08-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Mayor Lurie unveils first big haul of private funds to address homelessness
Mayor Daniel Lurie has raised $37.5 million from wealthy donors to address San Francisco's homelessness and behavioral health crises, making good on one of his early pledges to supplement taxpayer funds by tapping private dollars to clean up streets and get more people into treatment and housing.
Money generated by the public-private partnership, which is named the Breaking the Cycle Fund, will be used to acquire, build and open new interim shelter and treatment beds and to enhance supportive services to help people address addiction and mental health challenges, Lurie said Thursday.
While the funds are not insignificant, they aren't transformative. The city is facing a two-year $818 million deficit, which Lurie's administration is working to close through its proposed budget, which will be unveiled in about a month.
Lurie has initial commitments of $11 million from Tipping Point Community, $10 million from the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, $10 million from the Crankstart Foundation, $6 million from Keith and Priscilla Geeslin and $500,000 from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. He called those donations 'a great start' but said that they were 'not the end.'
The $11 million commitment from Tipping Point was already announced. Those funds will pay for a pilot program aimed at preventing homelessness among families, which skyrocketed over the past few years amid a surge in migrants.
'In order for San Francisco to recover, we must tackle the homelessness and behavioral health crisis we face alongside the historic budget deficit we inherited,' Lurie said at a press conference Thursday morning. 'We must learn to do more with less, and that's going to require an unprecedented all-hands-on-deck approach — an effort designed to reach across sectors and silos and one that brings to bear all the talents, innovation and expertise of this incredible city.'
Katie Schwab Paige, board chair and president of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, said the foundation was 'proud to support this vital effort.'
'As longtime supporters of the fight against homelessness in San Francisco, we believe the Breaking the Cycle Fund presents a unique opportunity to address our city's homelessness and behavioral health crises,' she said in a statement.
The San Francisco Foundation will oversee the fund, which will be spent in coordination with the mayor's office. Under state and city laws, officials will be required to report all donations through the fund to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
Legislation crafted by Lurie and approved by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year allowed the creation of the fund, making it easier to cut red tape and fundraise for initiatives related to homelessness, addiction treatment and mental health services.
Mark Mazza, who helps lead the city's new neighborhood-based street teams, said expanding beds and improving the behavioral health system were critically needed. Most days, he said his teams run out of beds to offer people on the streets by lunchtime.
'The announcement today is exciting,' he said, 'and a step in the right direction.'
