Shireen McSpadden, who has spent the last five years leading San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, announced Monday that she’s stepping down on June 30. The news marks the end of her 23-year career in City Hall and opens up a major opportunity for Mayor Daniel Lurie to reshape the department’s direction.

McSpadden’s departure comes at a critical moment. The city is about to release data from its latest point-in-time homeless census, which was conducted in late January. For the first time, the count was done in the early morning instead of the evening, a change designed to get a more accurate picture of unsheltered people on the streets. If those numbers show another spike in homelessness, it could put significant pressure on the new administration.

During McSpadden’s tenure under former Mayor London Breed, the homeless count went up 7 percent between 2022 and 2024, jumping from 7,754 to 8,328 people. The number of unsheltered individuals remained relatively flat during that period, but the overall increase suggests the city’s efforts haven’t kept pace with the growing crisis.

In her departure letter, McSpadden thanked Lurie “for his leadership and for the partnership of his administration”, saying she had “every confidence” in his ability to support the department through the transition. It’s a diplomatic exit, but the timing raises questions about whether McSpadden had early access to the latest census numbers and whether they played a role in her decision to leave.

Lurie has already been touting some wins, including a decrease in the number of people living in RVs on city streets. But if the new census shows homelessness has gotten worse, that narrative could quickly shift. Bad numbers from the point-in-time count would be a major headache for an administration trying to prove it’s making progress on one of the Bay Area’s most urgent crises.

It’s worth noting that McSpadden is only the second director of this department since it was created in 2016. Her predecessor, Jeff Kositsky, served as the founding director. Back when McSpadden took over in 2021, Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman described the job as “a meat grinder”, highlighting just how intense and politically charged this work really is. The department is constantly under-resourced for what the city asks it to do, and everyone from advocacy groups to supervisors has opinions about how it should operate.

McSpadden’s background includes leading the Department of Disability and Aging Services, so she brought experience managing complex social services. Her replacement will inherit a department that desperately needs more funding, clearer strategies, and political protection from the intense scrutiny that comes with being responsible for SF’s homelessness crisis.

The question now is who Lurie will tap to fill this challenging role, and whether that person will have any better luck actually moving the needle on homelessness in San Francisco.