San Francisco is focused on homeless and affordable housing

A compassionate investment in the welfare of people, with better outcome.

The Examiner/Chris Roberts, 6/27/14.  "Mayor: building supportive housing key to ending homelessness." 

Homeless housing, a good space

Mayor Ed Lee getting it right again

"San Francisco is working to build its way out of the homelessness problem. A total of 19,000 "chronically homeless people" have been moved off of the streets and into housing or sent back home to their families over the past decade, Mayor Ed Lee announced Thursday.

And of those longtime homeless, 11,362 people are living in The City in supportive housing, apartment complexes with mental health and other service workers on site. Building more of that housing is the key to ending chronic homelessness, Lee and other city leaders said Thursday, which marked the 10-year anniversary of The City's first 10-year plan to get people living on the streets indoors.

....  San Francisco's housing crunch is affecting people in all social classes and income levels. Lee has repeatedly said building or fixing up 30,000 new units of housing by 2020 -- 10,000 of which are supposed to be below market rate -- is a top priority."   Read article.

Related - San Francisco Chronicle/Heather Knight, 6/28/14. "San Francisco's new ideas for ending chronic homelessness." "San Francisco Chronicle  San Francisco officials believe their decade long attempt to place homeless people in permanent housing with services attached remains the smartest way to get them off the street, but they're trying, or at least considering, several additional approaches to finally curb one of the city's most stubborn problems."

San Francisco Chronicle/Kevin Fagan, 2/21/05.  "Homeless respond to good quarters."  "Design buildings that make the homeless want to live in them, or at least walk inside and apply for assistance, and you will have an infinitely better chance of getting them to stabilize their dysfunctional lives, the 58-year-old professor told an audience earlier this month at Cody's Books on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. And every time a homeless person starts living indoors, society is able to spend less on jails, hospitals and all the other expensive emergency services that become revolving doors for most people living on the street. The math is borne out in national studies showing that housing with counseling services on site -- called supportive housing -- costs about $1, 000 a month to maintain, while hospital beds cost about $30,000 a month, and jail cells cost more than $3,000 a month."  

The Examiner/Joshua Sabatini, 6/1/14. "Mayor's budget plan boosts workforce, increases investment in homeless services and housing."  "The budget proposal comes as San Francisco has a growing income inequality gap, soaring rents and increasing evictions, ongoing problems with pedestrian fatalities and more than 6,000 homeless adults for more than a decade. The mayor's investment in these issues is expected to take center stage as the spending plan undergoes a review by the Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks. .... He said it "protects social services for people who need them most, is affordable over the long term, increases city services including public safety and supports our continued economic recovery.  .... As a result of the voter-approved 2012 Housing Trust Fund, the mayor's budget includes investing $44.4 million in below-market-rate housing during the next two fiscal years. Lee, who has called for the construction of 30,000 housing units by 2020, is also proposing to issue debt backed by the future trust fund increases to generate an additional $50 million in the same time frame."

Note photographs:  Housing unit by Brant Wart from related San Francisco Chronicle, 2/21/05 article. Mayor Ed Lee by Mike Koozmin from The Examiner, 6/1/14 article. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh