California Official Launches Video Game To Solve Homelessness

San Francisco Homelessness Oversight Commission member Sharky Laguana launched an interactive website on homelessness policy trade-offs.

Upon opening Laguana’s website, the user receives a tutorial on how the interactive tools function, with two toggleable models: permanent supportive housing and public health allocation trade-offs. The simulation is based on data from the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, with Laguana telling the San Francisco Standard that the models are not skeleton keys to a solution but instead illustrate concepts.

“I am the elected data officer for the San Francisco Homeless Oversight Commission, and this is my report, which is going to try and take a big picture look at how people flow into and out of the services that we provide to the homeless population here in San Francisco. San Francisco’s homeless population has been roughly 8,000 people for several years now,” Laguana states in the intro of his video.

“Our budget for homelessness has increased significantly during this time, so why are we not seeing reduced homelessness? To answer that question, we need to first understand that we’re actually talking about a lot more than 8,000 people,” Laguana adds.

The essential task of operating the models is to allow users to see the relationship between supportive housing, the number of units added each year, monthly resident flow, and average stay length.

According to the Standard, the results show that shorter stays combined with lower inflow lead to a smaller occupancy rate, making more units available. In effect, the public health allocation trade-offs show that the more people the city