In 2020, the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Fire Department launched the Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) to provide de-escalation response to residents experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
The SCRT’s goal was to address residents’ needs for care, treatment, and shelter. In its first year of operation, SCRT diverted more than one-third of 911 calls related to mental health crises from law enforcement.
As a part of San Francisco’s comprehensive outreach and response efforts to stabilize residents in distress, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management also launched a specialized rapid response program, the Homeless Engagement Assistance Response Team (HEART), in 2023 to:
Serve as another alternative to law enforcement response for non-emergency 311 calls.
Provide resident services such as assessing clients for immediate needs (i.e., clothes, wheelchair) and documenting long-term service linkage needs.
Coaching SCRT leadership on examining additional financial resources to sustain their program, with a priority to get the program certified through MediCal and qualified to bill for eligible services rendered.
Facilitating HEART’s adoption of the GPL’s data-driven performance management tools through workshops and live coaching to identify key performance metrics, enhance staff’s data analysis, and improve communication of program value in advocacy efforts.
Our participation in this Cohort will support efforts to strengthen our Homelessness Engagement Assistance Response Team (HEART), which has responded to an average of 1,200 calls each month since launching in May 2023. We look forward to working with the GPL to explore ways to significantly expand HEART’s services to ensure more people experiencing homelessness receive the care they need.Mary Ellen Carroll
Executive Director, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management
1 / 2
San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) has responded to more than 46,000 911 calls since launching in 2020, including those related to mental health crises and low acuity medical needs. This support from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab will help strengthen our efforts to scale insights from our efforts related to data tracking and sustainable expansion to other alternative emergency response programs across the country.Sandra Tong
San Francisco Fire Chief
2 / 2
Learn more about our work on strengthening alternative 911 emergency response.
Our participation in this Cohort will support efforts to strengthen our Homelessness Engagement Assistance Response Team (HEART), which has responded to an average of 1,200 calls each month since launching in May 2023. We look forward to working with the GPL to explore ways to significantly expand HEART’s services to ensure more people experiencing homelessness receive the care they need.Mary Ellen Carroll
San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) has responded to more than 46,000 911 calls since launching in 2020, including those related to mental health crises and low acuity medical needs. This support from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab will help strengthen our efforts to scale insights from our efforts related to data tracking and sustainable expansion to other alternative emergency response programs across the country.Sandra Tong