City Breaks Ground On Housing For Homeless

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Tuesday announced the groundbreaking of a new housing complex in the city's Mission Bay neighborhood, set to provide 140 units of supportive housing for people exiting homelessness.

The $86.7 million project, called Mission Bay Block 9, is part of Breed's Homeless Recovery Plan, which aims to place more than 6,000 homeless residents in supportive housing over the next two years.

The project is expected to open late next year.

"As San Francisco recovers from COVID-19, it is critical that we create and acquire new Permanent Supportive Housing so we have stable, secure homes for people in need," Breed said in a statement. "That's why we created our Homelessness Recovery Plan and why we funded projects like Block 9, which not only create new homes for formerly homeless residents, but also create
new construction jobs to help get our economy back on track."

Supervisor Matt Haney said, "This housing project is not only going to give 140 people formerly experiencing homelessness a safe and stable place to call home, it's also going to enrich our Mission Bay community."

"We know that housing is the solution to homelessness," San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing Interim Director Abigail Stewart-Kahn said. "Permanent Supportive Housing is a critical component of the Mayor's Homelessness Recovery Plan and the key to eradicating chronic homelessness in our community."

The groundbreaking comes less than a week after Breed announced the city would close Shelter-in-Place (SIP) hotels being used to house 2,300 vulnerable homeless residents amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the plan, the city would relocate the hotel residents, providing them with permanent supportive housing options in phases over the coming months.

Homeless service providers and some city supervisors have criticized the plan to rehouse the residents in such a short time span, urging the city to keep the hotels open for now.

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