Public-Private Partnership Focuses on Improved Targeting, Coordination, and Service to Protect Families from Long-Term Homelessness
SAN FRANCISCO (March 4, 2025) – Today, Tipping Point Community, a leading nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty in the Bay Area, and the City and County of San Francisco announced the launch of the Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot, an 18-month effort aimed at providing more accessible and coordinated support to families on the brink of homelessness.
“This investment assists families in crisis today while we develop and scale a model to support families in need for decades to come,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “Tipping Point’s investment, along with their commitment to rigorously measure the pilot’s impact, will help us ultimately reach more families in need and prevent homelessness before it begins. Creating lasting change in San Francisco requires all hands on deck, and I’m proud to launch this critical public-private partnership with Tipping Point.”
The impacts of family homelessness are profound. Homeless children have three times the rate of emotional and behavioral challenges compared to their housed peers. They experience twice the rate of asthma, infections, and other chronic illnesses compared to housed children. Furthermore, family homelessness affects generations to come – having experienced homelessness in one’s lifetime is the single most significant predictive factor for future homelessness.
The $11 million private investment funded by Tipping Point will pilot new solutions to address challenges families currently face navigating San Francisco’s network of services, such as the lack of coordinated, holistic services needed to help families stay housed. The pilot will create a more seamless experience for families seeking housing assistance, as well as provide support beyond rental assistance by connecting families to additional resources such as employment support, legal services, housing, and childcare.
The 2024 point-in-time count estimated a 94% increase in family homelessness in the City of San Francisco, reinforcing the importance of prevention efforts as a crucial and cost-efficient element of the City’s homelessness response. And while many existing prevention programs often focus solely on financial assistance, the Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot introduces a comprehensive approach, addressing broader barriers such as employment, legal issues, and access to safety net resources. The effort also fills a critical gap in coordination between service providers by increasing collaboration among traditional housing providers and organizations with deep expertise in other services and programs, such as many of the organizations participating in the pilot.
“Preventing families from falling into homelessness is not only a moral imperative, it’s absolutely critical to achieving better outcomes for kids and the entire community,” said Sam Cobbs, CEO of Tipping Point Community. “This effort will improve coordination across providers and deliver a more seamless experience for San Francisco’s families. Once we demonstrate success, we’re excited to partner with Mayor Daniel Lurie to scale this solution and reach even more families.”
Key features of the pilot include:
- Holistic and Targeted Support: The program will identify families most at risk of homelessness and provide customized services, including financial aid and access to employment support, legal assistance, and vital safety net resources.
- Strong Collaboration Among Partners: The pilot bridges the gap between homelessness service providers and community-based organizations that provide other essential services (such as employment, childcare, and benefits support) but have not historically been focused on homelessness programs, creating a more accessible network for families. The “no wrong door” approach ensures seamless access to support, with Compass Family Services providing leadership and coordination across the network.
- Evaluation for Scalability: A rigorous evaluation will measure the program’s impact, with the aim of having the City of San Francisco adopt the model across its homelessness response system if successful.
Five long-standing, trusted organizations that are embedded in the community have been selected to participate in the pilot. With Compass Family Services serving as the lead organization, they will work hand-in-hand with APA Family Support Services, Booker T. Community Service Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC), and Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), each bringing their expertise and deep knowledge of the community to ensure the program meets families where they are already receiving support.
“For at-risk families in San Francisco, successfully preventing homelessness requires more than just financial support,” said Erica Kisch, CEO of Compass Family Services. “It requires childcare, stable employment, and ongoing wraparound support. Compass is thrilled to be collaborating with our partner organizations, Tipping Point, and the City to establish a prevention safety net model that keeps children and parents out of homelessness wherever, and whenever, possible.”
Tipping Point’s investment will fund direct financial assistance for 1,500 families, costs for partners to create coordinated systems, and a database specifically focused on prevention efforts, among other operational resources. The 18-month program’s planning phase began in January 2025 with the first 3 months dedicated to planning with the five implementation partners as well as the City, knowing that coordination will be crucial to the success of this program. Implementation will run from April 2025 to June 2026, with evaluation results expected in fall 2027. If successful, the City of San Francisco will incorporate solutions into its efforts to combat homelessness moving forward.
About Tipping Point Community
Tipping Point finds, funds, and strengthens the most promising poverty-fighting solutions so one day everyone in the Bay Area can prosper. Since 2005, the organization has invested over $440 million in community interventions, policy change, and new ideas. Last year, Tipping Point’s grantees provided life-changing services in housing, early childhood, education, and employment to over 90,000 of our neighbors across the Bay Area. Visit www.tippingpoint.org to learn more.
