logo
  • Nonprofit News
  • Management
    • Boards and Governance
    • Communication
      • Framing & Narratives
    • Ethics
    • Financial Management
    • Fund Development
    • Leadership
    • Technology
  • Philanthropy
    • Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Donor-Advised Funds
    • Foundations
    • Impact Investing
    • Research
    • Workplace Giving
  • Policy
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Housing
    • Government
    • Taxes
  • Economic Justice
    • Economy Remix
    • Economy Webinars
    • Community Benefits
    • Economic Democracy
    • Environmental Justice
    • Fair Finance
    • Housing Rights
    • Land Justice
    • Poor People’s Rights
    • Tax Fairness
  • Racial Equity
  • Social Movements
    • Community Development
    • Community Organizing
    • Culture Change
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Gender Equality
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Indigenous Rights
    • Labor
    • LGBTQ+
    • Racial Justice
    • Youth Activism
  • About Us
  • Log in
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Webinars
    • Leading Edge Membership
    • Sponsored Webinars
    • Economic Justice
  • Tiny Spark Podcast
  • Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Leading Edge Membership
Donate
Homelessness

Will Innovative Media Campaign Help Move the Needle on SF Homelessness?

Lauren Miltenberger
August 17, 2016
Share19
Tweet
Share7
Email
26 Shares
San-Francisco-homeless
Untitled / Ken Walton

August 13, 2016; San Francisco Chronicle 

San Francisco’s homeless population has been in the spotlight because of a recent pledge by the San Francisco Chronicle (with 80 other media organizations) to increase reporting on the problem. In the New York Times, Jon Steinberg, editor-in-chief of San Francisco magazine, described their motivation: “We are all fed up. We feel there is not enough movement and accountability on the issue. We want the full force of the Fourth Estate to bear down on this problem.”

Will the strategy work? Well, the city’s response to the increased attention was to hire Jeff Kositsky as its new director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Kositsky’s strategy toward reducing homelessness is a multifaceted approach that includes a holistic range of service and system upgrades.

Kositsky and his team include a new model in their strategy that’s currently gaining popularity in federal /state policy and funding circles. This approach, also described as the “rapid re-housing model,” focuses on two goals. The first is helping individuals secure permanent housing right away, without first being placed in transitional housing. This includes the help needed to find a place to live and the financial assistance necessary for rent and other housing expenses. The second goal is to provide case management services that include mental health and substance abuse, rehabilitation, and job counseling. There is some evidence in support of the effectiveness and cost savings of rapid re-housing initiatives.

Kositsky’s approach doesn’t stop there. In addition to increasing the amounts of supportive, permanent housing units, the city is also looking to upgrade their emergency shelter model with the creation of navigation centers, shelters with “intensive case management that allows entire homeless camps to move in with partners, pets, and belongings.”

The city is clearly invested in solving this problem and has allocated nearly $265 million dollars to create the necessary support systems and housing units. (San Francisco’s city budget is $8.9 billion dollars.)

Last year, the city spent an eye-popping $241 million on homeless services and supportive housing. This year, that dollar figure will grow even bigger. In his budget book for 2016–17, Lee said he has devoted an additional $25 million in general fund money for homelessness to make it “rare, brief and one-time through the provision of coordinated, compassionate and high-quality services.”

Kositsky and his team are making the coordination of contracted services a special priority, improving how the city collaborates with its many nonprofit partners. In San Francisco, 75 private organizations, most of them nonprofits, provide homelessness prevention services via 400 contracts with the city totaling $155 million. As frontline service providers, nonprofits are key partners to the new initiative’s success, including their input in the design and the implementation of contracted services.

While none of these practices are necessarily brand new, they may not have to be. The media attention may help keep the pressure on, ensuring adequate support for what works.—Lauren Miltenberger

Share19
Tweet
Share7
Email
26 Shares

About The Author
Lauren Miltenberger

Lauren Miltenberger is an Assistant Professor and the Nonprofit Coordinator for the Department of Public Administration at Villanova University.

Related
How Housing Becomes a Home: Why Cultural Supports Matter
By Steve Dubb
December 5, 2019
Unions vs. the Human Rights of People with Disabilities: An Ugly Conflict
By Ruth McCambridge
November 15, 2019
Raising Consciousness on Civic Engagement: The Engaged Cities Award
By Derrick Rhayn
November 8, 2019
Did a Seattle Housing Nonprofit Sell its Soul to Amazon?
By Steve Dubb
November 5, 2019
Facebook’s Billion-Dollar Donation Reintroduces the Pittance
By Ruth McCambridge
October 25, 2019
Sober but Unsafe?
By Ruth McCambridge
October 21, 2019
other posts by The Author
Creating Collective Success for Philadelphia College...
By Lauren Miltenberger
June 2, 2017
Americans on Both Sides of the Aisle Reject Cuts to PBS
By Lauren Miltenberger
March 1, 2017
Moving in the Right Direction? Housing for the Homeless in...
By Lauren Miltenberger
January 17, 2017
A Series on Sensemaking Organizations
The Sensemaking Organization: Designing for Complexity
The Sensemaking Mindset: Improvisation over Strategy
Structuring for Sensemaking: The Power of Small Segments
logo
Donate
  • About
  • Contact
  • Newsletters
  • Write for NPQ
  • Advertise
  • Writers
  • Funders
  • Copyright Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to View Webinars

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by GDPR plugin
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.