On this edition of Your Call’s media roundtable, we’ll discuss a 10-month ProPublica / San Francisco Public Press investigation, which found that in San Francisco, hundreds of units sit empty as unhoused people wait months or even years for assisted housing.
Award-winning journalist Nuala Bishari investigated the city’s methods for getting people out of tents or other short-term shelter and into permanent supportive housing. She found:
- Vacancies have doubled in the past 15 months in San Francisco’s permanent supportive housing — units it has purchased, leased or contracted out to private service providers.
- Filling those empty rooms would cut the waiting list by more than half — and it would be enough to house roughly one in every eight homeless people in the city.
- Officials acknowledge that at least 400 people approved for permanent supportive housing have been waiting more than a year.
- The $598 million annual budget for the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing has tripled since the department was created in 2016. The city now has more than 8,000 supportive housing units, but it’s still not enough for all those in need.
Guest:
Nuala Bishari, award-winning reporter for the San Francisco Public Press and a fellow with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network
Web Resources:
The San Francisco Public Press :In San Francisco, Hundreds of Homes for the Homeless Sit Vacant
The Guardian: Unhoused and unequal: a California crisis
San Francisco Chronicle: Proposal would force S.F. to provide shelter to all homeless people. Could it get more folks off the streets?
San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. pledged to end family homelessness. It failed, but there’s new hope with a SoMa building
