Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco

ECS believes that that the solution to homelessness starts with a stable, supportive place to call home. Supportive housing is far more cost-effective than the use of high-end emergency room care, institutionalization, jail, and other ways of treating chronically homeless individuals. It also improves participants’ quality of life and helps them to end the vicious cycle of homelessness.

ECS is one of the Bay Area's largest, most comprehensive providers of supportive housing and homelessness services, and a leader in San Francisco's plan to create more supportive housing. Episcopal Community Services provides services that support housing retention and stability at 22 different sites, providing permanent housing with on-site social services to more than 1,890 individuals and families who are homeless. 

The ECS Workforce Development and Social Enterprise program provides individuals with job counseling, adult education, GED, culinary training, and other vocational programs to help them move into stable employment and better jobs. All clients within workforce development are given a weekly stipend to improve independence and stability

Conquering Homelessness through Employment in Food Services (CHEFS) is a culinary training program in which students spend 10 weeks in the kitchen learning their craft until they have mastered the skills to run the kitchen themselves.

Realizing Employment And Careers in Human services (REACH) trains individuals in the community and social services field, inviting those with lived experience of housing insecurity to leverage their expertise to give back to the community.

The ECS Job Center provides assistance with career skills and advancement, employment services, education, and more.

Each year, Canon Kip Senior Day Center serves approximately 1,000 homeless, low-income seniors aged 60 and older and young disabled adults.  The program targets seniors with mental health, substance abuse or physical health issues who are not linked with any other system of care.  Daily programs offer lunch, case management, recreation, information and caring support.  The Center also provides a growing number of homeless seniors with case management and support groups.  Forty percent of the participants are Filipino elders living in the South of Market neighborhood.

Canon Kip Senior Day Center is also an Aging and Disability Resource Center for the South of Market neighborhood.

ADULT COORDINATED ENTRY (ACE) is the foundation of San Francisco’s Homelessness Response System, treating homelessness as an emergency to be addressed quickly and effectively. Episcopal Community Services manages this citywide function. ACE is a consistent, community-wide intake process to match people experiencing homelessness to available housing and/or focused community resources that are the best fit. It includes a clear set of entry points, a standardized method to assess and prioritize needs, and a streamlined process for rapidly connecting people to a solution to their homelessness.

PROBLEM SOLVING was launched in late 2019 to assist those individuals who were assessed in ACE but for any number of reasons were not placed into a housing solution. The program provides 1:1 support to individuals, guiding and supporting them to uncovering solutions to their homelessness through their own relationships and resources.

ECS's Scattered Site Housing Department was established in 2021. As opposed to site-based permanent supportive housing, the scattered sites model houses participants in privately-owned units. Staff help participants remain in their housing by providing various services including case management, housing location, workforce services, access to a behavioral health clinician, subsidy administration, life skills training and advocacy. The Scattered Site Housing Department's portfolio of programs consists of the Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool, Adult Rapid Rehousing, Mainstream Voucher, and its newest program, the Family Rapid Rehousing Program in San Rafael.

ECS launched its Behavior Health Services program in 2019 but has been providing behavioral health services to interim housing sites since 2001. The programming now works in two shelters and in collaboration with San Francisco’s Department of Public Health’s Roving Behavioral Health team to provide services to adults experiencing homelessness and currently residing in Project RoomKey sites throughout San Francisco.

ECS clinicians provide clients with coordinated and integrated services to address mental health challenges and support recovery. Issues addressed include psychiatric, substance abuse, and co-occurring chronic medical conditions. The team utilizes evidenced-based modalities to address each individual’s unique mental health and substance abuse needs as well as provides referrals to other community-based services. Support includes assessments, client goal-setting, counseling, case management, referrals, crisis intervention, and benefits advocacy.