Sections
- OCOH Service Areas
- Summary
- Spending on Homelessness Prevention Programs
- Implementation of Services and Households Served
- Household Outcomes
- Household Demographics
- Household Demographics: Race and Ethnicity
- Household Demographics: Age
- Household Demographics: Gender Identity
- Household Demographics: Sexual Orientation
- Glossary
OCOH Service Areas
This page provides information about the Homelessness Prevention service area. Use the links below to navigate to other OCOH Fund service area pages.
| Executive Summary | Permanent Housing | Mental Health |
| Homelessness Prevention | Shelter and Hygiene | Table of Contents |
Summary
Homelessness Prevention is an Our City, Our Home (OCOH) Fund service area that supports programs designed to prevent homelessness. Homelessness prevention programs provide legal services, financial assistance, and support services to households at risk of eviction and homelessness in order to maintain housing or find suitable alternative housing. The OCOH Fund designates that up to 15% of the Fund may be appropriated for homelessness prevention services.
During Fiscal Year 2022-2023 (FY22-23), the City expended $43.6 million and served 13,632 households through OCOH-funded prevention services. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), the Department of Public Health (DPH), and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) delivered OCOH-funded prevention services.
Spending on Homelessness Prevention Programs
Over the three years of the Fund, the City budgeted a total of $130.5 million on prevention programming and expended $60.7 million during that timeframe. By the close of FY22-23, the City had a remaining balance of $69.7 million that will carry forward into the coming fiscal year budget. This remaining balance includes approximately $22 million in one-time Problem Solving funds needed to support the multi-year implementation plan in FY23-24 and FY24-25.
Expenditures increased for most program types over the three-year period. In FY22-23, the City expended a total of $43.6 million to fund Homelessness Prevention programming. The largest area of growth in spending appears in the Targeted Homelessness Prevention category, which rose from $6.3 million in spending in FY21-22 up to $20.8 million in FY22-23. Additionally, the Eviction Prevention and Housing Stabilization Program grew by $6.4 million between the two fiscal years. Other programming in the Homelessness Prevention remained relatively stable year to year.
The dashboard below aggregates the three-year budget inclusive of FY20-21, FY21-22, and FY22-23 (FY21-FY23). The cards at the top of the dashboard show the cumulative revised budget for OCOH-funded prevention programs, the total amount expended among funded programs in the three-year period, and the remaining balance as of June 30, 2023. The bar chart in the dashboard below shows the total spending within each category of OCOH-funded prevention programs for the three fiscal years of the Fund.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The OCOH Fund is a special fund which allows unexpended fund balances to carry forward into the following year automatically. The cumulative budget includes prior-year carry-forward balances as well as any budget reductions made to account for revenue shortfalls during the three-year period.
The financial data included in the dashboard was extracted from the City’s financial system after the close of the FY22-23 books and all adjustments related to the year-end close occurred.
Implementation of Services and Households Served
Funding and services delivered through most of the OCOH Fund Homelessness Prevention programs may be applied flexibly according to the needs of the clients. As a result, the capacity added to the system through OCOH funding will also vary depending on the needs of the clients and the funding available. In most cases, capacity added equates to households served, and so, different from other sections of this Annual Report, this section reports on implementation in relation to households served as opposed to capacity added.
During FY22-23, 13,632 households received Homelessness Prevention services funded by OCOH.
The dashboard below shows the total number of households served through OCOH-funded Homelessness Prevention programs during FY22-23, where data is available. The bar chart shows the number of households served through each category of OCOH-funded programs.
Homelessness Prevention funds were used to support a portion of programming related to delivering behavioral health and clinical services in permanent supportive housing. While the Homelessness Prevention portion of the funding is reported in the financial dashboards above, information about capacity, clients served, and outcomes from this “Case Management” category of services is reported in the Mental Health section of this report.
Eviction Prevention and Housing Stabilization
The Eviction Prevention and Housing Stabilization programs provide legal services, emergency rental assistance and support services for households at risk of homelessness. Service delivery for this program began at the end of FY21-22. Over 5,400 households were served through the program in FY22-23.
