San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is launching a reset of the city’s costly homelessness response system — promising no more blank checks for organizations receiving public funds in a statement released Monday.
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing plans to transition its contracts — amounting to roughly $500 million annually, according to Lurie’s office — to an “outcomes-based” model that ties funding to an organization’s success in actually helping homeless people and residents at large.
“We are not going to continue spending $1 billion of taxpayer money on a failing system—we’re fixing the system so we can deliver the safe and clean streets every San Franciscan deserves,” Lurie said in a statement.
Between now and 2029, the homelessness department, which manages massive multi-year nonprofit contracts for shelter and supportive housing, intends to competitively re-award those contracts with new language focused on “accountability,” according to the mayor’s office.
The agency is gathering feedback from service providers, advocates and other stakeholders that will inform future services and expectations on performance.
“We will build contracts with a clear purpose, stronger measures of success, and the resources and flexibility providers need to do their best work to move our clients out of homelessness,” said Mike Levine, executive director of the homelessness agency.
The move follows years of scandal and lackluster outcomes in the wealthy Bay Area city, which has historically had one of the highest homeless populations per capita in the United States.
San Francisco had 887 homeless people per 100,000 residents in 2024, many times higher than the national average — despite spending billions on supportive housing, shelters, and other services for those without housing in the preceding years.
Homeless encampments in the city have declined roughly 85% since 2024, thanks in part to a Supreme Court ruling that allows West Coast cities to more easily enforce anti-camping laws.
Neighboring cities like Berkeley have attracted scrutiny for sprawling homeless camps close to elite UC Berkeley campus.
Critics in San Francisco have long considered the homelessness system wasteful, even verging on outright fraudulent in some cases.
Gwendolyn Westbrook, the former CEO of nonprofit United Council of Human Services, was charged earlier this year with skimming funds intended for homeless locals to fund a “lavish” lifestyle that included luxury cars and trunks full of jewelry.
The organization has received tens of millions in government grants over 20 years.
In 2024, an audit by the Controller’s Office found that HomeRise, a major supportive housing provider, had irresponsibly spent taxpayer dollars on employee bonuses and social events.
An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle uncovered serious safety failures at HomeRise properties, including a dead body that decomposed for days — leading the city to cut off funding to the organization.
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