Council Addresses Thorny Issue of Where to Locate Homeless Shelters, Facilities

The question of where to locate shelters to house California’s growing homeless population has long sparked disagreement and controversy at both the regional and local levels over issues of fairness and shared responsibility. Should certain cities and neighborhoods bear the sole or outsized fiscal responsibility and other burdens of housing these facilities and what is the equitable way to apportion responsibility for addressing a problem that has no single owner?

While homelessness is most concentrated in cities like San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland and even in certain neighborhoods, the Bay Area Council’s research has shown that homeless residents are intra-regionally mobile, with anywhere from 44-77% of homeless residents in San Francisco having first become homeless in another city, typically someplace else in the Bay Area. Finding an answer to the question of where to locate homeless shelters has taken on greater urgency over the past year as cities like San Francisco and San Jose pursue a more aggressive approach to moving homeless residents out of encampments and public spaces and into safe living spaces.

This issue was front and center at the Council’s Homelessness Committee on Monday (July 7) when Supervisor Bilal Mahmood presented on a Geographic Equity ordinance he has proposed that would create a new framework for fairly distributing homeless shelters and interim housing in neighborhoods across the city. The proposed ordinance has met with resistance from Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has indicated he opposes ambitious deadlines included in the legislation. The Council’s Homelessness Committee chairs, Elizabeth Funk and Tom Wolf, are working with Council staff on follow-up questions to inform a possible Council position on the ordinance.

The Committee also met with Paul Webster, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights and Founder and Director the Hope Street Coalition, and Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the first Trump Administration. Webster shared his critique of the Continuum of Care (CoC) program and offered a preview of the Trump Administration’s planned changes, including consolidation, Homeless Management Information System reform, increased audits and assessments, allowing jurisdictions to better match up CoC program use with other benefit programs, and more flexibility for CoCs to invest in a greater diversity of housing and shelter options. To learn more about the Council’s Homelessness Committee please contact Senior Vice President of Public Policy Adrian Covert.