Permanent Supportive Housing: It’s not a model that’s broken but the foundation is crumbling.
It’s a fact: Our homelessness response system is failing many San Franciscans experiencing homelessness. As operators of supportive housing, and co-Chairs of Supportive Housing Provider Network, representing 18+ organizations, we see every day how our underfunded system is falling short. As a City, we must prioritize what can be done to serve our community better by listening to the voices of those that are being left behind.
SHPN works in partnership with the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to make real progress toward a City where no one is without the dignity of a home. Supportive housing is a cornerstone of the City’s response to homelessness for good reason — done right, it provides access to a caring community in an affordable housing setting with on-site support services. Done right, it supports recovery from the trauma of homelessness. Done right, it gives tenants the dignity of belonging in a neighborhood. Done right, it offers residents a voice in their community with a better quality of life that many have been systematically denied. Today, thousands of formerly homeless are thriving in supportive housing in San Francisco that is in fact done right-but that success is on shaky ground.
We have the unprecedented ability to expand our supportive housing portfolio, largely due to the voter-approved Our City our Home funding. Hundreds of units of new permanent supportive housing are opening in beautiful buildings with higher levels of services and better amenities. Rent vouchers for housing across the City are allowing for greater choice in neighborhoods and opportunities for those who don’t need the higher level of support that comes with supportive housing. New resources are also invigorating progress on long-standing systemic issues that have plagued our success on this very complex issue.
Despite this promising future, we will continue to see cracks in our system if we do not listen to the community members that are not being served, and the staff that is on the front lines of the City’s response to homelessness. We must address the very real foundational challenges that are present in existing programs — that are acutely felt in the legacy portfolio of SRO supportive housing that many call home. These over 100-year-old buildings at their best provide a small home within a supportive welcoming community, and at their worst offer a deteriorating room in an unhealthy environment that urgently needs attention. Many factors can contribute to the decline, with multiple strategies needed that range from investing in resident leadership, community development and oversight, capital investments, system of care improvements, and pay equity for the workforce. However complex, and expensive the solutions may be, we have an obligation to ensure that we make improvements where they are needed and to hold ourselves as providers, and our city government partners accountable to the people we have been entrusted to serve. The oversight must be driven by those with lived experience rather than more politics and bureaucracy.
To make progress, we must also urgently address the wage inequities for the non-profit workforce that is the backbone of the homeless response system — many of whom struggle with housing insecurity while dedicating their lives to promoting housing stability for others. The majority represent BIPOC communities deeply impacted by the same root causes of homelessness that stymie our progress. We see the deep value in lived experience, yet we are unable to provide a living wage.
Consider a desk clerk, who commutes to the Tenderloin for their second job on the graveyard shift in a building serving formerly homeless seniors. They assume responsibility for ensuring a safe, welcoming environment — including preventing fatal overdoses — for an entire community for less than they could make at a fast-food restaurant closer to home. Case management staff hired to provide essential services in supportive housing find it nearly impossible to meet the community needs given large caseloads and limited access to appropriate treatment-and understandably are lured away by much higher wages for similar positions offered by City Departments. The disparity between wages for City workers and the non-profit providers responsible for the bulk of the essential services continues to grow along with the cost of living in the Bay area.
It is tempting to lay blame on non-profit housing providers, City leaders and staff — or even tenants with acute care needs. But the real culprit is the systemic racism that runs through federal disinvestment in affordable housing, disparities in access to health care, the failed war on drugs, the absence of quality public education, and scarcity of employment opportunities that feed the pipeline into homelessness. Many San Franciscans know this but there is a difference between knowledge and actual, adequate levels of investment.
We can do better to address this crisis but it requires a significant investment of resources into authentic resident oversight, shoring up the crumbling foundation of our buildings, and paying our workforce a living wage. There is an understandable choice to direct resources to the new programs to show our progress, but we have an urgent responsibility to invest more in the quality of life for those still outside, and the community living and working in our existing system where the stories are harder to hear.