Curbing Homelessness
Through Housing First Policies

San Francisco is one of the wealthiest cities in the world and home to 83 billionaires. It is a failure of leadership to allow 2,300 SFUSD students to go homeless and to not dedicate more resources and coordination to getting people housed. San Francisco’s homelessness crisis can be best understood through the metaphor of a pipeline: too many people are falling into a bottlenecked system and not getting out. We must focus on preventing people from entering homelessness, expanding the capacity of our transitional shelter and housing infrastructure, and rapidly moving people into permanent housing. This is not a challenge we can tackle alone, we need a regional and statewide approach to make meaningful progress.

Houston reduced homelessness by 63% by implementing a Housing First model, which is backed by decades of research. This model prioritizes moving the most vulnerable people directly from the streets into housing—without preconditions. In San Francisco, it currently takes about six months to place someone into housing after they complete the required paperwork. In Houston, it takes just 32 days, thanks to sustained collaboration among over 100 organizations and community leaders.

In a city with thousands of vacant commercial and residential spaces, this is not just a matter of resources: it’s a matter of political will.

Building Affordable, Sustainable, and Equitable Housing for All

  • Many unhoused individuals live with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, yet San Francisco lacks the infrastructure to meet the need for comprehensive care. Expanding behavioral health facilities, increasing dual-diagnosis treatment beds, and ensuring access to stable housing after treatment are critical steps. The city must also partner with state and federal agencies to secure funding and grow the workforce needed to meet the demand for high-quality mental health and addiction services.

  • Over 100 agencies and nonprofits currently operate homelessness services in San Francisco, often duplicating efforts and working in silos. To improve outcomes, the city must centralize coordination and unify services under a single, strategic plan—following models like Houston’s, which have proven successful. The Coordinated Entry system must also be overhauled to reduce delays, improve transparency, and make the process easier to navigate for both service providers and people seeking housing.

  • Over 700 supportive housing units in San Francisco remain vacant due to disrepair, red tape, and staffing shortages. These units must be renovated, staffed, and made accessible immediately. Addressing student homelessness requires collaboration with SFUSD and expansion of school-based shelter programs like the one at Buena Vista Horace Mann. Every child deserves a safe place to sleep, and no student should be left unhoused in a city with such vast resources.

  • Millions in housing funds from voter-approved measures like Prop I and Our City, Our Home remain unspent due to bureaucratic delays. These funds must be fully deployed to support proven, data-driven solutions to homelessness. At the same time, thousands of luxury apartments sit empty, held by speculative investors. Enforcing Prop M—the city’s vacancy tax—will help return up to 5,000 units to the housing market and ensure corporate landlords contribute to solving the crisis.

  • Many shelters and single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels operate under restrictive and often unsafe conditions, discouraging use. Outdated rules force people to choose between shelter and staying with a partner, pet, or personal belongings. Improving shelter conditions, increasing privacy, and upgrading SROs to be safer and more sanitary will make transitional housing more accessible and effective.

  • Studies show that direct cash assistance reduces unsheltered homelessness and helps individuals overcome barriers to stable housing. Monthly payments of $750 in pilot programs led to dramatic improvements. Expanding flexible cash assistance programs—alongside investments in job training—can support long-term stability. With a simultaneous labor shortage and unemployed homeless population, connecting people to vocational training and job opportunities in public, nonprofit, and private sectors is a win-win.

  • The private market will never produce enough deeply affordable housing. San Francisco must invest in social housing, following international models like Vienna, where at least half of new units are permanently affordable. Prop K, passed in 2020, authorized 10,000 municipal housing units, but long-term funding is needed to bring them to life. The city must also convert vacant downtown office buildings into mixed-income housing to meet regional housing targets and ensure housing production keeps pace with job growth.

  • Rising rent burdens are one of the strongest predictors of homelessness. Neighborhoods where residents spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent see the highest rates of displacement. To keep people housed, the city must enforce strong rent control, fully implement a universal right to counsel for tenants facing eviction, and expand rental assistance. The Displaced Tenants Preference should also be extended to include family members of displaced residents and essential workers such as teachers, nurses, and first responders.

  • San Francisco’s current encampment response strategy is ineffective and expensive, often relocating people without addressing root causes. Proyecto Dignidad SF offers a new approach: a person-centered, geographically focused model that gives each unhoused resident in District 9 a personalized, step-by-step plan to transition off the streets. This “by-name” strategy emphasizes long-term case management, regular follow-ups, and a clear path to housing and stability—not just temporary relocation.

  • San Francisco cannot solve homelessness alone. Addressing this crisis requires coordination across city, regional, state, and federal agencies. A unified, vertically and horizontally integrated plan will ensure every level of government contributes funding, policy support, and resources under a shared strategy. This work must be grounded in real-time data, measurable outcomes, and continuous improvement to track progress and ensure accountability.