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SF’s New “Homelessness Recovery Plan” Aims to Help 6,000

How to ensure homeless in hotels because of COVID-19 are not simply returned to the streets after pandemic
By - posted 7/29/2020 No Comment

Mayor London N. Breed announced last Tuesday a plan to support investments in housing and shelter as part of a broader Homelessness Recovery Plan that will help the City create more housing and shelter for homeless residents as San Francisco endures and eventually emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full press release.

The Homelessness Recovery Plan will include placements so that the City can ensure homeless residents who have been moved into Shelter in Place hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic are not returned to the streets. These exits include new and existing Permanent Supportive Housing, maintaining safe sleeping sites, and reactivating some spaces in the shelter system at a safe capacity with COVID-19 modifications in place. By the close of 2022, the City plans to complete its historic expansion of Permanent Supportive Housing.

With planned investments in upcoming two-year budget and continued delivery of funded projects and programs, the City will make 6,000 additional placements available for people experiencing homelessness over the next two years—including the largest two-year expansion of new PSH

The City’s Homelessness Recovery Plan is as follows:

  • Beginning this year, the City will move Coordinated Entry Housing-Referral Status individuals, some currently in Shelter in Place Hotels, into Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) units.
  • In Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21, the City plans to purchase and lease 1,000 new Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) units and add an additional 500 PSH units in FY 2021-2022. 
  • In partnership with Tipping Point Community, 200 of the newly leased units will be made available through a flexible housing subsidy pool, which matches people experiencing homelessness with private market apartments and provides support services and rental subsidies to keep them housed. Tipping Point and other philanthropic partners are also hard at work raising additional funds to support this Recovery Plan.
  • The City will be looking at a variety of possible sites for acquisition to identify buildings that meet the needs of future tenants and that are financially feasible for the City. By 2022, the City will have completed the largest one-time expansion of PSH in the last 20 years, with 1,500 new units on-line. 
  • In addition to the new units, each year, the City will place approximately 1,500 individuals in PSH each year, identifying and optimizing a pipeline of units completing construction and maximizing turnover within the City’s current PSH portfolio. 
  • Additionally, the City plans to reactivate its adult shelter system up to approximately 1,000 beds, reopening more placements for people experiencing homelessness. This increase will maintain necessary spacing between residents and will include robust safety measures including daily health screening, social distancing, enhanced cleaning, testing, and other preventative measures. Due to the pandemic, the City’s adult congregates shelter system will remain at 50% total capacity to protect the safety of clients and staff.
  • In fall 2020, the City plans to open a new first-of-its-kind Transitional Age Youth Navigation Center at 888 Post, providing beds for young people ages 18-24.
  • In January 2021, the City expects to open a new adult SAFE Navigation Center at 1925 Evans Street to serve the Bayview community.
  • Additionally, the City plans to continue the operation of 120 RVs to maintain this expanded emergency shelter.
  • In addition to expanded exits to homelessness, the City will invest further in homelessness prevention as the City anticipates that people experiencing the crisis of homelessness may increase as the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic evolve.
  • Finally, assuming the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, capacity in the adult shelter system will return to pre-COVID levels, reopening approximately 1,000 placements in previously existing shelter locations.