San Francisco leaders have delayed the potential opening of a new 250-bed homeless shelter in Lower Nob Hill after local residents and businesses objected to the plans.

City officials had proposed entering into a two-year, $18.7 million contract with the nonprofit Urban Alchemy to rent and operate the shelter at 711 Post St., a currently vacant hostel building just north of the Tenderloin and a few blocks west of Union Square.

The shelter would have opened in early February if the Board of Supervisors approved the contract next week. But a board committee voted unanimously Wednesday to have the city spend another month vetting the issue amid outcry from residents near the building who said they were not adequately consulted and had serious reservations about how the project would impact their neighborhood.

The Post Street site has yet become another flash point in San Francisco’s fraught debate over how to make meaningful improvements to its homeless crisis with more than 8,000 people lacking permanent housing. The delay Wednesday comes on the heels of the collapse of a city plan to turn 131-room hotel in Japantown into permanent housing for homeless people after months of community backlash.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the area, asked the board’s budget and finance committee to revisit the proposal on Feb. 2. Peskin said that the city’s community engagement efforts had been so far “abysmal” and that he wants the neighborhood to have more time to evaluate the plans.

“Meaningful and real involvement with the community has been all but absent,” Peskin said, who doesn’t sit on the budget committee. “It has been box-checking government at its worst.”

Supervisors have in recent weeks decried the insufficient shelter, housing and treatment options to get people off the streets in the wake of Mayor London Breed declaring a state of emergency in the Tenderloin. Supervisor Hillary Ronen criticized her colleagues for delaying the shelter in the wake of the emergency declaration.

“I do not understand how the members of the Budget Committee voted to declare a state of emergency in the Tenderloin & then a day later delayed the leasing of a 250 bed non-congregate shelter to serve that neighborhood. Is this a crisis or not? It is & we need to act accordingly,” she wrote on Twitter.

With the state of emergency, Breed hopes to address street conditions, overdoses and crime in the hard-hit neighborhood. The declaration has been controversial because Breed has signaled an intent to expand policing, but her administration is also trying to connect more homeless tenderloin residents with shelter and other services.

Breed’s office views the Post Street shelter as a crucial step in the city’s plans to address homelessness this year. Her administration wants the shelter system’s capacity to reach 2,100 beds by the end of June through a mix of adding new beds and reopening beds closed due to the pandemic. The city is about halfway toward meeting the goal. Breed is also working to create 1,500 units of permanent supportive housing for the homeless.

“Every day we delay this shelter is one where 250 people sleep on the street,” Breed tweeted after the committee delayed the Post Street contract. “We can’t let obstruction and process arguments stop us from helping people in need.”

Breed said city leaders and the public “all agree that the conditions in the tenderloin are an emergency” and “we need to act like it.”

Formerly operated as a youth hostel called the Ansonia Hotel, the Post Street building includes 123 rooms that range from singles to quads. Each floor has bathrooms and showers, and the building also includes community lounges, a commercial kitchen and a dining space.

City officials were drawn to the building’s configuration, which, if used to serve homeless people, would place it somewhere between a single-room occupancy hotel and a traditional congregate shelter.

“This is not a building type or opportunity that we often have,” said Emily Cohen, a deputy director at the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

But a vocal group of people who live or work near the site have said San Francisco leaders did not provide enough notice about the building’s potential transformation. At the committee meeting, several residents also said they thought the area had already shouldered its fair share of facilities that serve San Francisco’s unhoused population.

Still, some spoke strongly in favor of the potential shelter, viewing it as an urgently needed facility to quickly get 250 people off the streets in the middle of winter.

Supervisor Matt Haney, who chairs the committee, said he understood the range of viewpoints expressed by the community.

“I do believe that these type of facilities are ones that we absolutely need,” he said. “I also understand the need to effectively consult with the neighborhood and the absolute need to consider geographic equity as well.”

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, another committee member, supported spending more time discussing the project with the community.

Though he said he’d heard from numerous people opposed to the shelter, Safaí didn’t think the city would repeat the scenario that unfolded in Japantown last year.

Safaí also questioned why the city hadn’t moved to buy the site instead of contracting with Urban Alchemy to rent the facility from its owner. He said he’d been in contact with the owner, who he said is willing to sell.

“It seems to me like there’s room here to purchase the building,” Safaí said.

It’s not clear how exactly the city will proceed with the potential Post Street shelter. Cohen urged supervisors to make the delay as short as possible, warning them that a month was “a really long time” to postpone advancing the contract. But Safaí, Haney and Supervisor Gordon Mar voted in favor of Peskin’s proposal to continue the item to Feb. 2.

Peskin said he would work with city staff over the next month and “see what we can come up with.”

