Supervisor Mandelmann urges mayor to fund 2,000 shelter placements; other supervisors press for coordinated response to encampment injunction

Supervisor Mandelmann introduced a resolution on April 12 urging the mayor to fund 2,000 additional shelter or temporary housing placements beyond those proposed in the mayor’s budget.

Mandelmann said San Francisco’s rate of shelter availability lags other large cities and cited Place for All policy goals; he argued shelter-for-all approaches are the fastest, most cost-effective way to end unsheltered homelessness and to address persistent encampments. He listed a coalition of stakeholder groups supporting the approach, including Rescue SF, neighborhood merchant groups, the San Francisco Marin Medical Society and others.

Supervisor Peskin said the board will schedule a public “question time” near United Nations Plaza to press the mayor on coordinating city resources in response to what he described as a public-health and public-safety crisis tied to overdoses and open-air drug markets.

Supervisor Safaie requested letters of inquiry to multiple departments (Department of Emergency Management, Human Services Agency/Housing and other named departments) to report on what city staff can and cannot do under a U.S. magistrate’s injunction of Dec. 23, 2022 related to encampment removals and asked for updated counts of vacant permanent supportive housing units and navigation center beds (the transcript cites prior reports that over 800 permanent supportive housing units were vacant and that 80 navigation center beds were vacant for a period). Safaie asked departments to explain the causes (the transcript includes an explanation that a supply chain issue — mattress availability — contributed to some vacancies) and requested a plan for responding to the injunction and to manage encampments until the Ninth Circuit acts.

The transcript shows the board adopted a resolution or requested action on homelessness-related budget/placement matters as part of roll-call introductions, and multiple supervisors asked for hearings and reports to address public-safety and housing capacity concerns. No formal ordinance to appropriate specifically the 2,000 placements was recorded during the recessed meeting; the resolution was a request to the mayor and an invitation to collaborate on funding and implementation.