The city of San Francisco has announced that it will be rebidding its homeless services contracts, projected to reissue more than $500 million in annual spending as it overhauls its approach to managing homelessness and related services. The city recently released a Request for Information (RFI) to guide the program and policymaking reconstruction process.
The San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) will spearhead a two-year initiative to transform the city’s homelessness and behavioral health response – a core aspect of the mayor’s Breaking the Cycle plan. Announced on May 18, 2025, the plan outlines a series of immediate and long-term reforms to categorically restructure San Fracisco’s efforts to address homelessness, addiction and government failure.
Between now and 2029, HSH will redo all homeless services contracts through a competitive re-award contracting process. The initiative will contract with new service providers to cover its entire portfolio of homelessness services and housing contracts. Revamping the system will help ensure that resources are invested appropriately while promoting overall accountability and transparency.
“Our administration is fundamentally transforming how the city tackles homelessness and addiction. We are not just getting people off the streets – we are helping them get on the path to recovery and stability,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “But that work can only succeed with a system that is built to deliver results, with accountability when the outcomes aren’t good enough. We are not going to continue spending $1 billion of taxpayer money on a failing system – we’re fixing the system so we can deliver the safe and clean streets every San Franciscan deserves.”
The newly published RFI will pull from community partner and current and potential service prover feedback to advise the direction of homelessness contracting opportunities and procurement strategies. HSH is particularly interested in receiving responses from the following entities:
- Homelessness service and housing providers, both currently operating and those who do not currently operate in San Francisco.
- Healthcare, behavioral health and Medi-Cal partners.
- Public agencies and systems partners.
- Researchers and subject-matter experts.
- Philanthropic and private-sector partners.
- Other organizations with experience implementing innovative contracting or service-delivery models.
The overall alignment of these responders includes those that already have experience with or knowledge of the agency’s Homelessness Response System.
The questions featured in the RFI typically revolve around gaining better insight into determining and measuring outcomes, changes to payment structures and alleviating administration burden while improving accountability. HSH is also interested in more information regarding the benefits of using population-based contracting, changes that should be made to contract scale and structure, examples of similar models that the city should consider adopting and expanding opportunities for providers.
In addition to feedback, the agency will host various listening sessions to directly hear from relevant entities and the public. During these sessions, service providers, people with lived experience of homelessness, advocates, community partners and other entities can share priorities and recommendations for the reforming the agency’s policies and processes.
HSH will use all responses to formulate new frameworks for procurement going forward. The agency has three main goals for the multi-year procurement process:
- Designing every program for clear and measurable results, culminating in better outcomes for clients by preventing homelessness and helping people attain stable housing and independence faster.
- Establishing fair, transparent performance expectations for HSH and provider partners while providing adequate funding for success. All funding will be strictly stewarded to optimize accountability and ensure all money is spent accordingly.
- Ensuring services help homeless or at-risk-of homelessness, ensuring local San Franciscan communities receive the help they need.
The HSH restructuring process was largely in response to a significantly inflated budget without the results to show for it. Between 2019 and 2024, the agency’s budget grew to more than $700 million. However, the city’s homelessness population grew by 3.5 percent during that period. The numbers indicated that city leadership needed to make big changes and course correct by implementing new strategies and reworking existing policy frameworks.
Since implementing the Breaking the Cycle plan, San Francisco has seen a 4 percent drop in the number of residents experiencing homelessness and a 22 percent drop in unsheltered homelessness. These results can largely be accredited to the city’s renewed focus on medicalizing shelter beds, expanding treatment services and improving the city’s crisis response team operations.
Once fully implemented, the overhauled HSH procurement system will focus on implementing contracts based on payment for clients served and outcomes achieved, moving away from expense-based reimbursement. Residents should expect significant alterations to program models, funding levels and how resources are distributed going forward.
Implementation of the procurement and the rollout of new contracts will occur in phases through May 2029 to protect continuity of care, support the service-provider workforce and minimize disruption for clients and communities, according to the city’s press release.
Photo by Milan Cobanov from Pexels
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