Creating 10,000 affordable housing units sounds great in theory, but is it the city of San Francisco's responsibility to do so? The answer is no. The state created this crisis by promising affordable housing and then proceeding to make things worse with every step for poor people who cannot afford lodging.

First of all, the city already has resources to help its residents find affordable housing. Private housing programs have also provided people with reasonably priced housing for many years and more or less succeeded in their projects.

When politicians started running their campaigns under the banner of "Affordable Housing" to attract voters, people thought things were going to change. But this is a misconception; the program in question will not create any new housing, it will just give the government control over the market. And politicians have a bad habit of promising to do one thing during elections, then after they get into office, failing to give due attention to the important crises they promised to address. They have no concept of the gravity of problems faced on a daily basis by unsheltered and low income inhabitants who find it hard to make ends meet. 

There have been multiple spikes in taxes to fund these projects and they have only succeeded in making it impossible for low income residents to survive without the government’s aid. The worst part is that soon after the public housing projects are instated, the government shows no interest in running them and ignores them altogether, resulting in these homes deteriorating and eventually becoming slums.

The government has shown utter negligence and incapability running any project of this sort in the past. Long-term planning always falls short and results in failure of these projects, wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money. It only increases residents' reliance upon federal assistance, without which it is impossible to afford rent or mortgage. Considering all aspects, it’s unwise for the state to continue to follow the same route.