San Francisco quietly lowered standards of program busing homeless out of town

San Francisco does not have one program that puts homeless people onto buses and sends them elsewhere.

It has three. Because of course it does.

Once again, we’re reminded of S.R. Hadden’s first rule in government spending: “Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?” Or three. Why not three?

Except, when it comes to the price, these programs’ price tags are relatively infinitesimal. Not including staff costs, the price of putting a homeless person on a bus and sending them out of town is about $275 a pop. Those are the costs, at least, for the “Journey Home” program — again, one of three the city has.