folks get off the streets. The story reminded me a little of John Steinbeck's Weedpatch Camp in "The Grapes of Wrath." The camp was a clean and safe place for people without homes or a community to come together to make their yoke easy and their burden light. The story out of Austin should make everyone feel good about the possibilities, but does it offer a viable model for the Bay Area? If the key factor creating our own homelessness crisis is the lack of affordable housing, it's unlikely the Austin model of setting aside acreage outside town limits to create single-story tiny home villages will work in the Bay Area.
As I said yesterday, throwing billions and billions of dollars at the homelessness problem is not working. Leadership, thus far, has failed. Over the past year or so, our legislature has looked at accountability re: how past monies have been spent on homelessness programs... that's a good thing. Now, we need to take the next step... allocate taxpayer money wisely and do what has to be done to engage everyone in solving the homelessness problem.
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(16) comments
Thank you, Craig, for yet another thought-provoking column! Although I don’t have the math to back it up, let me just mention the cost of the unnecessary, unwinnable wars that we were lied into by Republican, minority selected WH inhabitant George W. Bush. By cost here, I mean both in terms of dollars, lives, lost national reputation around the world, - and homelessness! How many homeless are a direct or indirect result of those wars? No matter how much math we use, the cost is immeasurable! Have we learned anything?
Jorg, you are obviously terminally ill, you lie, lie and distort. Even your story about your country stopping world world II was a lie.. you are invested in yourself, your lies, your lies, your country, your lies are the mirage a of a sick individual who needs far more help than then mentally ill homeless. Your truth is what circulates in ONLY your head and is based on what YOU WANT to be true, but is never based on what is the truth. The mentally ill need help....
Well summarized, Not So Common. All of our dear readers know Jorg’s only valid points are his exclamation points. I’m proud to say Jorg once awarded me six exclamation points. Other contributors have received their fair share of exclamation points so six may not be the record. For a while, Jorg went crazy with commas but that may be because his exclamation point key broke.
WOW, what an impressive NotSoCommon revelation! I am so impressed! Even without ever having met me, not even read any of my books, you saw right through it all, and exposed what I have so successfully been able to hide from all my family, relatives, neighbors, students and friends in many countries. Not even my teachers, nor the professors in two graduate schools realized how incredibly dumb I was, while I successfully faked it all, - until you in your wisdom saw through it all. Not even my doctors understood what was so wrong with me!
However, in all honesty, I have to correct one misunderstanding, though! No one, not even I in my wildest fantasies, have ever accused the Norwegian heavy water saboteurs of ending WWII. All they have been blamed for, was the horrible act against Hitler to prevent him from getting the heavy water he so badly needed for his a-bomb development, thus jeopardizing Hitler’s great MGGA plans. Those sabotage actions were so horrible that Hollywood even found it necessary to make a movie about it, “The Heroes of Telemark”, with no one less than Kirk Douglas starring.
Jorg - I believe many of us just think of you as a smart provocateur. You could not possibly believe yourself when you write your comments and occasional LTEs. In a way you have become entertaining and that is likely what your imaginary army of admirers have concluded some time ago. They let you dwell on your self-declared superior opinions with a smile. Keep it coming, we all need distractions from time to time.
Thank you so very much, MAGA-hatters! (Yes, 2 ts!) You are giving me so many points for my next publications, for free! Knowing how much some of you are struggling economically, I should probably offer you some pay for all the valuable stuff, and interesting insights, like how sensitive tight MAGA hats make your toes! Wow! I learn something every day!
This is too funny… Not so bad, Not So Common. Your previous observation of Jorg’s self-adoration and excuses as to why he’s not able to provide examples of Trump’s misdeeds is so on the mark here. My congratulations on quickly garnering four exclamation points from Jorg – sounds like you hit close to home. And then we have Dirk scoring six more points. Winner winner chicken dinner.
Craig - please correct your reference to Biden's moon-shot medication. This was actually signed off by President Trump as follows: "On May 22, the Senate passed S. 204, the 'Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act', and sent it to President Trump who signed it on May 30, 2018, creating a uniform system for terminal patients seeking access to investigational treatments." Biden and his gang have a habit of taking credit for prior presidents' accomplishments but we are now accustomed to his lies, deceptions and exaggerations.
Dirk: "lies, deceptions and exaggerations"? You must have had Trump in mind, unless you have lost it!
Jorg - you are out of focus as usual.
That's the very best you can come up with? Perhaps this helps?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/8/2216076/-The-one-good-thing-Trump-did-on-Jan-6-turns-out-to-be-a-lie?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email
Perhaps not ...
