Permanent Housing Overview
Permanent Housing is the largest service area of the Our City, Our Home (OCOH) Fund. At least 50% of the Fund must be appropriated for this service area. The OCOH Fund can be used for acquiring, constructing, rehabilitating, or leasing buildings to provide permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. The funding for Permanent Housing programs must be appropriated as follows:
- 55% for the general population (adults)
- 25% for families
- 20% for transitional age youth (young adults ages 18-29)
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
Households Served
San Francisco Financial Counseling clients were referred directly from rapid rehousing programs. Data was excluded from this report due to the overlap with client populations in other rapid rehousing programs.
Positive Outcomes
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines which outcomes from permanent housing programs are considered positive or successful. Positive outcomes include staying in permanent supportive housing or leaving the housing program and going to another permanent housing situation. Other outcomes include leaving the program and going into a skilled nursing facility or substance use treatment program, moving in with family or friends on a temporary basis, going to jail or prison, or returning to homelessness. A full list of exit destinations are included on pages 34 and 35 of HUD’s System Performance Measures Programming Specifications.
The percent of households with a positive outcome in permanent housing programs is calculated by dividing the number of households retained in a program or with a positive exit destination by the total number of households served. Per HUD, clients that are deceased or exit to certain living situations like hospitals or long-term care facilities are excluded from the measure.
As there is some variation in tracking of outcomes across programs, the total number of households served reported in the dashboards differs slightly from the prior section.
Total Capacity and Capacity Added
Following a thorough data review and cleaning process, HSH identified and corrected discrepancies in previously reported figures. As a result, the FY24 annual report reflects slight differences in capacity values compared to those reported in the FY23 version.
Please visit the Glossary for additional terms and definitions.
The following program names were shortened in the chart visual:
- Scattered Site Permanent Supportive Housing = Scattered Site PSH
- Site-Based Permanent Supportive Housing = Site-Based PSH
During Fiscal Year 2023-2024 (FY24):
- The City expended $168.8 million on the acquisition of new buildings as well as the ongoing operations of housing sites, housing subsidies, and short-term housing subsidies of less than five years (i.e., Rapid Rehousing).
- This represents a 12% increase in expenditures from FY23.
- The City served 3,463 households in OCOH-funded Permanent Housing programs, and 3,859 permanent housing units are now operating and sustained through support of the OCOH Fund, including 774 new units of capacity added in FY24.
- Total capacity represents a 25% increase over FY23.
- The growth in capacity enabled OCOH Fund-supported Permanent Housing programs to serve 52% more households in FY24 than in FY23.
- Scattered-site housing programs served more than half of all households in this service area, followed by site-based housing at 27% of households served.
- Of the 694 new units of capacity added in the Permanent Housing service area in FY24, the City added 74% of these units within the Adult Housing portfolio, 17% to the Youth Housing portfolio, and 9% to the Family Housing portfolio.
- Permanent housing programs have the highest positive outcome rate of all OCOH-funded programs. For permanent housing, a positive outcome means the household retained housing as of the end of the fiscal year or exited to other permanent housing during the fiscal year.
- 96% of households in Permanent Housing programs remained stably housed or exited to another permanent housing option.
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), and the Treasurer and Tax Collector (TTX) deliver OCOH-funded permanent housing services.
FY24 Implementation Updates
Site-Based Permanent Supportive Housing
Site-based permanent supportive housing provides subsidized rental housing with intensive support services in buildings owned or leased by the City or a partnering service provider.
- The City served 947 households (95% increase) in OCOH-funded site-based permanent housing programs, with 66% served in Adult programs, 20% in Family programs, and 14% in Youth programs.
- The City added a total of 239 units of capacity in FY24, bringing total capacity to 1,246 units of site-based permanent supportive housing. Adult and Youth programs received an even split of the new units added.
- In FY24, the City used the OCOH Fund to acquire two new housing sites, bringing online 66 new units for transitional age youth that will begin leasing to households in FY25.
- Households served in OCOH-funded site-based permanent supportive housing had a 95% positive outcome rate in FY24, with 876 households retaining housing or moving to other housing options.
- The OCOH Fund supports money management services available to supportive housing households to support them to retain their housing.
Scattered-Site Permanent Supportive Housing
Scattered site permanent supportive housing programs offer deeply subsidized rental housing in private market apartments along with support services.
