Mayor London N. Breed today joined Salesforce Chariman and co-CEO Marc Benioff to announce 58 units of housing for formerly homeless individuals. The Bristol Hotel, located at 56 Mason Street, will be preserved as housing for formerly homeless people instead of being converted into market-rate units. The Tenderloin Housing Clinic will be the recipient of the funds, the lease-holder, and operator of the building.

At the request of Mayor Breed, Marc and Lynne Benioff have agreed to donate $6.1 million to fund the first 5 years of a 20 year lease of the Bristol Hotel, a completely renovated vacant 58-unit SRO hotel (including on-site resident manager’s unit) in the Tenderloin. Mayor Breed is committed to working with partners to identify ongoing funding for the remainder of the lease.

“I am committed to helping our homeless residents off the streets and into housing, and in order to do so it is critical we provide people with the housing they need to transition to a new phase in their lives,” said Mayor Breed. “As we wait for new funding to become available, I am working with business and civic leaders like Marc and Lynne Benioff to identify other funding sources and fund important programs like this one to make an immediate difference in our City.”

“Lynne and I are thrilled to join Mayor Breed and the city to make the Bristol Hotel a place where San Franciscans can work their way out of homelessness and toward independence,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce. “It's part of our larger vision for San Francisco where every person and family has a home of their own.”

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic plans to rent the building as “step up housing,” which provides exits for residents of permanent supportive housing who no longer need services and can live independently. The units they vacate will then be available to persons leaving street homelessness. Tenderloin Housing Clinic will rent small units for $500 a month, medium sized rooms for $575 a month, and large rooms for $650 a month.

“I want to thank both Mayor Breed and Marc Benioff for taking this historic step toward providing high-quality, affordable housing to those who will truly appreciate it,” said Randy Shaw, Executive Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. “With their partnership, we have preserved the Bristol Hotel as a valuable community asset that will help to transform people’s lives and open up more opportunities for people trying to exit homelessness.”

This project is part of Mayor Breed’s larger plan to address homelessness in San Francisco. She has announced that San Francisco will open 1,000 new shelter beds by 2020, the largest expansion of shelter in San Francisco in 30 years. The City has recently opened the Division Circle Navigation Center and the Bayshore Navigation Center, a total of 254 beds, with an additional Navigation Center scheduled to open by the end of the year.

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