Committee urges mayor to fund 2,000 shelter placements over two years

The San Francisco Budget and Appropriations Committee on May 3 voted to send a resolution to the full Board asking Mayor London Breed to fund 2,000 new shelter or temporary housing placements over the next two fiscal years.

Vice Chair Rafael Mendelmann, the item’s author, said the city urgently needs immediate exits from street homelessness and that the Department of Emergency Management had indicated the primary barrier to encampment resolution was a lack of placements. Mendelmann urged the mayor’s office and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to act quickly to expand shelter capacity and to consider leased hotels, leased apartments and better use of existing vacant units and underused portfolio assets.

Public testimony was strongly in favor. Representatives of ResQSF/Rescue SF and several neighborhood and business groups said leasing hotels and apartments could provide immediate noncongregate shelter and cited cost estimates submitted to the committee. ResQSF’s Mark Nagle told the committee leased hotels could provide 1,000 noncongregate shelter beds for about $32 million a year in operating costs and that 1,000 leased apartments could be housed for roughly $42 million in annual rent plus startup costs. Rescue SF and other speakers urged the city to replicate the speed of the SIP hotel program and Homekey acquisitions as a near-term strategy while continuing investments in permanent supportive and affordable housing.

Vice Chair Mendelmann offered contract examples from recent shelter projects with annual per‑bed operating costs ranging from about $25,200 to $44,444. He used those figures to estimate an annual operating cost for 2,000 beds of just over $75 million, while arguing that effective use of vacant beds and leased units would lower actual marginal cost.

Supervisor Asha Safai and other committee members asked for operational details and an update on vacant capacity. Emily Cohen of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing reported that 80 vacant beds at the Embarcadero navigation center would receive mattresses and begin admitting people this week. Committee members also discussed tiny homes, long‑term leases, and better portfolio management as complementary approaches.

The committee voted to forward the resolution to the full Board with a positive recommendation. Roll call recorded four ayes and one absence (Supervisor Ronan absent). The full Board will receive the resolution on May 9.