SF Chronicle: One Bay Area city tried to figure out the true cost of homelessness. Here’s what it found
What are the costs of homelessness for Bay Area cities?
In addition to the tragic human toll of the crisis, large cities in the region are pouring millions of dollars into housing, shelter, food security, mental health and addiction services. But there are costs to cities that go beyond direct services to the thousands of unhoused people in the region.
Those include indirect costs such as how much is spent to put out fires or remove trash at encampments.
Cities often have no clue what the real costs are. But officials in Oakland set out to figure out just how much the city was spending on homelessness in both direct and indirect costs. A new report estimated the figure at $122 million per year, out of a nearly $2 billion annual city budget. Officials said the true cost is hard to nail down, but the report is the closest the city has gotten to determining how much of its budget goes toward addressing the crisis.
