Latinx families are among the hardest-hit in San Francisco’s homelessness crisis.
Today, approximately 400 families in the city are experiencing homelessness — a staggering 98% increase since 2022, according to the latest Point-in-Time count. This surge affects both newly arrived immigrants from Latin America and long-time Latinx residents, many of whom lost stable employment during the pandemic and have struggled with skyrocketing rents, limited affordable housing, and the high cost of living.
With shelter beds and housing vouchers critically scarce, 90% of these families sleep in vehicles, while others find temporary refuge on city streets or in shelters, often splitting up to do so. Language barriers, the complexity of city support systems, and concerns over immigration scrutiny compound these challenges, advocates report.
In response to this growing crisis, here’s how District 9 candidates answered the question: How would you address the rising number of Latinx homeless families?
h. brown
Put them in the schools. We have 112 school buildings with around 8,000 fewer students than capacity, and they’re considering closing some of these schools. These buildings already have electricity, heat, showers, lunchrooms, and toilets—everything a family would need. Any sane society would use the buildings the public already owns and pays utilities for. It’s especially concerning that many immigrant families in our school system are also homeless. Let them stay in the schools at night; bring their families in after 4:00 p.m.
Jackie Fielder
Absolutely. I’m concerned about this. I don’t think a lot of people know that we’ve seen a huge influx of immigrant families to our city, certainly way more than a decade ago, with the accompanying minor crisis. We have hundreds of newcomers, students among them, every single month. There are people sleeping in bus shelters and parks because there is no room in our shelter system. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of red tape—lots of requirements around partners, pets, and drugs—and many shelters are not fit for families. So, I would love to expand shelter options as temporary measures and also invest in actual legal representation that would enable people to apply for asylum and, in that way, be able to get a work permit. A lot of people I’ve talked to who are struggling with this and are without papers say that they want to work, and we need to be able to support them in that if we’re going to be a real sanctuary city.
Jaime Gutierrez
Homelessness is a huge issue, and it’s especially challenging for families. Homeless families need priority support—many are immigrant families where one or both parents work, contributing to the economy by paying taxes, and they deserve a stable place to live. Families should feel safe and have a roof over their heads at night, along with electricity and internet, so children can study and support the family as they grow. Addressing family homelessness is essential.
Julian Bermudez
I believe San Francisco often treats its homeless community as second-class citizens, a perspective largely shaped by our leadership and politicians. Instead of viewing the unhoused as residents in need, they see them as a problem. We need a mindset shift. My primary strategy focuses on helping our unhoused residents reclaim autonomy and transition toward self-sufficiency. This includes providing appropriate housing, funding for shelters and SROs, and initiatives that encourage independence without forcing it. I also support a compassion campaign grounded in trustworthy data to counteract fear mongering on social media and among some politicians.
Roberto Hernandez
We need to create short-term housing for the unhoused. There are currently several different sites I know of that the city could buy to be able to house our families. I’ll give you one example: there are a lot of churches that have closed in this neighborhood since I grew up here. We should take the land and facilities—by that, I mean auditoriums and spaces, for example, convents where men used to live—that are now vacant. We need to take those spaces. We need to ask the Catholic Church to step up and be good Christians and good Catholics, to do God’s work and provide housing for our families.
Stephen Torres
Again, it’s about meeting people where they’re at and trying to get them in at different levels. I often say every humanitarian crisis is not something that happens across the globe or as a result of a natural cataclysm or a worldwide pandemic. And yet, we have met those challenges before. Take, for example, 1906 or 2020. We brought in implementations that were informed by data and science, and I think this is the same thing here. The other layer to that, with Latinx families—especially families here in this district, where we’re seeing an increasing number of homelessness—is that they’re coming in at that level as refugees. So, we have to think about how we’re going to make the resources that are available culturally competent, in terms of language, insight, and specificity, and by having something available for resources in the city and in the district.
Trevor Chandler
So first, we need, again, an all-of-the-above approach. The best way to stop homelessness is to prevent folks from becoming homeless in the first place. That is the most cost-effective and humane approach. We need to make sure that we are providing resources to prevent evictions and that we are providing resources for self-sustainability, ensuring that we’re not just responding but proactively engaging. For those who are currently homeless, I support, again, an all-of-the-above approach. I support tiny homes and making sure people can live with dignity while we get them on their feet for self-sufficiency. We should also invest in making sure that folks who are financially insecure or housing insecure can have easy access to city jobs. We have an incredible number of vacancies for good-paying city jobs that simply go unfilled because of our broken hiring process. It may seem odd to connect the two, but if folks can’t afford to live here, they won’t be able to, and they’ll be homeless. So, I want to make sure we have good-paying city jobs that allow folks to live in their neighborhoods and give back to their city at the same time.