San Francisco Sun

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed announced today that San Francisco’s increased investment in shelter has accelerated its planned shelter rollout. She has directed the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to amend its five-year homelessness plan to double its goal for shelter and temporary housing.

In July 2023, San Francisco released the Home by the Bay plan, a five-year initiative aimed at cutting unsheltered homelessness in half. The model initially projected that San Francisco needed 1,075 new shelter beds by 2028.

Mayor Breed stated that with the beds already added under the plan and current pipeline projects, the city is set to reach its 2028 goal by 2025. Once these pipeline projects are completed, San Francisco will have 4,560 beds—an increase of 1,060 above the 3,500 beds available when the plan launched. This represents an increase of nearly 90% since Mayor Breed took office in 2018.

This acceleration is partly driven by Mayor Breed’s Safer Families Initiative, which funded nearly 400 emergency shelter beds via 115 new hotel vouchers to address growing family homelessness in San Francisco.

With this significant push for new shelters nearing its five-year plan goal, Mayor Breed has instructed the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to double the shelter and temporary housing targets in the Home By the Bay plan. This new objective aligns with Supervisor Mandelman’s A Place for All initiative, which called for additional shelters to meet the needs of San Francisco's unsheltered population.

“City workers are out every day working hard to deliver new shelter and housing and to bring people indoors,” said Mayor London Breed. “I’m proud of our commitment and the new shelter beds we’ve added, but we’ve got more work to do. We will keep doing what is necessary to add shelter beds while doing the work to add permanent housing options so people have the ability to come indoors off our streets and get on the path to long-term housing stability.”

“I want to congratulate Mayor Breed and HSH for their progress in bringing shelter beds online," said District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. "Improvements in street conditions are visible in my District and across the City. More importantly, we have been able to connect thousands of unhoused people to services and help set them on a path to a better future."

During its first year (July 2023 - June 2024), Home by the Bay provided substantial support for those experiencing homelessness:

- Sheltered nearly 10,000 individuals

- Helped 5,250 people move from homelessness into housing

- Provided over 8,200 individuals with prevention support like rental assistance

"The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is moving forward a comprehensive plan built on prevention, shelter, and housing,” said HSH Executive Director Shireen McSpadden. “We have made significant progress on shelter expansion but continue needing more capacity.”

Today San Francisco has approximately 4,200 available shelter beds for individuals and families with another 361 beds in development:

- Jerrold Commons: Adding 60 cabins

- Dolores Adult Shelter: Expanding by 61 beds

- Hotels under Safer Families Initiative: Adding space through vouchers totaling up to240 additional family spaces

These pipeline projects will result in an over-90% increase in available shelter since Mayor Breed assumed office.

The rise in available shelters correlates with a reduction in street encampments; prior data shows a notable decrease between July 2023 and July 2024. Efforts also include transitioning people from vehicles into more stable living conditions—a challenge exacerbated by increasing family homelessness addressed through initiatives like Safer Families.

Recent efforts moved over forty-five families from RVs into permanent housing solutions.

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