Question

Why is homelessness such an issue for San Francisco if it is an innovation hub?

San Francisco has been a technology innovation hot spot since the 1940s when William Shockley helped boost the economy through his invention of the transistor. This new technology was the seed that helped San Francisco's technology industry blossom into what it is today. As we learned from The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti, San Francisco is home to some of the biggest names in technology like, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Zynga, and Yelp. It is safe to assume that there is a significant amount of individuals with college degrees living and working here, so why is the homeless rate so high?

In 2019 San Francisco reported a population of 17,595 homeless people living in the city. This was a 30% surge since 2017 (Cowan, 2019). This is also likely to be an underestimate as calculating a homeless population is extremely difficult. One would think, if there are so many high skilled, high tech jobs, the multiplier effect would create a massive amount of lower skilled jobs. What might else might be leading to this high level of homelessness?

Answer 1

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Abstract

The rate of people becoming homeless is much higher than those who are housed at current rates. Because of the region's lack of housing, there is a problem moving people into an emergency shelter, then into supportive housing and eventually into low-income housing.

San Francisco's chronic homeless crisis revolves around the biennial, federally mandated point-in-time homeless count, which delivers terrible news for San Francisco every two years. The 2019 count turned out particularly bad for San Francisco after submitting an official figure of more than 8,000 persons are homeless.

Before the 2008 recession, an estimated 2.5 to 3 million men, women, and children were experiencing homelessness each year (using the HUD definition), including a total of 1.35 million children, and over a million people working full or part-time but unable to pay for housing.

Since then, indications are that the crisis has deepened:.

Below are the main reasons for homelessness in San Francisco

1) Lack of affordable housing

The lack of affordable housing has lead to high rent burdens i.e.rents which absorb a high proportion of income, overcrowding, and substandard housing.

These situation, in turn, have not only forced many people to become homeless, they have put a large and growing number of people at risk of becoming homeless.

2) Unemployment

Unemployment impacts on homeless persons particularly hard given that they are often facing numerous other challenges.

The lack of access to employment contributes to homeless people not having sufficient and sustained income to meet basic needs; this is particularly so for those who do not receive welfare assistance.

3) Poverty and inability to pay rent

This is one of the reason for homelessness and due to this people having little money, debt, a lack of education, poor mental and physical health, disability, reliance on public housing and are unable to purchase house.

4) Mental illness and the lack of needed services

People with poor mental health are more susceptible to the three main factors that can lead to homelessness: poverty, disaffiliation, and personal vulnerability. Because they often lack the capacity to sustain employment, they have little income. This cause to become homeless.

5) substance abuse and the lack of needed services.

For women in particular, domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness. Lack of needed services like Education, Job etc also causing to homelessness

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