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Data Reveals San Francisco Care Not Cash Program for the Homeless Does Not Add Up

Published: Fri, 06 May 2005, 11:50:00 EDT

Edited by Beverly West

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - May 6 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- In his article "Snake Oil in San Francisco, the Significance of Doing the Math of Care Not Cash" (www.sfsnakeoil.info), Dr. Eugene Dong reveals that San Francisco's Care not Cash program did not reduce homelessness or provide ongoing services to this population as promised. Instead, the bulk of the 14 million dollars taken from the county welfare fund under this Program has been used to line the pockets of San Francisco property owners.

The Care not Cash Program proposed to divert funds previously used for cash payments to homeless individuals into services such as access to housing, drug and alcohol treatment and mental health care. Welfare payments to single homeless people therefore, were cut from $410 a month to just $59. But rather than providing services to the homeless, the 14 million dollars taken from the county welfare fund last year paid for leasing and restoring hotels, including 12 buildings in a poor and crime ridden section of San Francisco called the Tenderloin.

"When I did the math using San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's figures televised on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on April 8, 2005, it became apparent that this program just does not add up," said Dr. Dong. "The City claims to have used $14,000,000 to house only 1,000 people. Simple math tell us that the city has therefore spent $14,000.00 per housed recipient per year. Divide that by 12 and you get $1,226.00 per month, not $410.00, which was the maximum monthly benefit. That difference went directly to the hotel owners in the form of cash payments and capital improvements that they would not otherwise have received. The calculations in my article indicate that this amounted to 70 percent of the county welfare fund."

Dong further points out that despite Mayor Newsom's claim this Program has resulted in a miraculous decrease in the numbers of the homeless, in the same year, the numbers of the homeless swelled commensurately in the surrounding communities, so the Program has not really decreased the ranks of the homeless at all, but rather, just relocated them into smaller communities in the Bay Area.

Eugene Dong MD, JD is an Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery Emeritus, Stanford University, and a lawyer admitted to the bars of the California State Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.

The complete text of Dr. Eugene Dong's article can be found at www.sfsnakeoil.info.

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