Dear Friends,

People often ask me, “what's missing from efforts to tackle homelessness in San Francisco?” We know that the City has been working to address homelessness for decades – it’s been a priority, and many local programs have become models at the national level. We are partnering with local and national experts to move from a patchwork of programs to a model system; one that is grounded in compassion, common sense, and the perspectives of those with lived experience. Building on surveys that informed the City’s Strategic Framework, we sought the insights of the people that have, unfortunately, become experts at living on our streets.

As a first step, we hired people who had previous experience with homelessness to interview people currently experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. Although our sample size was not large enough to statistically represent the entire population of San Francisco, the responses offer important insights. After months of interviews and data analysis, these learnings are ready to share, in a report entitled The View from Outside.

The report’s highlights are telling: the majority of people surveyed have lived in San Francisco for a decade or more. This aligns to the Point in Time (PIT) count results which indicate that 70% of people experiencing homelessness were last housed in SF. Most stay here after losing their housing—despite housing shortages and limited affordability—because they have strong familial and community ties. When asked, ~90% of respondents said the number one thing that would help them exit homelessness is a home they can afford.

Going forward, we will check our strategies against what we learned from our neighbors experiencing homelessness. We will endeavor to incorporate their experiences and desires into our work.

Daniel

Snapshot: The View from Outside

In spring 2018, we reached out to several non-profits throughout San Francisco who work on issues of housing and homelessness, including some of the groups Tipping Point invests in, to recruit peer researchers who have lived experience with homelessness. With the help of these organizations, we hired and trained a diverse group of individuals to conduct interviews with people experiencing homelessness. The survey questions focused on respondents’ experience, their needs, and what kinds of support they would welcome. The peer researchers’ expertise and relationships proved invaluable, both in terms of recruiting respondents and ensuring a safe and respectful experience for them as participants.

The overwhelming majority of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco lived here before they became homeless, with 50% of respondents having lived here for more than a decade. Of those surveyed, 36% of people experiencing homelessness are Black, yet Black people are only 6% of the San Franciscan population. LGBTQ people were also over-represented among the people experiencing homelessness we surveyed, relative to their share of the City’s population as a whole, indicating the disproportionate impact that inequity and the lack of affordability have had on these communities.

Among those experiencing homelessness, their needs—and their reasons for remaining in San Francisco—are straightforward. Their responses centered around family, jobs, and a love for this community.

When asked “If you were looking for housing, how important would the following be?” participants ranked a few telling essentials above even safety:

Having own bathroom
Having own kitchen
Having own independence
Access to services
Safety
Location
Close to community
Pet-friendly

The learnings reveal that our neighbors are striving against incredible challenges to secure dignity and autonomy for themselves and their loved ones. When designing programs or policies to benefit San Franciscans experiencing homelessness, we must listen to their expertise to inform our approaches.

Who's Making It Happen

Mayra Sierra, Community Liaison

“We need to see people experiencing homelessness for their humanity and resiliency… when we talk about homelessness, we are talking about people's lives.”

From producing stories in the field for StoryCorps, to working as an advocate to help Planned Parenthood engage the Latinx community, Mayra’s work has focused on building communities and community-informed processes. As Tipping Point’s Community Liaison, Mayra works to ensure that we center the voices of people experiencing homelessness in the Chronic Homelessness Initiative so that we have a fully informed view of the solutions to this crisis.

As project lead on The View from Outside, Mayra collaborated with Chronic Homelessness Initiative team members to develop the survey and train peer researchers in its use, as well as led the information-gathering process in the field.

What We're Reading

Aging onto the street – A study by UCSF researchers found almost half of all Americans experiencing homelessness are over 50 years old, and warns that without a serious effort to reinforce the social safety net, the number of elderly people experiencing homelessness is likely to grow rapidly in coming years.

California Assemblyman David Chiu wants to know the real number of homeless students – “If we ignore student homelessness, that’s not going to solve the problem. We can only provide them with services if we know who they are and where they are.”

Chronic Homelessness Initiative Overview

There are approximately 2,100 people experiencing chronic homelessness on any given night in San Francisco. Tipping Point’s $100 million pledge marks the single largest private investment to address homelessness in City history.

Tipping Point takes a three-pronged approach to our impact goal. See here for more details. If you are receiving this email as a forward, subscribe here to receive this update monthly.

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