Board extends hotel shelter-in-place program, cites new FEMA reimbursement and urges purchases for permanent housing

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 2 unanimously passed an emergency ordinance to continue the city's shelter-in-place hotel program for people experiencing homelessness, saying new federal rules make continued use of contracted hotel rooms largely cost-free to the general fund.

The ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Matt Haney, directs city departments to continue filling and backfilling hotel rooms under existing contracts and raises the minimum number of active rooms to 2,200. "What this means for us is during the current fiscal year, if we continue to utilize the rooms under contract, the shelter in place program would have no cost to the city's general fund," Haney said during the board discussion.

Why it matters: The board framed the ordinance as an opportunity to use newly available federal reimbursement to shelter more people during the pandemic. Supervisor Haney told colleagues that FEMA had changed its reimbursement rules to "reimbursing 100% of…