San Francisco homeless shelter delayed as Supes mull neighborood response
Plans for a shelter that can quickly accommodate hundreds of people living on the street have stalled, a delay that embodies the challenge the city faces to act urgently to address its deepening homelessness crisis to manage something.
The board’s budget and finance committee on Wednesday voted to withhold approval of the $ 18.7 million needed to keep the shelter going until more outreach is done.
More than 250 adults could have moved to an existing property at 711 Post Street in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood in a matter of weeks if San Francisco regulators voted for a $ 18 million grant on Wednesday.
The members of the committee recognized the great challenges facing the homeless in San Francisco. Ultimately, however, they cited a lack of publicity and indiscriminate engagement efforts as reasons to wait another month before considering the allocation.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who does not sit on the committee but represents the district where the shelter would be located, said many of his constituents had not received any real notice of the proposal or this hearing. He described his district as a place with a proven track record of using homeless services, but only after a robust public process.
“There was next to no meaningful and genuine commitment to the community,” said Peskin. “It checked the government at its worst.”
It takes time to gain broad community support, time that people who survive on the streets don’t have.
Officials acknowledged the urgency of the situation and the need to act quickly, but asked for more time to work with local actors to win the neighborhood before moving on.
“We are all aware of the urgency of this work,” said Supervisor Gordon Mar. “But I would repeat what my colleagues said that we cannot use this urgency to go through a bad process.”
At the time of the 2019 annual census, the last since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, around 8,035 people were homeless in the city. There has long been a gap between the number of people who need shelter and the number of beds The City can offer. Last year the city had 5,080 emergency shelters and transition beds.
Mayor London Breed’s homelessness restoration plan aims to close that gap. It stipulates that a total of 2,100 beds for adults and transition ages for teenagers will be added by June 30th.
The property on Post Street between Jones Street and Leavenworth Street would help achieve this goal. The residents would have few barriers to entry and there would be no maximum length of stay. However, they would have to be referred to the shelter and anyone staying there would be checked in and out as they left the building.
The existing building, a former youth hostel, offers a unique residential building model, which means that not everyone sleeps in the same room. It has 123 rooms, ranging from single rooms to four-person rooms. Each floor has a bathroom and a shower, and there is ample communal space in the form of a lounge, lobby and reception. It also includes a commercial kitchen, dining area and basement compartment.
Emily Cohen, deputy director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) said this configuration reflects some of the positive qualities of the hotel program as it gives residents more privacy and independence.
“We have to be smart about how we’re adding more beds, and this project gives us the ability to do that and it can be done pretty quickly,” she said.
Under the proposed agreement, HSH would grant Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that employs people with experience of homelessness or incarceration, $ 18.7 million. It already oversees the operation of a number of street cleaning, homelessness and relief programs across the city, including safe sleeping places, on-site accommodation and secure parking.
Urban Alchemy would not only operate and support the shelter itself around the clock, but also lease the building from February 1 to June 30, 2024.
“We are very excited to be working with Urban Alchemy on this project,” added Cohen. “You have a great track record of opening up new and creative program models with us.”
Based on public comments, the community’s reaction seems polarized.
Some people expressed frustration with the city’s contacting process, which took place during the holiday season and failed to reach many neighbors. They also said Lower Nob Hill did “more than its fair share” in helping the homeless – there is a navigation center just around the corner from the proposed accommodation address – and urged other neighborhoods to provide services.
Others said they feared Urban Alchemy was not equipped to be effective case managers.
Cohen said her agency was ready to put together a working group of local stakeholders to provide answers to questions and address concerns, but she stood up in addition to getting the grant approved as the city prepared to open the property.
“I think the most urgent reason to move forward is the 250 people who would sleep outside while we wait for this process,” she said.
Those who supported the shelter repeated their feelings. They stressed the severity of the emergency on the streets of San Francisco as a reason to act now.
“We absolutely believe that keeping people on the streets for another month is a terrible decision,” said Corey Smith of the Housing Action Coalition. “The situation will not improve after the community meetings.”
Supervisor Ahsha Safai asked if the city could own the building instead of paying someone as a tenant, but was told that HSH’s current strategy was in favor of acquiring buildings that could be converted into permanent supporting housing. This property doesn’t fit well as not every bedroom has an en-suite bathroom, Cohen said.
She pointed out that an overemphasis on permanent supportive housing, which she identified as a long-term solution to homelessness, results in people in need of immediate housing facing few barriers to entry without finding a safe place. For example, if they cannot enter accommodation, they may never be able to move to permanent housing.
“The need for protective beds is one of the most pressing needs we see,” said Cohen. “We’re adding a significant amount of sustained supportive housing, which is incredibly important, but we also need to build up our contingency measures to allow people to flow through the system.”
Although HSH asked the Budget and Finance Committee to reconsider the grant as soon as possible, members voted to wait until the next meeting on February 2nd to discuss the issue again.
cgraf@sfexaminer.com
