S.F. Mayor's office seeks proposals for housing survivors of violence, abuse
Homeless women in San Francisco face different challenges than men — a majority became homeless due to domestic violence and other forms of abuse, and an estimated 75% experience continued violence on the streets or in shelters.
And yet, of the more than 3,000 shelter beds in the city, only about 100 are earmarked for women and people identifying as women, according to the city's own surveys. City leaders recently aimed to address that gap by requiring that 10% of a $300 million affordable housing bond that was placed on the ballot last year be used for the construction or rehabilitation of housing for women experiencing homelessness and abuse.
Voters passed the bond measure, known as Proposition A, in March 2024, but the $30 million designated for survivors had yet to be released — until now.
On Tuesday, the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, or MOHCD, issued a request for information seeking proposals to create new transitional and supportive housing for abuse and domestic violence survivors. It's a first step in unlocking the funds more than a year after they were approved.
The solicitation invites both nonprofit and for-profit organizations to pitch plans to buy, rehabilitate, construct or manage properties in the city for this purpose, and demonstrate how the city funds could be used to make their projects feasible. Respondents must already have secured site control of the properties they plan to activate, per the RFI. The deadline to respond is July 17.
'Our budget protected critical funding for domestic violence survivors and invested in addressing homelessness — now, we are taking the next step to create much needed housing and put families on a path to long-term stability,' said Mayor Daniel Lurie in a press release Tuesday.
Supervisor Connie Chan pointed out that 'housing women houses families.'
'Let's get going and move this funding forward to bring women and their families off the streets as soon as possible.'
Sammie Rayner, co-CEO of the nonprofit Community Forward, which runs a drop-in center as well as the only 24-hour women's shelter in downtown, shares that sentiment. To her, the news that the funds are in the process of being released 'feels like a victory moment' — one that could not have come soon enough, she said.
'We know that in the current times, it's only going to get harder for women, especially for survivors,' Rayner said.
Community Forward was among a coalition of nonprofits that advocated in support of Prop. A — and the housing carveout for abuse survivors — last year. At the time, the group was in negotiations for control of a large and fully vacant office building in the Civic Center neighborhood, which it sought to purchase using the bond funds and repurpose as a 150-bed women's shelter.
But, the group was disappointed that the funds' dispersal was seemingly caught in a holding pattern during an election year.
'If the money would have been released a year ago, financing would be done by now, and we would be in construction,' Rayner said, adding that she is grateful that her group now has an opportunity to apply for the funding.
'Given the circumstances, we are just very happy that (the RFI) is out, and that we are in partnership with the city and moving on it,' she said. 'Obviously, they can't promise anything to us — but they are working closely with the groups serving this population. In the grand scheme of things we feel really optimistic that this funding will go towards the survivors that need it.'
Rayner said Community Forward is currently in negotiations for two different properties for its shelter plan, but declined to disclose their locations in order to ensure clients' safety.
'Intentional treatment and recovery services will be a big part of our model, as well as empowerment and innovation,' she said, about Community Forward's shelter plan. 'Our submission is focused on pathways to financial independence for the people who come through our program.'
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