San Francisco mayor unveils family homelessness program funded by Tipping Point nonprofit
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie on Tuesday unveiled a public-private partnership to help families experiencing homelessness, funded by his former Tipping Point Community nonprofit.
The city's Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot will be an 18-month program for families on the brink of homelessness, according to the Mayor's Office. The program is designed to coordinate and tailor financial help, employment support, child care, legal services, and other vital safety-net resources to help families stay housed, the office said.
Tipping Point Community, an anti-poverty nonprofit founded by Lurie in 2005, is investing $11 million in the public-private partnership between the city and five community organizations selected to participate. The community groups, led by Compass Family Services, include APA Family Support Services, Booker T. Community Service Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers, and the Mission Economic Development Agency.
The groups have long provided essential services to families but have not historically been focused on homelessness programs, the Mayor's Office said. The funding will provide financial aid for 1,500 families and cover costs for the partner organizations to create coordinated systems and operational resources. The Mayor's Office said the program began in January with a three-month planning phase.
"This investment assists families in crisis today while we develop and scale a model to support families in need for decades to come," said Lurie in a prepared statement. "Tipping Point's investment, along with their commitment to rigorously measure the pilot's impact, will help us ultimately reach more families in need and prevent homelessness before it begins. Creating lasting change in San Francisco requires all hands on deck, and I'm proud to launch this critical public-private partnership with Tipping Point.
According to the Mayor's Office, homeless children are eight to nine times more likely to repeat a grade, four times more likely to drop out of school, and three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems than students with homes. Families experiencing homelessness are twice as likely to have depression and PTSD, while infants born to homeless mothers are twice as likely to die in infancy.
San Francisco's 2024 point-in-time count estimated a 94% increase in family homelessness in the city, and the city's shelter waiting list is currently more than 300 families long. The pilot seeks to address other aspects of managing family homelessness such as employment, legal issues, and other safety net resources provided by the private groups.
"Preventing families from falling into homelessness is not only a moral imperative, it's absolutely critical to achieving better outcomes for kids and the entire community," said Sam Cobbs, CEO of Tipping Point Community in a prepared statement. "This effort will improve coordination across providers and deliver a more seamless experience for San Francisco's families."
The Mayor's Office said the city is separately investing $50 million to shelter about 600 families and house more than 450 families through new investments and existing turnover.
In 2017, Tipping Point committed $100 million to help reduce San Francisco's homeless population. However, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city has risen from 6,775 people in a 2015 point-in-time count to 8,323 people in a 2024 point-in-time count, according to city statistics.
