San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the appointment of a new director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing on Wednesday, following the recent resignation announcement by current director Shireen McSpadden.

Mayor Lurie has appointed Mike Levine, who is currently the head of the state of Massachusetts' Medicaid program, to be the new director of the key department.

As the Chronicle reports, Levine was the recommended choice of the Homelessness Oversight Commission, following last month's announcement that McSpadden was stepping down from the job in June.

"Mike is a lifelong public servant, having led Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, a $23 billion agency that serves nearly 2 million residents," Lurie says in a statement. "He is an expert in connecting health care and homelessness services, and he has seen the power of integrating primary care, treatment, and social supports to keep people healthy and housed. That’s the experience we need in San Francisco."

This is the second hire Lurie has made out of the Massachusetts Medicaid office, the first being Daniel Tsai, who was appointed to lead the city's Department of Public Health shortly after Lurie took office. After leading the Medicaid office in Massachusetts for six years, Tsai also served as President Joe Biden's chief of the national Medicaid program at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Lurie adds that Levine "understands how to maximize state and federal funding at a time when cuts are coming and every city dollar matters."

Levine will be arriving just as the city gets the results of its latest biennial homeless point-in-time count, conducted in late January, which are due to be released in the next few weeks.

The reasons for McSpadden's decision to step down are not clear, however the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing likely knows what those census numbers look like, and whether or not they will be bad news for Lurie's administration.

Lurie emphasizes in today's announcement that "Tent encampment numbers [have] hit the lowest level we’ve recorded," more people are getting treatment for fentanyl addiction, and "More people are accepting offers of shelter under our new street teams model."

Previously: SF Homelessness 'Czar' Shireen McSpadden Announces She Is Stepping Down

Photo via SF Mayor's Office