Home by the Bay: Family Addendum
The Family Addendum to the Home by the Bay Plan is a supplement to the Home by the Bay Strategic Plan. In collaboration with families, family-serving providers, family-serving public agencies, and community advocates, HSH developed a plan focused on strategic priorities for preventing, addressing and ending family homelessness in San Francisco.Read the Family Addendum ReportThe purpose of the Family Addendum is to lay a road map for a homelessness response system that ensures families are housed and supported to prevent or end homelessness and sustain stable housing. Preventing, addressing, and ending family homelessness is not only a moral imperative, but a key strategy to halt the cycle of chronic homelessness and intergenerational trauma that is one of the root causes of the unhoused crisis in San Francisco.
How We Developed the Family Addendum
This addendum builds on the foundation of Home by the Bay, tailoring its strategies and activities to family needs, and adding new, family-driven approaches developed with partners.
Over the course of five months, from November 2025 to March 2026, HSH held a series of five community workshops and two listening sessions with families to develop the strategies and activities in the Family Addendum.
The workshops focused on bringing together organizations serving homeless families, including 76 representatives across 28 community-based organizations and 11 public agencies. The listening sessions were held in small groups, reaching 23 family members who are current or former program participants across multiple interventions. These workshops moved through activities including identifying gaps in existing strategies, generating and prioritizing ideas, and identifying ideas for implementation.
Family-Focused Strategic Priorities
HSH and community partners identified six strategic priorities to guide San Francisco’s work to reduce and end youth homelessness. These priorities align with the five Action Areas of Home by the Bay.
Action Area 1: Advancing Racial Equity & Housing Justice
- Strategic Priority 1: Make the system more flexible and responsive for our most vulnerable families
Action Area 2: Enhancing System Performance and Capacity
- Strategic Priority 2: Improve access to the homelessness response system for families navigating multiple systems of care
- Strategic Priority 3: Support families' long-term stability through wraparound services and skill-building opportunities
Action Area 3: Strengthening Response to Unsheltered Homelessness
- Strategic Priority 4: Ensure rapid access to safe places to stay for families with urgent health or safety risks
Action Area 4: Increasing Stable & Successful Entries into Permanent Housing
- Strategic Priority 5: Improve housing options for families
Action Area 5: Preventing People from Experiencing Homelessness
- Strategic Priority 7: Expand the reach and range of homelessness prevention services