UNHOUSED FAMILIES, faith leaders and educators gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall this week to thank the city for securing housing for a disabled child who was living in a shelter. The group also called for the city to continue the momentum in the effort to end child and family homelessness.

Samara Zavala, 7, has a complex medical condition and is recovering from multiple surgeries. For the last two years, she and her family have lived in shelters. 

But over the summer, her family learned that they no longer qualified for housing assistance under the city’s Coordinated Entry system, according to her mom Maria Zavala. Coordinated Entry uses a point system to assess need and prioritize certain groups for access to permanent housing. 

Under pressure from homelessness advocates and educators, the city placed the Zavala family in an affordable housing unit last month. 

“We did not keep silent. We organized,” said Rev. Pat Plude, a pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco said on Thursday. “We took our story to the community and to City Hall over and over and over again, and now Samara and her mother live in the home they have always deserved.”

The group waved pink and purple balloons and cheered as Maria Zavala thanked the city.

“Today we celebrate to gather and give thanks,” she said. “I want to thank you all, because without you, none of this would have been possible.”

Groups like Faith in Action Bay Area and United Educators of San Francisco pushed for the city to find permanent supportive housing for the Zavalas. Faith in Action Bay Area is a coalition of faith leaders that advocate for civil rights causes like housing. United Educators of San Francisco, or UESF, is a union for teachers in San Francisco’s public schools. 

Family homelessness and student homelessness in the city have risen in the last several years. 

A woman wears a jacket that reads “End family homelessness” at a press conference celebrating Samara Zavala’s placement in affordable housing on Thursday, Nov. 20, in San Francisco, Calif. (Alise Maripuu/Bay City News)

In the last point-in-time count in 2024, around 2,500 students in the San Francisco Unified School District were unhoused compared to about 1,800 in 2019. Family homelessness nearly doubled in 2024 compared to the 2022 point-in-time count.

Geri Almanza, the treasurer of UESF, says that the number of unhoused students in the district this year is around 3,000. 

While getting Samara and her family housed was an important breakthrough in using advocacy to spark progress in the fight to end family and child homelessness, the group wants the city to continue the momentum. 

“Through organizing, we have forced the city to acknowledge that we must house our over 3,000 students that are unhoused in our city and provide this basic necessity for our students,” Almanza said. 

Alise Maripuu is an intern at BCN with a focus on covering the Peninsula. Originally from San Carlos, Alise discovered her passion for journalism after studying abroad in Thailand during her senior year attending UC Santa Cruz. Her experience in Thailand taught her the consequences for democracy when living in a society with strict laws against free speech. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history, Alise took courses in journalism at Skyline Community College to learn how to write for news. As the Chief Copy Editor on Skyline’s student-run newspaper for the 2023-24 school year, Alise gained editing and managing experience leading a team of reporters. She covered hyperlocal stories affecting her campus such as the rise in food and housing insecurity. Alise wants to focus on data journalism.