San Francisco Public Press

Government & Politics

Homeless migrant families and others sit in City Hall Chambers during a meeting.

SF to Offer Some Homeless Migrant Families Temporary Hotel Stays, as the Rest Languish

Faced with an influx of unhoused migrant families into San Francisco, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing will soon offer 35 new vouchers to households for temporary stays in hotels. That will likely fall short of addressing the full need.

Migrant families have joined service providers and faith-based advocates in a push for a policy response to the mounting crisis, including increasing access to temporary housing and providing greater transparency about where families are on the waitlist for shelter. City officials discussed potential solutions at a Monday hearing of the Board of Supervisors.

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Chinatown Merchants Frustrated as Outdoor Events Disrupt Business

Since the start of the pandemic, Chinatown groups have closed pockets of the neighborhood to vehicle traffic, making space for events that might draw people. As the closures increased over time, local merchants began to bristle. Those frustrations have boiled over in response to the latest attempt, by a dance company, to potentially expand events.
More Migrant Families Are Trying to Access Shelter While SF Underestimates Need, Service Providers Say

Service providers have seen a recent increase in the number of unhoused migrant families seeking shelter in San Francisco, and say that the city’s temporary housing system is straining, and often failing, to receive them. Local homeless advocates are calling on City Hall to meet the need.
Overdose Deaths Swell Among SF’s Maya Residents, Highlighting Urgent Need for Culturally Competent Drug Health Services

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco’s Mayans have been dying of drug overdoses at elevated rates. More robust health services are needed, experts say, and providers should be culturally competent and able to communicate effectively with these residents, who may not be fluent in English or Spanish.
Booted From the Army, He Spiraled. Now He Works to Solve the Veteran Homelessness Crisis.

Homeless veterans make up only a small fraction of America’s homeless population, and they have been a priority in efforts to house the homeless. Since 2019, Congress has committed billions of dollars in resources to end veteran homelessness, and the number of unhoused veterans, who make up 8% of the homeless nationwide, has been cut almost in half since then, though last year saw a 7.4% uptick in numbers. But the proportion of homeless veterans living outdoors has increased. California, in particular, has more homeless veterans lingering on the street than any other state. More than 7,400 veterans live outside. Add in another 3,100 other veterans who live in shelters or temporary housing, and that’s 10,500, or almost one-third of all homeless veterans in the country. A severe shortage of affordable housing and the tremendous cost of living in California are partly to blame. But it’s estimated that more than half of homeless veterans suffer from a mental illness, and 70% are affected by substance use disorder; often the two groups overlap. For those veterans, if outreach, supportive housing, and a veteran’s readiness for change don’t align, homelessness often remains the default.
Reporter’s Notebook: To Prepare for the Next Pandemic, Let’s Not Forget the Last One

It seems that we’ve pushed the COVID-19 pandemic into the collective “memory hole” — a place where those thoughts, feelings and traumas can be dropped, comfortably out of sight. But remembering is vital to processing grief and readying countermeasures for a future outbreak.
As Attacks on Asian Americans Regain Spotlight, SF Group Seeks to Soothe Community

As part of the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice, outreach workers frequently visit commercial corridors to help businesses respond to possible anti-Asian crimes and make residents feel more secure. The San Francisco Public Press tagged along for one visit.
California Program Trains Undocumented Residents to Become Therapists and Serve Those in the Shadows

The future is uncertain for California Proposition 1, which looks like it might pass by a razor-thin margin and would expand the state’s mental health and substance abuse treatment infrastructure. As votes are still being tallied, we bring you this story from news outlet MindSite News about a San Francisco organization that is filling a glaring void in the health care system.
Reporter’s Notebook: The Epidemic She Didn’t Expect to See

Mel Baker shares an excerpt of an interview with Dr. Monica Gandhi in which they discuss the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gandhi is a professor of medicine and associate division chief of HIV, infectious diseases, and global medicine at UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and author of “Endemic: A Post Pandemic Playbook.”

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