San Francisco Business Times/Ron Leuty: How a business group became an unlikely advocate for a solution to homelessness

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How a business group became an unlikely advocate for a solution to homelessness

By Ron Leuty
Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Apr 10, 2019, 2:26pm PDT
Updated Apr 11, 2019, 11:19am PDT

When Bernard Tyson stepped in as chairman of the Bay Area Council two years ago, the business-funded public policy group was getting results back from its annual survey showing that homelessness was a growing issue for residents from San Francisco to Oakland to San Jose.

It was perfect timing.

Kaiser Permanente, the Oakland-based health care provider and not-for-profit health insurer that Tyson leads as CEO, was prepping a $200 million investment fund to fight homelessness nationwide. That campaign included contributing $5.2 million toward an Oakland organization's purchase of a 41-unit East Oakland complex to be rented to low-income families. It also was a funder, along with Sutter Health and others, of four "cabin communities" in Oakland that include temporary shelter and flexible funds for transportation, clothing and more. And it was a major backer of the Keep Oakland Housed initiative with supportive services for households on the verge of becoming homeless.

Tyson challenged the Bay Area Council Economic Research Institute to be let loose on finding the deep and complicated historical causes of homelessness in the Bay Area as well as potential solutions.

"The Bay Area Council focuses on affordable housing, we focus on transportation and we focus on people living healthy and great lives where they work and where they live and where they play in essence," Tyson told the San Francisco Business Times. "And by design, the Bay Area Council is there to take on big issues that affect where people live, work and play."

READ MORE: Why housing is now a health issue for Kaiser

The effort culminated with Wednesday's release of a comprehensive report from the Bay Area Council Economic Research Institute and McKinsey & Co. centering on the good, the bad and what needs to be done to conquer homelessness in the Bay Area. The report includes 10 suggestions, zeroing in on regional coordination, state and local policy changes and public initiatives that encourage private investment in constructing emergency and long-term housing as well as making programs more efficient and effective.

Homelessness is an issue somewhat unfamiliar for the Bay Area Council and its research institute, but the organization's annual survey over the past two years has placed it atop residents' list of concerns. Even with a booming local economy — and in some part because of the high economic times, the report says — the homeless population is increasingly finding nowhere to turn but sidewalks and freeway underpasses.

(San Francisco Business Times Publisher Mary Huss is the vice chair of the Bay Area Council.)

"The problem is bigger than we even thought it was, and it's clearly regional in its scale. This is happening everywhere," Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman said. "Given the strong inputs and the economy, we should be getting a handle on it and we're not."

In particular, Wunderman said, more needs to be done to stanch the flow of people teetering on the edge of homelessness to becoming homeless because of job troubles, medical bills or other unforeseen events in a region with a high cost of living.

"Business and corporate philanthropy and leadership can play a big role in public-private partnerships with bigger gains than other approaches," Wunderman said. "There are opportunities for civic-minded companies in the Bay Area to participate."

Indeed, a handful have stepped up, most notable Salesforce and Kaiser. But Tyson said the Bay Area Council might play a broader role.

"It was a natural alignment to our overall agenda as the Bay Area Council," Tyson said, "and let's now see what the findings suggest and see what might be our contribution collectively."

San Francisco Business Times health care reporter Hannah Norman contributed to this report.
By Ron Leuty
Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Apr 10, 2019, 2:26pm PDT
Updated Apr 11, 2019, 11:19am PDT
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