CityLab Daily: Making Big Business Pay for Affordable Housing

California soul: Who should pay for a city’s homelessness crisis? It’s a question San Francisco will have to answer this November. A new ballot initiative, if approved, would nearly double the city’s spending on homeless shelters, paying for it through a small tax increase on businesses. The proposal falls in line with plans in other California cities, including Google’s hometown of Mountain View, and Apple’s Cupertino. It’s no coincidence that efforts are becoming more apparent in cities with large tech presences, as rapid economic growth couples with rising inequality.

The San Francisco initiative comes just a few weeks after Seattle’s rapid U-turn on a tax aimed at fighting homelessness; the city walked back the new tax after outcry from companies like Amazon and Starbucks. But with a more modest tax—and less of a “company town” political vibe—the Golden City might have better shot of addressing its longstanding problem of homelessness. CityLab’s Sarah Holder reports on how California cities are angling to make big business pay for affordable housing.