San Francisco, CA -- Mayor London N. Breed today announced the grand opening of the Diva Hotel, a seven-story permanent supportive housing (PSH) development serving adults exiting homelessness. The City partnered with Episcopal Community Services (ECS) to secure funding through the State of California’s Homekey program, which paid for the acquisition of the building.
The Diva Hotel is now fully renovated and operational and provides 122 safe and dignified permanent homes for formerly homeless people with ongoing funding and support from the City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). These homes will add to the City’s permanent supportive housing portfolio, which is larger than any county in the Bay Area, and the second highest per capita among any city in the country. This housing has been key to the City’s efforts to help over 10,000 people exit homelessness since 2018.
In addition to providing 122 units of supportive housing, the Diva also has wraparound services including case management, connections to behavioral health providers through referrals to partner agencies, and access to vocational and workforce development programming. San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund (SFHAF) was the construction lender, and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) served as the permanent financing lender for the building.
“In San Francisco, we are committed to do everything in our power to decrease homelessness while providing our unhoused populations with the services they need,” said Mayor London Breed. “We thank our state and local partners for their help in making this project a reality, and we will continue to work together on solutions that are effective in helping advance the work we are doing to bring people off the streets and into housing.”
Prior to transitioning into permanent supportive housing, the Diva was one of the first Shelter in Place (SIP) hotels as part of the City’s COVID-19 Alternative Shelter Program that ultimately served over 3,864 individuals with a safe place to live during the emergency response to the pandemic.
“The renovation and repair of the Diva Hotel into 122 homes for formerly homeless San Franciscans is another significant step toward addressing the situation on our streets and builds on other recent acquisitions of the Granada and Post Hotels nearby,” said Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who also represents the historic Union Square neighborhood. “Now we must ensure the success of these projects by maximizing coordinated resources that will support the Diva residents and the neighborhood as a whole. I look forward to working with Mayor Breed to make sure that the Diva residents get the wraparound services they need, as well as ensuring the City supports the broader neighborhood with resources that foster community and safety in the area.”
Located in the heart of the City near Union Square, the Diva Hotel has undergone extensive construction and rehabilitation to transform the historic building into a haven for formerly unhoused individuals. In 2020, the MOHCD, SFHAF, HSH partnered with ECS to apply for funding through the State’s Project Homekey program and was awarded $29.1 million for the purchase and conversion of the Diva into housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
The residential unit scope of work included refreshing floor and wall finishes and upgrading seven units for full accessibility. Limited life safety upgrades include new electric fire pump, modernization of one passenger elevator and substantial tune-up of the second elevator.
“The Diva represents a significant step in our collective efforts to combat homelessness,” said Shireen McSpadden, Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “The stability of housing provided by the Diva offers a safe and supportive environment for people to heal and rebuild after the trauma of homelessness.”
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) launched Project Homekey in 2020 as an innovative strategy for addressing homelessness by providing local public entities with critical federal and state funding to develop a broad range of housing types, including, but not limited to, hotels, motels, hostels, and other residential and commercial properties into permanent housing for those experiencing extreme poverty or homelessness. Over the course of the program, $600 million in grant funding has been made available to local municipalities, to support housing first solutions for people experiencing homelessness.
"The HAF is committed to the expansion of permanent supportive housing and has invested over $400 million bridging critical funding gaps to deliver homes for the community,” said Rebecca Foster, CEO of the Housing Accelerator Fund, “The Diva Hotel is a testament to the effectiveness of innovative strategies and public cross-collaboration for the benefit of our community. SFHAF is proud to have helped this project come to fruition and we celebrate this win on behalf of people experiencing homelessness in our city.”
“Ending homelessness starts with housing,” said Beth Stokes, Executive Director of ECS. “Project Homekey’s innovative and expedient approach has empowered communities to respond to the homelessness crisis with the urgency needed by rapidly expanding Permanent Supportive Housing model throughout San Francisco and the State. ECS is incredibly proud to partner with the City on this impactful project and support people on a path towards healing and stability.”
The site is operated by ECS who has a long and highly successful track record in the development of PSH and administering services to the community, including the Granada Hotel that was also acquired through Homekey funding and recently opening San Francisco’s largest PSH site earlier this year at 1064 Mission.
San Francisco's Five-year Strategic Homeless Plan, Home By the Bay, sets a goal of cutting unsheltered homelessness in half over the next five years. This builds on the 15% reduction in unsheltered homelessness San Francisco has seen since 2019.
For more information on San Francisco’s five-year strategic strategy to address homelessness, please visit this page.
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