San Francisco officials outline COVID-19 costs, hotel sheltering estimates and rebalancing plan

Kelly Kirkpatrick, the mayor’s budget director, and Ben Rosenfield, San Francisco’s controller, told the Budget and Finance Committee on April 8 that the city is tracking a range of pandemic-related expenses and working to capture federal and state reimbursements.

"Departments will spend an estimated 50 to a $100,000,000 for core operations related to COVID response," Kirkpatrick said during a remote presentation, listing Public Health staffing, PPE, transportation and temporary housing as major cost categories. Rosenfield said departments had already put about $15 million "out the door," including roughly $10 million for staffing.

The controller provided an early estimate for hotel-based temporary housing: "We currently the city currently has approximately 3,977 hotel units that are either currently under contract or that the city expects to be in contract with in the next couple of days," Rosenfield said. He said the preliminary cost for those units for a 90‑day period is about $35,000,000, including security, janitorial and support services, and estimated that roughly $20,000,000 of that amount could be FEMA‑reimbursable under evolving guidance.

Kirkpatrick and Rosenfield described the uncertainty around eligibility and noted different categories FEMA was addressing. Rosenfield said larger sheltering scenarios — the shelter branch’s planning goal of up to 7,000 units — would raise costs further: "We would estimate that the total 3 month cost of the larger universe here is about 105,000,000, with about potentially 55,000,000 of that claimable against FEMA, leaving a gap of about 50,000,000 as of yet unsolved."

Officials also reported on Give2SF philanthropy: Rosenfield said the fund had received $2.4 million with $6.3 million pledged as of April 5; the allocation committee had approved early distributions totaling $2.3 million for small‑business relief and food security. Kirkpatrick noted the city is tracking federal CARES Act funding and state emergency allocations for homelessness and alternative housing but emphasized that rulemaking and eligible uses were still evolving.

On the larger budget picture, Kirkpatrick said the mayor’s office and controller are developing a current‑year rebalancing plan to address an estimated $180–$280 million shortfall and will issue department instructions to limit hiring to essential health‑response positions, freeze or evaluate nonessential capital projects, and review unspent program funds. She said a rebalancing proposal would be brought forward in the coming weeks for committee consideration.

The presentation closed with committee members asking for more granular cost breakdowns, particularly for hotel per‑room costs and comparisons to alternative housing models that some supervisors said had lower per‑room rates.

The committee did not take a vote on the budget rebalancing plan at this hearing; both Kirkpatrick and Rosenfield said they would follow up with more detailed cost breakdowns and schedule further reports.