A homeless person prepares to move their belongings during a street sweep on 6th Street in San Francisco on Oct. 14.

Growing up in San Francisco, homelessness was pervasive and enduring. Since my childhood, I can remember every mayor promising to finally deliver a meaningful solution. As a result, San Francisco has tripled its budget dedicated to the homeless crisis over the past decade. And yet, over that same period, the city’s homeless population has increased. Homelessness feels like an unsolvable problem, with millions — nearing billions — being spent each year on shelters, housing, addiction treatment programs, hospital costs, sweeps, street cleaning and more. I’ve even heard some nonprofit leaders resign themselves to its existence, saying homelessness has been around since biblical times — it’s never going away.

But what if there was a cost-effective and humane solution to keeping people housed that has been consistently overlooked and underfunded? It may sound too good to be true, but there are many reasons to believe that the solution is access to free, universal legal aid.

In the summer of 2023, I spent months talking to dozens of people as a researcher on the Bay Area homelessness crisis: individuals at risk, those already unhoused and service providers on the frontlines. I was determined to understand what might be missing from our approach to the issue. Among the stories I heard was that of a disabled, older woman who was renting an apartment owned by a notorious nonprofit in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, which has since been investigated by the FBI for corruption and financial mismanagement. They tried various tactics to force her out so that a staff member’s relative could take her unit. At one point, they even locked her out and put all her belongings on the street. The only reason she was able to stay housed was because of free legal help.

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