JD Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris

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South San Francisco City Council last week failed to approve a 480-unit housing estate, citing concerns about wages paid to builders and plans to use gas-fired water heaters in place of electric alternatives.

The lengthy approval process, which began in 2018, will be postponed until at least December 8th, at which point the point will be submitted to the Council again. Council members expressed the hope that the developer, the Hanover company, would give in to calls for union workers to be hired and for more environmentally friendly electrical appliances to be included.

“This project has been going for three years and another two weeks won’t really hurt,” said Councilor Buenaflor Nicolas. “We have to give the opportunity to negotiate and work together more.”

The delay comes amid a controversial time for housing projects as state laws have been passed in recent years aimed at getting cities to approve more housing in response to sometimes clogged local pipelines for new developments and rising rents. Developers have increasingly relied on such laws to get their approval – sometimes through litigation.

The proposed developments would consist of two seven-story buildings for 100 Produce Ave. and 124 Airport Blvd. with a total area of ​​743,700 square meters. The first two floors of the building would be multi-storey car parks with 560 spaces.

The location is half a mile from the South San Francisco Caltrain Station and one mile from a BART station.

The seventh public hearing on the development took place at last week’s session, but for the first time before the city council. The planning commission previously called for numerous changes, ranging from design changes to the facade of the building to the use of systems in the surrounding landscape design, to concerns about traffic management and the demand for more cost-effective units.

The development is said to include 60 units below market price, with 40 units affordable for those earning 80% of the region’s median income and 20 units affordable for those with the region’s median income. Units in these categories suitable for a household of two would cost approximately $ 2,927 and $ 2,992 per month, respectively.

The affordability of the units does not meet the city’s requirement that 15% of the units are for those earning 50% and 80% of the median income of the area, but since the development was submitted before the requirement became effective, it is optional.

For the same reason, the settlement is also exempt from the city’s natural gas ban on new residential buildings that came into force at the beginning of the year. The developer noted that all other devices will be electric and the use of electric water heaters has not been fully written off.

“We will get cost estimates and offers for both projects and for the same price we will be completely electric,” said Scott Udal, development partner at Hanover. “I’m not leaning towards anything electrical, I am leaning towards the uncertainty and I am leaning towards the costs that would potentially rock this project.”

Udal said he was concerned about the increase in the cost of the project as the financial incentive to build homes on the site has decreased since the project was submitted to biotech and other industries in the area.

He went on to point out that Senate Bill 330, a federal law that came into force last year requiring cities not to delay projects, was inapplicable because the project was brought before the law. City Attorney Sky Woodruff stated that the law would not apply due to the project requiring zoning changes. But, said Udal, “this law was passed for a reason, and that is, housing projects are taking too long to get approved and facing too many hurdles, and we’ve cleared hurdles on this project.”

“Up until three to four days ago it felt like collaboration, and I worry that if we don’t move forward now, what is coming won’t be collaborative,” he said.

However, Councilor James Coleman said that despite several meetings with the developer in which he urged the use of electric water heaters and union work, and expressed concern about the below-market amount, he saw “very minimal” changes to the plan as a result.

“Climate change is real and action is required now; action was required yesterday,” Coleman said. “If these apartments are to be built, it has to be done in a sustainable way.”

Councilor Eddie Flores said he would also like to see the building be fully electric and said he was concerned that families in the community would be affected by the lack of union work.

“We definitely want something positive for the community at all levels,” he said. “I would like to see a little more time for the negotiations to proceed. Let’s talk it out. “

Addiego noted that the water heaters didn’t worry him as much as other council members, adding that the new homes are likely to prevent long commutes for those employed in South San Francisco – a net gain for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Sometimes you try to be perfect when it comes to natural gas, but we have to be a little bit sensible about how it affects us,” he said. “Architecture and design and what that entails is a project that I would not like to see get rid of, but the Achilles’ heel is the work situation.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Carl White expected to be greeted by a chaotic scene when he arrived at San Francisco International on Sunday for his flight home to the UK after taking his family to the Bay Area over the Thanksgiving holiday had visited.

But instead, the lines moved smoothly and there were few delays. The experience for most travelers was surprisingly stress free.

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“We’ll be here probably six hours before departure – way too early,” said White. “I’m just trying to avoid the traffic on the way. Although we didn’t really come across one. “

For White and Samantha Jayasuriya, it was their first trip since the COVID pandemic started in 2020, so they just didn’t know what to expect specifically on such a busy weekend.

“We definitely had some concerns,” said Jayasuriya. “We had a great time in the US and bonded with the family we haven’t seen in two years, so that’s important.”

Kendyl Stewart said she was pleasantly surprised when she went through SFO too.

