Recap from the first post in these series (Why is Houston More Successful at Tackling Homelessness than San Francisco? Part I: The Numbers):

Continuums of Care (CoC) are regional or local planning bodies that coordinate services to homeless individuals as well as periodic Point-in-Time (PIT) homeless counts. San Francisco, with a population of 815,201 (2021), has its own CoC planning body. Houston is part of a regional CoC that covers Harris, Montgomery and Fort Bend Counties in Texas.  Per the 2020 US Census, these counties had a combined population of 6,174,367 persons, most of whom live in the greater Houston metro area. For the sake of brevity, I will refer to the three-county CoC as “Houston” in this post. 

Per the 2022 Houston PIT Report: 7,956 individuals were housed either through Permanent Supportive Housing or Rapid Rehousing programs over the three-year period of October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2021. The 2022 San Francisco report does not provide exact figures for a similar three-year period (January 2019 to January 2022). Instead the report indicates that “over 8,000 households exited homelessness” through Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Rehousing, Prevention, and Problem Solving interventions, including relocation assistance. We don’t know how many of those that “exited homeless” did so on their own or through homeless services. Nor is it clear why San Francisco would count people who had been prevented from becoming homeless as having "exited homelessness”.

Despite San Francisco’s fuzzy numbers on program outcomes, it’s clear the city’s efforts haven’t been enough. The city’s homeless population has never been higher. And Houston? Down, down by a lot. This chart pretty much tells the story:

Why is San Francisco doing so poorly in its fight against homelessness? Lots of reasons, including politics, legal challenges, and poor city oversight of nonprofits. To illustrate:

Judge bans S.F. from clearing most homeless camps as lawsuit moves ahead. By J.D. Morris, Sophia Bollag, Kevin Fagan/ San Francisco Chronicle  Dec. 22, 2022. Updated: Dec. 24, 2022   

The goal of the suit is to force San Francisco to redirect resources from encampment sweeps and instead spend billions of dollars on affordable housing and other resources to permanently solve homelessness. 

How a judge's ruling is — and isn't — impacting S.F.'s homeless sweeps. By Adam Shanks and Sydney Johnson/ San Francisco Examiner Jan 2, 2023 Updated Feb 2, 2023

A U.S. District Court judge declared Dec. 23 that San Francisco’s haphazard approach to clearing encampments likely violates the constitutional rights of the homeless… But Judge Donna Ryu’s preliminary injunction didn’t bar The City from clearing alleyways and sidewalks. Instead, she only insisted that San Francisco follow its own policies, which both homeless advocates and city officials agree are legitimate. Specifically, city workers must bag and tag unclaimed belongings and offer people shelter. 

San Francisco will appeal homeless enforcement ban. By Bob Egelko/San Francisco Chronicle  Jan. 23, 2023. Updated: Jan. 24, 2023

San Francisco says it will appeal a federal magistrate’s order prohibiting the removal of homeless people from encampments without offering them shelter — a rule the city insists it’s already following… A lawyer for the homeless plaintiffs offered a different perspective. “San Francisco cannot possibly claim that unhoused people have access to shelter when it has closed the shelter system, closed same-day shelter lines, and unhoused people no longer have any realistic way to voluntarily access shelter anywhere in San Francisco,” said attorney Zal Shroff of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

‘It has not worked’: S.F.’s crackdown on street vending under fire as inspectors get attacked. By St. John Barned-Smith/San Francisco Chronicle Feb. 8, 2023. Updated: Feb. 11, 2023

Nearly five months after the city pledged to fully carry out a new law banning illegal vending at U.N. Plaza, the practice remains rampant there…“We don’t want to put our inspectors in danger,” [a city official] said, “and our inspectors have been attacked.” … San Francisco Public Works, which is leading enforcement, has not issued any violation notices to vendors at the plaza…The ordinance, [an official] said, “is not going to be wholly effective in areas where vending is hard to suppress if consequences are not stronger and police are not the ones leading efforts of suppression.”… [A homeless advocate] pointed out that when police show up, vendors or drug dealers just cross the street.  

'Waste of money': BART paid $350K for a homeless program that served one person. By Jordan Parker/ San Francisco Chronicle  Feb. 10, 2023

Three years since BART and the Salvation Army rolled out a $350,000 program to tackle surging homelessness on trains, the results are in: One person received services during the life of the contract, according to a recent report from BART's inspector general. BART's inspector general... [The inspector general concluded] that there were no metrics for accountability included in the contract…[and] data provided in the Salvation Army’s monthly reports “did not clearly communicate outcome results and found on at least one occasion, the results changed without a clear explanation.” 

But the biggest reason homelessness continues to be such a huge problem in San Francisco is its lack of cheap housing. And by “cheap”, I mean low-enough rent to be affordable for someone with the income-equivalent of $1700 a month* in take-home pay and/or cash and non-cash government benefits, e.g., Supplementary Security Income (SSI), SNAP benefits (“food stamps”), Medicare, and housing vouchers. Ideally, rent would not exceed $800 a month.

Unfortunately, finding a cheap place to live in San Francisco is a near-impossibility. For example, I found no rental listings under $800/month during a recent Zillow search and just six listing under $1000/month (5 of which were teeny studios). Even if San Francisco’s homeless programs were as efficient and well-run as the programs in Houston, San Francisco would still struggle to house its homeless population.

On the same day as my San Francisco Zillow search, I checked out the rental market in Houston and this is what I found: 504 results for rentals up to $1000/month and 136 results for up to $800/month. No wonder Houston is so successful at finding permanent housing for the homeless!

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* How I arrived at roughly $1700: The monthly maximum SSI Federal amount for 2023 is $914 for an eligible individual. The maximum SNAP benefit for one person is currently $281 a month. And the average health insurance premium for a 40-year old individual is currently around $500 a month. Of course, not all homeless individuals would have to rely on government benefits but could work to meet their living expenses.

References:

San Francisco Homeless Count and Survey, 2022 Comprehensive Report. https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-PIT-Count-Report-San-Francisco-Updated-8.19.22.pdf

The Way Home Continuum of Care 2022 Homeless Count & Survey Analysis. Prepared by Catherine Troisi, MS., PhD, UTHealth School of Public Health and Ana Rausch, MA, Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. March 2022. https://www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/2022/Homeless-Count-2022.pdf