Mayor Lee Announces Immediate Investments to House Homeless Families

Mayor’s New Family Homelessness Initiative Sets Multiyear Goal to Clear Wait List & Provide Assistance to Families in City’s Shelter System & Those on Waiting List for Shelter

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 16, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Mayor Edwin M. Lee today launched a new Family Homelessness Initiative to ensure that families with elementary school children never have to spend a night on the street due to lack of available shelter or housing. The Mayor has directed the City’s Human Services Agency to work with the San Francisco Unified School District, the philanthropic community, and community partners to present a plan for inclusion in his upcoming FY 2016-17 budget, with the stated multi-year goal of clearing the existing family shelter waitlist and creating a system to assist homeless families with elementary school-aged children. Mayor Lee today launched the Home for the Holidays initiative, which will immediately serve 50 homeless families who are either in shelter or on the waiting list for shelter, at a cost of $500,000 in the current year. Current data shows that 104 families with at least one elementary school student are homeless or under-housed, doubled up, or living in shelters.

“Family homelessness has devastating consequences on children, and we must do everything we can to get families living in precarious situations immediate supportive services and put them on a path to long-term housing,” said Mayor Lee. “No matter the cause, our response must be swift and impactful. In San Francisco, the world’s greatest City, we must ensure that all families have safe and stable housing so they can succeed.”

“We can end family homelessness in San Francisco and ensure our City’s families have stable housing opportunities,” said Supervisor Mark Farrell. “I thank Mayor Lee for his commitment to ending family homelessness, look forward to helping the family homelessness working group in any way possible, and urge our City’s civic, business, and philanthropic leaders to pitch-in and reduce homelessness across San Francisco.”

“Earlier this year, I called for a hearing on homeless children in our public schools,” said Supervisor Jane Kim. “There are enough homeless students in San Francisco schools alone to fill more than 70 classrooms. They need us to act now. When we have families stacked on top of each other in SROs, when over 2,000 of our homeless count is comprised of children under the age of 18 and their caregivers who are typically women, and when we know that the #1 reason that families become homeless is domestic violence, we have a moral imperative to take action.”

“Without secure and consistent food and shelter, it is especially challenging for children to show up at school and learn,” said SFUSD Superintendent Richard A. Carranza. “We are eager to further partner with the City to coordinate around the identification of homeless elementary children and to help ensure homeless families have access to the resources they need. Working together, it is possible to end homelessness for our City’s youngest children and their families.”

As the multi-year plan is being crafted, the Mayor is ensuring that currently homeless families receive immediate increased support. The Mayor and the Human Services Agency have identified funding to begin serving 50 homeless families who are either in shelter or on the waiting list for shelter through the Home for the Holidays initiative, at a cost of $500,000 in the current year. Additionally, the existing housing voucher program will be expanded to serve 70 more families in the shelter system throughout the course of the fiscal year. The full cost of the expansion to 120 families will total $5 million over the next two years.

The Mayor’s Family Homelessness working group will consist of the Human Services Agency, the Mayor’s Office of HOPE, San Francisco Unified School District, homeless service providers, and business and philanthropic partners. The working group is charged with presenting the Mayor a plan to get every elementary school child into stable housing, and to create a system that can rapidly respond to newly homeless families.

The 2015-2016 Fiscal Year City budget included $36.5 million in support for homeless families. Most of this funding is General Fund support for shelter, supportive housing, and eviction prevention. The City’s successful efforts notwithstanding, the waitlist for family shelter still includes 133 families, requiring a greater and more sustained response.

The short-term actions announced today through Home for the Holidays will provide stable housing to 50 of these families by the end of 2015. Through a $500,000 Human Services reallocation in the current budget year, the City will provide these families with rental subsidies and other assistance to help them get into stable housing.

Mayor Lee’s formation of this roundtable to prepare a multi-year plan to tackle family homelessness, builds on the knowledge base, expertise on this issue, and generosity of civic partners. Each has shown leadership and made contributions that provided support for partnering nonprofits to undertake the everyday challenges of serving and housing homeless families. As the multi-year plan is developed, the Mayor hopes that our existing philanthropic partners – and any new funders interested in supporting the work – will participate as sustainable funders.

“As we as a City come together to develop a multi-year plan to tackle the challenge of family homelessness, we must have key stakeholders join at the table to provide necessary knowledge and expertise on this issue if we are to make real progress,” said Human Services Agency Director Trent Rhorer. “We need our existing generous civic partners and any new funders to participate and support solutions for our everyday challenges of serving and housing homeless families.”