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“I honestly didn’t have any problems today,” she said. “I was expecting stress everywhere and just headaches and crowds and really wasn’t encountered.”

But Stewart has been aware of COVID and remains cautious.

“I try to stay away from the people at the airport,” she said. “When everyone is at the gates, I try not to interfere in other people’s affairs.”

The news of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron preoccupied many travelers. Starting Monday, new restrictions for travelers from South Africa and other countries will apply at airports across the country.

Travelers say they will be following the same precautions they followed during the pandemic.

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“People are wearing masks, all measures are being taken, so it’s more or less okay,” said Konstantin Korodkii, who had come to the SFO from Russia on Sunday. “I think it’s similar to the Delta variant.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Top Democrats abruptly postponed an expected House vote on Friday on their $ 1.85 trillion ten-year social and environmental measure as the struggle between progressives and moderates re-emerged as the pillar of the president’s domestic agenda Distracted Joe Biden.

To give him the victory he needed, leaders were still preparing to push an accompanying package of $ 1 trillion in road and other infrastructure projects through the chamber and to his desk. But even the fate of this popular bill designed to create jobs in all states was questionable.

The messed up plans put a new face on a party that has been struggling for weeks to take advantage of its control of the White House and Congress by advancing its top priorities. That was difficult, in part because of the low Democratic majorities as bitter internal divisions are forcing House leaders to miss several self-imposed deadlines for voting.

“Welcome to my world,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Told reporters, adding, “We are not a lock-step party.”

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Democratic leaders had hoped the House of Representatives would approve both measures on Friday, bringing double triumphs to a president and a party that recover from this week’s deflationary elections and want to show they can rule.

The party’s gubernatorial candidates were defeated in Virginia and squeaked through in New Jersey, two blue-leaning states. Democrats can hardly afford to be in disarray a year before the midterm elections, which could result in Republicans regaining control of Congress.

The president and first lady Jill Biden delayed their plans to travel to their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Friday night so he could try to break the traffic jam. He spoke to House leaders, moderates and progressives, said a White House official, who described the talks on condition of anonymity.

Instead of approving the Infrastructure Bill to give Biden a chance at a winning lap, a group of progressives threatened to vote against it. They have long been calling for the two bills to be voted on jointly in order to put pressure on the moderates to support the larger, more expansive social measure.

With the Democrats only losing three votes and able to prevail in the narrowly divided house, Pelosi said she would move forward anyway, saying she “felt pretty good” about the support.

Pelosi has refused to vote on bills for years unless she had any certainty that they would go through to avoid embarrassing defeat.

Democrats’ day shattered when, after hours of discussion, half a dozen moderates insisted they would vote against the massive package of health, education, family and climate initiatives unless the congressional bipartisan budget bureau first put forward its cost estimate for the measure.

Democratic leaders said it would take days or more. With Friday’s delay and legislators’ plans to leave town for a week-long hiatus, it could mean budget estimates are ready by the time the vote is taken.

Adjusted the party’s timetable for the final passage of the $ 1.85 trillion measure to reflect political reality, Pelosi said that once the CBO numbers are in, “we will have a Thanksgiving present for the American people” .

In a letter to her colleagues announcing the new voting plan, she wrote: “The agenda we are advancing is transformative and historic, and therefore challenging.”

The infrastructure move smoothly cleared the Senate in August with bipartisan support including support from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The package would allocate huge sums to each state for freeway, mass transit, broadband, airport, drinking and sewage, power grids, and other projects.

But it became a pawn in the long struggle for leverage between the progressives and moderates of the Democrats. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Who heads the 95-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the bipartisan joint White House and Congress tax committee provided all the tax information lawmakers needed to draft the sweeping bill.

“If our six colleagues still want to wait for a CBO score, we would give them this time – after that we can vote on both bills together,” she wrote. That strongly suggested that at least some progressives would vote against the infrastructure bill on Friday.

Early Friday, when Biden met reporters to present a strong monthly job report, he said he would “make some calls” to lawmakers. He said he would ask them “to vote yes to these two laws now”.

The House’s approval of Biden’s larger measure would send her to the Senate, where she would face certain changes and more democratic dramas. This is mainly due to the demands of Sens. Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona to contain the costs of the measure and to curb or stop some of their initiatives.

Pelosi met with Hispanic lawmakers late Thursday who wanted the immigrants to stay in the US as much as possible. However, your chances of taking bold action are limited by the strict regulations of the Senate. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, DN.Y., said Friday that they had discussed other bills to move the issue forward and saw Pelosi as an ally.

Pelosi’s strategy seemed to be geared towards getting the most robust social and climate legislation possible, leaving it to the Senate to change or drop parts that its members disagree with. Because of Manchin and Sinema, the 2,100-page size was cut to about half the original $ 3.5 trillion.

