San Francisco voters approved the creation of the Our City, Our Home (OCOH) Fund in 2018 to increase housing and services for people experiencing homelessness. The Fund supports four service areas: Permanent Housing, Mental Health, Homelessness Prevention, and Shelter and Hygiene. This report provides information about the first two years of the OCOH Fund, Fiscal Year 2020-2021 (FY20-21) and Fiscal Year 2021-2022 (FY21-22), including how much the City and County of San Francisco (City) spent, the amount of capacity and services added, and the number of people served.
Spending
Over the two-year period, the City spent $209.2 million, with 92% of spending occurring in FY21-22. Funding was released in stages in FY20-21, and departments began implementation of a comprehensive two-year investment plan beginning in FY21-22. In particular, the City spent $88.6 million (40% of all expenditures) to acquire four buildings for use as site-based permanent supportive housing. Additionally, the City spent $42.2 million on mental health services, $25.8 million on shelter and crisis intervention programs, and $17.1 million on homelessness prevention programs.
Capacity Added
The OCOH Fund is dedicated to adding new capacity to the homelessness response system. The City added 2,704 new units or slots of housing, shelter and mental health beds over the two-year period, including 702 units of site-based permanent supportive housing, 1,470 rental subsidies in the private market, 401 units of shelter and crisis interventions, and 131 new treatment beds. Some programs have variable capacity. For example, assertive outreach and case management programs within the Mental Health service area offer increased capacity for service delivery but do not add a specific number of units or slots. Similarly, many programs in the Homelessness Prevention category offer grants and services that are flexible based on need.
Households Served
OCOH-funded programs served 18,517 households over the two-year period. A high volume of households were served through Homelessness Prevention programs, including 5,471 households that received eviction prevention and housing stabilization services and another 3,521 households receiving targeted homelessness prevention and problem solving services. Within the Mental Health service area, household data was only available for certain assertive outreach and treatment programs, and so reflects a partial view of the number of households receiving OCOH-funded services. Assertive outreach programs served 6,791 clients, and a subset of funded treatment programs served 139. Permanent Housing programs served 1,174 households and Shelter and Hygiene programs served 1,156 households over the two-year period.
Outcomes
Outcomes for households served were generally positive, particularly for households served through housing programs. For housing programs, a positive outcome includes a household entering housing, retaining housing, or exiting to another housing setting. Among OCOH-funded housing programs, 92% of households served had a positive outcome as of June 30, 2022. Programs funded through the Shelter and Hygiene service area have varying types of positive outcomes, which may include entering shelter from an unsheltered setting, staying in shelter, or exiting to a housing location. Among OCOH-funded programs where outcome data was available, 48% of households served had a positive outcome as of June 30, 2022.
Demographics
Most programs report demographic data about the head of each household, though demographics within the Mental Health service area are at the client level. Across OCOH Fund service areas, nearly half of all heads of household or clients identified as White (about 25% of heads of household or clients) or Black or African American (about 20% of heads of household or clients). Nearly a quarter of heads of households served in permanent housing, shelter and hygiene, and homelessness prevention programs identified their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latin(o)(a)(x). Mental health programs collected client race and ethnicity together and about 8% of clients identified as Hispanic or Latino/a, although about 35% of mental health clients did not report a race or ethnicity.
The majority of clients and heads of households in all programs were between 25 and 64 years old. About 5% of heads of households or clients were 18-24 and about 12% of heads of households or clients were over 65.
Across OCOH Fund service areas, over half of heads of households or clients identified as male. Where data was available, most heads of households or clients identified as straight or heterosexual. However, sexual orientation data was unavailable for nearly all mental health clients and about a quarter of heads of households in the other service areas.
View additional highlights about spending, capacity added, services provided and households served below. Navigate to the following service area webpages for additional details about each OCOH service area:
Overview of OCOH Budget and Expenditures
During FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City budgeted a total of $733.6 million of the OCOH Fund and expended $209.2 million during that timeframe. Budgeted amounts include cumulative revenue since the 2018 initiation of the Fund, as well as new revenue collected during the fiscal year. By the end of FY21-22, the City encumbered an additional $48.8 million in contracted services carrying forward into the next fiscal year. When combined, the City spent or encumbered 35% of budgeted funding during the two-year period.