- The City served 1,889 households (42% increase) in OCOH-funded scattered-site permanent housing programs, with 67% served in Adult programs, 23% in Family programs, and 9% in Youth programs.
- The City added 476 units in FY24, bringing the total capacity to 1,804 units of scattered-site permanent supportive housing. Nearly all new scattered-site units added in FY24 are within adult housing programs.
- With OCOH Fund support, HSH developed a new “shallow subsidy” program during FY24, and will roll out 60 shallow subsidy slots for adults and 60 for families in FY25.
- Households served in scattered-site programs had a 98% positive outcome rate, with 1,849 households retaining housing or exiting to other housing options in FY24.
- Notably, 100% of households served in Family scattered site housing programs (449 households) had a positive outcome in FY24.
Rapid Rehousing
Rapid rehousing programs provide a time-limited rental subsidy (often 2-3 years), case management services, and workforce development programming.
- The City served 493 households (19% increase) in rapid rehousing programs mostly for adults (40%) and youth (38%) followed by families (22%).
- In total, the OCOH Fund supported 632 units of rapid rehousing capacity in FY24. The City added 59 units in FY24, with 100% of these units added for families.
- More than half of all OCOH-funded rapid rehousing slots (350 subsidy slots) support adults. HSH implemented these subsidies in prior years to support of the demobilization of COVID-19 shelter in place hotels, and HSH sustained these slots through FY24.
- Households served in rapid rehousing programs had lower rates of positive outcomes as compared to other programs in the Permanent Housing service area, with 89% of households retaining their housing or exiting to other housing options.
- 95% of households served in Family programs retained their housing or exited to other housing options (104 households), while 85% had positive outcomes in Adult programs (165 households).
- TTX delivered financial counseling services to households referred directly from OCOH Fund rapid rehousing programs in FY24 to support them to improve their financial management practices in order to maintain their housing. This program served 120 adult households and 13 family households participating in rapid rehousing in FY24.
Family Rental Subsidy
The OCOH Fund supports subsidies for families with minor children who are living in over-crowded conditions or are ready to graduate from site-based supportive housing to find private-market apartments that meet their needs.
- Family rental subsidy programs sustained a total capacity of 177 units in FY24 and served 134 households. This is a significant increase (244%) in households served from FY23.
- 100% of households receiving a subsidy through this program had a positive outcome in FY24, either retaining appropriate housing or exiting to other housing options.
Head of Household Demographics
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
San Francisco Financial Counseling (TTX)
San Francisco Financial Counseling clients were referred directly from rapid rehousing programs. Data was excluded from this report due to the overlap with client populations in other rapid rehousing programs. The program served Adult and Family households.
- Race and Ethnicity for Households Served:
- 43% Black or African American
- 24% Multiracial
- 9% White
- 8% Latine or Hispanic
- 8% Asian
- 2% Native American or Alaskan Native
- 2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
- 5% Data not collected
- Gender Identity data shows almost an equal split between male and female households.
- The majority of heads of households were between the ages of 25-34 (38%) followed by 45-54 (20%) and 35-44 (16%).
- Sexual orientation data was not provided.
Demographic groups with fewer than ten households are reported as <10 in the table.
Race and Ethnicity
In 2023, HUD updated requirements for how HSH collects race and ethnicity data. Before this change, clients selected race and ethnicity separately and were not able to select 'Latine' as their race. Clients who identified their ethnicity as Latine would be reported as Multiracial if they also selected a non-Latine race. After the update, clients could identify as Latine alone and would not be asked to separately identify as a non-Latine race. Because of these data changes, HSH programs currently show a higher proportion of heads of household in the multiracial category compared to prior reports and a lower proportion of Latine heads of household than may be accurate according to how these households may identify.
Due to low numbers of Heads of Households or clients identifying as Middle Eastern or North African within this category, these individuals are included within the White race category.
The following race and ethnicity categories are combined in Data not collected: Other/Unknown, Missing data, and Doesn’t know or prefers not to answer.
Gender Identity
Heads of households who identify as Questioning or Non-Binary are coded in the Genderqueer or gender non-binary category.
The following gender categories are combined in Unknown: Other + Choose not to disclose, Unknown, Not listed, Decline to answer.
Sexual Orientation
The following sexual orientation categories are combined in Data not collected: Questioning/Unsure, Other/Not Listed, Not Listed, Other, Missing data, Decline to answer, Data not collected, and Prefers not to answer.
