Dive Brief:
- San Francisco Mayor London Breed has ordered city and certain nonprofit workers to offer to relocate people experiencing homelessness out of the city before providing services such as housing and shelter.
- Breed issued the executive directive to all city departments and staff last week in response to the city-reported increasing proportion of people experiencing homelessness that are coming from outside the city.
- Breed’s order comes on the heels of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s crackdown on homeless encampments. Newsom ordered the removal of encampments on state land on July 25 and encouraged local governments to take similar steps.
Dive Insight:
The large number of people coming from other places is undermining San Francisco’s progress in reducing long-term homelessness among the city’s residents, Mayor Breed said in her directive.
San Francisco’s 2019 point-in-time homelessness count found that 28% of surveyed individuals came to the city from a different county in California or out of state. In this year’s count, that number jumped 12 percentage points, meaning every four in 10 people surveyed were not from the San Francisco area. At the same time, the proportion of those who lived in San Francisco for at least 10 years before becoming homeless dropped to 14% from 43%, the city says.
“San Francisco will always lead with compassion, but we cannot allow our compassion to be taken advantage of,” Breed wrote in her directive. “We will not be a city with a reputation for being able to solve the housing and behavioral health needs of people across our country.” The city can’t continue to ask residents to support the “needs of those who travel here simply for care,” she added. In the last five years, the city has increased shelter beds by more than 60% and housing slots for formerly homeless people by 50%, Breed said.
The city’s relocation services offer people travel assistance, coordination with support networks and financial help for moving into housing in their new community. The services are a critical part of the city’s homelessness response, Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said in a statement. Since August 2022, the city has sent at least 857 people to other states and California counties through its relocation program, although it hasn’t tracked where many of those people end up, The San Francisco Standard reports.
In addition to applying to city staff, the executive order applies to homeless service providers that the city contracts with. Breed is also requiring the city to track and publish data on who accepts and refuses relocation services.
