New Projections Show What it Will Take to Dramatically Reduce Homelessness in Bay Area

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2024

All Home’s interactive ‘Solutions Dashboard’ shows how the region can reduce homelessness with right mix of solutions – as soon as five years with $9.5B investment 

San Francisco, CA – All Home, the Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to advancing regional solutions to homelessness, issued a report today showing that homelessness is solvable in the near future, but only if local agencies act with greater urgency to expand and coordinate three proven solutions: targeted prevention, more interim housing and more permanent affordable housing.

“Homelessness is a policy choice, and we can absolutely make different choices and end the human tragedy playing out on our streets,” said All Home Interim Chief Executive Brett Andrews. “This Plan lays out exactly what it will take and how much it will cost, and the good news is that it’s doable. But it’s also going to take more resources, commitment, and coordination than we’ve brought to bear before.”

At least 25,000 people sleep outdoors or in vehicles on any given night in the Bay Area right now. According to projections in the Regional Action Plan, it would take at least five years to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 75 percent. This would be a major milestone on the path toward the ultimate goal of “functional zero,” where homelessness is rare, brief, and one-time for those who experience it.

The region-wide cost estimate for a 75 percent reduction totals $9.5 billion over five years, on top of current investments. That level of funding would: 

  • Provide homelessness prevention assistance to 19,000 households each year
  • Create over 37,000 new permanent housing solutions, including more than 13,000 new affordable and supportive housing units, with short-term assistance or ongoing rental subsidies for an additional 24,000 new households
  • Develop approximately 5,200 new interim housing units to enable people to move off the streets into safe, dignified spaces as they get connected to a permanent home.

Bay Area voters may have a chance to approve a major down-payment on these solutions on the November ballot. Tomorrow, a committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will decide whether to put a $20 billion regional affordable housing bond on the ballot in all nine counties.

To help residents visualize what it would take to solve homelessness in their county, All Home developed a unique “Regional Action Plan Solutions Dashboard” that allows users to see the necessary mix of prevention, interim housing, and permanent housing. Users can also model solutions and associated costs to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 25 percent or 50 percent. 

“Bay Area residents need to know that homelessness is solvable,” said Alicia John-Baptiste, President & CEO of SPUR and a co-chair of the Regional Impact Council, which guided the development of the updated RAP. “People may think the problem is intractable, but the RAP Solutions Dashboard shows that dramatic progress is actually well within our reach—especially with the passage of a regional affordable housing bond in November.”

All Home also released a “Support Card” tool to help guide and evaluate local jurisdictions’ efforts to make their homelessness response systems more effective. Applying the Support Card principles should enable cities and counties to improve coordination, foster accountability, and improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.

The report echoed the California State Auditor’s recent recommendations that the Legislature and the California Interagency Council on Homelessness adopt stronger policies and clearer guidelines for tracking outcomes from homelessness programs.

“We can’t continue to nibble around the edges of this massive problem and allow our neighbors to suffer such deprivation in one of the wealthiest regions of the country,” said Ken Kirkey, Chief Partnerships Officer at All Home and an author of the RAP. “The solutions are at our fingertips, we just need more public pressure and political courage to make homelessness not only our top concern, but our top priority.”

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Media Contact:

Justin Berton, Berton Media
[email protected], 510-499-6305. 

Edie Irons, Director of Communications, All Home
[email protected], 510-334-1344.