HSH reports voucher leasing progress, mission-cabin costs and new prevention dashboard

San Francisco’s Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) department told the Homelessness Oversight Commission on May 2 that the city has issued and largely leased up the federal Emergency Housing Vouchers and is tracking program performance across new public dashboards.

Executive Director Shreem McSpadden said outreach activity “stayed steady with 2,236 engagements in March” and that 1,086 coordinated-entry assessments were completed that month. McSpadden also introduced a prevention dashboard covering July 2023–March 2024 that shows 1,156 households received financial assistance totaling about $7.7 million.

The director updated the commission on several operational fronts. HSH reported that 68 of 84 Hope House clients have been rehoused during a wind-down of contracts, including 29 into permanent supportive housing and 29 into rapid rehousing. On federal vouchers, McSpadden said the city and the San Francisco Housing Authority have issued 1,261 vouchers and achieved about 1,015 move-ins under the Emergency Housing Voucher effort launched after the HUD allocation.

On temporary shelter infrastructure, McSpadden addressed recent media coverage of the Mission cabins. “The total construction/capital cost for this project was approximately $6,790,000,” she told the commission, and said annual operating costs were about $2.7 million — roughly $39,500–$45,000 per bed per year depending on counting assumptions. HSH and the Department of Public Works managed different pieces of the project: HSH budgeted construction and operations while DPW ran the competitive solicitation for site work, the department’s finance lead said.

Commissioners pressed staff on program outcomes for short-term sites and whether more flexible scattered-site vouchers could allow people to remain in place rather than relocate. Chief Deputy Marion (Marian) Sanders and other HSH officials said they have offered scattered-site (flex-pool) vouchers to households in the cases discussed and are using “every single resource possible” — including moving support and eviction-prevention referrals — to avoid negative exits.

The department said it will continue to refine performance measures and include sheltered-exit metrics in a forthcoming performance management plan. McSpadden and staff told commissioners that more granular vacancy and exit reporting will be reworked and reissued after internal updates to the inventory dashboards.

The commission did not take an additional, separate vote on HSH policy at the meeting; the director’s report was accepted as presented and commissioners asked for follow-ups on voucher recertification timelines, Hope House remaining placements and a retooled housing-inventory dashboard.