Republicans reject the measure as too expensive and harmful to the people.

The package would help large numbers of Americans pay for health care, child-rearing, and home care for the elderly. There would be lower prescription drug costs as Medicare would be able, for the first time, to negotiate lower prices for some drugs with drug companies, a long-term Democratic priority.

The package would provide about $ 555 billion in tax breaks to promote cleaner energy and electric vehicles. The Democrats added important provisions in the last few days and re-established a new program of paid family vacations and work permits for immigrants.

Much of the cost of the package would be covered by higher taxes for wealthier Americans and large corporations.

Manchin has planned the new family vacation program, which is expected to include four weeks of paid time off, less than the original 12 weeks.

The Senators are also likely to remove a just-added immigration rule that would allow 7 million immigrants in the country to apply for up to two five-year work permits.

© Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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The Board of Directors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on Tuesday approved a new series of Slow Streets, all of which fall in neighborhoods that did not have any of the partially car-free corridors to date during the pandemic.

However, a vote on four of the nine new streets that needed to be approved was postponed after agency staff asked for an additional four weeks to respond to community calls for deeper engagement and greater contact with residents on planned closings respond at Bayview-Hunters Point.

Tom Maguire, Street Director at SFMTA, described the “key tension” the agency faces in implementing transformative changes like Slow Streets as a choice between acting quickly to achieve its goals and moving more carefully.

“We know that if we are to do any substantial, community-led work, we must pay special attention to how deep our reach is in it,” Maguire said at the board meeting on Tuesday.

Back in November, the SFMTA touted its outreach plan for this fourth wave of slow streets, which aims to provide urgently needed open spaces and mobility access to “historically underserved” districts that historically have often only been told by the public to agencies about what is happening to their communities instead of being involved in the decision-making process.

Over a period of about a month, the SFMTA concentrated its reach on 10 districts.

It sent direct mail home, hosted four virtual events and three neighborhood events, posted flyers along the suggested corridors, and distributed neighborhood-specific surveys that yielded 1,278 responses.

But Shamann Walton, the manager who represents Bayview-Hunters Point, said the agency fell short in his district when he asked for a list of community groups and residents with whom the SFMTA had worked to conduct effective public relations he said the agency could not provide details.

“People always want to play a role in the discussion about what is happening to their neighborhoods,” he said. “At the very least, MTA should be able to tell who they met and who they reached. They haven’t made it yet. “

Erica Kato informed the auditor that in addition to the above efforts, the agency provided feedback from the Bayview Hills Neighborhood Association on January 6th to the Bayview Citizen Advisory Committee and the Bayview Hills Neighborhood Association on February 1st, soliciting them and hosting four virtual office hours .

She also said the staff discussed Slow Streets with “community group representatives,” but did not provide any additional information about who they were or who they represented.

Walton urged the transit agency to think beyond online reach, a tool that fails to reach many of its constituents and that is gathering responses from a limited segment of the city’s broader population, and instead consider diversifying contact methods.

In a sort of mea culpa, the SFMTA admitted that it could have done more to adjust its approach to Bayview, for example, but also stressed the challenges of face-to-face interaction during this time.

Maguire said the agency recognized that the “cookie cutter view” of online and virtual workshops is not working effectively, and going forward, SFMTA would not simply assume that the tools that work elsewhere are the answers there too .

“We want to acknowledge the fact that we have been asked to do more,” he said of the need for a four-week delay before voting on the four Bayview-specific proposals for the Slow Street Corridor.

Delaying the vote on approval should not delay implementation. Due to the ongoing shortage of materials in the construction of the demarcations and barricades that signal a slow road, all new rollouts will be suspended for at least a few weeks.

The Board almost delayed the vote on the entire fourth wave of Slow Streets at the recommendation of staff, but after violent testimony during public comments calling for action, it decided to separate the five corridors in higher density neighborhoods, in those who had not been raised with the same concerns about reach and move forward with them.

Local residents and supporters of SoMa’s road safety were particularly strong in public comments and expressed their “complete disappointment” with the idea of ​​further delays. Many of them have been calling for a car-free corridor since the start of the Slow Streets program in April 2020.

“SoMa has very fast traffic, it is dangerous for pedestrians and there is tremendous support for slow streets in the neighborhood,” said supervisor Matt Haney, reiterating her frustration. Residents have asked, fought and asked for SFMTA to create slow roads in SoMa and throughout District 6. We cannot accept any further delays. “

With board approval, implementation will begin as soon as materials become available, which the SFMTA is expected to conduct in the spring of this year.

cgraf@sfexaminer.com

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