Dariush Kayhan

Dariush has spent his career focused on housing and homelessness, including holding leadership roles at the San Francisco Human Services Agency, the San Francisco Housing Authority, the Mayor’s Office and currently, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. For over 20 years he has demonstrated his passion for ending homelessness and helping the City achieve its housing justice vision.

While at the Human Services Agency, in addition to managing the homeless system of care, he worked closely with the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development and community-based organizations on the development of over 4,000 units of supportive housing, greatly expanding San Francisco's supportive housing portfolio.

As Director of Homeless Policy for both Mayor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Ed Lee, he was the Mayor’s point person on citywide homeless policy, program development and overall services coordination.  In this role, he drove numerous citywide homeless initiatives including implementing Project Homeless Connect, the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team, the Care Not Cash Program and the Hotel Master Lease Program. 

While at the Housing Authority, Dariush served on the leadership team that implemented the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and HOPE SF programs, resulting in the rebuild and rehabilitation of over 3000 units of public housing.

During the pandemic, Dariush was one of the COVID Incident Commanders overseeing housing, shelter, and social services delivery to support a 2,000+ unit Shelter in Place (SIP) hotel portfolio, food delivery, shelter, and oversight of community-based organizations. He subsequently supervised the HSH team that managed the operation and demobilization of all 32 SIP hotels.

As Deputy Director for Programs for HSH, Dariush oversees the entire system of care supporting households experiencing homelessness to receive outreach, find shelter, connect to housing or find other solutions to their homelessness, and to remain stable within the department’s portfolio of over 12,000 units of permanent housing.