by Randy Shaw on January 27, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
SIP hotels spread SOMA drug use
Public Deserves Explanation
“The city hasn’t received $519 million in requested COVID relief funds, roughly half of which was spent on the shelter program”… “This should be the biggest story in town,” said Randy Shaw—SF Standard, January 21
Why did San Francisco incur $519 million in debts without assurance of FEMA reimbursement? And if the city got reassurance, why has City Attorney David Chiu not sued FEMA to get the funds?
That’s why this $519 million should be “the biggest story in town.” That’s a lot of budget cuts to make up.
Mayor Breed put the city in debt for a program converting tourist hotels to shelters that wrecked Little Saigon and still promotes drug activities outside city-funded hotels. See “How San Francisco Promotes Drug Tourism,” December 2, 2024 and “Will San Francisco Stop the Expansion of Drug Tourism,” December 16, 2024.
Now it appears that the city proceeded with this financial and policy boondoggle despite FEMA’s reimbursement being in doubt.
Concerns Raised in 2021, 2023
In March 2021, Los Angeles was already raising concerns about FEMA and stopped expanding FEMA-funded hotels. FEMA sent a letter to California in October 2023 “saying it would not pay for hotel stays of longer than 20 days between June 11, 2021 and May 11, 2023.” According to a February 2024 Cal Matters story—“Feds leaves California on the hook for $300 million in COVID homeless spending“— “San Francisco estimates the change will cost $114 million.”
How did San Francisco’s $114 million FEMA debt more than double?
Did the Breed Administration continue to recklessly spend $22 million per year annually on converting tourist hotels to non-congregate shelters?
FEMA said it wouldn’t fund hotel stays over 20 days. So why is the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) still spending millions on longer stays in converted tourist hotels?
HSH often said that the three tourist hotels converted to shelters in the Tenderloin and Lower Polk used a “different” source of funds. Was that FEMA? If so, why did HSH rely on a funding source for shelter stays over twenty days that FEMA said was ineligible?
San Francisco may have an iron clad legal right to FEMA’s reimbursement. Everyone impacted by the city budget should hope that’s the case.
But, if so, why hasn’t San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu already sued FEMA? I have a hard time believing that Chiu is sitting idly by while the feds are denying a legal obligation to pay San Francisco roughly $519 million.
The Board of Supervisors must hold a public hearing on this. Mayor Lurie, the Board and the public need a complete explanation for what has happened.
There’s something very fishy here. Why wasn’t San Francisco’s FEMA debt dealt with in the 2024-5 budget? Was a mayor seeking re-election using the illusion of FEMA funding to avoid layoffs and program cuts, conceal her budget problems and push this debt to a potential successor?
Revising Mayor Breed’s COVID Legacy
Mayor Breed’s use of tourist hotels as shelters in response to COVID’s March 2020 shelter closures began the SIP program (Shelter in Place). For all of its immediate benefits to those needing shelter, the SIP program created an out of control drug scene in SOMA, Mid-Market and the Tenderloin.
The city has paid $59 million in damage claims for the vandalism at SIP hotels. Who in the city was in charge of monitoring hotel conditions? Was anyone?
Mayor Breed never provided the police necessary to halt this drug scene. And once traditional shelters were restored, the mayor inexplicably continued to provide free lodging in three tourist hotels with private baths and two meals a day to people free to use drugs (drugs are banned from traditional congregate shelters).
Because SIP started as an emergency measure, the standard public notice and hearing requirements were waived. Yet once the emergency ended Breed extended three SIP leases in lower Polk and the Tenderloin without any public process.
Now it appears the mayor did this without a guarantee of FEMA reimbursement.
As I explain in the updated edition of my book on the Tenderloin coming out next month, Mayor Breed’s actual record on COVID and its aftermath is far more negative than many believe. Continuing SIP hotels when federal funding was likely not available just adds to her negative record.
Now the city’s reimbursement snafu could force Mayor Lurie to make major budget cuts in his first year. Leaving big debts with your successor is not how City Hall should operate.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
