Five-year San Francisco plan tackles homelessness

California Construction News staff writer

San Francisco’s new five-year strategic plan will increase access to shelter and housing.

The plan’s implementation, which includes increasing capacity, begins in July 2023.

“To continue to make progress addressing homelessness in San Francisco, we need to take bold actions that require the partnership of city leaders, the public, non-profits, the private sector, and collaborations at all levels of government,” said Mayor London Breed, outlining the following goals:

• Reduce the number of people who are unsheltered by 50 per cet and the total number of people experiencing homelessness by 15 per cent.
• Reduce and eventually eliminate racial inequities and other disparities in the experience of homelessness and the outcomes of city programs for preventing and ending homelessness.
• Actively support at least 30,000 people to move from homelessness into permanent housing.
• Provide prevention services to at least 18,000 people at risk of losing their housing and becoming homeless.

HSH developed the plan with input from local, state, and national experts, and in collaboration with hundreds of people experiencing homelessness, residents, business owners, community-based service providers and partners, and city staff.

“This plan demonstrates the city’s commitment to racial equity and improving housing access for our BIPOC neighbors,” said Tramecia Garner, COO of Swords to Plowshares. “When we prioritize communities that are most underserved and populations that are overrepresented among San Franciscans experiencing homelessness, we prioritize the needs of all.”

Next steps include:

• Community and stakeholder education
• Development of initial annual implementation plan
• Development of detailed performance measurement plan
• Determining baseline data on racial inequities and other disparities
• Performing regular reporting, centering the experiences of people who are most impacted by Homelessness
• Refining the Plan over the course of implementation