Seattle extended a $2.7 million lease for hotel rooms to shelter unhoused people, then paused placements for 16 months, leaving dozens of rooms vacant at about $4,200 per empty room per month. Officials cited budget uncertainty, but records show rejection of a cheaper site and personal animus toward a nonprofit leader factored into the decision. The result was fewer people sheltered while taxpayers funded unused capacity amid scarce beds.
— It shows how administrative hedging and political grudges can turn homelessness money into idle spend, suggesting performance‑tied contracts, occupancy guarantees, and transparent oversight are as crucial as funding levels.
PW Daily
2026.01.16
56% relevant
The author’s critique of San Francisco’s homelessness management (millions spent, little result) connects directly to documented cases where procurement, lease, and administrative failures converted funds into idle capacity; the article reinforces an existing pattern where executive/municipal implementation—not just funding levels—determines outcomes.
Darren McGarvey
2026.01.12
85% relevant
The article documents a grassroots shelter operating without government funding while national figures show growing temporary‑housing burdens; this ties directly to the existing idea about municipalities or agencies renting hotel rooms that then sit empty (Seattle example) and shows the same policy problem from the opposite angle—civil society filling gaps that government procurement either mismanages or fails to cover.
Stephen Eide
2026.01.02
90% relevant
Both pieces treat homelessness as a policy and administrative problem that produces counterproductive uses of civic infrastructure: Eide shows American downtown libraries serving as daytime shelters while the existing idea documents hotel‑room leases left idle—each is a concrete example of how program design and procurement/operations reshape homelessness outcomes and municipal spending.
Judge Glock
2025.12.02
55% relevant
The CTA bailout exemplifies how large public expenditures—here a new sales‑tax‑funded rescue—can perpetuate institutional bloat and misaligned incentives (higher pay, expanded service with declining riders), similar to how other local programs have produced costly, underused capacity; both point to governance and oversight failures that redirect taxpayer funds without clear performance accountability.
by Ashley Hiruko, KUOW
2025.10.06
100% relevant
Seattle’s Civic Hotel lease extension (Feb 2024), the vacancy costs ($4,200/month per unused room), 3% average nightly shelter availability, and internal emails about ending support for the program.