San Francisco Office Of The Mayor: Mayor London Breed's Historic Homelessness Recovery Plan Moves Forward

Press release from the San Francisco Office of the Mayor:

October 6, 2021

Acquisition of 237 new units of Permanent Supportive Housing builds on Mayor Breed’s Homelessness Recovery Plan

San Francisco, CA — This week, the City moved forward with Mayor London N. Breed’s proposal to acquire three new buildings for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). Proposed before the Board of Supervisors and Budget and Finance Committee, the buildings will add 237 new PSH units, surpassing the fifty percent mark of Mayor Breed’s goal of creating 1,500 PSH units by July 2022. To date, the City has acquired 714 PSH units during Fiscal Year 2021-2022.

“As we continue to address our city’s homelessness crisis, we must take advantage of existing resources to get people the help they so desperately need,” said Mayor Breed. “During this critical time in our recovery, we need to expand our homelessness response and build on the progress we have made placing thousands of unsheltered people into emergency housing throughout the pandemic. I want to thank the Board of Supervisors for taking this critical step forward to provide housing for our city's most vulnerable communities.”

Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the purchase of 52 units at 5630 Mission Street. Today, the Budget and Finance Committee moved forward the recommended acquisition of 25 units at 3061 16th Street and 160 units at 1321 Mission Street, with a full Board vote expected on Tuesday, October 19.

The three sites, identified based on geographic diversity and accessibility to resources, will provide residents with professional property management and onsite support services.

For more information on the proposed acquisitions, please visit the Department of Supportive Housing’s website: hsh.sfgov.org/get-involved/notices/

“We are excited about the acquisition of the property at 3061 16th Street. This building is a beautiful and safe place where formally homeless transitional age youth can recover from a life of trauma,” said District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “It’s almost impossible to get healthy on the streets. Now 25 homeless youth will have a meaningful chance of recovery and success.”

“The purchase of the property at 5630 Mission Street is one step forward toward the moral obligation of our time. This process garnered the consent of the community to move this project forward,” said District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí. “Most District 11 residents have embraced the acquisition of the Mission Inn and are excited to bring 51 units of permanently affordable housing to our neighborhood. The purchase of the property at 5630 Mission Street was an exclusive opportunity and I fully support the City’s direction on this purchase and other hotel purchases.”

“This is a very exciting time for the City,” said Shireen McSpadden, Executive Director, Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “With new resources in the budget, we’re able to make an impact throughout the city, broadening our effort to include geographic diversity in housing while moving our most vulnerable residents into permanent homes. This is a citywide challenge, and a city-wide effort that we are working together to solve.”

The acquisitions of 237 new PSH units build on Mayor Breed’s Homelessness Recovery Plan by helping the City create more housing and shelter for homeless residents as San Francisco emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Mayor Breed’s plan, the City will expand capacity in the Homelessness Response System and will make 6,000 placements available for people experiencing homelessness through Coordinated Entry, including 4,500 placements in PSH. This includes acquiring or leasing 1,500 new units of PSH in the next two years, the largest one-time expansion in the City in 20 years.

Progress on Mayor Breed’s Homelessness Recovery Plan can be found here: sf.gov/data/homelessness-recovery-plan

This press release was produced by the San Francisco Office of the Mayor. The views expressed here are the author’s own.