Homeless Veterans in San Francisco / Housing our Heroes

Abstract This paper will review the homeless population, including homeless veterans, in San Francisco, ways the city has tried to handle the situations with the homeless and project a path forward with ideas to help end homelessness for good. Before the COVID-19 Pandemic, San Francisco had an increase of homeless veterans of 8%, but the pandemic has caused these numbers to increase. San Francisco has lined a path forward to house the homeless during these difficult times, by placing them into hotels. Creating an endless game of hiding the homeless will only create other issues; this must end. With partnerships not only by the mayor, the state, the federal government, and with nonprofits, there must be a pathway to end homelessness in San Francisco. The city has documented issues with the homeless in parts of the city from business owners, tourists, and private citizens. Housing the homeless in hotels is only a band-aide effect, by not giving them the proper aide needed, physical, mental, or rehabilitation only causes chaos. The city must stop pointing the finger at the mayor and solve the issues instead of hiding it. Being proactive will create preventive measures to solve these issues by developing a system approved by the city. With help from businesses, nonprofits, donations from private donors, city grants, and federal grants, there is no reason this beautiful city should keep spending above $250 million per year to subdue the problem; why not use those funds to end homelessness? Partnerships and proper planning to solve it will create talks to stop it; the city must move forward with this frame of mind. The money is in the budget, the businesses want this to happen, the homeless want off the streets, so we should ask ourselves, why are there still homelessness (including veterans) on the streets in San Francisco? Given the importance of housing the homeless, it is vital to establish those lasting organizational relationships which will develop answers to solving homelessness issues in San Francisco? Through limited literature reviews, interviews with veteran experts, and secondary data analysis, this project captures the various aspects of help available to the homeless veteran. Still, this process only subdues the problem; we seek to end homelessness altogether. Ultimately, this research encourages cross-sector partnerships with related organizations to end homelessness among veterans. Doing this will solve long-term sustainability issues to achieve the social impact goal of housing all homeless veterans, getting them into a cycle of rehabilitation and eventually out of the system and prospering in their communities