In May 2017, Tipping Point Community (Tipping Point) announced the Chronic Homelessness Initiative (CHI), a $100 million effort to halve chronic homelessness in San Francisco over the next five years. As part of CHI, Tipping Point worked with the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and a local nonprofit housing provider, Brilliant Corners, to design a pilot program for the Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool (Flex Pool). Launched in July 2020, San Francisco’s Flex Pool is the city’s first large-scale scattered-site supportive housing program. The pilot was a key CHI investment intended to create new housing units and increase placements of people experiencing chronic homelessness into permanent housing throughout the city. The program intended to house 200 people experiencing chronic homelessness during the pilot period. This report documents the design and implementation of the program; describes participant characteristics, experiences, and outcomes; and offers recommendations for the continuation of the Flex Pool in San Francisco.

Why this matters

Tipping Point invested in the Flex Pool to pilot a new approach to more rapidly increase the permanent housing stock and reduce chronic homelessness in San Francisco. Historically, the city relied heavily on site-based permanent supportive housing (PSH) to respond to chronic homelessness. However, by 2017, the supply of PSH units was not able to meet the increasing need as the number of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness continued to rapidly rise. Because scattered-site housing relies on the private rental market rather than on a single site or newly developed units, learnings from the Flex Pool can show the feasibility of bringing more supportive housing units to the permanent housing stock in San Francisco through approaches that are new or innovative to a community.

What we found

Ultimately, 187 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness were re-housed through Flex Pool by the end of the pilot period in June 2022. Additionally, we found that:

• Ninety-five percent (n =74) of participants in a study sample of 78 Flex Pool participants were permanently housed through the Flex Pool program by August 2023. Of the remaining four participants, three were never housed and one person exited to permanent housing on their own.
• Participants reported having reduced stress and anxiety and an ability to focus on caring for their physical health. In interviews, participants felt that their overall physical and mental health either stayed the same or improved after gaining permanent housing through the program.
• Participants described the housing search process as “fairly quick.” On average, the time between completing a housing application and moving into housing was 83 days (2.7 months) and most interviewed Flex Pool participants had experiences consistent with this.
• The program used a variety of strategies to successfully house participants. Some strategies included providing incentives to secure and retain landlords, and relaxing requirements for original forms of identification to access services in the homelessness response system.

Although the Flex Pool did not meet its pilot-period goal of housing 200 participants by June 2022, the program successfully housed 187 people formerly experiencing chronic homelessness. As such, the Flex Pool pilot contributed to reducing chronic homelessness in San Francisco. Additionally, stakeholders across San Francisco who were interviewed as part of the overall CHI evaluation described the Flex Pool implementation as a major milestone for the city as it continues to address the homelessness crisis in the region.

How we did it

Tipping Point engaged the Urban Institute to evaluate CHI’s implementation and outcomes, with a primary focus on CHI’s success in helping San Francisco halve chronic homelessness and make long-term, systemic improvements to the affordable housing system. Urban was also tasked with evaluating the Flex Pool pilot; documenting its successes, challenges, and lessons learned; and describing the experiences and outcomes of people served through the program. The primary narrative in this report reflects findings from interviews with Flex Pool partners and participants and an analysis of administrative program data for a participant sample of 78 participants.

Other reports from Urban’s evaluation of Tipping Point’s Chronic Homelessness Initiative are available on the project page.