Shellena Eskridge is a self-described optimist. You might say it’s a job requirement as executive director of San Francisco’s Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP).
Last year, HPP provided food and housing assistance, family support and other services for more than 3,500 families in the city. With SF deep in a housing and homelessness crisis, Eskridge would love to bring more people off the streets. Of the 1,156 families who sought shelter from HPP in 2022, the program could only house 251, Eskridge told The Frisc.
“I would say there’s a severe crisis in our ability to meet the needs of families in the city,” says Eskridge.
More shelter is coming, however. In 2024, HPP plans to open a new eight-story facility at 2530 18th Street, where pregnant mothers and families with children will be able to live, get counseling, job training, and access food pantries. Based on current plans, the building will have 74 subsidized units — a mix of one, two and three bedrooms.
HPP has raised $5.5 million and needs to hit $20 million as their part of the fundraising. Nonprofit Mercy Housing, which will build and manage the residential floors, raising the rest.
Eskridge, an SF native, had been the interim executive director since November 2022 but just had the “interim” removed from the title. She took time out last week to discuss the challenges of her job, HPP’s drive to train new generations of health workers, the relationship with the city’s homelessness agency, and more.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Who are the clients you serve?
I would say, currently, it is about 52 percent Latinx, and around 30 percent African American. The average age is around late 20s, early 30s, and mostly women. Not all clients are homeless, and not all are pregnant, but they all need support. The majority are well below the poverty line.
Do you ever have to turn away mothers or families due to a lack of availability?
Yes, that happens all the time.
Could you provide an update on the 18th Street project?
Where we are now is pre-construction and fundraising, with the hopes to break ground in April of 2024. We’ve been working with our developer and architects to design the building and figure out programming. The first two floors will be the Homeless Prenatal Program, and the remaining will be housing.
HPP has been expanding our programming: we’re looking to do job training, in addition to partnering with others. We’re also looking to do some child development work in the building, mental health services, and also just ongoing supportive services.
We’re really looking to expand our community health worker program, it’s a 16-month program [with] state and federal accreditation. We partner with SF City College. A portion is doing classes through community college, and the other portion is on-the-job training, either with us or other nonprofit organizations.
Ideally, at the end of 16 months they are hired on either internally or externally. We have a very good success rate of hiring internally; about 28 percent of our staff went through the program.
Our mission is to end childhood poverty, and so employment and sustainable wages are really important. We’re looking to partner with other agencies, because we offer about 10 to 12 slots a cohort and one to two cohorts a year.
When The Frisc talked with HPP in 2020, some of your colleagues said the SF Homelessness and Supportive Housing Department’s assessment system led to some critical delays getting at-risk people off the street. Has this process changed?
Yes, there have been changes, and yes, there is improvement.
Last year we brought this up to HSH: “We have a lot of vacancies, especially at our Jelani House,” which is our transitional housing 17-bed program for pregnant and postpartum women.
HSH heard us. One of the community partners who does outreach at San Francisco General with the pregnant population was able to refer [people to our services]. There were definitely changes to quickly get people in.
The issue that still arises is vacancies, and we’re not turning over the beds as quickly. But, I would say, I feel a lot better and optimistic because HSH’s Coordinated Entry workgroup just submitted recommendations to the local (homelessness) coordinating board.
[Editor’s note: Coordinated entry is how HSH prioritizes who gets access to shelter, housing, and other services. It is being overhauled after years of criticism. The Frisc wrote about early problems with the system in 2019. The Local Homelessness Coordinating Board is an advisory body that later this year will become part of the new oversight commission approved by voters in Nov. 2022.]
Since 2020, they have listened and wanted to make changes. I think overall change takes time.
For mothers experiencing homelessness, how many stay housed after their time with you?
Our goal is to have at least 75 percent remain stably-housed after one of our programs.
At the Jelani House, over 90 percent remain stably housed a year later, especially in one of our contracts with Bringing Families Home [a state program that aims to keep families from falling back into homelessness].
A lot of it is our model [of] intensive case management: client engagement very early on, weekly meetings, and making sure [our clients] are meeting their goals and tasks. We work collaboratively with landlords and we do pretty much everything we can to make sure that once [our clients] are housed, they remain housed, and then ideally take over the subsidy over time, depending on which program they’re in.
Are you seeing more people seek services?
What we’re seeing — especially since the Oasis shelter closing and having a lack of emergency shelter for families — is extremely problematic.
We’re seeing struggles with housing instability and food insecurity. We predict more with all the COVID relief resources ending, like SNAP benefits and extra money. And of course, inflation.
We need housing, and we need it bad.
The biggest thing was a pause with the rental assistance program for several months. It’s back open now, but with the pause we had to turn so many people away because we could not access the funding.
I can’t say what happened with all those families that weren’t able to pay rent during that time, and if they ended up on the street. But I would say there’s a severe crisis in our ability to meet the needs of families in the city. We do the best we can. The city definitely needs to get some emergency housing back on the table.
According to HPP’s 2020–2021 annual report, about two-thirds of its revenue comes from city contracts. With more scrutiny now on HSH’s budget, how will this affect you?
We’re waiting to see. We saw that the mayor is looking to cut across city budgets about 5 to 8 percent. We have not heard word yet of [cuts], but we are working on contingency plans and being able to expand our individual donor and foundation base.
The “A Place for All” legislation has ratcheted up the debate over the housing SF should focus on: immediate shelter, transitional housing, and long term housing. What do you think?
We need housing, and we need it bad. Overall, we need a range from emergency — getting people in the door and off the streets — to transitional housing. We know transitional works really well, especially paired with services for individuals that may need additional support.
There may be other individuals more chronically in need and may need permanent support over time. So we need a little bit of everything.
What were your thoughts when you heard about the stillborn baby found at the Civic Center site?
I think for an individual who is pregnant, homeless, and maybe using or whatever the circumstances may be, it is scary and vulnerable to put yourself out there to interface with the child welfare system [and perhaps] have your child taken.
There’s a lot of policing of individuals who are homeless. We end up marginalizing them in ways where incidents like this happen, because it’s likely that this individual may not have felt that they could ask for help. I think there needs to be more outreach and interface with communities in different ways.
What can the city do to better address homelessness?
Housing is essential. It’s very simple. If you get a house, then you’re not homeless. We need to invest in more affordable housing. This city, of course, is not affordable. Even if you make a livable wage, if you have children that livable wage decreases, therefore you still likely cannot afford to live here without some type of subsidy.
We are also seeing a lot of success with a [universal] basic income so individuals can fund and support themselves in a way that they need, which will propel them out of homelessness a lot quicker.
I would say those two are key: We need more housing, and we need more basic income and support that we can give directly to families to be able to succeed and thrive.
