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HSH presents $60M Continuum of Care bid, outlines $50M Safer Families investment and family shelter expansion
Summary
Deputy Director Emily Cohen told the Homelessness and Oversight Commission that HSH submitted a $60 million Continuum of Care (CoC) application and is rolling out a $50 million Safer Families initiative to expand family shelter and housing through hotel vouchers, rapid rehousing slots and new subsidies.
Deputy Director Emily Cohen presented the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing—s director—s report, announcing a $60,000,000 Continuum of Care application and new local and state investments aimed at reducing family homelessness.
Cohen said HSH—s outreach teams conducted roughly 2,800 engagements in September and distributed more than 6,200 resource packets; the department completed about 1,100 coordinated-entry assessments that month and reported 168 housing placements in September. She said homelessness-prevention partners helped 198 households using about $1.1 million in financial assistance and that ERAP served 378 households this month with an average of $5,700 per household.
The Safer Families initiative, Cohen said, is a mayoral investment of over $50 million in the FY24-26 budget to expand shelter and housing for families. She said the program aims to shelter about 600 families and house more than 450 families by combining new hotel vouchers and rapid-rehousing subsidies. "This investment adds 115 new hotel vouchers that will function as emergency shelter for families," Cohen said, and noted 35 of those vouchers are already operational and 80 more will be added by December. The initiative also adds 165 rapid-rehousing and shallow-subsidy slots, including 100 newly funded rapid-rehousing slots and 35 newly funded family shallow-subsidy slots.
Cohen also flagged a state Encampment Resolution Fund award of roughly $8,000,000 to support Bayview outreach and the Gerald Commons cabin and safe-parking program, expected to open next spring. She described a new Guardian Assistance Program (GAP) pilot from San Francisco Animal Care and Control that will provide fee waivers up to $2,500 for certain pet services for people experiencing homelessness who are engaged in the response system.
Why it matters: Cohen framed these moves as both immediate and structural responses. The CoC application seeks federal renewal and new project funding; local investments are designed to increase shelter capacity in the short term (hotel vouchers and outreach) while expanding housing exits through subsidies and rapid rehousing.
Next steps: Cohen said many of the Safer Families funds are already being distributed, with additional awards and contract solicitations scheduled in the coming weeks. Commissioners requested follow-up data on the CoC award composition and a more detailed breakdown of wait-list outcomes at a future meeting.