Proceeds from the Fund became available to departments on a staged basis between December 2020 and June 2021. The first, formal two-year investment plan launched as of FY21-22. Additionally, many services required planning and contracting before they could be implemented. The attached Excel document shows an annual breakdown of expenditures and reflects that 92% of all spending over the two-year period occurred in FY21-22. As City departments implement more planned programming, annual spending in subsequent years is likely to increase.
Particularly during FY20-21 and continuing into FY21-22, the City received significant federal and state support for various programs, including CARES Act funding, FEMA funding, and Project Roomkey funding. The City appropriated the OCOH Fund for essential shelter and homelessness prevention programming, and expenditures against these appropriations will increase once COVID-19 relief funding from federal and state sources expire.
The budgets for each OCOH service area reflect the proportions required under the law. At least 50% of the Fund must be appropriated for permanent housing, at least 25% on mental health services, up to 15% can be appropriated for homelessness prevention services, and up to 10% can be appropriated for shelter and hygiene services.
Up to 3% of the Fund may be used on administration of the tax, oversight of expenditures, and support for the Oversight Committee. However, the City only budgeted $2.5 million and expended $1.3 million during FY21-22. The Controller’s Office, Treasurer and Tax Collector, and City Attorney’s Office provided administration services.
The dashboard below aggregates the two-year budget inclusive of FY20-21 and FY21-22. The cards at the top of the dashboard show the total two-year budget for the entire OCOH Fund, the total amount expended in FY20-21 and FY21-22, and the amount encumbered as of June 30, 2022. In an encumbrance, funds are obligated to a specific purpose, such as through a contract or grant, but not yet disbursed.
The bar chart in the dashboard shows the budget, expenditures, and encumbrances for each OCOH service area and Fund Administration. An Excel version of OCOH budget, expenditures and encumbrances for the two-year period can be found here.
OCOH Budget, Expenditures, and Encumbrance
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The two-year budget reflects a cumulative amount budgeted from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022, including all budget revisions during the two-year period. The OCOH Fund is a special fund which allows unexpended fund balances to carry forward into the following year automatically. The revised two-year budget includes the FY20-21 carry-forward balances; the revised budget also includes budget reductions made to account for revenue shortfalls during FY21-22.
Two-year expenditures reflect a cumulative amount expended from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022. Most OCOH Funds were on reserve beginning July 1, 2020, with a portion of budgeted funds released from reserve as of December 16, 2020, and additional funds released from reserve in June 2021. Certain expenditures in FY20-21 occurred after December 16, 2020, though most expenditures occurred after June 2021.
This dashboard does not reflect reclassified General Fund advances of costs budgeted and expended prior to FY20-21. FY20-21 and FY21-22 financial data included in the dashboard was extracted from the City’s financial system after the close of the FY21-22 books and all adjustments related to the year-end close occurred.
Reclassification of General Fund Advances
The City was sued shortly following the voter’s adoption of the measure creating the OCOH Fund in 2018. During the time of the litigation, the City collected the tax but was unable to spend those proceeds given the risk of refunds should the City lose the case. While the litigation was ongoing, the Mayor and Board appropriated additional General Funds to increase City spending on certain OCOH-eligible programs.
These appropriations were legally established as “advances” during the period when the special tax was collected but could not be released to support eligible expenses – in essence, directing the Controller to later transfer these eligible appropriations into the Fund if and when the special tax proceeds become available. These requirements were established by the Board of the Supervisors and Mayor beginning in Fiscal Year 2018-2019 (FY18-19) and then codified in each of the adopted budgets that followed.
Between FY18-19 and FY20-21, the City identified $196 million in OCOH-eligible expenditures that could be reclassified to the OCOH Fund. These expenditures must be above the baseline of spending set in Fiscal Year 2017-2018 as calculated by the Controller’s Office, must be for OCOH-eligible programming, and must align to the service area caps outlined in the ordinance.
