The Bay Area Council brings together diverse regional leaders in business, government, and the non-profit sectors to influence policies aimed at finding scalable solutions to this intergenerational challenge.
2025 Priorities
- Blueprint for Interim Housing Action in San Francisco: San Francisco is at a critical juncture in addressing its unsheltered homelessness crisis. Humane, effective solutions at scale to move people from the streets into safe, stable interim housing with clear pathways to permanent homes will require bold leadership, cross-departmental collaboration, and clear accountability measures to succeed. This Blueprint outlines actionable strategies to meet interim housing targets, optimize funding, streamline processes, and operationalize solutions through coordinated multi-sector efforts.
- Interim Housing and Unsheltered Homeless: Nobody should sleep outdoors, ever. While permanent housing is the long-term goal, the Bay Area cannot accept tens of thousands of its residents living in unsafe and unsanitary encampments waiting decades for permanent housing to scale. Interim housing, which is available now, provides non-congregate sleeping accommodations with support services at a per/bed cost competitive with traditional congregate emergency shelter. The Bay Area Council in 2024 co-sponsored legislation, SB 1395 (Becker), with DignityMoves, SPUR, and San José Mayor Matt Mahan that gives local governments new tools to quickly and inexpensively scale interim housing.
- Drug-Free Recovery Housing: The emergence of fentanyl has greatly increased the lethality of drug addiction, sending overdose deaths skyrocketing 488% in California over the past decade. Under current law, homeless housing supported by the state is required to tolerate drug use onsite. Though intended to acknowledge the reality of addiction by providing safe spaces for addicts, the law also denies safe spaces for addicts seeking recovery–as well as single adults who do not wish to live in places where drug use is common. With the Salvation Army, the Bay Area Council is co-sponsoring legislation by Assemblymember Matt Haney to enable local governments to use state homeless programs to support drug-free Recovery Housing for those who opt-into it.
Sponsored Legislation
AB 255 Supportive Recovery Residences
Author: Matt Haney (San Francisco)
Allows state homeless programs to support drug-free supportive-recovery residences consistent with federal guidance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Homelessness Committee Co-Chairs
Elizabeth Funk, CEO, DignityMoves
Tom Wolf, Recovery Advocate, The Salvation Army
Strategic Partnerships
AllHome
Dignity Moves
RescueSF
Get Involved
The Homelessness Committee is open to Bay Area Council members. Upcoming committee meetings can be found on the Council’s calendar of events.
