Draft legislation reforming the City’s housing subsidy program for families, a program which had placed strain on the ability for homeless families to find housing, was released by Supervisor Chris Daly’s office on April 18 for review by SRO Families United, a collaborative effort of community housing advocacy organizations. If passed, this legislation will call for an increase in the subsidy from $500 to $1,000 per month per family, and an end to the arbitrary two-year time limit placed on these subsidies, in favor of need-based time limits that vary from family to family.

Upon inspection, the organization will send the draft back to Daly’s office. If passed, this bill will be a long-time victory for SRO Families United, which has fought for an improvement and expansion of the subsidy program.

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On Thursday, March 6, homeless families and their supporters gathered on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall, to mark the week of International Women’s Day and to demand expansion of City-funded rental subsidies as well as a lifting of the arbitrary time limit that had been placed on them.

Last year, the City of San Francisco made a commitment to support homeless families with a subsidy program that would help them move out of shelters, garages, and crowded and dangerous single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels into longer-tem and livable family housing. However, when the program was put into place, changes were made from the original plan as written by its advocates, resulting in rules that made it difficult or impossible for families to hold on to their new housing, and which made others ineligible.

Under the new rules, the subsidies would only be for a year, or extended to two years. Many needy families didn’t qualify because their income was too low! Others were disqualified because they couldn’t demonstrate the ability to raise their income by $6,000 within two years.

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Photos from last week’s rally for modifications to a rental subsidy for homeless families, courtesy of Osama Dawod. Stay tuned here to find out what happens with the subsidies, and how you can get involved in ending family homelessness in San Francisco.

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Barbara Taylor covered yesterday’s homeless families’ rally for an increase in homeless family rental subsidies. Learn more in the stories in the “Families” category of our archives!

The Coalition on Homelessness and the SRO Families United Collaborative present this letter to the community to inform all homeless families what has been happening with the Housing First for Families Campaign. (Families living in SRO [single-room occupancy] hotels, families living in shelters and doubled-up are all included in San Francisco’s definition of homelessness.) We want to thank you for your support and participation in this campaign. What we have won so far has been possible because of the support from the families and everyone who has been involved.

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Since 2006, three agencies have been placing families in a $3 million shallow subsidy program designed for low-income working families to get out of shelters and singleroom occupancy (SRO) hotels in San Francisco. Since the program began, life is much better, for now, for the families placed. However, “for now” is not a good forecast for any family in regards to its housing situation. Since this subsidy was designed, the Housing First for Families Campaign, one of the projects of the Coalition on Homelessness, has designated a monitoring committee to assess the needs of these families and how the subsidy is working for them. In order to do this, the monitoring committee created a list of survey questions.

All five organizations that make up the SRO Families Collaborative conducted surveys with families living in SRO hotels. Of the SRO families with whom we work, we were able to survey almost all of the families who applied for the rental subsidy program. We know that these are not all of the families that have applied for the program, but it is a significant percentage of the total.

The surveys were carried out by peer organizers who conduct regular outreach to the SRO families.

In addition, we spoke to a number of families who decided not to apply at all. These people’s experiences are relevant because they point to some of the core issues with this program.

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The McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program removes barriers to the enrollment, attendance, and success of homeless children and youth in school. The EHCY program was amended by the No Child Left Behind Act, and now requires all school districts to designate a homeless liaison, proactively identify homeless children and youth, and provide transportation to stabilize the educational placements of homeless students. These provisions have greatly strengthened homeless students’ access to and stability in school, and therefore increased their opportunities for academic success.

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Families have been short-changed. The City has provided $700,000 in eviction prevention funds and plans to build 498 units of subsidized housing in 2007. However, only 16% of those units will go to homeless families. With 3,000 homeless families in San Francisco, this plan will aid less than 3% of the total population of families in need, leaving roughly 2,920 families without housing. In addition, as Federal cuts to Section 8 vouchers increase, more and more families are at risk of becoming homeless from evictions.

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Please join us for a big action on Friday, March 30, at 11:00 a.m. on the front steps of City Hall.

We are seeking an operating subsidy so that extremely low income families can move into new housing units being built with City and redevelopment funds.

Over 500 units are going in over the next 18 months, but very few are going to homeless families.

Please come join us and support this work. The rally promises fun for the whole family: Food, easter egg hunt, dynamic speakers and more!

“It’s stressful… These days, pretty stressful.” Floria Cartago (name changed) reflects on her family’s single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel room: “It’s stressful for the kids, too. The boys don’t have enough space to move around; they can’t jump because it makes noise for the neighbors downstairs.”

Judith Martínez reports similar problems: “The apartment is so small, and the kids want to get around, get out,” but the Martínezes have no yard at their SRO hotel.

In a 2001 resolution co-sponsored by then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom, families living in subadequate housing are included in the City of San Francisco’s official definition of homelessness. Recent research suggests that there are at least 2,040 such families—in shelters, on the streets, doubled up, or in SROs—in San Francisco. The Housing First for Families Campaign (HFF), composed of families such as the Martínezes and Cartagos, has made it its mission to end family homelessness in San Francisco by seeing housing created for every one of those families.

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