1. There’s an interesting ballot question in San Francisco – Proposition C – that you should know about. It would tax the city’s biggest companies to significantly increase funding for homelessness programs. Thread time!
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2. A lot of the national coverage of the proposition has been focused on the fact that some tech CEOs are for it while other are against it, and spending money to defeat it. But that’s not really the point.
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3. The actual story is that a lot of people in San Francisco experience homelessness, thanks at least in part to the vast inequities that the presence of the tech industry has caused – a presence that was encouraged via tax breaks, giveaways and whatnot.
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4. So in many ways, this new tax would just make tech companies pay for some of the negative things they’ve wrought. And remember, corporations got a big tax cut in 2017, so this is just offsetting a tiny portion of that.
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5. Here’s a stat: Tech workers, especially at the richer end of the income scale, have seen their incomes rise in California, but according to a recent report, wages for 90 percent of California workers are lower than they were 20 years ago. 90 percent!
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6. And another: According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, renting a modest two-bedroom home in San Francisco requires a wage of more than $60 per hour.
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7. And the plan for the money raised by the tax is good: At least half must be dedicated to permanent housing, which research shows is the most effective way to combat homelessness. That’s a big deal!
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8. So after the tech titans are done fighting on Twitter, the question remains: Will San Francisco ask its wealthiest corporations to pay slightly more so that thousands of currently homeless people can have a roof over their heads? More from me here:https://talkpoverty.org/2018/10/30/san-franciscos-prop-c-force-tech-companies-address-homelessness-crisis-helped-create/ …
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Um. Homelessness has been around in a significant and visible way in SF since the winter of 1982, which is several decades before Twitter showed up. Population estimates from the 1980s to mid-2000s to today peg our number at a fairly consistent 6-7K people at any given time.
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