I agree with the general point of this post. But FYI any city that has put serious money into housing the homeless has found the homeless didn’t get housed. No amount of money ends famine in Africa and no amount of money eliminates homelessness.

So yes, having national guards stand on street corners all day is a very stupid waste of money. But you can’t compare it to a fictional amount of money someone just made up on the spot. Because anytime someone has made up a similar figure, and then gotten it, that number didn’t do the thing they said it would. So I don’t think anyone has shown they know how to estimate that number.