Latest news with #TippingPointCommunity
San Francisco Chronicle
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.'
CBS News
04-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
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.
