S.F. gets $44.5 million for homeless housing

San Francisco received more money than any other California county except Los Angeles in this year’s round of federal homeless funding grants, and much of that will go toward dozens of programs to house people permanently.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded San Francisco more than $44.5 million this year, up from $41.5 million last year.

In all, the nine-county Bay Area scored $149 million in homelessness grants, which are announced in January and are the single biggest disbursement of funding for homelessness from the federal government. Alameda County and its major cities got $33.6 million, the second most in the region.

The bulk of San Francisco’s package was $38 million for 47 permanent supportive housing projects. An additional $1.7 million went toward improving a coordinated entry system that more efficiently routes homeless people through city services so that care and housing can be cost-effectively tailored to them.

“We are focused on moving people off the streets and into housing and shelter,” Mayor London Breed said. “This funding is critical to helping us continue the work we have been doing to keep people housed, expand our system, reforming how we get people into services and fund new supportive housing for chronically homeless people.”

The annual round of federal grants makes up a small part of the more than $300 million San Francisco spends each year for counseling and housing homeless people, but city planners consider it key to the package.

Los Angeles County received $124 million in grants, the most in the state. That is more than last year, when it got $109.4 million.

— Kevin Fagan