Sub-Par SF Pier 80 Homeless Shelter Costs More Per Bed Than An Airbnb Or Hotel Room

[KamaAina]

http://sfist.com/2016/02/11/pier_80_homeless_shelter_costs_1_mi.php

The much ballyhooed “low-threshold" homeless shelter on Pier 80 is finally up and running, and with the recent addition of toilets and showers, city officials expect San Francisco's homeless to make their way from Tent City on Division Street to the temporary waterfront shelter. And while this giant tent inside a warehouse has turned heads for a number of reasons, the project's price tag is sure to drop jaws....

The Chronicle explains that the shelter has 150 beds, and with 29 days in February this year, that means that the shelter costs $34,482.75 per night to run (one million dollars divided by 29 nights). If you divide the nightly cost by those 150 beds, that comes out to $229.88 per night per bed.

The average nightly rate for Airbnb's in the Bay Area is reportedly $225.

That's right, it is costing the city more to house the homeless in a giant tent in a warehouse on Pier 80 then it would cost to simply rent them all rooms in Airbnb's for two months. All of a sudden the joke proposition to house San Francisco's homeless in Airbnb's starts to sound more reasonable.

[TeamPooka]

1. K&R!

[matt819]

2. Problem with the numbers

I won't comment on the reference to sub-par. Maybe the shelter sucks, maybe not.

But the numbers cited in the original post take the up-front investment and divide it by the number of bed nights for one month.

Huh?

The capital investment can be amortized over several - perhaps many - years, so the arithmetic is way off base.

So you have to either take the capital expense out of the calculations or factor it in over a period of, say, 5 years. Then you have to add in the operational expenses - staff costs, utilities, and any other services that cost money. Some of this cost is covered by the city, but the United Way and other sources of non-profit/community funding are available. And, remember, this is San Francisco; there is big money floating around, and surely this shelter, and others, can tap into the conscience of the community.

Then there's the number of nights the shelter is actually operating. The shelter will be open either for the winter months (as we have here in some towns in the northeast) or year-round. Assuming just for the season, that is generally considered to be around 1 December until 31 March. That's four months. So, divide the actual operating costs (not the total capital expense) by the four months of bed nights - roughly 18,000 - to get the cost of a single bed night. It's possible that monthly costs could come down a bit if the shelter is open year-round (economies of scale, negotiated costs of utilities and the like). In any case, take you operating costs, and whatever amortized capital cost you decide on, and then divide that by the 54,750 bed nights.

As for the hotel/AirBnB options, you have the reality of serving 150 people relatively consistently from night to night, versus the variability of rental costs and the reality the you will not be able to ensure accommodations for those 18,000 bed nights or those 54,750 bed nights.

Also, if this shelter is like others, it operates with the support of volunteers. That reality brings the awareness of homelessness to a larger number of people, which might in turn lead to greater political and financial will to help resolve this issue by either providing better housing or more cost effective services.

[KamaAina]

3. It's a temporary shelter that is only going to be open for two months

For the two months the shelter will be open, CBS 5 reports that the city expects to shell out $1 million each month. Let's break that down.

[matt819]

4. Hmmm

Well, maybe that is fucked up. Shoulda read the article. Somebody's pockets are getting lined, methinks. It's a shame really, because there's s lot of expertise out there in the shelter biz.