SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Mayor Daniel Lurie is wooing San Francisco’s richest donors as he tries to raise $100 million to increase the city’s shelter capacity by 1,500 beds. The initiative seeks to combat the city’s chronic homelessness problem with private investment, but doubts have been raised about whether the strategy will bring lasting results.
Lurie, the former head of the nonprofit Tipping Point Community, has long supported private-sector answers to social problems. Tipping Point recently pledged $11 million to a pilot program to help prevent family homelessness by providing money and support services to vulnerable families.
We have to think differently and bring in private dollars to make an immediate impact,” Lurie told a recent fundraising event, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The effort to use privately funded shelters follows models in other cities. Houston, for instance, has decreased homelessness by 57% since 2011 using a public-private partnership called “The Way Home,” Funders Together to End Homelessness reports.
But critics say increasing shelter beds does not solve the underlying causes of homelessness. Supervisor Shamann Walton has opposed locating more shelters in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, stating it disproportionately impacts lower-income communities.
“We can’t warehouse people in shelters without having real solutions for permanent housing,” Walton said to the San Francisco Chronicle. While Lurie strives to obtain funding pledges from contributors, the success of the program will hinge on how well money is spent and whether the city can reconcile short-term shelter increases with long-term solutions.
