Yesterday, the Board of Education took an important step toward ending the public school lottery and giving families the certainty they need to put down roots in our city. Starting in the 2028–29 school year, families will know which neighborhood public elementary school their children are assigned to based on their home address, while retaining choices that reflect the incredible diversity of San Francisco.  I am also pleased that this direction includes a commitment to ensuring our schools have the resources they need, so parents can feel confident that whichever school their children attend, they will find a welcoming environment where they can learn and thrive. I want to thank the Board of Education and SFUSD leadership, including School Board President Phil Kim and SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su, for helping make San Francisco a city where more families can build their futures.

Today we launched reforms to Journey Home, turning it into a 24/7, citywide reunification and relocation program. Journey Home helps people experiencing homelessness reconnect with family or relocate to a stable destination outside San Francisco—safely, voluntarily, and with real support. This program brings together what were once separate efforts into one unified, citywide system that works when people are ready—any time, day or night. With 24/7 relocation assistance, travel planning, and follow-up support, we’re moving people off the streets and onto a path toward true stability.

In San Francisco, we are doubling capacity to care for people with severe mental health and behavioral health challenges, helping them get on a path to stability.    These new locked beds at San Francisco’s General Hospital will give people the treatment and support they need, helping us move faster to connect individuals to the right level of care. This is a major step in strengthening our behavioral health system, and I’m grateful to @SF_DPH Director Dan Tsai, our partners, our frontline workers, and everyone helping us bring this expansion to life.

Today I signed legislation that will address RV homelessness, help our families, and restore public spaces in San Francisco. When I first began working with groups addressing family homelessness in 2005, I met parents doing everything they could to give their kids a better life. Over the past 20 years and now as mayor, I’ve seen that same drive—parents fighting for stability, for permanent housing, for a real foundation. Life in an RV can’t offer that. It isolates families. It leaves them behind. RV encampments also create challenges for our neighborhoods. Noisy generators with unsafe electrical hook ups. Bike lanes blocked by broken down vehicles. Wastewater dumped into sewers that create real public health hazards. In a city with as many resources as ours, we can’t accept that. As we’ve worked on this legislation, I kept coming back to parents. The parents living in vehicles deserve real options for raising their kids in safety and dignity. And the parents trying to walk down the street with their family deserve sidewalks that are clean, safe, and accessible. This new RV legislation will deliver that. It combines compassion with accountability. It creates a clear path to housing. And it gives our city the tools to clean up our neighborhoods and improve quality of life across San Francisco. Under this new law, we will deploy specialized outreach teams. We will offer housing placements, family rapid rehousing subsidies, and vehicle buybacks—for families, seniors, and single adults who need a path off the streets. And we will put in place 2-hour citywide parking limits, enforced with compassion and consistency. When necessary, residents living in large vehicles who are actively engaged in services will be eligible for a temporary parking permit while they transition into housing. But long-term RV encampments on our streets will no longer be tolerated. I want to thank Supervisor Melgar, President @RafaelMandelman, @mattdorsey, @scsherrill, and the entire Board of Supervisors for their partnership in passing this legislation. This legislation gives us a path forward on what has long felt like an intractable challenge. Let’s meet this moment. Let’s move quickly. And let’s deliver the safer, cleaner, more dignified city that every San Franciscan deserves.

Our schools must be focused on providing our kids with an excellent education and preparing them to succeed in their lives and careers. While I would have liked to see the ethnic studies curriculum paused until the school district identified a better solution, I do feel that moving away from the old curriculum with a chance for students to opt out moves us closer to that goal and starts to put our school district’s focus back where it should be: on our core priorities for our kids. Superintendent Su and I agree that we can provide a thoughtful historical and cultural education as part of a high-quality academic experience. In addition to the immediate changes to the ethnic studies curriculum for the upcoming school year, the district’s audit of ethnic studies will include a thorough review of the process that led us here. And I am hopeful that this year and moving forward, we will offer an effective program that aligns with local and state requirements and effectively serves our students across the entire district. If the district doesn’t identify a curriculum that meets those standards, they should pause it. If our school district, like our city, gets back to basics and focuses on outcomes, we can give our children the high-quality education they deserve with the tools for success.

We owe our young people an education that prepares them to succeed. The proposed changes to grading at SFUSD would not accomplish that. I have conveyed our view to SFUSD. We are optimistic that there is a better path forward for our kids and their future.