A losing proposition

Why California is failing to put a dent in homelessness

Despite spending billions on homelessness, governments and non-profits have failed to put a dent in California’s population of city street-dwellers. Things won’t change until policymakers recognize that their current approach doesn’t scale and too often ignores the public’s interest in clean, safe streets.
In July, Gov. Newsom toured the Estrella Vista Apartments, a new affordable housing development in Emeryville. The visit allowed Newsom to highlight steps that the state, local governments and non-profits are taking to tackle homelessness and the shortage of housing. It also gave him an opportunity to push back against President Trump, who has been weaponizing the homelessness issue against California Democrats.
But the Estrella Vista project epitomizes the problems with California affordable housing policy: Estrella Vista’s 87 units have an average construction cost of $736,239 and it took eight years from property acquisition to project completion. High costs and long development times are common for the kind of infill, transit-oriented projects California planners prefer.
Also, because affordable housing projects like Estrella Vista are often owned and operated by not-for-profits, they don’t generate property taxes for the counties, cities and school districts in which they are located. The project’s non-profit developer, EAH Housing, will be able to obtain a welfare exemption freeing it from any property tax liability.

The state and local governments pout in 64 million.  The non-profit builds it on government money and runs the place. EAH owns it and I presume they must have gotten very low interest loans from governments involved.