When Mayor Lurie took office, San Francisco was spending nearly $1 Billion a year responding to homelessness, yet the number of people living unsheltered had not budged in years. In this episode, Kunal Modi, the city’s Chief of Health and Human Services, shares how the Lurie administration is tackling the intersecting homelessness, mental health and addiction crises. Rather than layering on new programs, the city is attempting something harder: redesigning how fragmented systems work together. 

Claudia and Kunal talk about:

• The city’s move to unify fragmented and siloed outreach teams

• The importance of shifting accountability and decision-making to the front lines

• How San Francisco’s strategy is leveraging the community supports in CalAIM

• Why solutions need to reflect the intersecting nature of the homeless problem

Kunal reminds us that ending the cycle of homelessness is far more complicated than just finding housing:

“This is more than a homelessness crisis, it's an intersecting homelessness, behavioral health, and drug addiction crisis. We need to bring our healthcare system and our social service system in closer alignment… We need to reorient our Public Health strategies to not only support those in crisis, but to think about the broader communities and neighborhoods.”