Yes, Mr. Wiesner, let’s do the math and look at a few items you’ve conveniently left out… In California, over $30 billion lost to EDD fraud, $billions already wasted, and continue to be wasted on the union giveaway known as the train-to-nowhere, $1.3 trillion in unfunded liabilities. You want money, stop the waste and you’ll have some. In the US, have you taken a gander at Rand Paul’s Festivus Report for 2023, to start, showing $900 billion in waste? You want money, stop the waste and you’ll have some. But not to worry, Rand Paul has more Festivus reports showing government waste.
Money invested in this county is worth it, but not from government trying to pick winners and losers. No matter what you do, eliminating homelessness will never occur because more than half of the homeless don’t want homes. What we can do is eliminate waste, which Democrats are not in favor of, as results in California and the nation show. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if folks working to house the homeless buy more houses on their salaries than the number of people they actually house.
There are no silver bullets, all the issues brought up are challenging and difficult to fix. Hurrying up and being in a rush is also not a great idea. For health care we have baby boomers entering a period when the health care demand will likely increase for the next decade and a half to eventually decline. It would be more prudent to wait until there is a decline and purchase those struggling health care system at a fair price (if you wait to long the private market will step in and buy these assets) to create universal health care, versus paying high prices at the same time the public and private sector have nosebleed prices due to supply and demand imbalances (might end up killing both).
Similar situation in housing public can build some housing but should not be in too much of a hurry because the product being built since the great financial crisis has been studios and one bedroom that are in high demand now, but likely to be in less demand as younger people move on to create families and/or want bigger spaces. The government should establish sinking funds now, so they are able to step in and buy at times of falling price (again at a price slightly higher than the private market is willing to pay). The response to the Great Financial Crisis might have saved the banking system and economy, but we are now dealing with the consequence (housing shortage and homelessness) due to government intervention and the execution of a bad deal.
Good morning, Craig
You correctly point out that California has spent more than $20 billion over the past five years trying solve the homelessness problem, and that “there is waste amidst that spending.” So, why is someone questioning whether such spending is being audited a “naysayer”?
I am a “yeasayer” to helping the homeless. Folks who are homeless… for whatever reason… deserve our help. However, if you are supporting a blank check approach to the homelessness crisis, the numbers show that approach is not working.
California represents 12% of the country’s population, but 28% of the country’s homeless can be found in California. The number of homeless currently stands at about 181,399… that’s almost a 10,000 person increase over the previous year. Divide that $20 billion by the number of homeless. The result is $110,254 per person. Now, that may not be a favorable comparison as some of that $20 billion was made available to persons who were not homeless. But regardless how the numbers are crunched, the state is spending an enormous amount of money that is not producing the desired result either monetarily or more importantly in delivering the help homeless folks deserve.
Unless and until our legislature addresses homelessness in a meaningful way, more money will be spent chasing an ever increasing number of homeless. HUD reports the five US cities with the greatest rate of unsheltered are all in California: San Jose region, Los Angeles, Oakland region, Long Beach, and Sacramento. All our legislators need to do is look out the Capitol windows to see the magnitude of the problem.
Here are a couple of other numbers to ponder. Twenty years ago, as a mayoral candidate, Gavin Newsom proposed a plan to end homelessness in San Francisco. San Francisco’s problem was supposed to be solved in ten years… that didn’t happen. Our Governor has served as a San Francisco supervisor, San Francisco’s mayor, lieutenant governor and our governor. That’s 26 years on the front lines of the homelessness crisis. So, where is the leadership to tackle the homelessness problem?
With a $68 billion state deficit staring California’s taxpayers in the face, it’s likely funding for some state programs will have to be cut. This fiscal reality comes at the worst time for trying to develop viable programs to address homelessness. As a “yeasayer” to helping the homeless, I support spending the money that is needed to get unsheltered persons off the streets. However, spending billions without accountability as the homelessness problem grows has not worked.
I agree. Do the math.
Here's a story that gives me huge hope, AND, an example worth following. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/headway/homelessness-tiny-home-austin.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Mk0.Kd8H.4z9cx4rmEBPp&smid=url-share
Thanks, Craig, for sharing a link to a positive story about the Community First! program in Austin, Texas helping some homeless folks get off the streets. The story reminded me a little of John Steinbeck's Weedpatch Camp in "The Grapes of Wrath." The camp was a clean and safe place for people without homes or a community to come together to make their yoke easy and their burden light. The story out of Austin should make everyone feel good about the possibilities, but does it offer a viable model for the Bay Area? If the key factor creating our own homelessness crisis is the lack of affordable housing, it's unlikely the Austin model of setting aside acreage outside town limits to create single-story tiny home villages will work in the Bay Area.
As I said yesterday, throwing billions and billions of dollars at the homelessness problem is not working. Leadership, thus far, has failed. Over the past year or so, our legislature has looked at accountability re: how past monies have been spent on homelessness programs... that's a good thing. Now, we need to take the next step... allocate taxpayer money wisely and do what has to be done to engage everyone in solving the homelessness problem.
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