Supervisors Push to Get Promised SRO Elevator Repair Funds Out the Door, as Administration Fails to Explain Delays
At the Board of Supervisors GAO committee hearing on Thursday, Supervisor Dean Preston pressed the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and the Mayor's Office to explain delays in distributing $10 million for Single Room Occupancy (SRO) elevator repairs and urged them to expedite distribution of these funds. Supervisors Connie Chan and Ahsha Safai expressed frustrations about the delays as well.
The funds were part of a budget deal struck in June of 2022, but still have not been released by the Administration. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) has blown four deadlines regarding the funds over the last year.
“Seniors, people with disabilities, and other low-income residents in SROs need these repairs so they can come and go safely from their homes. We secured as a top priority $10 million for critical repairs for SRO elevators, and the Mayor agreed to the budget deal. All the Mayor had to do was keep her word and cut the checks,” said Supervisor Preston. “Hopefully, with the sunlight from news coverage and this hearing, there will be a new sense of urgency,” said Preston.
The funding is designed to improve living conditions for vulnerable residents served by City funded programs for Permanent Supportive Housing in SROs, with a concentration of older buildings in the Tenderloin. The HSH department has identified just over 3 dozen SRO buildings that are eligible for this funding under the criteria HSH created.
"No one should have the terror of being stuck in an elevator. Seniors and disabled people should never have to face the isolation of being stuck in their single room occupancy units,” said Anakh Sul Rama, Housing Community Organizer at Senior & Disability Action. “The delay in funds creates a delay in repairs and a failure in our responsibility to the most vulnerable seniors and disabled SRO residents."
The Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) was finally released in February of this year immediately after Supervisor Preston raised the issue at Mayoral Question Time and the San Francisco Chronicle covered the delays. Under the terms of the NOFA issued by the Administration, awards for elevator repairs will be announced in the summer 2024. Preston urged that to happen sooner; at yesterday’s hearing he secured a pledge from the Mayor’s office to work on a more aggressive timeline.