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Mayor Breed wants to add more than $1 billion to fighting homelessness in San Francisco over next two years
Mayor London Breed is proposing more than $1 billion in new funding to address homelessness over the next two years — a staggering amount that she hopes will finally make a dent in San Francisco’s most vexing problem.
That proposal, announced Tuesday as part of her wider plan for the city’s upcoming $13.1 billion budget, is on top of the $300 million or so already spent directly on homelessness each year. The investment — the majority of which is voter-mandated — reflects the intense pressure Breed and other city leaders are under to address the thousands living on the streets, in shelters and in unstable housing.
In front of a large, masked crowd Tuesday, Breed proudly called her proposal a “historic investment.” But she acknowledged that money won’t solve the problem alone, and that the city also needs more housing, treatment and enforcement to compel people inside or into care.
“For those exhibiting harmful behavior, whether to themselves or to others, or those refusing assistance, we will use every tool we have to get them into treatment and services, to get them indoors,” she said. “We won’t accept people just staying on the streets, when we have a place for them to go.”
It’s unclear how many homeless people there are in San Francisco, but the number has certainly swelled over the past few years. The city’s official count in 2019 logged more than 8,000 homeless, a 30% rise from two years prior. Other counts have suggested there may be as many as 17,000 homeless in the city.
At the same time, homelessness funding has also significantly increased. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s budget has increased by 80% since it was created in 2016, to $364 million in the most recent fiscal year. Meanwhile, Prop. C., a 2018 ballot measure that taxes big businesses for homelessness services, is expected to raise $250 million to $300 million per year.
Indirect spending on homelessness is likely much higher, as the crisis touches many different agencies — from police officers responding to people sleeping on the streets to Department of Public Works cleaners sweeping away tents, human feces and trash.
If the Board of Supervisors approves Breed’s spending plan this summer, it will likely put even more pressure on City Hall to ensure the money makes a noticeable difference on the city’s streets.
“In the past, the city would spend a lot of money without a plan. Now we actually have a plan. Prop. C is the plan,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, chair of the board’s Budget and Finance committee. “Now we have to make it work and make it real, we have to track outcomes and follow the data and be transparent about successes and challenges.”
Roughly 75% of Breed’s proposed homelessness investment comes from $800 million collected by Prop. C, which she did not support in 2018. Meanwhile, another 20% comes from local sources like the city’s general fund and a 2020 bond measure, and the remaining 5% comes one-time funding from the federal American Rescue Plan, which helped erase a massive, pandemic-induced budget deficit earlier this year.
Under Breed’s proposal, the money would go toward initiatives like capping all permanent supportive housing rent at 30% of a resident’s income, funding two new recreational vehicle parking sites and continuing a 40-bed emergency shelter for families.
The mayor also wants to create 6,000 housing placements by June 2022, which includes new permanent supportive housing units, adding more housing vouchers or buying people bus tickets out of town to go back to family and friends. The funding would also cover another 4,000 new housing placements by 2023, and help prevent potential homelessness and eviction for over 7,000 households.
Along with homelessness services, Breed is also proposing $300 million, or a 36% increase, in additional funding over the year prior for mental health and drug treatment services as overdoses skyrocket.
Tomiquia Moss, the CEO of All Home, a group that pushes for a regional approach to homelessness, said she’s glad that homelessness is not being addressed just in terms of building more housing — but also with the “gamut of services,” like mental health care and drug treatment.
While the $1 billion price tag is huge, she said that it could pay off in the long run as the programs and housing help stabilize people who would otherwise be on the streets.
“We’ve underinvested in this for decades,” she said. “What we actually need now to get out of the problem is exorbitant, but it doesn’t have to be that way if we start making the right types of investments.”
San Francisco has a $13.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and $12.8 billion for the following year. That is slightly less than last year’s $13.6 billion budget, as big city departments like the San Francisco International Airport generated less revenue amid the pandemic.
The Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance committee will hold a series of hearings this summer on the mayor’s proposed plan. The full board will then vote on the proposal before returning it to the mayor for her signature around Aug. 1.
This could be a fraught process between the mayor and supervisors, who have historically disagreed on how the money should be spent — particularly when it comes to homelessness funding, the city’s rainy day reserves and Prop. I, a 2020 real estate transfer tax measure.
The mayor’s proposed two-year spending plan also includes:
Public safety
Breed is proposing $65 million for violence prevention and safety. That includes funding to maintain current police staffing levels through two new academy classes for about 100 new officers. Those officers would replace those who have retired or left the force.
“Let’s be clear, keeping our city safe also does require law enforcement,” she said Tuesday. “That means making sure we have officers on our streets, walking the beat and responding to crimes.”
While activists called for city leaders to redirect resources away from law enforcement to the community, Breed has been clear that she would not shrink the number of officers in San Francisco.
Instead, she has supported new outreach teams of mental health professionals to respond to those on the streets — although there isn’t currently enough staffing to shift all mental health-related 911 calls away from cops.
The mayor’s budget also continues the $60 million annual investment in the Dream Keeper Initiative, which redirects money from the police and sheriff’s department into programs that support the city’s Black and African American community.
The law enforcement budget is sure to receive pushback.
In May, a hearing before a Board of Supervisors committee on alternatives to law enforcement drew dozens of callers. Most pushed to defund the police and invest more in community services, mental health treatment and education. A smaller contingent called for maintaining or even increasing law enforcement funding, citing a rise during the pandemic in burglaries and violent street attacks.
Economic recovery
Breed wants to spend $477 million over the two years to “drive and accelerate” the city’s economic recovery.
The majority of the money would be spent on the city’s remaining COVID-19 response, which includes funding to sustain the city’s homeless hotel program until the beginning of 2022. It also includes money for food security programs, vaccinations and testing.
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