In May 2017, Tipping Point Community announced a $100 million initiative to halve chronic homelessness in San Francisco in five years. Tipping Point’s Chronic Homelessness Initiative (CHI) is the largest private investment to address homelessness in the city’s history. CHI is relying on three strategies:

• Create more housing, specifically permanent supportive housing opportunities for people experiencing chronic homelessness. 

• Prevent chronic homelessness by housing people before they become chronically homeless and improving the systems that serve people vulnerable to homelessness.  

• Change systems by increasing capacity and improving policies.

Tipping Point engaged the Urban Institute to evaluate CHI’s implementation and outcomes. The evaluation’s primary goal is to understand CHI’s overall success in helping San Francisco halve chronic homelessness and make long-term, systemic improvements that support the city’s most vulnerable residents. Urban is also conducting program evaluations of specific CHI activities and strategies, including the Moving On Initiative, the Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool, the Rising Up program, the Homes for the Homeless Fund, Step Up to Freedom, and CHI’s Community Advisory Board.

Research reports:

• Evaluation of Tipping Point Community’s Chronic Homelessness Initiative (report)

• Tipping Point Community’s Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool (report)

• Evaluation of Rising Up: Participant Experiences and Outcomes from a Cross-Sector, Citywide Campaign to Rapidly Re-House 400 Young People in San Francisco (brief)

• Evaluation of Step Up to Freedom (brief)

• Chronic Homelessness Initiative: 2022 Progress Report (brief)

• Evaluation of the Homes for the Homeless Fund (brief)

• Tipping Point Community's Community Advisory Board (brief)

• Chronic Homelessness Initiative: 2021 Progress Report (brief)

• Evaluation of Rising Up: Participant Voices during the Second Year of Implementation (brief)

• “Chronic Homelessness Initiative: 2020 Progress Snapshot” (brief)

• Evaluation of Rising Up: Early Program Successes and Challenges during the First Year of Implementation (report)

• Moving On Initiative: Second Annual Report (report)

• “Moving On Brief: Findings from Participant Interviews” (brief)

Additional resources:

• "A Jolt of Energy to San Francisco's Homelessness Response System" (feature)

• “Three Lessons for Implementing Rapid Re-Housing for Young People from San Francisco’s Rising Up Program” (blog post)

• “Addressing Chronic Homelessness through Policing Isn’t Working. Housing First Strategies Are a Better Way” (blog post)

Photo Credit: Travis Jensen