Home by the Bay: 2023-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan Overview

An Equity-Driven Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in San Francisco

The city is ending homelessness for people every day. We know what works and what needs to be done. Success is within reach, but it will require that multiple city departments align their efforts, hold themselves accountable to outcomes, and work in partnership with people experiencing homelessness, non-profit providers, advocates, community groups, volunteers, the business community, and elected officials.

Letter From Mayor London Breed, and Executive Director Shireen McSpadden

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What Makes This Plan Different?

Equity-Driven	• Developed with active community engagement/stakeholder input processes and with the partnership of people with lived expertise of homelessness.  • Recruited and compensated Community Liaisons with lived expertise to design and implement engagement activities; surveys and focus groups with people currently and formerly experiencing homelessness
Reflects Broad-Based Input	• Input sessions with service providers, community leaders & stakeholders representing neighborhood groups, merchant associations, business community, & general public. • Facilitated planning discussions with the HSH Strategic Framework Advisory Committee, the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee, and other entities.
Citywide in Scope	• Developed with input from multiple City departments; reviewed and considered other existing relevant plans and reports.
Quantitative System Modeling	• Used the best available data to project how changing the mix and scale of a packaged investment of shelter, housing, and prevention services will impact homelessness.

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Strategic Plan Goals

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Plan Proposals to Achieve the Goals

To achieve these goals, the city will scale up the Homelessness Response System by adding specified numbers of new prevention, housing and shelter resources. Focusing on five strategic action areas:

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Expanding the Homelessness Response System

The comprehensive system modeling analyses and projections indicate that to achieve the Plan’s Goals, the City must expand the homelessness response system through packaged investments into the below additional interventions between July 2023 and June 2028.

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Point-in-Time County Projection: Unsheltered and Sheltered Homelessness

Our data modeling has demonstrated that through the program expansions listed above, we will be able to achieve a 50% reduction in unsheltered homelessness.

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Cost Projections

System modeling has also made it possible to project the costs of expanding the homelessness response system with these additional resources and services. The City estimates that the projected expansion of the homelessness response system will require:

• More than $607mil in additional funding during the five-year timeframe of this plan and;
• More than $217mil in additional funding annually thereafter, increasing with inflation over time to sustain the new investments.

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Strengthening Operations and Outcomes –

Five Strategic Action Areas

For each of these Action Areas, the Plan identifies:

• The goals, whose achievement will be most impacted by efforts within the Action Area
• Relevant guidance and recommendations provided by people with lived experiences of homelessness.
• Objectives that express the intended improvements, changes, and impacts that City departments and offices will be pursuing through their collaborative efforts within the Action Area.
• Prioritized Strategies and Activities, representing specific actions and efforts that are already underway or are being planned for the early stages of the implementation of this Plan.
• Future Areas of Focus, representing actions and efforts that are expected to receive greater emphasis from City departments and offices in future stages of the implementation of this Plan and which may be further refined or adjusted over the course of the implementation of this Plan.

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Accountability Mechanisms

The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) will lead the development of annual implementation plans and will use these primary accountability mechanisms to ensure that the City as a whole is accountable to making meaningful progress toward achieving this Plan’s Goals and Objectives and to inform refinements to Strategies and Activities in the future.

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Next Steps

• Community and stakeholder education regarding the Home by the Bay and its Goals and strategies
• Development of initial annual implementation plan
• Development of detailed performance measurement plan
• Determining baseline data on racial inequities and other disparities
• Performing regular reporting, centering the experiences of people who are most impacted by homelessness
• Refining the Plan over the course of its implementation

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Acknowledgements:

The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) especially offers our deep thanks and appreciation to:

• The hundreds of people experiencing homelessness who contributed their expertise and recommendations through participation in surveys, focus groups, interviews, and meetings to help inform and shape this plan.
• Community-based service providers and partners who provide many of the services and housing programs within the Homelessness Response System, with deep gratitude to the foundational “frontline” staff of these organizations who provided their expertise.
• Community Liaisons, people with recent experiences of homelessness in San Francisco, who designed and implemented the focus groups and surveys with people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco and staff working within the homelessness response system.
• The HSH staff across every division of the department who participated in our internal Strategic Planning Working Group and/or contributed ideas and information for this plan, as well as the HSH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for providing their time and expertise.
• Everyone, including City partners and charitable organizations, who participated in town hall and community partner input discussions and meetings.
• The broader public, including San Francisco residents and business owners, who contributed their input.
• National and local experts and researchers in homelessness and housing justice.

Further, HSH wishes to thank the following organizations and individuals for their active partnership and support for the development of the Home by the Bay plan:

Organizations:

Office of Mayor London N. Breed City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors Mayor’s Office on Disability Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development Mayor’s Office of Transgender Initiatives Office of the Controller Office of Economic and Workforce Development San Francisco Department of Public Health San Francisco Department of Emergency Management San Francisco Office of Racial Equity San Francisco Human Services Agency

San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Families San Francisco Department on the Status of Women San Francisco Adult Probation Department San Francisco Health Plan San Francisco Housing Authority San Francisco District Attorney’s Office San Francisco Public Defender’s Office San Francisco Sheriff’s Department San Francisco Unified School District Treasurer Tax Collector’s Office of Financial Empowerment All Home Tipping Point Community

Committees and Boards:

• San Francisco Local Homeless Coordinating Board (LHCB)
• LHCB Coordinated Entry Redesign Workgroup
• Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee
• BIPOC Providers Leadership Workgroup
• Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association
• San Francisco Supportive Housing Network  

The City gives special thanks to the organizations represented on HSH’s Strategic Framework Advisory Committee who have helped guide the implementation of the original Strategic Framework and deeply informed the development of this Plan:

• 3^rd Street Youth Center & Clinic
• Bayview Hunters Point Foundation
• Catholic Charities
• Compass Family Services
• Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing
• Dolores Street Community Services
• Episcopal Community Services
• Homeless Prenatal Program
• HomeRise
• Hospitality House
• Larkin Street Youth Services
• St. James’ Infirmary
• Swords to Plowshares
• Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

Consultants and Community Liaisons:

• Focus Strategies
• Talent Poole Consulting, and especially Community Liaisons Aminah Elster, Dana Lovelace, Couper Orona, and Kezia “zia” Strong
• Matthew Doherty Consulting