San Francisco overhauls homelessness contracts with focus on results, accountability

San Francisco is launching a sweeping overhaul of how it spends money to address homelessness. The city is revamping its homeless services system with a new focus on results and accountability. Gate to View's Betty Yu, live tonight at City Hall with more on the story. Betty? Mike, this is essentially a reset of how San Francisco funds and delivers homeless services. Mayor Daniel Lurie says this is about accountability and making sure that taxpayer money is tied to results. On San Francisco's 6th Street, a known hotspot for homelessness and drug activity, the challenges are easy to spot. This woman told us she's on a wait list for housing. I got full approval for housing. It's a year and a half wait now. I live on my couch, my boyfriend's couch, it's not even his house. It's his best friend's house. It's the kind of experience city leaders say they want to change. On Monday, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a sweeping overhaul of San Francisco's homelessness system, putting all of the city's ongoing homelessness service and housing contracts through a new competitive process over the next several years. The mayor says the city cannot continue spending roughly $1 billion in taxpayer money on a system without demanding better results. I think building into the contract performance metrics enables that process to be more transparent and more accountable. I think this is something that's going to make city services better and I think it's doing right by taxpayers. Under the new model, the city says contracts will come with clear measures of success, including whether programs are preventing homelessness and helping people become more independent. And when an approach isn't working, the city says it will redirect resources to a better use. We have seen some providers in the non-profit space have different kinds of problems. Sometimes it's ethical, sometimes it's just a management issue. Sometimes I will even say just to be charitable. Sometimes I do think we ask our non-profit partners to solve problems that they were never set up to solve. The mayor's office says its broader homelessness strategy is working. Unsheltered homelessness citywide has fallen to a 15-year low, but some residents haven't seen the same progress. It's daily, you can see blood on the streets, needles, bottles, even once I heard gunshots over here. So I don't think this specific street overall in my opinion is going any better, but I can definitely see improvements in other areas. The new process will roll out in phases through 2029. Sincerely, I'll hope to see results, but right now I'm a little bit hopeless. And people will have a say in what comes next. The city says it will be hosting listening sessions to get feedback from the community during this process. Mike. All right, Betty, you're live tonight outside San Francisco City Hall. Betty, thank you.