Commission approves HSH contracts including 5 Keys Mission Cabins, storage renewals and transgender‑focused subsidies

The San Francisco Homelessness Oversight Commission voted on a slate of contract items (items 10 c–i) on Feb. 16, approving renewals and new agreements that HSH said cover a range of shelter and housing interventions.

Deputy Director/Chief of Finance Gigi Whitley told commissioners the packet included three renewals and several new agreements that span storage services, a fiscal agent agreement with Abode for problem‑solving services (intended to streamline interventions for roughly 505 households), and the implementation of a Mission Cabins project to be operated by 5 Keys at 1979 Mission, which HSH said would provide 60 cabins. Whitley described a separate flex subsidy pool that will allocate 112 subsidies to two community providers with experience serving transgender and gender‑nonconforming (TGNC) people.

Commissioners individually moved to approve consent items 10 c through 10 i. The roll calls were recorded for each item with Vice Chair Bevan Dufty, Commissioners Katie Albright, Dina Aslanian Williams, Kristen Evans and Joaquin Guerrero registering ayes; Commissioner Shaki Laguana was briefly absent for some early votes but voted aye when present. Each item passed by roll call.

Commissioners asked for clarifications on several budget lines. Commissioner Evans queried a Recology/dump‑run line she saw near $60,000 for a storage program that shares trash/recycling services with an adjacent navigation center. Lisa Rakowitz, shelter services manager, explained that the '350' served referenced an annual throughput and that during COVID the navigation center had closed and utility and waste costs were moved into the storage program budget; she said Recology covers the entire building and the department will review the line as part of right‑sizing efforts.

Commissioner Guerrero asked about Tenderloin Housing Clinic funding and whether it was 100% Prop C; staff said the Tenderloin Housing Clinic proposal had been in prior budget cycles and that philanthropic savings had delayed a city funding need until now. Whitley said the Mission Cabins site is fully leveraged with state funding — cited as roughly 75% behavioral‑health bridge housing grant and 25% encampment‑resolution fund — reducing the burden on general or Prop C funds.

Commissioners also raised per‑unit cost calculations for the cabins: staff and commissioners discussed estimates of about $45,000 per cabin and $40,000 per bed at capacity, down from earlier higher estimates when additional city costs were included in the strategic‑plan projections.

What passed: individual motions to approve contract items 10 c–10 i passed on roll call. HSH staff said they will continue to 'right‑size' budgets in subsequent quarters and will supply additional metrics linking contracts to the Home by the Bay strategic goals.

The approvals were taken as individual consent motions rather than a single omnibus vote; the commission recorded the roll calls on the record.