The City collects demographic data about the clients served in OCOH-funded Permanent Housing programs where data is available. Demographic categories include race and ethnicity, age, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Due to recent changes in tracking requirements by HUD, HSH programs currently show a higher proportion of heads of household in the multiracial category compared to prior reports and a lower proportion of heads of household identifying as Latine compared to data collected in other sources. Please see the Data Notes above for additional details.
- Close to half of heads of households served (43%) in Permanent Housing programs identified as Black or African American followed by Multiracial (23%) and White (19%).
- The age distribution of heads of households was relatively even across age groups.
- More than two-thirds of heads of households among family programs fell within the 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 age ranges.
- The most common age category for adult programs was 55 to 64 followed by 45 to 54.
- Gender identity was evenly split between heads of households identifying as women (1,668) and men (1,630), while a small minority identify as genderqueer or gender nonbinary or transgender.
- Within Family Housing programs, 85% of heads of households identified as women.
- The majority of heads of households identified as straight or heterosexual.
Spending on Permanent Housing Programs
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.
The financial data included in the dashboard was extracted from the City’s financial system after the close of the fiscal year books and all adjustments related to the year-end close occurred.
Remaining Balance does not represent an available balance by category. Funding has been earmarked and encumbered for future year investments.
Acquisition
Funds set aside for a capital purchase, e.g., buying and/or renovating a building to serve as housing, a treatment facility, or services site. The housing acquisition remaining balance is obligated towards PSH development and acquisition projects as well as major capital improvements at existing PSH sites.
The dashboards aggregate the prior four fiscal years of budget and expenditures for the Permanent Housing service area (FY21-FY24). The cards at the top of the dashboard show the cumulative expenditures for OCOH-funded Permanent Housing programs and the total amount expended in these programs FY24. Use the filter to see data for Adult Housing, Family Housing and Youth Housing categories.
- The City budgeted a total of $571.4 million over the past four years with cumulative expenditures of $442.5 million.
- The City appropriated approximately 60% of the cumulative budget for housing acquisitions and spent a net $277 million on acquisitions or rehabilitation of acquired sites by the close of FY24.
Acquisition Costs
There are two types of costs for site-based housing within the Permanent Housing service area: acquisition and operating costs. Acquisition costs relate to the purchase and rehabilitation of facilities to support OCOH-funded programming.
- In FY24, Permanent Housing programs expended a total of $168.8 million, including 53% on acquisitions ($89.1 million).
- The City acquired two new Youth Housing buildings in in FY24, spending $41 million in OCOH Funds to acquire the sites.
- The City also spent $47 million in OCOH Funds on rehabilitation costs including seismic safety improvements to the Diva Hotel, a building acquired in FY21 within the Adult Housing category.
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
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.
The following program names were shortened in the chart visual:
- Scattered Site Permanent Supportive Housing = Scattered Site PSH
- Site-Based Permanent Supportive Housing = Site-Based PSH
Operating Costs
While the prior dashboard showed all OCOH Fund expenditures in the Permanent Housing service area, this dashboard only shows expenditures related to housing operations and excludes acquisition expenditures from the totals. The cards at the top of the dashboard show the cumulative (FY21-FY24) expenditures on operations of OCOH Fund Permanent Housing programs and the total amount expended in these programs FY24. The bar chart shows FY24 operations expenditures for each Permanent Housing program.
- In FY24, Permanent Housing programs expended a total of $79.8 million on Permanent Housing Operations.
- Scattered-site programs represent the largest category of spending in the Permanent Housing service area, both cumulatively ($65.2 million) as well as within FY24 ($34.5 million). Spending on these programs increased 66% from FY23 to FY24.
- This increase is most prominent in the Family Housing category, where spending increased from $1.2 million in FY23 to $7.4 million in FY24, a 502% increase.
- As noted above, family scattered site programs served 440 households with a 100% positive outcome rate in FY24. This represents half of all households served in OCOH-funded Family Housing programs in FY24.
- The City increased spending on family rental subsidies by 132% year over year, up to $5.1 million in FY24.
- The City spent a total of $12.9 million on all Youth Housing programs in FY24, increasing spending by 36% from FY23 to FY24.
- An expansion of scattered site housing drives much of this increase, with investments rising from $750,000 in FY23 to $3.1 million in FY24 (nearly 317% increase).
- The City also increased spending on Adult Housing programs from FY23 to FY24 by 27%, with increases across all programs within this category.
Explore the Annual Report
View the OCOH Fund FY24 Report:
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