During San Francisco’s initial response to COVID-19, the City launched the Shelter-in-Place (SIP) Hotel Program as part of the COVID-19 Alternative Shelter Program. The SIP Hotel Program made a historic commitment to serving the unhoused population by providing non-congregate shelter for over 3,700 people experiencing homelessness who were most vulnerable to COVID-19. As the program wound down, the City and our partners helped three-quarters of guests exit to stable locations, including housing or shelter.
This page has information about the program and where guests went after the sites closed.
Program Overview
The first SIP hotel sites opened in April 2020. The SIP hotel program ended in December 2022. At its highest capacity, the hotel program provided 2,288 rooms across 25 sites.
- The SIP hotels largely served adults. Many adult guests were particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their age or underlying health conditions. Over the course of the program, HSH served more than 3,300 adult guests in these non-congregate hotel sites.
- In November 2020, the City started a coordinated effort to transition these guests exit to stable locations through the SIP Housing Process.
- The dashboards at the end of this page provide up-to-date information about where these SIP hotel guests went after leaving the program.
- When the SIP hotels closed in December 2022, two-thirds of eligible guests had exited to housing, with more guests in shelter and on the pathway to housing.
- HSH also served more than 300 family guests at one site. Families at this site were redirected to housing and shelter through the family Coordinated Entry process.
- The Department of Public Health also operated a site that sheltered and served approximately 115 high-acuity guests.
San Francisco used a centralized referral system to place guests in the SIP hotels. To reach especially vulnerable populations, the City partnered with the Department of Public Health, the Office of Transgender Initiatives, the Department on the Status of Women, and other community partners for guest referrals.
SIP hotels offered a variety of services, including:
- Wellness checks and health screenings
- Harm reduction services
- Security and de-escalation
- Referrals and linkages to Coordinated Entry Access Points
- Laundry and janitorial services
- Meals
The SIP program model had onsite wraparound services from the Department of Public Health and the Human Services Agency, such as medical and behavioral health, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), and benefits enrollment. This combination of services has helped many guests stabilize. Drawing on best practices from the SIP hotels, HSH is expanding similar collaborations with city partners across our system of care. The Department is also committed to expanding new shelter models, including semi- and non-congregate shelter. Visit HSH’s Temporary Shelter and Crisis Interventions page for more information.
The SIP Hotel Wind Down and Housing Process
The SIP Hotel Program was a time-limited response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the City moved from response to recovery, San Francisco slowly closed the Shelter-in-Place Hotel Program to support stable guest exists. The deliberate pace of the SIP program wind down allowed providers and staff to create individual exit plans and carefully match guests to appropriate housing units.
The City offered most SIP hotel guests a permanent solution to their homelessness at a lower cost than maintaining them in temporary shelter at a SIP hotel. For example, Permanent Supportive Housing is more than twice as cost-effective to operate as the SIP hotels. City leadership made a commitment to permanently house most SIP hotel guests through a coordinated SIP Housing Process that started in November 2020.
- Guests were assessed to determine their housing options or options for other next steps.
- Providers offered guests eligible for housing up to three units.
- If the guest declined all three offers of housing, the City provided Problem Solving services to help the guest identify a stable housing option outside the Homelessness Response System, including reuniting with family and friends. The City guaranteed a shelter bed for guests who had no other option.
In August 2021, housing eligibility broadened to include all guests remaining in the SIP hotels with a demonstrated vulnerability to COVID-19.
Over 2,500 guests were eligible for the SIP Housing process.
- When the hotels closed, two-thirds of these guests had left to housing.
- Most guests from this group who did not exit to housing left for a stable indoor location. Many of these guests are on the pathway to housing.
- Only 15% left for an unknown destination after abandoning their bed, being discharged due to safety, or departing after being offered of shelter. In comparison, 50% of all guests served at the SIP hotels came from an unknown or unsheltered destination.
There was a group of approximately 800 other SIP hotel guests who were not eligible for the SIP Housing Process.
- The main reason people were not eligible for housing is because they left the hotels before the City started the coordinated effort to house people in November 2020. About 500 guests left the hotels before November 2020.
- About 300 guests in this group were still in the hotels after November 2020. These guests were offered Problem Solving services and shelter bed placements. These guests did not have a high risk of negative impacts from COVID-19.
- Although they were not eligible for the SIP Housing process, the City was able to help about a quarter of this group of 800 guests locate permanent placements.
Housing and Other Destinations for Guests
The dashboard below shows detailed exit destinations for the adults served in HSH’s SIP hotels, split by guests eligible and not eligible for the SIP Housing Process.
- When the last SIP hotels closed in December 2022, approximately 120 guests eligible for the SIP Housing Process who were staying at the final hotel sites exited to a non-congregate or semi-congregate temporary shelter. All of these guests were either pending placement in Permanent Supportive Housing sites or have a tenant-based voucher and were engaged in the housing location process.
- Some other former SIP hotel guests were in other temporary living situations while on the pathway to housing.
- We will continue to track guest outcomes through the end of June 2023 to reflect housing placements for these guests.
- Guests who exited the SIP hotel program from the DPH or family sites are not included in this dashboard since they did not go through HSH’s SIP Housing Process.
- Click the expand arrows in the bottom-right corner to view the dashboard full screen.
- Use the buttons in the top-left pane to toggle between outcomes for “Guests Eligible for SIP Housing Process” versus “Other SIP Hotel Guests.”
The dashboards below show the age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity of the guests served in the Shelter-in-Place Hotels, broken out by group and exit type.
User Tips
- Switch on the toggle on the bottom left to see data split by exit type (see example to the right).
- Use the buttons in the top-left pane to switch between outcomes for “Guests Eligible for SIP Housing Process” versus “Other SIP Hotel Guests.”
- Hovering over the column charts will display tooltips with additional detail.
- Click the expand arrows in the bottom-right corner to view the dashboard full screen.
Additional User Tip: Clicking on either the Race or Ethnicity column charts will highlight the other chart to help users explore the relationship between these two variables. This interaction works when clicking on an individual column or an entire header. Users may also hold the CTRL key to select multiple columns or multiple headers.
Combined demographic information for all guests served in HSH’s adult SIP hotel program is available, including some additional data with population breakouts and the prior living situation of guests.