SAN FRANCISCO—On Tuesday, July 21, the mayor of San Francisco released a plan that will provide sheltering and housing for approximately 6,000 homeless people within the city.
As part of the plan, the city will include 4,500 placements into Permanent Supportive Housing and will include leasing an additional 1,500 new units of Permanent Supportive Housing in the next two years. By the close of 2022, the city plans to end the expansion of the Permanent Supportive Housing – the largest one time expansion in the city in the last 20 years.
Aside from placements into new and existing permanent service housing, the plan also includes maintaining safe sleeping sites and reactivating some spaces in the shelter system with capacity limits and COVID-19 modifications.
However, the plan is contingent on the passage of the Business Tax Reform measure and the Health and Recovery General Obligation Bond – both of which will be on the November ballot. Further state and local funding sources will be needed as well.
Abigail Stewart-Kahn, Interim Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said, “This Plan is nothing short of a game changer. San Francisco leads in the most Permanent Supportive Housing per capita of any community in the country and with the Mayor’s leadership, will have the largest one-time expansion of housing in twenty years.”
Throughout the pandemic, the city has added 20 hotels and 2,527 rooms for vulnerable residents as well as 120 RVs and additional safe sleeping sites. The city plans to move approximately 1,000 homeless people into these residences and off the streets.
