San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) announced a strategic plan today outlining top priorities and goals to help individuals exit homelessness across the City. Home by the Bay, San Francisco’s blueprint for the next five years, builds on the City’s success to increase access to shelter and housing over the last few years, which resulted in a 15% decline in unsheltered homelessness and a 3.5% decrease in overall homelessness.
Home by the Bay is founded on the pillars of equity and housing justice, quality, and innovation, and is anchored by a set of five bold goals that aim to drive significant, lasting reductions in homelessness. Achieving the plan’s vision is essential to address the current homelessness crisis unfolding on our City streets, especially for communities who continue to be impacted by structural racism and inequities, and for people whose health and lives are at risk by being unsheltered.
The plan’s implementation, which includes increasing successful and stable entries into permanent housing, as well as enhancing system performance and capacity, begins in July of 2023.
“To continue to make progress addressing homelessness in San Francisco, we need to take bold actions that require the partnership of City leaders, the public, nonprofits, the private sectors, and collaborations at all levels of government,” said Mayor London Breed. “This plan sets forth strategies that build on what works and strengthens partnerships and accountability to ensure our efforts are making a real difference and that investments are making an impact.”
“The City of San Francisco is committed to achieving racial and housing justice in our community, so that everyone has the housing supports, and opportunities they need to thrive,” said Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing Executive Director, Shireen McSpadden. “This critical Home by the Bay plan underscores that we must act swiftly and decisively together, as a city, to help the thousands of adults, families and youth who are struggling and suffering in our community without housing.”
Home by the Bay’s plan goals for the next five years:
- Goal #1: Reduce the number of people who are unsheltered by 50% and the total number of people experiencing homelessness by 15%.
- Goal #2: Reduce and eventually eliminate racial inequities and other disparities in the experience of homelessness and the outcomes of City programs for preventing and ending homelessness.
- Goal #3: Actively support at least 30,000 people to move from homelessness into permanent housing.
- Goal #4: Ensure that at least 85% of people who are supported to end their homelessness do not experience it again.
- Goal #5: Provide prevention services to at least 18,000 people at risk of losing their housing and becoming homeless.
HSH developed the plan with input from local, state, and national experts, and in collaboration with hundreds of people experiencing homelessness, residents, business owners, community-based service providers and partners, and several City Departments, including the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), the San Francisco Human Services Agency (HSA), and the Department of Emergency Management (DEM).
“This Plan, that includes invaluable input from people with lived experience and nonprofit providers, demonstrates the city's commitment to racial equity and improving housing access for our BIPOC neighbors,” said Tramecia Garner, COO of Swords to Plowshares. “When we prioritize communities that are most underserved and populations that are overrepresented among San Franciscans experiencing homelessness, we prioritize the needs of all.”
Progress on the Home by the Bay will be assessed regularly and next steps include:
- Community and stakeholder education
- Development of initial annual implementation plan
- Development of detailed performance measurement plan
- Determining baseline data on racial inequities and other disparities
- Performing regular reporting, centering the experiences of people who are most impacted by Homelessness
- Refining the Plan over the course of implementation
The comprehensive plan is available here.
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