Another $1.45 billion to end unsheltered homelessness in S.F.?

Homeless on Willow Street near Polk Street
A person walks through a homeless encampment on Willow Street near Polk Street in San Francisco.Craig Lee/The Examiner

Ending unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco would cost The City $1.45 billion over the next three years, according to a new report released Friday afternoon.

The report, authored by The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, is poised to spark debate over the most prudent way for San Francisco to substantially reduce the number of people sleeping in tents and on sidewalks.

The plan outlined in the report includes the creation of more than 3,800 permanent supportive housing units and 2,250 new temporary shelter beds.

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The total cost would add $1.45 billion on top of The City’s already enormous $672 million homelessness budget.

The report was commissioned by the Board of Supervisors’ through its Place for All legislation, which called on The City to explore how it could end unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco in the next three years.

A Place for All’s author, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, rejected the department’s findings. He said the plan was constructed in a way that resulted in a “price tag that means realistically we’ll never be able to do this.”

“It’s a dream, not a plan,” Mandelman told The Examiner.

The department would likely agree.

“It is not feasible for HSH to scale up the amount of housing, shelter and prevention programming needed within the three-year time frame to end unsheltered homelessness,” the report states.

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Cost was only the beginning of a litany of challenges outlined by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

“Other constraints include the difficulty of identifying and securing sites, the delays that consistently occur in leasing and development activities, and the need to build the nonprofit and city department capacity to scale up interventions, support an expanded system of housing, shelter, and prevention programs, and take the necessary steps to identify and respond to racial disparities or risk deepening those inequities,” the report states.

As of its most recent census of the homeless population, San Francisco counted 7,754 homeless people, 4,397 of whom were unsheltered.

A Place for All passed after more than a year of back-and-forth between Mandelman and advocates for the homeless, who warned that initial versions leaned too heavily on temporary shelter as a means to alleviate street homelessness. The advocates believe that temporary shelter is not an effective way to transition a person out of homelessness, and that the solution to homelessness is more housing.

A Place for All aimed to strike a balance and called for a plan that would eliminate unsheltered homelessness through a combination of permanent supportive housing, temporary shelter, and preventive measures.

The report calls for the addition of 3,810 new permanent housing units, at a startup cost of about $720 million and annual operating cost of at $215 million.

In addition to permanent supportive housing, The City would add 2,250 new shelter beds. They would cost an estimated $155 million to operate annually and $57.8 million to establish.

Examiner reporter Sydney Johnson contributed to this story.

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