Silicon Valley split on the problem of roaming

Technology leaders in San Francisco are preparing for a confrontation on homelessness, a fear that will leave no winner and leave the industry ineffective and indifferent to an urgent humanitarian problem.

Marc Benioff, Managing Director of Salesforce, approved Proposal C, which would raise funds to fight the homelessness crisis in the city through a tax of half a percentage point on gross revenues businesses with sales exceeding $ 50 million. The Franciscans of San will vote on the proposal next month.

The voting initiative does not have the support of the Mayor of London, London Breed, nor local businesses. But with the boss of Salesforce, the largest employer in San Francisco, providing support, the new tax is more likely to come into effect.

"Before Marc came here, the situation was regressing," said a local technology industry actor who fiercely opposes the proposal. "It's a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to solve a dreadful problem. He grew up entirely from the heart, not from the head. "

The fight comes at a time when the impact of the technology industry on society is under a microscope. If the proposal sinks, it risks drawing attention to the vehement opposition of many local technical leaders, something that Benioff was eager to do last week. The question also recalls a recent clash in Seattle, where Amazon opposed a city's proposal to raise taxes to deal with the problem of homelessness.

The boss of Salesforce is ready to fight. Friday, after being challenged by Twitter's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, he went on the offensive.

He went on Twitter to report that Mr. Dorsey had made a $ 6 billion fortune from the businesses he had established in San Francisco. challenged the boss of Twitter say what he was doing to get the homeless out of the city from the street.

Mr. Dorsey retorted Mr. Benioff was "distracting" and said he would prefer to stick to the mayor's plan to fight homelessness – "the one you have decided to ignore".

As Mr. Benioff was quick to point out, Twitter – and Mr. Dorsey personally – was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the recent San Francisco boom. The company is based in the Mid Market neighborhood of the city, where it has benefited from significant tax breaks to support the redevelopment of a dilapidated area where the homelessness problem is most evident.

Mr. Benioff's qualifications as a great benefactor in his hometown are irreproachable. Along with his wife Lynne Benioff, he funded the investment needed to build a new children's hospital and financially supported an initiative to get all homeless families out of the city's streets.

His support for Prop C brought to light an ever-worrying problem that has become a source of deep local embarrassment. It is estimated that some 7,500 people live on the streets of the city, shocking visitors who expect to encounter a Californian technological paradise.

It has become a blot on the record of local technocrats, who like to project an idealistic, can-do facade. He also beat a succession of former mayors, including Gavin Newsom, the Democrat who is expected to be elected next governor of California next month.

Critics say the additional tax – estimated by the city's controller at between $ 250 and $ 300 million a year – will have little impact on a problem that has withstood previous spending increases and will make the city less attractive for businesses. A coherent plan and better coordination between the city and the other agencies would be more effective, they say.

Mr. Benioff, for his part, responds that money will do a lot. "The mayor has just called me because she needs $ 8 million to build another shelter for homeless people. She has no money left, "he said in an interview.

Critics say that he's let go on a limb where there is little business support. But Benioff claims the support of other technology leaders, including Chuck Robbins, chief executive of Cisco Systems, based in San Jose, 60 miles south in the heart of Silicon Valley.

It is estimated that San Jose has about half as many people sleeping on the streets as San Francisco and has its own voting initiative next month to raise new taxes to deal with the problem.

"We need to end the homelessness and housing crisis in our communities," Robbins, a passionate advocate, said in an SMS.

San Jose, however, proposes to raise funds through a bond issue and a new tax on homeowners, not on local businesses – unlike the San Francisco tax that targets big business.

At about three weeks before polling day, other technology leaders face a difficult choice.

Patrick Collison, Managing Director of Stripe, a start-up payment company, was one of the few to publicly speak out against the new tax – a potentially risky position on an issue in which it is easy to describe opponents as insensitive . "I'm with Jack," he tweeted Friday, as the quarrel around Proposition C surfaced. "Marc is well-intentioned, but I trust Mayor Breed's expertise on homelessness rather than his own."

Other companies located in the Mid Market and South Market areas, where the city's latest technology boom has been concentrated and the problem of homelessness is most visible, are keeping their heads low. They include Uber and Airbnb, two of the most successful start-ups in the boom, who both refused to comment on the issue. The longer the issue continues, the more companies like these are more and more likely to ignore problems on the sidewalks outside their door.