San Francisco hotels used to house homeless people may be fully funded by the federal government this year, thanks to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden signed last Thursday.
Under the order, certain kinds of emergency housing for the homeless are eligible to be fully reimbursed through September.
San Francisco, which has one of the highest homeless populations in the nation, spends between $15 million to $18 million per month to house more than 2,200 people in about 25 hotels, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The city’s hotel rooms were mentioned in Thursday’s executive order. But details as to how its housing program will be funded remain unclear.
“I think it’s safe to say it will apply from now until September, for those that are eligible,” said City Controller Ben Rosenfield. His team is waiting on more detailed guidance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) before announcing precisely how the program will be affected.
The department said last year it would reimburse San Francisco’s program until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it never made clear how it would define the end. – READ MORE
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