San Francisco Proposition N (2002)

Primarily sponsored by Gavin Newsom, then a San Francisco supervisor, it was designed to cut the money given in the General Assistance programs to homeless people in exchange for shelters and other forms of services.

The major intent of this measure was to prevent the cash grants given to be used for purchasing drugs and alcohol, and to strongly encourage homeless people to enter shelters or housing and obtain counseling and other services.

The idea behind Care Not Cash was to use the city's savings from cutting the welfare checks—an estimated $13 million a year —-- to set baseline funding for creating affordable housing, expanding shelters, and adding mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Dong believes that difference, or 70 percent of the county welfare fund, went "directly to the hotel owners in the form of cash payments and capital improvements that they would not otherwise have received."

[5] Update 2016 San Francisco report, following 1,820 homeless adults for eight years from 2007 to 2015, showed that before entering the program living on their own, costs averaged $21,000/person due to urgent emergency care, jail time, and behavioral health services.