Why does SF pay so much to address the unhoused crisis? We take a look
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- For a few years now, we've known that most San Franciscans support mandatory treatment for people on the streets dealing with alcohol and drug addiction. Mayor Daniel Lurie's new policies seem to focus on breaking down what many refer to as the "Homeless Industry Complex."
Homelessness was thought to be a temporary problem supported by churches and donations, at least that's what then San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein believed in 1982.
But with the lack of affordable housing and the deplorable conditions at shelters, homelessness gradually grew to become a complex problem in San Francisco, especially for the nonprofits that dove in to address the need.
"They were learning on the job so to speak just as I was learning on the job. But I had to suffer through the process," remembered former Mayor Willie Brown who first term began in 1996.
There was contention.
By 2002, the City of San Francisco was spending $200 million addressing homelessness.
Some homeless advocates berated then Mayor Gavin Newsom for wanting to implement a program called "Care Not Cash."
The idea was to take part of a homeless person's public assistance check in exchange for housing.
Newsom believed "Care Not Cash" would create more coordination and collaboration.
Hang on to those words for a moment, coordination and collaboration, because there has been so little of both.
For years, some departments were addressing the issue of homelessness on their own with almost no coordination.
For example, the Health Department focused on harm reduction around fentanyl. That was not in alignment with then Mayor London Breed's plan to reduce drug use.
Still, health officials insisted that handing out kits with supplies like aluminum foil, pipes, clean needles helped to prevent diseases and save lives.
Critics argued that giving people the tools to do drugs just helps to enable their addiction.
Another example of the lack of coordination is the number of agencies and organizations that reach out to people who live on the streets.
We've told you about a homeless woman who lives at a bus stop on the corner of Market and Castro streets.
MORE: SF makes yet another attempt to solve chronic homelessness. Will it work this time?
Last February, we met her as an employee of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing asked if she was willing to accept shelter.
She declined. It would be naive of us to assume that she would accept their offer.
But let's take a look at how the city of San Francisco spends time and resources on that one woman.
First The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing dispatches the Homeless Outreach Team known as HOT to engage with her. It's been months.
The Health Department also sends a behavioral health clinician and a peer specialist.
Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic says in most cases, that kind of approach hasn't worked.
"Having homeless outreach team which basically if they saw drug use on the street, they say, 'Everything ok? Do you want any services? No, I don't want any services, Ok, that's fine.' What are we paying them to do, just to say hello to people on the street?" asked Shaw.
We caught a HOT team member in a minivan asking a group of homeless people from a far if they needed shelter. The person never got out of the vehicle.
In a 2023 Performance Audit of San Francisco Street Teams prepared for the Board of Supervisors, the report concluded that "coordination is poor and none is accountable to the other department."
"We have nine different street teams spread across five different department and they're not communicating as well as they need to be," said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Lurie wants a more uniform approach to dealing with drugs and homelessness. He says the city will now scale back on the harm reduction model and restructure the street outreach teams work with the homeless.
MORE: SF Mayor Lurie moves ahead with plans to add 1,500 beds for unhoused: Here's a look at proposal
Daniel Tsai is the city's new Health Department director.
"I can tell you the staff on the ground are very excited about it because folks want to be able to effectively help people on the street. You need to be able to do so in a coordinated way and that's what you will see very shortly," assured Tsai.
"We will take a hard look at our funding streams and our relationships with non profit providers to make sure we are getting the most for the one-billion dollars we spend on this crisis every single day," added Lurie.
Presently, besides the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, at least five other departments work with the homeless population.
And there are more than 200 nonprofits working with the homeless that are funded by city agencies.
That's not all. There are four government bodies claiming to hold departments accountable, the Homeless Oversight Commission, the Shelter Monitoring Committee, the Local Homeless Coordinating Board and the Shelter Grievance Advisory Committee.
Despite the apparently unsolvable problem that it appears to have become and the massive workforce it has attracted, few are ready to call it the Homeless Industrial Complex.
"When a problem goes on for so long and it doesn't get solved people blame those trying to solve it. The villains are not the people that provide the services," insisted Shaw.
"Blaming the homeless response system for the homeless crisis is like blaming fire fighters for the California wildfires," added Carrie Sager of the Homeward Bound-Marin Program.
MORE: There are 2 operations working to clear SF homeless encampments. Here's the difference
For those who have seen homelessness evolve through the years, they say right now, housing and proper treatment seem more amenable to San Franciscans than ever before.
"I think they've got a shot now, but that's treatment," said Brown.
"We have so badly misspent money and I think with the budget crisis and a different mayor we're going to have a different approach," said Shaw.
