Mayor Tom Butt of Richmond, California, recently started a program that will pay landlords for allowing homeless individuals to live in vacant housing. Richmond is located in the east bay area, approximately 20 miles from San Francisco.
The program is funded by private donations and pays the landlord a year’s rent upfront to encourage landlords to waive the usual credit, employment, and background checks that come with renting a unit.
When asked if there was any concern regarding the potential dangers of welcoming homeless people into their homes or apartments, Butt insisted the community places higher priority on homeless camps and alleviating the housing crisis. He also claims to have not received any concerns from landlords regarding the tenants because the buildings they are being matched with are not expensive, luxury apartments, so they have always tended to attract tenants with less stable income of varying circumstances.
Earlier this month, the San Francisco Department of Homelessness held a seminar encouraging landlords to rent out their homes to homeless individuals, paid for by the local government.
Richie Greenberg, a Republican who ran against Mayor Breed in 2018, has raised concerns about the plan, calling it “a publicity stunt” and “downright ‘creepy.’” Greenberg says a crucial issue with the program is that “a very high percentage of San Francisco’s homeless people are homeless because they are addicted to drugs or mentally ill. So the number of candidates is going to be quite limited.”
Asking landlords to rent out homes and apartments to homeless individuals is just the latest attempt to alleviate the homeless problem in the bay area. Mayor London Breed of San Francisco declared a state of emergency due to the homeless problem last December. There are an estimated 8,000 homeless individuals in San Francisco alone, up from an estimated 5,600 just ten years ago.
Photo Cred: Matthew Green/KQED
