How San Francisco retains previously homeless adults off the streets

The urgent need for more supportive housing in San Francisco is only a fraction of the challenge the city faces in helping unoccupied residents find shelter.

Preventing eviction and re-entry into homelessness is an entirely different obstacle.

The issue is increasingly preoccupying those tasked with reducing homelessness in San Francisco as the local population ages. Now The City is expanding a small pilot program called Collaborative Caregiver Support Teams that aims to accommodate formerly homeless adults.

“One of the biggest challenges facing providers of permanent supportive housing is habitability,” said Kelly Dearman, executive director of the Department of Disability and Aging Services. “We see a growing need to support displaced and formerly homeless San Francisco residents who are grappling with issues that put their homes at risk.”

The pilot started in November at Minna Lee, a one-bedroom building and permanent residential lot in the South of Market neighborhood. Starting this month, it will become an additional permanent home and a third is planned for January with the aim of reaching 1,000 people.

The idea behind the program is to connect older, formerly homeless adults who are at risk of losing their home more quickly with carers who can help with everyday needs and help maintain clean living space, which is often a reason to vacate is when individuals have difficulty maintaining units on their own.

Currently, approximately 30% of the city’s approximately 8,000 residents in permanent care accommodation are receiving home support services, according to the San Francisco Human Services Agency.

The pilot is still in its infancy, but is already having an impact on residents like James Lucas, 57, who was previously homeless and now lives at Minna Lee.

Lucas threatened to be evicted when the care team answered. He was initially skeptical of the help he might get, but agreed to sign up for the program and told the Examiner he was relieved to have help cleaning his unit so he could pass the inspection. Now, Lucas’s care team members meet with him regularly to keep his unit clean.

Enrollment in the services offered by the city’s Homelessness and Supportive Housing Department (HSH) and the Human Services Agency (SFHSA) is voluntary. But that can be an incredibly difficult decision for people who have made it far on their own or have had negative experiences with health and social services.

James Lucas, a resident of Minna Lee, was threatened with eviction but received help through a maintenance program to keep his unit clean. (Craig Lee / The Examiner)

Lucas has seen some of the best and worst parts of San Francisco since moving to The City in 1978, and he still remembers the tumultuous year that former Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were murdered. But his vision has started to fade lately, making even small daily tasks more difficult.

“It makes it easier for me to just function, you know?” Lucas said of his previous experience with the program. “Somebody calls me and says, ‘Look, you know you have an appointment.’ I know it’s my job; it is my responsibility. When people do that and help you, it inspires you to do the right thing first. “

More than just a roof

San Francisco opened 25 shelters for the homeless at the start of the pandemic. When it quickly became clear that some residents needed a higher level of care, The City responded by providing assistance to residents of SIP hotels at home.

The success of providing these home care services in the SIP hotels was a driver for the program, which is now starting in Minna Lee, say the organizers.

“This partnership has been very successful in providing additional services to the people needed for stabilization. This is one of the lessons of the SIP hotel program that HSH is looking to bring to its larger housing portfolio, ”said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing in San Francisco.

While officials in San Francisco advance a controversial plan to relocate all SIP hotel residents to permanent accommodation, care teams seek to alleviate the difficulties and trauma that can come with re-admitting and moving.

So far, about 1,346 people are still living in the emergency shelters, according to San Francisco, and 2,380 have been relocated to permanent care shelters.

Minna Lee residents are among the roughly 30% of the city’s approximately 8,000 residents in permanent supportive shelter who receive home support services, according to the San Francisco Human Services Agency. (Craig Lee / The Examiner)

Those who work at the SIP hotels and supportive shelters hope the program provides a safer experience for those in the midst of San Francisco’s political debates on homelessness.

“Compared to my other cases, I know who to turn to when a customer needs help much faster,” says Jatzel Martinez, home support caregiver at Minna Lee.

From an organizational perspective, the team approach has given caregivers the simple but powerful tool of having a coordinated place to turn to when needs arise or change, Martinez said.

In many cases, residential solutions still come too little and too late. A recent pilot project in Santa Clara to provide permanent housing support found “extremely high mortality rates” even in those who were successfully housed. Out of 423 participants, including some who were not housed, around 70 died.

Residents like Ron Brannock, who moved to Minna Lee after living at Hotel Witcomb on Market and Eighth Street, one of the SIP hotels, have witnessed the brutal realities firsthand. Emergency shelters and other temporary housing are not lacking in problems, he said. Days and nights can be noisy, sometimes there is fighting on the sidewalk, and the overall habitability in some SROs can be terrible.

For example, a group of 21 tenants in the Granada Hotel and an SRO in the Tenderloin are suing the property’s owner and property manager for abuse of the elderly and eviction, among other things.

But Brannock believes that things can be done better.

“This is a great place. Every Monday they make a pantry. And every other week they make hygiene kits. I came here with nothing and now I have a flat screen TV, a saucepan, and a refrigerator, all because of them, ”Brannock said. “I can have peace of mind knowing that I won’t wake up in the rain or that you aren’t sleeping outside somewhere.”

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com