As of June 30, 2021, the Controller reclassified $196.0 million in General Fund expenditures to the OCOH Fund in the following service area allocations:
- Permanent Housing: $93.3 million
- Shelter and Hygiene: $50.0 million
- Homelessness Prevention: $35.3 million
- Mental Health: $17.3 million
The Controller’s Office provided a memo documenting details about the reclassification process to the OCOH Committee in June 2021, as well as a summary presentation on the topic.
The $196 million in reclassified expenditures are included in the Excel version of the OCOH Fund budget and expenditure summary. However, because the reclassified expenditures occurred prior to the unlocking of the Fund and the development of a formal investment plan by City departments and the OCOH Oversight Committee, all dashboards reflecting FY20-21 and FY21-22 financial or service information exclude these reclassified expenditures.
Revenue Shortfall
The OCOH Fund receives revenue from the “Homelessness Gross Receipts” Tax (HGR), which imposes a tax on gross receipts in excess of $50 million. In tax year 2020, there were 339 payors of the HGR, representing some of the largest businesses in San Francisco. The OCOH Fund is supported by a single revenue source that is highly volatile. The HGR is a payroll tax. Employee payroll taxes are paid based on the physical location where an employee works. Increased telecommuting among workers at some of San Francisco’s largest businesses has significantly decreased the amount of tax collected in the Fund.
During FY21-22, given high levels of sustained telecommuting not anticipated during budget development, the Controller’s Office identified revenue weakness and worked with the Mayor’s Office to reduce appropriations during the spring of 2022. As of August 2022, final reporting indicated additional weakening of the Fund. The initial investment plan assumed FY21-22 revenues of $335.6 million. Actual OCOH revenues for FY21-22 totaled $278.6 million, a $57 million revenue shortfall.
The cumulative two-year budget amounts shown throughout this report assume all de-appropriations processed to address this revenue shortfall, which were primarily achieved through one-time savings due to slower than anticipated implementation of new, large-scale initiatives. City departments did not reduce or eliminate any programs that had already been initiated to address the FY21-22 shortfall.
Permanent Housing
The Permanent Housing service area of the OCOH Fund is divided into three subcategories. At least 25% of Permanent Housing funding must be appropriated for families, 20% appropriated for youth, and 55% for the general population (designated here as “adult”). During FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City expended $79.4 million on permanent housing services for adults, $15.5 million on permanent housing services for families, and $27.9 million on permanent housing services for youth. Expenditures were used for both acquisition of new housing sites and operating and services costs.
The dashboard below aggregates the two-year budget inclusive of FY20-21 and FY21-22. The bar chart shows the total two-year budget, two-year expenditures, and encumbrance as of June 30, 2022 for permanent housing services by population.
Permanent Housing: Population Budget, Expenditures, and Encumbrance
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
The two-year budget reflects a cumulative amount budgeted from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022, including all budget revisions during the two-year period. The OCOH Fund is a special fund which allows unexpended fund balances to carry forward into the following year automatically. The revised two-year budget includes the FY20-21 carry-forward balances; the revised budget also includes budget reductions made to account for revenue shortfalls during FY21-22.
Two-year expenditures reflect a cumulative amount expended from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022. Most OCOH funds were on reserve beginning July 1, 2020, with a portion of budgeted funds released from reserve as of December 16, 2020, and additional funds released from reserve in June 2021. Certain expenditures in FY20-21 occurred after December 16, 2020, though most expenditures occurred after June 2021.
This dashboard does not reflect reclassified General Fund advances of costs budgeted and expended prior to FY20-21. FY20-21 and FY21-22 financial data included in the dashboard was extracted from the City’s financial system after the close of the FY21-22 books and all adjustments related to the year-end close occurred.
Spotlight on Housing Acquisition
Housing acquisition is one of the highest priorities in the OCOH Fund: the City budgeted 76% of the Permanent Housing service area for this purpose, and 40% of the OCOH Fund budget overall. Funds within the Permanent Housing service area may be used for the purchase and rehabilitation of existing buildings to use for housing (such as conversion of tourist hotels to residential use), and for financing the new construction of housing.
