San Francisco voters support "homeless tax" on wealthier businesses

San Francisco (AFP) – San Francisco voters voted in favor of a tax on the city's wealthiest corporations to fight homelessness, surpassing a measure that divided the technology community.

A countdown released on Wednesday showed that 60 percent of city voters residing in the cities of Airbnb, Uber, Salesforce, and Twitter voted in favor of "Proposition C," a local voting measure created by a petition of 28 000 signatures this summer.

Designed to generate between $ 250 and $ 300 million a year, the Robin Hood measure will seek to tax companies earning more than $ 50 million to fund the housing of 5,000 people and fund mental health and assistance services. to housing, according to his supporters.

A number of San Francisco technical executives, including Twitter head Jack Dorsey and Patrick Collison of Stripe, a payment start-up, resisted the proposal.

But billionaire Marc Benioff, head of the cloud computing company Salesforce, has poured millions of dollars into the "Yes On C" campaign.

Before the elections, Benioff reportedly lamented that many billionaires in the flourishing San Francisco region, on the outskirts of Silicon Valley, "accumulate" their wealth.

"The victory of Prop C means that the homeless will have a home and the help they really need!" Benioff tweeted.

"Let the city unite for those who need it most!"

Dorsey, who spoke with Benioff about this issue on Twitter, called for "long-term solutions" – "not quick moves to make us feel good for a while".

According to the city council, which opposed this measure, some 7,500 people sleep outside every night in San Francisco.