from the Maoist Internationalist Movement

The "Care Not Cash" campaign, led by San Francisco Superintendent Gavin Newsom, gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot that would cut homeless people's monthly cash stipend. Posturing for an expected Mayoral campaign, Newsom spent $10,000 on television ads and $50,000 on billboards,(1) claiming that Proposition N will replace the cash with services, keeping people from abusing the city's homeless support. In reality the cut in cash assistance will not be replaced with any additional services and instead will put up one more barrier to homeless people getting off the streets.

Homelessness is a chronic problem of capitalism. Even in a wealthy imperialist country like the United $tates people are living on the streets because they don't have the money to pay for housing. In the city of San Francisco alone there are between 11,000 and 14,000 homeless people on the streets on any night. But there are only 1,400 shelter beds in the city.(2) A number of factors can lead to homelessness: unemployment, disability, lack of education, drug or alcohol addictions, family problems, sudden financial difficulties. But none of these ITAL need END lead to homelessness. They wouldn't, if housing was not a commodity bought and sold for a profit. Capitalism fails to provide for every persyn's basic needs; under socialism shelter, like jobs, is guaranteed. Of course capitalism also exacerbates factors that lead to homelessness like homelessness and drug abuse.

Currently everyone who receives cash aid from San Francisco must work for the city in return for their aid checks or prove they are disabled. The new "Care Not Cash" program would pay these workers in vouchers for services that are already free to other people (shelters and soup kitchens). The program is modeled after the failed homeless program of former Mayor Guiliani in New York City. In New York after Guiliani's version of the "Care Not Cash" plan the number of people staying in shelters rose rapidly, up to 32,850 people a day in 2002.(3)

The city of San Francisco spends $104 million per year on direct homeless services.(4) Currently 8,674 adults in San Francisco receive a monthly cash stipend of up to $395 from the city, also known as General Assistance.(5) Approximately 2,756 of these people are homeless single adults who will be affected by the initiative.(6) If this "Care Not Cash" program passes these homeless people will have their monthly allowance cut to $59 and the rest of the money. This will result in less than $2 per day for necessities such as medicine, laundry and toothpaste and assumes that all the homeless can be accommodated in shelters and fed in soup kitchens. Nearly 60% of homeless people are disabled, but they too will have only $2 per day to pay for medicine.(7)

According to the Department of Human Services 2002 report, for the 2,756 homeless adults on General Assistance in SF there are only 1,294 shelter beds available (and note that these beds also accommodate all the homeless adults not on GA).(5) From the outset the program can not succeed without significant investment in homeless services. Newsom argues that cutting cash aid will free up $10 million a year, which could fund 1,000 new residential hotel rooms and 150 methadone treatment slots. But the ballot initiative doesn't include anything about using this money to help the homeless. Further, many methadone programs currently charge for services and homeless people who lose their cash benefits will not be able to afford these services.

The "Care Not Cash" plan requires people to stay in shelter beds to receive even the $59 per month. If someone loses their shelter, for any reason, they lose their benefits as well. This program will also perpetuate homelessness by reducing people's ability to pay rent in informal arrangements with family or friends or save money for permanent housing.

Most Bay Area counties have recently switched to services rather than cash for homeless programs, but there is no evidence these are an improvement over cash grants. In Alameda, a county near San Francisco where a similar program is in place, they found that most homeless people chose to go without General Assistance rather than be forced into shelters.(6)

Political posturing leads to new programs on the homeless every few years. Under capitalism the best we can hope for is more spending on food, housing, medicine and other services and rehabilitation for homeless people. But this is not a solution to homelessness. The only real solution to homelessness will come when capitalism is overthrown and people's basic needs become a priority.

Homelessness caused by capitalism is a far bigger problem than what we see in the United $tates. In Third World countries, where the U.$. props up puppet government with economic and military aid, literally millions of people are without adequate shelter, food, medicine and even water. For these people, access to a soup kitchen is not even a distant dream. This doesn't make homelessness in Amerika acceptable. But we do need to keep this problem in perspective. We should not just be fighting to end homelessness in Amerika. The denial of basic needs, putting profit before survival rights, anywhere in the world is a crime.