BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: The religious obligation to help the poor and homeless has been a challenge for many people of goodwill, especially in cities with large homeless populations. But in San Francisco, a collection of new programs does seem to be working, at least for those most in need. Saul Gonzales reports.

SAUL GONZALEZ: The Golden Gate Bridge, graceful hilltop neighborhoods and, of course, the cable cars: These are the picture postcard sights that make San Franciscans proud of their city. But what often casts a shadow over their pride are other sights — the more than 5,000 homeless people who try to survive on this city’s streets.One of them is Kathleen Reeves, who panhandles with a friend near Union Square.

KATHLEEN REEVES: Can you please help us?

GONZALEZ: She says she has no choice if she’s going to eat.

Ms. REEVES: Why do you think I’m out here begging for money? I don’t like begging. I don’t. But I have to.

GONZALEZ: For years, San Francisco’s city government developed strategy after strategy to deal with homelessness, from the opening of temporary shelters to restrictions on panhandling. But nothing seemed to reduce the number of the city’s street people. Then, in 2003, San Francisicans elected Gavin Newsom mayor. He pledged to introduce new initiatives to end chronic homelessness in the city within 10 years.

GAVIN NEWSOM (Mayor, San Francisco): It’s a moral shame. It’s an assault on everyone —the old adage you can’t live a good life in an unjust society — to see in visual terms our failure as a society, to try to go about your day-to-day life where you’re stepping over someone on the sidewalk or you’re seeing someone passed out on the street corner. And now we’ve got to do something more and do better. Let’s try a new model, and let’s try to do it in a way where we can see real results.

BEN (Outreach Worker, speaking to homeless man): You just hanging out?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yeah.

BEN: Yeah? My name is Ben. I’m with Homeless Outreach.

GONZALEZ: Newsom expanded the city’s existing homeless outreach teams. They try to encourage the indigent, many with drug and mental problems, to take advantage of available city services. The mayor also launched an initiative called Project Homeless Connect. Held every six weeks, it’s a kind of fair for street people where city departments, local companies and hundreds of private volunteers offer a range of free services to the homeless: vision testing and eyeglasses; clothing and food; wheelchair repairs; even the cleaning of dirty and infected feet.

Mayor NEWSOM: What Project Homeless Connect now represents is a sense of pride and spirit, a sense of community and purposefulness. So when people say, "Hey, what are you doing, mayor, about solving the homeless problem?" now I have something to say: "Hey, wait a second. What are you going to do to help this city?"

GONZALEZ: However the centerpiece of Mayor Newsom’s efforts to fight homelessness is a two-year-old program called Care Not Cash. It’s a carrot-and-stick approach to getting people off the streets. In exchange for a guarantee of long-term housing in newly renovated residential hotels, homeless people who receive county welfare checks agree to have their monthly payments cut from as much as $410 to as little as $59. The money cut from people’s welfare checks helps to pay for their monthly rent. Once they move into housing, usually small single rooms, the formerly homeless receive food stamps and assistance from on-site case managers.

UNIDENTIFIED CASE MANAGER (to homeless woman): Do you have any life insurance?

GONZALEZ: The case managers help residents find jobs, psychiatric counseling and drug addiction treatment. This extra support is supposed to ensure that once people receive homes, they’ll stay there.

Mayor NEWSOM: That is a much more difficult issue than giving someone a key, a lock and the dignity of a housing unit. You’ve got to have the wrap-around support services to deal with the underlying reasons at the same time. That’s our housing first model: housing and supportive services.

GONZALEZ (to Leo Patterson): Can you show me around your room? I mean, I know it’s not huge.

LEO PATTERSON: Sure. It’s not a big room. But it’s home. It’s home.

GONZALEZ: Leo Patterson was homeless for over three years until he became one of the more than 1,300 people placed in a housing unit through the Care Not Cash program. Patterson says he couldn’t be happier.

Mr. PATTERSON: I am very settled, and I’m not on the streets anymore. And I don’t have to worry about food or nothing. And I’ve got a roof over my head, and it feels great.

GONZALEZ: Jim Tribble, who now just gets $64 a month in welfare, says he’s fine having his payment slashed in exchange for long-term housing.

JIM TRIBBLE: That’s the price you pay. But if you think about it, the rent around here is astronomical. So I made that trade. I thought it was a great trade-off — take the check. I would rather have the residence and supportive staff, etcetera and all the other stuff that goes with the package.