San Francisco

San Francisco mayor, California governor announce plans to address homelessness

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Both San Francisco's mayor and California's governor announced new efforts Thursday to deal with homelessness.

They unveiled different plans at separate events, but both said they have the same goal of getting people off the streets.

After a pair of events at San Francisco's Civic Center aimed at continuing to spruce up the city's image, Mayor London Breed laid out her new goal to expand homeless shelter space in the city faster than originally planned.

"It had a goal of increasing our shelter capacity and in fact, instead of five years, we expect to reach that capacity in two years," Breed said. "Which is why we doubled the goal."

According to the Department of Homelessness Data, the city's housing and shelter capacity currently sits at 93% with more than 3,700 people housed.

The mayor said they will start increasing shelter space immediately and plan to add more than a thousand beds by 2028. Her plan includes hotel vouchers for families experiencing or on the verge of experiencing homelessness.

Breed has ordered city departments to deal with homelessness on several fronts: Directing department to clear encampments, handing out bus tickets to unhoused who don't live in the city, and directing police to intervene when needed.

As Breed announced her expanded plans to deal with homelessness in the city, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a new plan aimed at veterans and people with mental health issues who are at risk of homelessness.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law a comprehensive bipartisan housing package, with bills focused on addressing homelessness and the scarcity of housing in the state. Ginger Conejero Saab reports.

During a signing ceremony in San Francisco for a package of laws aimed at streamlining the homebuilding process in the state, Newsom announced an expanded plan for permanent supporting housing funded through the recently passed Proposition 1.

The money will go to expand Project Homekey, which refurbishes existing buildings and turns them into permanent supportive housing facilities.

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