Supervisors move emergency ordinance to secure 8,250 hotel rooms for quarantine and shelter to full Board

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Finance Committee voted to forward an emergency ordinance to the full Board Thursday that would require the city to secure 8,250 private hotel rooms by April 26 to serve as temporary quarantine, recovery and frontline‑worker units and to house people experiencing homelessness who cannot safely isolate.

Supervisor Hillary Ronan, a sponsor of the ordinance, framed the proposal as a public‑health imperative in light of recent shelter outbreaks. “There are over 30,000 vacant hotel rooms in San Francisco right now,” Ronan said, arguing those rooms should be used to move people out of congregate shelters and off the street before they test positive. Ronan told the committee the ordinance would establish reporting requirements to the Board on rooms procured, room usage, and barriers to procurement, and would set standards of care for shelters, navigation centers and other congregate facilities.

Sevin Campbell of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s…