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BUSINESS Tuesday 16 OcTOber 2018
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Rich San Francisco businesses could face homelessness tax

By JANIE HAR Francisco, it’s also become residents out of tight hous- year, largely from Google, ber of Commerce, whose
Associated Press an intriguing fight between ing markets. for transit projects. board includes representa-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — recently elected Mayor A family of four in San Fran- The San Francisco measure tives of Microsoft, LinkedIn
San Francisco has come London Breed, who is sid- cisco earning $117,000 is is different in that it would and Oracle, is leading the
to be known around the fight.
world as a place for ag- Up to 400 businesses would
gressive panhandling, be affected, with internet
open-air drug use and and financial services sec-
sprawling tent camps, the tors bearing nearly half the
dirt and despair all the cost.
more remarkable for the The city says confidential-
city’s immense wealth. ity precludes revealing tax
Some streets are so filthy information, but some of
that officials launched a the companies expected
special “poop patrol.” A to pay the most are big
young tech worker creat- names across major indus-
ed “Snapcrap” — an app tries. Wells Fargo & Co.,
to report the filth. Morn- retailer Gap Inc. and ride-
ing commuters walk briskly hailing platform Uber de-
past homeless people hud- clined to comment.
dled against subway walls. Pharmaceutical distributor
In the city’s squalid down- McKesson Corp. referred
town area, the frail and sick questions to a private-sec-
shuffle along in wheelchairs tor trade association, the
or stumble around, some- Committee on Jobs, which
times half-clothed. called the measure flawed.
The situation has become Utility Pacific Gas & Electric
so dire that a coalition of Corp. said it has not taken
activists collected enough In this Oct. 1, 2018 photo, Stormy Nichole Day, left, sits on a sidewalk on Haight Street with Nord a position. Twitter declined
signatures to put a measure (last name not given) and his dog Hobo while interviewed about being homeless in San Francisco. to comment, but chief ex-
on the city’s Nov. 6 ballot Associated Press ecutive Jack Dorsey said
that would tax hundreds of via tweet last week that he
San Francisco’s wealthiest ing with the city’s Chamber considered low-income. levy the tax mostly by rev- trusts Breed to fix the prob-
companies to help thou- of Commerce in urging a Business prevailed in Se- enue rather than by num- lem.
sands of homeless and no vote, and philanthropist attle, when leaders in June ber of employees — an “Anyone can take a look at
mentally ill residents, an ef- Benioff, whose company is repealed a per-employee average half-percent tax the status quo and under-
fort that failed earlier this San Francisco’s largest pri- tax that would have raised increase on companies’ stand it’s not working, but
year in Seattle. Proposition vate employer with 8,400 $50 million a year, after revenue above $50 million more money alone is not
C would raise $300 million a workers. Amazon and Starbucks each year. It was also put the sole answer,” says Jess
year, nearly doubling what Breed came out hard pushed back. In July, the on the ballot by citizens, Montejano, spokesman for
the city already spends to against the measure, say- city council of Cupertino not elected officials. the “No on C” campaign.
combat homelessness. ing it lacked collaboration, in Silicon Valley scuttled a Online payment processing Benioff disagrees. A $37 mil-
“This is the worst it’s ever could attract homeless similar head tax after op- company Stripe has voiced lion two-year initiative he
been,” says Marc Benioff, people from neighboring position from its largest em- opposition and contributed helped start with the city
founder of cloud-comput- counties to the city, and ployer, Apple Inc. $120,000 to the campaign and to which he contrib-
ing giant Salesforce and a could cost middle-class Mountain View residents, against Proposition C, but uted more than $11 million
fourth-generation San Fran- jobs in retail and service. however, will vote this fall other companies have has housed nearly 400 fam-
ciscan, who is supporting San Francisco has already on a per-employee tax ex- stayed quiet. ilies through rent subsidies,
the measure even though dramatically increased pected to raise $6 million a The San Francisco Cham- he said.q
his company would pay spending on homelessness,
an additional $10 million a she said, with no notice-
year if it passes. “Nobody able improvement.
should have to live like this. San Francisco spent $380
They don’t need to live like million of its $10 billion bud-
this. We can get this under get last year on services re-
control.” lated to homelessness.
“We have to do it. We have “I have to make decisions
to try something,” said Sun- with my head, not just my
shine Powers, who owns a heart,” Breed said. “I do
tie-dye boutique, Love on not believe doubling what
Haight, in the city’s historic we spend on homelessness
Haight-Ashbury neighbor- without new accountabil-
hood. “If my community ity, when we don’t even
is bad, nobody is going to spend what we have now
want to come here.” efficiently, is good govern-
The proposition is the latest ment.”
battle between big busi- Cities along the West Coast
ness and social services ad- are grappling with ram-
vocates who demand that pant homelessness, driven
corporate America pay in part by growing numbers
to solve inequities exacer- of well-paying tech jobs
bated by its success. In San that price lower-income