Mayor London Breed stresses housing and 'Opportunities for All' in board appearance

Mayor London Breed told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 12 that her administration will press a shelter-crisis ordinance and expand youth employment and violence-prevention efforts as part of a strategy to get people off the street "quickly with compassion."

Breed said her shelter-crisis legislation would be before the board the next week and that her office is vetting potential shelter locations around the clock; she said she hoped to announce a site west of Venice Avenue "this year." The mayor also described plans to hire a coordinator within weeks to help align the city’s violence-prevention programs.

In a short exchange with Supervisor Shamman Walton, Breed linked the coordinated approach to her Opportunities for All youth jobs program. "We have to really interrupt this cycle of violence ... by shifting and making the right investments," Breed said, adding that the initiative secured 9,000 slots and that 1,000 were targeted to youth who need extra support. "We can't just keep talking about what we're doing, we must do more," she said.

Why it matters: Breed tied shelter siting and services to workforce development and violence-interruption strategies, signaling the administration’s intent to pursue both short-term shelter responses and longer-term prevention through youth employment and program coordination.

Details and follow-ups

- Shelter legislation and siting: Breed said the administration’s shelter-crisis ordinance will aim to "maximize our investments to more efficiently deliver shelters and services" and requested the board’s support when it appears on the agenda the following week. She acknowledged District 6’s contributions and singled out Supervisor Haney for supporting a proposed safe navigation center in South Beach.

- Site vetting: Breed said city staff are vetting proposed shelter sites and that her office hopes to announce a site west of Venice Avenue in 2019; she did not provide a specific address or timeline beyond "this year." (Not specified.)

- Violence-prevention coordination: Responding to Supervisor Walton’s question about a single coordinator for citywide violence-prevention services, Breed said the city planned to hire a coordinator “within the next couple of weeks” to both facilitate service coordination and recommend policies to reduce street violence.

- Opportunities for All: Breed described Opportunities for All as providing paid internships across sectors — including a thousand slots for youth with the greatest barriers to employment — and listed placements ranging from city employment and cadet academy slots to nonprofit and private-sector opportunities in finance, tech and healthcare.

Attributions and speakers

All direct quotes are taken from the public record of the March 12 board meeting and attributed to the speakers shown below.

Ending

Breed closed by offering to take questions from supervisors and asking for the board’s support on the shelter-crisis ordinance and shelter locations in the coming week. The board moved on to other agenda business after the mayor’s appearance and the public-comment period later in the meeting included separate statements about homelessness and housing policy.