Board subcommittee reviews "housing ladder" strategy and eviction prevention in San Francisco

San Francisco — City officials and housing providers told the Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Subcommittee on May 7 that a coordinated “housing ladder” approach and stronger eviction-prevention tools are essential to get people out of shelters and create space for newly homeless residents.

The hearing, called by Chair Mark Farrell, brought presentations from the Mayor’s Office of HOPE, Human Services Agency (HSA), Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD). Bevan Dufty of HOPE summarized the concept as movement from emergency shelter and stabilization into supportive housing and then on to permanent subsidized or market housing when feasible. “Evictions from city-funded units that were intended to house vulnerable people should be a last resort,” Dufty said, urging stronger eviction prevention and expanded financial-empowerment services.

The Eviction Defense Collaborative told the committee that evictions from subsidized and city-funded units are common and fast: Nathaniel Pleiter, supervising attorney, said 26% of 2013 evictions involved city-funded units and described how quickly cases can lead to removal if tenants do not respond to notices. “Because tenants in publicly funded units often have difficulty navigating the process, they need extra time and extra help,” Pleiter said.

HSA Director Trent Rohr described a new funding structure for supportive-housing services set to begin July 2014 that divides buildings into five tiers. The tiers define support-staff-to-unit ratios ranging from roughly one case manager per 75 units in low-service master-lease buildings to stronger staffing in high-need buildings (for example, 1 FTE per 35 adult units in some higher-support tiers). Rohr said the division is intended to bring “rationality” to widely varying per-unit service costs; a controller study due in the fall will examine actual service utilization and exits from supportive housing.

DPH’s Margo Antonetti framed supportive housing as a health intervention for very high-acuity clients. She said DPH manages specialty portfolios — medical respite, long-term housing for people with mental illness and HIV-related care — and reported that in 2013 DPH recorded 164 exits from direct-access housing; 22 of those were evictions (a 13% eviction rate among exits; 1.3% of 1,700 units). Antonetti stressed the need for clinical assessment in referrals to ensure people are placed into the setting best suited to their medical and psychiatric needs.

MOHCD Director Olson Lee said the city’s pipeline includes more than 8,500 units over six years with supportive components, but he warned that building units is only half the problem: “The question is whether we can operate and provide the appropriate level of service,” he said, urging more project-based Section 8 vouchers to make exits feasible.

Providers and tenants offered concrete examples of what helps and what blocks mobility. Gail Gilman, executive director of Community Housing Partnership, described CHP’s programs that emphasize on-site services and workforce supports and said CHP has a 98.5% retention rate; CHP is piloting rapid-rehousing exits and transfer agreements with Mercy Housing to move aging tenants into higher-care senior housing when appropriate. Speakers representing tenant advocacy organizations and legal service providers asked the committee to restore behavioral-health cuts, expand emergency rental assistance and fund additional eviction-defense attorneys.

Committee members did not adopt new policy at the hearing but the Human Services Agency and other departments were asked to provide follow-up data; Rohr said the controller’s analysis of supportive-housing utilization and exits will be completed in the fall and will inform the city’s decisions on service levels and funding. Chair Farrell closed by saying the hearing is part of a larger series intended to develop a robust housing-ladder strategy and recommended continued coordination across HSA, DPH, MOHCD and community providers.

What’s next: the controller’s report this fall, the HSA coordinated-assessment pilot starting in July (initially using Shelter Plus Care units and placing about 7–8 people per month), and further budget hearings and follow-up reports to the Board.