Squalid conditions in homeless housing in San Francisco has prompted a November ballot measure to set up a homelessness oversight commission. Mayor London Breed won’t support it.
The mayor, who oversees a housing department with a $627 million budget, won’t back Proposition C because she believes it would create more bureaucracy, while not boosting efficiency or accountability, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The ballot measure came on the heels of a Chronicle investigation into deplorable conditions in city-supported permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless people.
Supervisor Ahsha Safaí wrote the measure, which supervisors unanimously passed to put before voters. Breed opposed a similar measure in 2019 that never made it to the ballot box.
The city’s homelessness response is overseen by a shelter monitoring committee, a homeless coordinating board and a group that decides how to spend millions of tax income from an earlier, voter-approved Prop C.
The mayor said the oversight bodies could be combined into one commission with additional responsibilities, instead of creating a fourth. Her spokesman says the city has seen a decrease in homelessness over the past three years.
Asked how Breed would otherwise improve accountability for the homelessness department, he said the city has a grant-funded data team working to analyze the system and create “more accountability and efficiency.”
Safaí said the Democratic Party endorses the homelessness oversight commission measure “and we know San Francisco voters will too.”
“We feel very fortunate that there’s a broad coalition of supporters for Prop C – labor, the business community, nonprofits and everyday residents,” he said in a statement.
Prop C is stoking a debate about whether a commission can play an effective role in a city known for its difficult-to-manage bureaucracy, according to the Chronicle. A recent poll found that homelessness is the top issue for voters.
The city will likely not cut the number of chronically homeless in half by December, as it set out to do in its five-year plan. There are more homeless people than in 2017 — 2,691 residents on the street compared with 2,138 five years ago.
A Chronicle investigation last spring revealed that despite increased spending on homelessness, San Francisco hasn’t addressed the crisis. The city houses people in underfunded, dilapidated hotels without adequate oversight, leading to chaos, crime and death.
After the expose, Breed proposed a $67.4 million increase in her two-year budget for permanent supportive housing, with most of the money going to higher pay for workers and more case managers for vulnerable tenants.
— Dana Bartholomew
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