US$30m for homeless studies

2019.05.09

A SAN FRANCISCO (三藩市) billionaire is donating US$30 million (HK$235m) to the University of California, San Francisco, to research root causes of homelessness and potential
solutions.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a city native, has embraced homelessness as a philanthropic cause, pumping millions into a 2018 city measure to tax wealthy companies to pay for
homeless services.
The five-year initiative funded by Benioff and his wife, Lynne, will conduct academic research, provide testimony and fact sheets, and train people who have been homeless as
expert speakers.
The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative will be part of the UCSF Centre for Vulnerable Populations, based in San Francisco General Hospital.
The US$30m contribution is the largest-ever private donation to fund homelessness research, according to Salesforce.
“The world needs a North Star for truth on homelessness,” Benioff said in a statement. The initiative “will be that North Star, providing the latest research, data and
evidence-based solutions to ensure we’re investing in programmes that will help solve the homelessness crisis”.
Some San Francisco residents are frustrated with technology companies like Salesforce, a cloud-based software business, saying they contribute to inequality with high-paying
jobs that drive up housing prices.