Mayor Lee & Usich Executive Director Matthew Doherty’s Statements on Addressing San Francisco’s Homeless Challenge

WASHINGTON D.C. – December 11, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Mayor Edwin M. Lee today issued the following statement after meeting with United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Executive Director Matthew Doherty during the West Coast Mayors Summit in Portland, Oregon:

“This morning, I had a direct, productive and wide-ranging conversation with Matthew Doherty, one of America’s leading experts on addressing homelessness – a man that the Obama Administration entrusts with tackling this complicated issue across our country. We discussed national best practices and specifically how San Francisco’s new Department can fulfill my directive to end homelessness every single day, for a veteran, for a family, for a chronically homeless person. With a goal of helping at least 8,000 people off our City’s streets in the next four years, we can make a difference if we work together and leverage the passion and energy from our service providers, advocates, our City departments and national experts. That’s why I invited Mr. Doherty to visit San Francisco and continue to advise us as we build a new City Department. I welcome his Federal leadership to make sure San Francisco remains the most progressive and compassionate City in America on getting the homeless into stable housing. With the nation’s best minds working with us, we can make homelessness a rare, brief and one-time event in a person’s life.”

Statement from United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Executive Director Matthew Doherty:

“I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to sit down with Mayor Lee to discuss his plans to bring San Francisco’s programs and services for ending homelessness into one Department. Local leadership is critical to our effort to end homelessness across America, and Mayor Lee has demonstrated a real commitment to implementing the solutions that we know are most effective. Homelessness is a problem that we know how to solve, and I look forward to working with Mayor Lee and his team, as well as the other Mayors who participated in the West Coast Mayors Summit, as they continue to drive toward ending homelessness for everyone within their communities.”