Committee approves $4.9 million state CalWORKs housing support supplemental for rental subsidies and shelter work orders

The Budget and Finance Committee on March 12 voted 3-0 to forward an ordinance appropriating roughly $4.9 million in state funds to the Human Services Agency (HSA) to expand CalWORKs housing supports for fiscal 2024–25.

The supplemental appropriation would add state funding to the CalWORKs Housing Support Program (HSP) to pay for eviction-prevention back-rent assistance, additional rental subsidies administered through community-based organizations (CBOs), and a work order to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) to offset sheltering costs for CalWORKs families.

Celia Pedrosa, budget director for the Human Services Agency, told the committee the state Department of Social Services redistributed prior-year allocations that otherwise would have expired on June 30, 2025, and notified the city last year that San Francisco would receive additional funds. Pedrosa said the city was given a later spending deadline — extended by the state this week through December 2025 — which prompted the supplemental appropriation to allow the city to use the dollars.

The Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office put the appropriation at $4.9 million in its report, showing a breakdown of $1.2 million for rental assistance, $1.6 million in grants to nonprofits for rental subsidies, and a little over $2.0 million in a work order to HSH. The BLA recommended the committee approve the ordinance.

Committee members and staff discussed underspending in two program areas. Pedrosa said rental-assistance amounts have been underutilized because existing cash assistance programs are meeting many clients’ needs, and contracted CBO services have underspent partly because organizations received a large infusion of funding and face capacity constraints. She said average case length has declined from about 18 months earlier in the program’s history to roughly 12 months, reducing average cost per case.

Supervisor Joanne Gardio said she supported the supplemental appropriation but voiced concern about capacity at the two named CBOs — Abode and Catholic Charities — and asked HSA and HSH for a follow-up on whether those providers can absorb larger contract amounts. Gardio said she was “concerned about capacity” and asked staff to report back on both HSA and HSH contracts for those organizations.

Pedrosa said the supplemental appropriation was crafted to balance maximizing service to families, preserving some general-fund savings, and ensuring investments could be wound down without disrupting families when the one-time funding expires. She said the funding is entirely state and federally supported and that HSA will incorporate remaining revenue balances into next year’s budget planning.

The committee voted to forward the ordinance to the full Board of Supervisors with a positive recommendation. No members of the public spoke on the item.

The ordinance now goes to the full board on March 18 unless otherwise noted in the board packet.