by Jordan Wasilewski
Lately, as a permanent supportive housing tenant activist who has been in the trenches on and off for ten years, and who has so much institutional knowledge that hasn’t yet been fully shared and, who could write enough evergreen/backlog/retrospective pieces to get this august publication through the Trump administration, I’ve found that we PSH tenants have been in the news a lot, for better or for worse, or for “it’s complicated.” The San Francisco Chronicle’s most recent coverage falls into the latter category.
On June 23, the Chronicle ran a story about how Mayor Daniel Lurie received $7 million in private donations to help improve permanent supportive housing. The money was raised through the nonprofit Housing Accelerator Fund, which raised $50 million in total last year. That $7 million will be allocated to 63 supportive housing buildings for capital needs. What makes this a hollow victory is that in the last fiscal year the City allocated $39 million for repairs, following $20 million disbursed in FY2023–24, so I guess we are relying on wealthy investors to make these basic improvements instead of, I dunno, taxing the rich and eliminating wasteful carceral spending from the budget.
In general, I feel uneasy about public–private partnerships, as they can be a slippery slope to the privatization of City services and eventual disinvestment from vulnerable communities. I would be less circumspect if they were only targeting one-time capital costs that produce long-term savings. Still, if $7 million are on the table, I say let’s take it to bring tenants some much-needed relief.
If we look at capital needs in the big picture, then permanent supportive housing must go even further before tenants can not just live in habitable conditions, but truly thrive. Here are four unmet capital needs that could be improved with money brought in from public–private partnerships
Unmet Need #1: Refrigerators and Cooking Appliances
SROs often lack basic appliances, such as refrigerators and microwaves. Last March, I wrote a piece for both Street Sheet and Street Spirit on how Assembly Bill 628, which requires landlords to provide refrigerators and ovens in good working order, carved PSH tenants out of the legislation regardless of unit configuration and size, and omitted SRO tenants without providing adaptive requirements—similar to federal requirements that a refrigerator and cooking appliance must be provided in each unit. I recently reached out to Lauren Hall, executive director of Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing (DISH) to discuss the issue. She said that every DISH tenant is furnished with a “refrigerator and microwave in every SRO unit regardless of unit size—some sites have larger fridges if there is more room—or if there is a reasonable accommodation. Our standard one is decently sized: not the tiny box-style ones that are marketed for dorm rooms but not quite a full-size fridge. We take responsibility for replacement of appliances if they fail, although if it is clearly intentional damage we have worked with tenants to have them pay for replacement.” She also agreed that at the very least a refrigerator and microwave should be provided. Such a policy could be a model moving forward. However, she noted that some electric upgrades were needed.
I then emailed Tabitha Allen, the deputy director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which runs the site where I live. She is also open to a universal refrigerator requirement, provided that electrical upgrades and financing are present. That same email signaled a victory for tenants in several buildings, including mine: THC agreed to repair or replace fridges for all tenants who are experiencing issues, as long as the tenant submits a work order. In a handful of sites, refrigerators and microwaves were already equipped, though repairing and replacing them wasn’t guaranteed, but they now have a “better understanding of turnover and need and have determined that we have sufficient budget to replace refrigerators and microwaves that are damaged due to age, wear and tear.” I was so excited by this news that I announced it to tenants and my building manager at my building’s weekly coffee hour.
While this was a victory, many tenants are still doing without, and we still have no universal policy or lease provisions around this issue. One week before contacting THC, I had brought this up to members of the Board of Supervisors and City departments during a Tenant Empowerment Week in June and told them that the Supportive Housing Providers Network raised the issue. Let’s just say that this might move forward under an unlikely ally.
Unmet Need #2: Cooling Systems
Since 2020, I have shared the need for cooling systems in permanent supportive housing. Climate change is going to have a real impact on vulnerable communities, and there needs to be heat resilience built into the physical plant of the building. We might not be in the Coachella Valley, but we still can suffer from heat. I will laugh and ugly cry if THC director Randy Shaw, whose signature early career accomplishment was pushing for heat minimums in residences, decides to oppose heat maximums in buildings.
Unmet Need #3: Wi-Fi
I also wrote extensively about this in 2020. The pandemic is long over, but being digitally connected is more important than ever. Some tenants are employed, and these residents could end up working remotely, and it is important that the City supports this. Even tenants who don’t work use the internet to connect to resources. I am glad that Senior & Disability Action has taken the lead on this issue.
Unmet Need #4: Laundry Facilities
Not all buildings have laundry services available, forcing tenants to rely on faraway public laundromats—that was the case in my old building. Now I now live in a building with laundry facilities, but still several blocks away from a public laundromat. Because the Tenderloin Housing Clinic does not have the capital to purchase machines, the building rents machines from a shady corporation known as CSC Service Works, which has received plenty of complaints on Better Business Bureau. A few years back, the laundry company put up signs saying that the laundry would transition from being coin-based to requiring the use of an app. While I support a high-tech option, many older tenants in my building are Luddites on this issue, and coin options are necessary.
In April, the coinbox became full, and the company neglected to empty it, forcing laundry machines out of commission for a month. When the company did collect their coins, they also raised the price. Eventually, it lowered the prices—but only after a fellow tenant’s petition drive and another extended outage caused by full coinboxes. It’s still wild that we don’t have our own free on-site laundry machines. Given the number of senior and disabled people living in permanent supportive housing, there is a need for easily accessible and free laundry whenever possible.
Far be it from me to detract from other capital needs—I have been involved in campaigns around fixing elevators in PSH SROs—but we must not be dependent on “housing accelerators” to only fix some issues while leaving larger ones unresolved, lest we need another “Broken Homes” investigation. Perhaps we could have something like the Dignity Fund for PSH tenants, based on a successful 2016 campaign that set aside $38 million to help seniors and disabled people live in their homes. As former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh has said, “What if we didn’t suck?”, and I agree. What if we didn’t suck at making supportive housing a place where tenants not only survive, but truly thrive?
Jordan Wasilewski (she/her) is a long-term permanent supportive housing and SRO tenant advocate, former commissioner, and affordability activist. You may follow her on Instagram @sfpshsro.
