What should solving S.F.'s unsheltered homelessness cost?

As San Francisco debates how to best shelter people experiencing homelessness—with an emphasis on the cost to implement proposed solutions—the SF Examiner reached out to Abt for some insight. Reporter Adam Shanks spoke to Jill Khadduri and Nichole Fiore about the relative costs of programs in other cities (which were largely in line with the $70,000 per year per person price tag of the San Francisco proposal). Fiore, our California specialist, helped contextualize the debate: “Would you be able to get a hotel room for that cost per day? Would you be able to feed yourself in San Francisco for that cost per day? … [Y]ou have to think about everything that goes into that number.” The article also cites Abt’s research on California’s Project Roomkey, which used hotels and motels to shelter people during the height of the COVID pandemic.