San Francisco to move 200 homeless residents from hotels into housing

San Francisco will move 200 homeless residents out of the hotels where they’ve been temporarily sheltering during the pandemic and into housing, Mayor London Breed said Thursday.

The announcement marks the city’s first step toward answering a question that has plagued activists and experts for months: What will happen to homeless community members once the coronavirus crisis is over and temporary shelter programs end?

Cities and counties across the Bay Area have moved thousands of people off the streets, out of group shelters and into vacant hotel rooms in an effort to allow them to shelter-in-place safely. But those programs won’t last forever. And in a region that already has a marked shortage of housing for homeless residents, some advocates worry people will leave the hotels and end up back outside.

To avoid that, San Francisco has promised to move 200 people into long-term rental units by the end of the year, using a new $11 million pool of donated funds. The city already has moved 12 people as part of a pilot program.

“Even as we have implemented emergency responses to COVID-19, we have remained focused on long term solutions to homelessness, particularly more housing,” Breed said in a news release. “The Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool is an innovative and cost-effective way to get our unhoused residents out of temporary shelters, off the streets, and into permanent homes.”

San Francisco had leased 2,407 hotel rooms as of Tuesday — 1,860 of which were occupied, according to state data. The program is part of a statewide initiative dubbed Project Roomkey, which provides federal reimbursements to counties that use hotel rooms to shelter homeless residents who have COVID-19, may have the virus or are particularly vulnerable to infection because of their age or health.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is encouraging cities and counties to buy those hotels and turn them into long-term housing for homeless residents, and has promised funding to help.

In the meantime, San Francisco will tap into its new Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool, or “Flex Pool,” to house residents currently living in the hotels. City staff members will refer eligible residents to the program. Nonprofit Brilliant Corners will identify landlords with vacant units available throughout the city and match homeless residents to those units.

Renters will contribute 30% of their income and the Flex Pool will pay the rest. Residents can continue receiving the rental subsidy for the rest of their lives if they need it, said Stephany Ashley, Northern California director of housing services for Brilliant Corners.

“Even if you pay someone’s rent for the rest of their lives … not only is it the morally right thing to do, it’s also cheaper than allowing them to remain on the street for the rest of their lives,” she said, referencing the money the government spends on emergency services for unhoused people each year.

Donations from Tipping Point Community, Dignity Health and Crankstart will fund the Flex Pool for the first 18 months. After that, the city will take over funding.

Brilliant Corners has been operating a similar program in Los Angeles County since 2014, through which it has moved more than 8,000 homeless people into rental units. Residents who participate in the program get a housing coordinator and a case manager to make sure they stay housed and to help resolve any disputes that may arise between the tenant and landlord.

Proponents of the program say finding existing, vacant units to house homeless residents is more efficient than waiting years for new affordable housing to be built. It can be cheaper than leasing hotel rooms.

The San Francisco program and its 200-person goal is a great start, said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness. But her organization will be pressuring the mayor and the Board of Supervisors to set aside more money for the effort.

“We definitely need to bump up the numbers, for sure,” she said.

One of the residents already housed through San Francisco’s pilot program is 47-year-old Roland Limjoco. After being homeless for several years, he moved into a studio apartment last month.

“I feel less stressed now,” Limjoco said, according to a city news release. “Here in my new place, it is great, quiet, and I have a nice view. I never had this before.”