Between FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City spent $88.6 million in OCOH funding to acquire four buildings for use as permanent supportive housing, adding 348 units of new housing capacity:
- December 2021: 25 units of new capacity for youth added at the Eula, 3055-3061 16th Street (Mission)
- March 2022: 112 units of new capacity for adults added at the Gotham Hotel, 835 Turk St (Fillmore)
- March 2022: 120 units of new capacity for adults and 39 units of new capacity for families added at the Margot (formerly the Panoramic), 1321 Mission St. (SOMA)
- May 2022: 52 units of new capacity for youth added at the Mission Inn, 5630-5638 Mission St (Outer Mission)
Subsequent to the purchase of the Eula with OCOH Funds, the City received state grant funding for this property; the City anticipates repaying the OCOH Fund with this source in the coming fiscal year, freeing up funding for other acquisition.
OCOH Fund expenditures are also planned for the coming fiscal year to support additional acquisition of buildings and the rehabilitation of other properties purchased with other sources. By the end of FY21-22, the City had obligated $143.2 million (70.4 %) of the remaining $203.4 million housing acquisition budget for additional housing capacity, including the purchase of 74 units located at 685 Ellis Street for adult permanent supportive housing, the purchase of 200 units located at 333 12th Street for family permanent supportive housing, and permanent financing and rehabilitation of two hotels to be converted to adult permanent supportive housing, purchased with state Homekey funds (214 units at 1000 Sutter Street and 125 units at 440 Geary Street). Approximately $60.2 million appropriated to acquire new permanent supportive housing sites to serve youth had not been obligated by year-end, although the City is negotiating the purchase of additional sites.
Permanent Housing Services
In FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City used OCOH Funds to add 2,172 new units and subsidies to San Francisco’s permanent housing capacity. In addition to the 348 new site-based permanent supportive housing units added through acquisition, the City also used the OCOH Fund to operate and provide services at two new permanent supportive housing sites (the Diva Hotel and the Granada Hotel) adding 354 units of capacity. The City contracted for 888 scattered site permanent supportive housing subsidies, 510 time-limited rapid rehousing subsidies, and 72 family rental subsidies for households in single-room occupancy hotels. These investments increased the permanent supportive housing inventory by 15%, extended rapid rehousing subsidies to 24% more households, and added nearly three times the number of scattered site family subsidies.
During FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City served 1,174 households in OCOH-funded permanent housing programs. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) served 671 households in scattered site permanent supportive housing programs, 332 households in rapid rehousing, and 171 households in site-based permanent supportive housing.
Visit OCOH Annual Report Service Area: Permanent Housing for more detail about City spending on Permanent Housing programs, the types of programs funded, when they were implemented, how many households they served, household demographics, and outcomes.
Mental Health
In FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City expended $42.2 million on mental health programs using the OCOH Fund. The Department of Public Health (DPH) contracted with community-based providers or delivered mental health programs, reaching 7,195 cumulative clients through behavioral health residential treatment beds, assertive outreach services, and permanent supportive housing behavioral health and clinical services. DPH also used the Fund to add 131 treatment beds—a 6% increase in treatment bed capacity—and to expand capacity in assertive outreach, drop-in, and case management services.
Assertive outreach services include the Street Crisis Response Teams (SCRT) and the Street Overdose Response Team (SORT). The teams respond and provide services to people experiencing crises and overdoses in public spaces. DPH first implemented both teams in August of 2021. By June 2022, SCRT operated seven teams and SORT operated two teams, and combined both programs engaged 6,791 cumulative clients.
Visit OCOH Annual Report Service Area: Mental Health for more information about City spending on Mental Health programs, the types of programs funded, when they were implemented, how many households they served, household demographics, and outcomes.
Homelessness Prevention
In FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City expended $17.1 million on homelessness prevention programs using the OCOH Fund. With this funding, the City provided 8,992 households with services designed to help these households maintain housing or find suitable alternative housing.