Targeted Homelessness Prevention
Targeted Homelessness Prevention services provide households with flexible financial assistance to maintain housing or quickly return to housing. Services are targeted to households most likely to become homeless based on researched risk factors, particularly extremely low-income residents with housing vulnerabilities. The City initiated this program in August 2021. In FY22-23 over 4,800 households received services targeted homelessness prevention services.
Permanent Supportive Housing Rental Subsidies
Permanent Supportive Housing Rental Subsidies are deep rental subsidies for some tenants of permanent supportive housing programs to standardize rent levels across the City’s portfolio of permanent supportive housing to no more than 30% of residents’ income. This program began in August 2021 and served 2,461 households in FY22-23.
Problem Solving
Problem Solving conversations are creative, strengths-based conversations that help people explore all safe housing options available to them and identify possible resolutions to their housing crisis without waiting for shelter or housing from the Homelessness Response System. Problem Solving solutions can include, but are not limited to, mediation with family, friends, landlords, or others, family reunification, relocation assistance or limited financial assistance to help preserve or secure housing. Service providers conducted thousands of Problem Solving conversations during FY22-23. It is not currently possible to stratify Problem Solving conversations by funding source in order to show the number of Problem Solving conversations funded by the OCOH Fund. Instead, FY22-23 data shows 882 households for whom Problem Solving conversations led to a resolution that was funded using the OCOH Fund.
Household Outcomes
Homelessness Prevention is successful when a household retains their housing or finds a safe, indoor solution to their housing crisis outside of the Homelessness Response System. As of June 30, 2023, 76% of households served by OCOH-funded homelessness prevention services had a positive outcome.
The cards at the top of the dashboard below show the number of households served, the number of households served with a positive outcome, and the percent of households served with a positive outcome where this data is tracked. Programs where outcome data is not tracked are excluded from the percentage of households with a positive outcome.
The bar chart shows the percent of households served through OCOH-funded Homelessness Prevention programs during FY22-23 by category of Prevention program, where data is available. Programs where outcome data is not tracked are excluded from the percentage of households with a positive outcome.
Problem solving is excluded from the dashboard below because only positive outcomes are reported in the data. Problem solving data shows 882 recipients of problem-solving conversations had an OCOH-funded resolution that led them to secure stable housing.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
These data reflect point-in-time household outcomes. For households that were participating in a homelessness prevention program as of June 30, 2023, these data reflect their outcome as of that date. For households that exited a homelessness program prior to June 30, 2023, these data reflect their housing outcome at the time they exited the program.
Homelessness Prevention is successful when a household retains their housing or finds a safe, indoor solution to their housing crisis outside of the Homelessness Response System.
The Targeted Homelessness Prevention program includes households who received homelessness prevention assistance. Based on program design, those who received the benefit are presumed to have a positive outcome. There is a marginal drop-off in households who apply for prevention services and those who receive support. The drop off is driven by households denied service due to ineligibility or otherwise not prioritized. The measure uses total households served as the denominator, which is an unduplicated count of households served by that program (4,806 households). The measure uses the total number of positive exits as the numerator, which is a duplicated count of positive exits from homelessness associated with this program (4,929). Some households may have received multiple services, leading to the positive outcome percentage of 103%.
Household Demographics
The City collects demographic data about the head of household for households served in OCOH-funded prevention programs. Demographic categories include age, gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity.
Over 3,600 heads of households served in prevention programs identified as white, 27% of all households served. Over 3,300 heads of households identified as Black, African American, or African, 24% of all households served. A little over 3,300 heads of households identified as Latine, also 24% of households served.
Prevention services are concentrated among households where the head of households is between 25 and 64. Few households with a head of household under age 25 received prevention services.
Most heads of households served identified as male or female in nearly equal proportions. About 306 heads of households identified as transgender or genderqueer or gender non-binary, about 2% of all households served.
