San Francisco Set To Pay Out Millions in Damage Claims to Owners of Shelter-in-Place Hotels

The Board of Supervisors approved the second in what will likely be a series of multimillion-dollar settlements over property damages at city-leased shelter-in-place hotels.

A settlement approved at the Feb. 28 board meeting agreed to pay out $2.9 million to AB Taylor Propco LLC based on a claim filed with the city last October, which asked the city to pay for renovation expenses to the Tilden Hotel, one of 25 hotels leased by the city as part of an emergency shelter-in-place program for unhoused people during the Covid pandemic. 

The Tilden Hotel damage claim was one of several filed by the owners of hotels leased for the program. 

Owners of the Hotel Union Square, another site contracted under the program, filed a property damage claim that was approved by the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed in December at $5.3 million. Other hotels that filed claims include the Good Hotel and Hotel Vertigo. 

The Hotel Union Square claim was originally for $5.6 million and alleged significant smoke and water damage, which rendered rooms uninhabitable when the city vacated the site at the end of September 2021, and for another $560,000 in lost rental income. 

The Hotel Vertigo claim was for over $3.3 million and was submitted to the Supervisors for approval Jan 13. It will likely be considered by the Government Audit and Oversight Committee in the near future. 

The City Attorney’s Office had no comment on the timeline or total amount of payouts expected. 

The shelter-in-place hotel program operated from April 2020 to December 2022 and was paid for with the help of reibursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, more than 3,300 people were temporarily housed under the program. 

Mayor Breed has credited the program with contributing to a 15% decrease in persons without shelter between 2019 and 2022.