San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie just announced who’s taking over the city’s homelessness crisis, and it’s someone with serious experience tackling the same issues on the East Coast.

Mike Levine, currently running Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, is stepping into the role of director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. He’s replacing Shireen McSpadden, who announced she’d be stepping down in June. The Homelessness Oversight Commission actually recommended Levine for the job, so this wasn’t just a random pick.

Levine’s résumé is pretty heavy. He’s been leading a $23 billion Medicaid program that serves nearly 2 million people in Massachusetts. What makes him stand out for this role is his expertise in connecting healthcare with homelessness services. He’s got hands-on experience integrating primary care, treatment, and social supports to keep people housed and healthy, which, let’s be real, is exactly what SF needs right now.

Interestingly, Levine is actually the second person Lurie’s poached from the Massachusetts Medicaid office. Daniel Tsai, who also came from that same program, is now leading the city’s Department of Public Health. Tsai actually spent six years running the Massachusetts Medicaid office before becoming Biden’s chief of the national Medicaid program at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. So yeah, Lurie is clearly convinced this Massachusetts office produces some solid talent.

Lurie is hyping up what Levine brings to the table, emphasizing that he “understands how to maximize state and federal funding at a time when cuts are coming and every city dollar matters”. Given that we’re dealing with tighter budgets across the board, having someone who knows how to stretch federal and state resources is clutch.

Timing-wise, Levine is arriving just as the city is about to drop its latest biennial homeless point-in-time count, which was conducted back in January. Results are supposed to drop in the coming weeks. There’s some speculation floating around about whether the census numbers will be rough for Lurie’s administration, and that maybe it played a role in McSpadden’s departure. We don’t actually know her reasons for stepping down, but the timing is definitely sus.

That said, Lurie is putting a positive spin on things, claiming that tent encampment numbers have hit their lowest recorded levels and that more people are getting treatment for fentanyl addiction. He’s also saying that more people are accepting shelter offers under the city’s new street teams model.

So here we are, waiting to see if a Massachusetts Medicaid expert can help tackle one of San Francisco’s biggest challenges. The homelessness crisis isn’t going anywhere, but at least the city’s got someone new in the driver’s seat who’s got experience in the healthcare-to-housing pipeline.