SAN FRANCISCO — The Breaking the Cycle Fund, a nonprofit organization, announced Tuesday it has awarded 63 permanent supportive housing buildings a collective $7 million for maintenance, repairs and accessibility improvements designed to enhance safety, comfort and livability for more than 5,100 residents, according to a June 23, 2026, press release from the Housing Accelerator Fund, another nonprofit organization.
“The Breaking the Cycle Fund’s impactful $7 million investment marks a significant step forward in improving the living conditions for thousands of supportive housing residents,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “By restoring and enhancing building capacity, we are reaffirming our commitment to uplifting our community and helping people move from surviving to thriving.”
The investment will fund plumbing repairs, help prevent floods and fires, increase accessibility for older and disabled tenants, and restore and fill vacant apartments, according to the Housing Accelerator Fund.
San Francisco’s homeless population decreased by 4.2 percent since 2024, when there were 8,323 unhoused residents, according to ABC7 News.
The 2026 data was collected by trained volunteers and outreach workers during one night in January, which prompted discussion among homeless advocates. The organizations were concerned that tents used by individuals and groups, rather than the people themselves, were counted.
San Francisco’s Department of Public Health and Human Services said it relied less on “visual” elements and more on direct contact, according to ABC7 News.
“A big difference was previous counts had been a visual count, in which case a lot of outreach workers were making assumptions or potentially double-counting individuals,” Kunal Modi, San Francisco’s chief of health and human services, told ABC7 News. “We actually engaged with folks.”
Many organizations and nonprofits, including the Breaking the Cycle Fund, have helped fund the city’s permanent supportive housing (PSH) system.
The fund was launched last year by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie to provide “philanthropic resources alongside public investments to strengthen San Francisco’s homelessness and behavioral health response system,” according to the Housing Accelerator Fund’s press release.
“When we launched the Breaking the Cycle Fund, we set out to fundamentally transform how this city responds to homelessness and addiction, and that means making sure the resources we have are actually working for the people they serve,” said Lurie in the Housing Accelerator Fund’s press release. “When a unit sits empty waiting on repairs, that’s a person still on the street, and that’s unacceptable. With this $7 million investment, we are making sure San Franciscans are housed with the safety and dignity they deserve.”
The Housing Accelerator Fund is managing the $7 million grant. It is a public-private partnership created in 2014 to “address the city’s affordable housing shortage,” according to its website. The organization reported funding the construction of 1,500 housing units in five years.
“San Francisco’s permanent supportive housing system is one of the city’s most valuable tools for helping people move from homelessness to stability,” said Rebecca Foster, CEO of the Housing Accelerator Fund, in the organization’s press release. “The nonprofit providers that operate these buildings do remarkable work every day to support thousands of residents. Breaking the Cycle was created to complement those efforts by providing flexible capital that can move quickly, address emerging challenges, and strengthen the long-term success of supportive housing across the city.”
Housing providers receiving portions of the funding include Mission Housing Development Corporation, Tenderloin Housing Clinic, HomeRise, Mercy Housing California, Mission Action, Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing, Episcopal Community Services, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation and Conard House, according to the press release.
The repairs and maintenance projects are expected to be completed by June 2027, the Housing Accelerator Fund said.
“This Breaking the Cycle funding will allow [Supportive Housing Provider Network] members to complete some deferred projects, add preventative features to mitigate damage caused by water intrusion, and quickly turn over units so that we can get more people placed into housing,” Tabitha Allen, co-chair of the Supportive Housing Provider Network, said in the press release. “This funding is a recognition that investing in PSH can bring a strong return on investment. SHPN appreciates the collaboration with the Housing Accelerator Fund and the Mayor’s Office, and looks forward to future opportunities to partner on innovative strategies to address homelessness.”
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