Most heads of households identified as straight or heterosexual. However, sexual orientation data was missing for about 2,600 heads of households, about 20% of all households.
Household Demographics: Race and Ethnicity
The following dashboard shows the race and ethnicity of the head of household for all households served through OCOH-funded Prevention programs during FY22-23, where data was available.
Race and ethnicity are often collected separately, though practices vary across departments. The cards at the top of the dashboard show the number of households by ethnicity of the head of household, including heads of households who identify as Latine, those who identify as Non-Latine and those whose ethnicity was unknown. The bar chart in the dashboard shows the number of households by the race of the head of household.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
Following the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) standards, HSH collects data on household race and ethnicity in two separate questions. MOHCD collects race and ethnicity together in one question. MOHCD race and ethnicity data was recoded to match the HUD reporting categories following the department’s standards for HUD reporting.
Heads of households that identified as “Latino” as a race in MOHCD programs were recoded to the “Multi-Racial” race category. To align to the HUD standards where each individual has both a race and an ethnicity identified, these same heads of households that identified as “Latino” in MOHCD programs were also assigned the “Latine” ethnicity category.
Heads of households that identified as “Middle Eastern, West Asian or North African” in MOHCD programs were recoded to the “White” race category. Heads of households that identified as any race or ethnicity besides “Latino” were assigned to the “Non-Latine” ethnicity category. Heads of households who had missing data were coded in the “Unknown” ethnicity category.
The following race categories are combined in “Unknown”: “Data not collected,” “Missing Data,” and “Doesn’t Know / Refused.”
Household Demographics: Age
The following dashboard shows the age range of the head of household for all households served through OCOH-funded prevention programs during FY22-23, where data was available.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
Demographic data was unavailable for households served in the SRO Family Rental Subsidy program. Those households are excluded from this dashboard.
Household Demographics: Gender Identity
The following dashboard shows the gender identity of the head of household for all households served through OCOH-funded prevention programs during FY22-23, where data was available.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
HSH and MOHCD used slightly different gender categories in their reporting. Some gender categories were recoded so that data from both departments could be reported together. Heads of household who identified as “Trans Female” or “Trans Male” for an MOHCD program are coded in the “Transgender” gender category.
Heads of household who identified as “Questioning” or “Non-Binary” are coded in the “Genderqueer or Gender Non-Binary" category.
The following gender categories are combined in “Unknown”: “Data not collected,” “Decline to answer,” “Other,” “Unknown,” “Not Listed,” and “Client Doesn’t Know / Refused.”
Household Demographics: Sexual Orientation
The following dashboard shows the sexual orientation of the head of household for all households served through OCOH-funded Prevention programs during FY22-23, where data was available.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The following sexual orientation categories are combined in “Unknown”: “Client Refused,” “Data Not Collected,” “Unknown,” “Missing Data,” “Decline to Answer.”
Glossary
The glossary provides definitions for certain terms and program names used on this page.
Targeted Homelessness Prevention Services
Flexible financial assistance to maintain housing or quickly return to housing for low-income SF residents at highest risk of homelessness.
Eviction Prevention and Housing Stabilization
Legal services, emergency rental assistance and support services for low-income households at risk of eviction and displacement.
Permanent Supportive Housing Rental Subsidy
Additional funding provided to support existing tenants in site-based permanent supportive housing in order to lower their rent to no more than 30% of their income.
Problem Solving
A creative, strengths-based conversation that helps people explore all safe housing options available to them and identify possible resolutions to their housing crisis without waiting for shelter or housing from the Homelessness Response System. Problem Solving solutions can include, but are not limited to, mediation with family, friends, landlords, or others, family reunification, relocation assistance, or limited financial assistance to help preserve or secure housing.
Allocated Costs
This term refers to an allocated proportion of the cost to administer the services funded by OCOH, including information and technology, human resources, database and data management, finance and administration and other program supports. In most cases, the OCOH Fund is not the only source of funding for programs described here, and the allocation of administrative costs to run these programs accounts for mixed sources.