If we’re going to meaningfully address homelessness, we must spend money on building more housing. San Francisco has more than 7,500 homeless people but about 2,300 shelter beds — less than one for every three needed. By contrast, New York shelters almost 95% of its homeless population.

Those impacted are long-term San Franciscans: Most of those who are homeless (69%) lived in the city before losing their homes, the majority for 10 or more years.

Philanthropy can only address a small part of the need. Our shelter waitlist is over a thousand people long. We aren’t raising enough money to create either temporary or permanent shelter for homeless people in this city.

There’s a potential solution to this crisis. Proposition C, also known as "Our City, Our Home," will go before voters in November.

The measure will focus on a tried-and-true strategy for ending homelessness: housing first. Its sponsors estimate we could build some 4,000 units of supportive housing and 1,000 shelter beds with the increased funding. The measure would raise some $300 million annually by taxing businesses with gross revenues over $50 million at an average of 0.5%.

The city economist found the measure would “likely reduce homelessness in San Francisco, improving health outcomes and reducing the use of acute and emergency services in the city.”

This added revenue will make the city a better place to live and work by reducing the number of homeless people on the streets, addressing mental health needs, and creating public bathrooms and showers. This measure also invests heavily in rental assistance, preventing homelessness before it begins.

We urge all tech workers to support this measure by signing below. Show San Francisco that the tech industry is willing to address this systemic issue with real action, by taxing itself to help the most vulnerable among us. In the face of the largest corporate tax cuts in recent history, Prop. C’s effects on our tech companies would be minimal, but its potential to house the homeless would be vast.

If we cannot ask this of the richest companies in one of the richest cities on the planet, we cannot say we are interested in being a contributing member of this city and region.

*We will not be sharing names with anyone, we will only share the number of employees from each company that have signed the petition.*

Read more about Prop. C here: https://www.ourcityourhomesf.org/