MOHCD’s Eviction Prevention and Housing Stabilization Program reached the highest number of households, serving over 5,400 households in FY21-22. This program provides households at risk of homelessness with legal services, emergency rental assistance, and support services.
Other OCOH-funded homelessness prevention programs served over 3,500 households and include HSH’s targeted homelessness prevention services, a shallow rental subsidy for existing tenants of permanent supportive housing programs, and problem solving services. A portion of DPH’s behavioral health and clinical services program for permanent supportive housing tenants is also supported through the Homelessness Prevention service area as well as through the Mental Health service area.
Visit OCOH Annual Report Service Area: Homelessness Prevention for more information about City spending on Homelessness Prevention programs, the types of programs funded, when they were implemented, how many households they served, household demographics, and outcomes.
Shelter and Hygiene
In FY20-21 and FY21-22, the City expended $25.8 million from the OCOH Fund on shelter and hygiene services. These funds enabled the City to permanently add 401 units of temporary shelter and crisis interventions—a 15% increase in the temporary shelter and crisis intervention inventory—and to serve 1,156 households in shelter and crisis intervention programs.
In FY20-21, the City appropriated OCOH Shelter and Hygiene Funds to support the City’s COVID-19 response through Shelter in Place hotels, congregate sites, the Trailer Program, and Safe Sleep Sites. By June 30, 2022, many of these programs had begun to demobilize and many were no longer funded by OCOH.
In FY21-22, OCOH Shelter and Hygiene Funds supported various new services, including case management services for justice involved adults, hotel vouchers for youth, and a Safe Parking program for individuals living in a vehicle. The City also used the Fund to lease a new emergency shelter and to procure a contract to deliver hotel vouchers to families and survivors of domestic violence; both services will become available to households in FY22-23.
Visit OCOH Annual Report Service Area: Shelter and Hygiene for more information about City spending on Shelter and Hygiene programs, the types of programs funded, when they were implemented, how many households they served, household demographics, and outcomes.
Background
The City and County of San Francisco (City) began collecting tax revenue in the Fund during 2018. However, legal challenges prevented the City from using the Fund until fall 2020. The City appropriated accumulated revenue gathered since 2018 in the FY20-21 budget, though both the Board of Supervisors and the Controller placed these funds on reserve until the legal concerns were resolved, and until an investment plan could be developed.
The Board of Supervisors established the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee in 2019, and the Committee held its first meeting in September 2020. A core function of the OCOH Oversight Committee is making annual spending recommendations to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors. The Committee’s recommendations help ensure the City uses the Fund in ways that are consistent with the intent of the voters. In December 2020, the Oversight Committee provided recommendations on the initial spending from the Fund for FY20-21. The Board of Supervisors approved the Committee’s recommendations, allowing departments to begin program implementation, and approved an additional release of reserve in June 2021. In spring 2021, the Oversight Committee published its first “investment plan,” providing recommendations on the use of the Fund for the upcoming two-year budget.
City departments and community partners deliver services supported through OCOH Fund investments. During the two-year period, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), the Department of Public Health (DPH), the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and the Adult Probation Department (APD) administered or delivered OCOH-funded services. The Controller’s Office was responsible for administration of the Fund and for staffing the OCOH Oversight Committee.
Per the OCOH Fund legislation, the Controller’s Office administers the Fund and the Oversight Committee, and reports to the Board of Supervisors annually on the revenue and uses of the OCOH Fund. This report covers the first two years of the OCOH Fund, FY20-21 and FY21-22, and describes how the City budgeted, encumbered and expended the OCOH Fund in the first two years. It also includes information about the impact of the OCOH Fund in FY20-21 and FY21-22 on the City’s Homelessness Response System and the people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Where available, the report shares data about service capacity added, the number of households served in programs, demographics of households served, and household outcomes for each of the four service areas.
Navigate to the following service area webpages to learn about expenditures, capacity added, services provided, and households served during FY20-21 and FY21-22 in each OCOH service area in greater detail: