VALLEJO (BCN) – The location of a proposed new police station appears to have shifted after Tuesday’s Vallejo City Council meeting when discussion on the proposed relocation of the headquarters pivoted from a waterfront location to the building currently housing the library. The council voted unanimously to explore the library site option.

Public opposition to moving the department to 400 Mare Island Way on the waterfront has been pronounced. The council appeared to bend to the backlash and is now reviewing the relocation of the police department to the John F. Kennedy Library on Santa Clara Street, directly adjacent to City Hall.

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Opponents of the Mare Island Way location cite the message it would send to visitors who will see a huge edifice to the Vallejo Police Department on prime real estate; myriad public activities take place along the waterfront, bringing in people from outside the city.

There is also concern about speeding police cars in an area with heavy pedestrian traffic, the high risk of liquefaction and rising sea levels that are projected to breach the bottom floor of the building in the coming decades, and projected and unprojected costs for the project. The building will need to be retrofitted to the tune of an estimated $30 million, which would come from a bank loan to the city.

One thing that most people in Vallejo agree on is the need for a new station for the police department. The current station, centrally located on Amador Street, is cramped and outdated, with asbestos, mold and other hazards.

Police Chief Shawny Williams said it contributes to his department’s inability to attract new hires and retain current employees.

Vallejo has held community meetings to discuss possible locations for the new headquarters and invited the public to indicate suggested places on an interactive online map. From all the feedback, the council now seems open to abandoning the waterfront idea and giving a serious look at the library.

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The costs for moving the library and remodeling its building to accommodate the police department exceed estimated costs for a waterfront station. Interim Assistant City Manager Terrance Davis presented the council with cost estimates for four locations on Tuesday.

One option is upgrading the police department’s current Amador Street location to the tune of $59.8 million plus additional costs for relocating the city’s corporation yard, which currently sits on the site and would need to be used for the expansion. Another is redoing the current site of the library, with estimated costs of $38.1 million, plus the cost of relocating the library to Mare Island Way.

The third is using city land or private land to build a station from the ground up or remodel an existing building, at $56.1 million, plus any additional costs to acquire the land if necessary, while the fourth is $30 million to retrofit the Mare Island Way building, which the city already purchased for over $13 million.

City Council member Hakeem Brown told city staff that he hopes a comprehensive plan can be prepared outlining all the factors that would go into the library relocating and the Police Department moving in so as to avoid having to backtrack midway through the plan because of unforeseen problems.

“I’d like to request that if we are looking to move into JFK, that we come up with a full game plan of what we’re doing,” Brown said, who previously supported moving the police station to the waterfront. “I’d really like us to come up with a complete plan and not a half-baked plan, where we’re just kind of moving forward without a clear understanding of cost, time, as well as, is it even feasible?”

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James Keys hasn’t moved far from the spot on the street where, several months ago, he was living inside his 40-foot RV. In fact, that vehicle is still his home, and the south end of Bayview-Hunters Point is still his neighborhood.

On the street last year, Keys had to bury his waste, with no access to a bathroom or shower. Now, at the city site, he can use portable toilet, a shower trailer, two microwaves and a charging station for electronics. He gets two hot meals every day, and as of last week the city planned to send in more services, including case managers who can help place him into more permanent housing.

“It’s way better,” Keys told The Chronicle as he walked through the sanctioned parking site last week. “I’m giving them an A-plus.”

James Keys look out from his parked RV at the Bayview Vehicle Triage Center in San Francisco, California Thursday, March 3, 2022. Keys, 59, who previously lived in his RV with his brother and girlfriend along Hunters Point Expressway and subsequently at a temporary city-run RV site on Carroll Avenue after the atmospheric river event in November flooded much of the Expressway, initially resisted the move from the Carroll site but has since come around in support of the Triage Center and its support services despite being unable to use generators and open flames for warmth and cooking.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

Officials say about 50 households are living at San Francisco’s Bayview Vehicle Triage Center, the name for the sanctioned Candlestick Point parking site the city set up to address the growing ranks of people living inside RVs or cars. The site, operated by the nonprofit Urban Alchemy, is expected to grow to accommodate 130 households in the coming months.

San Francisco opened the Candlestick Point site in January and simultaneously shut down a nearby lot on Carroll Avenue where the city had let people living inside RVs set up temporarily. Officials had opened the Carroll lot as a short-term emergency location last year after a rainstorm led to flooding along Hunters Point Expressway, causing extensive damage to some of the vehicles parked there.

The city’s closure of the Carroll lot was met with strong resistance by some of its residents. They were deeply skeptical of the new Candlestick Point site, pointing to its limited electricity and rules banning propane tanks and generators, among other issues.

Propane tanks and generators remain disabled at the vehicle triage center. But Emily Cohen, a deputy director with the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said the city is working to get electric utility service connected to the RVs.

RVs are seen parked inside Bayview Vehicle Triage Center at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in San Francisco, California Thursday, March 3, 2022.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

“We want this to be better than being out on the street,” Cohen said. “This is hopefully a step on the pathway to people’s place somewhere more permanent.”

The site serves only a small portion of San Francisco’s vehicle dwellers. As of November, the city had tallied about 1,000 inhabited vehicles, with the largest concentration — about half of the total — residing in supervisory District 10, which includes Bayview-Hunters Point.

And as the city tried to set up the sanctioned parking site at Candlestick Point, it encountered opposition from residents concerned that it was trying to warehouse homeless people in one area. A local neighborhood group filed a lawsuit challenging the parking site and is now in settlement talks with the city.

Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton, who represents District 10, said he’s been talking to constituents to hear their feedback about the Candlestick Point site and the number of inhabited vehicles in the area.

RVs are seen parked inside Bayview Vehicle Triage Center at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in San Francisco, California Thursday, March 3, 2022.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

“Everyone was happy about changes to the expressway,” Walton said, referring to a lack of people parked on the street near the vehicle triage center. “There are still some concerns about folks who live in vehicles, but it’s not the same (level of) concern we saw a few months ago.”

Still, complaints from some neighbors persist. Timothy Alan Simon, who lives near the parking site, said its “extremely bright” nighttime lights have been a nuisance and inhabited RVs still populate many blocks in the area.

“The focus, understandably, is on the unhoused, but there seems to be no consideration for residents,” Simon said. “Based on our observation, the vehicle triage center has done nothing to reduce the unhoused RV population in the neighborhood streets themselves.”

The Candlestick Point site will be operational for at least two years, and San Francisco is looking into opening a second location for people who live in their vehicles.

Not everyone living at the current site is intent on staying. Marissa Magnusen, 50, told The Chronicle last week that she was considering leaving and finding somewhere else to park her RV while she tries to get into permanent housing.

“I don’t really like being told what to do all the time,” Magnusen said. “(But) it’s a nice program, I guess — for some people.”

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

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San Francisco this week quietly opened a large sanctioned parking lot for homeless people and made dozens of Bayview spaces available for those living in RVs and cars.

Despite stiff opposition, including a lawsuit from some neighbors, the Vehicle Triage Center at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area welcomed residents Wednesday, marking the beginning of a two-year program designed to provide vehicle residents with a safe place to park, sleep, and connected to services being.

Ultimately, the site will have 130 parking spaces, but it’s starting at 57 while officials get the program up and running.

The vehicle center is part of an attempt to help the city’s skyrocketing population living in RVs and cars — a pressing problem in the southeastern part of San Francisco, which has by far the largest number of inhabited vehicles in the city.

While many homeless people and their advocates agree that a large licensed parking lot is badly needed, some people the space is intended to serve have resisted moving there from a nearby property on Carroll Avenue. They told The Chronicle on Wednesday they didn’t want to go to the new location because, among other things, it has limited electricity and banned propane tanks and generators.

“That pretty much makes your RV a storage unit,” said BA Anderson, who has lived on the Carroll Avenue property since the city designated it as an emergency parking lot late last year. “No one would say, ‘I’ll rent you this house, but you can’t cook.’ Treat people like people.”

Anderson emailed city officials a list of demands Wednesday, asking for immediate access to electricity, heating, hot and cold running water, mechanic help and more.

He included photos of a few dozen signatures that he said were from people who lived in vehicles and organized themselves into a tenants’ alliance.

Neither the city nor its contractors would allow The Chronicle on the Carroll lot or the new location. But Emily Cohen, an assistant director for the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said officials had received the list of demands and were trying to respond.

“We’re definitely always interested in hearing from the clients on our programs,” said Cohen. “We want to make these programs as accessible, welcoming and dignified as possible.”

The city didn’t plan to address every complaint. Individual propane tanks and generators aren’t allowed because they pose a fire hazard, Cohen said. But the city tried to solve other problems, such as insufficient electricity supply.

“There are long-term plans for the power supply, but it’s going to take a while to get it up and running, so we’re working on an interim solution,” Cohen said. “There is currently limited power capacity available.”

The new site, which the city spends $2.8 million a year to operate, has running water, officials said.

City officials established the Carroll lot as a short-term emergency parking lot more than two months ago after a rainstorm caused flooding along the Hunters Point Expressway, where scores of people lived in vehicles. Some of the vehicles – and the belongings of the people inside – were badly damaged.

Officials say they only have access to the Carroll property until the end of the month, so they’re trying to get everyone to the new location as soon as possible.

As of Thursday noon, 17 households living in 15 RVs and two cars had moved from the Carroll property to the new vehicle center, according to Cohen. About 25 mobile homes and 42 cars remained.

Some homeowners involved in a local neighborhood group have filed a lawsuit against the secure parking lot, but its opening has not been delayed. Yet neighbors continue to resist what they see as an attempt to shelter the homeless in a corner of town.

“We shouldn’t be burdened with the uneven burden of housing these people,” said Shirley Moore, a longtime resident who lives in a house near the RV site. “If you’re going to let them park on our streets, let them park on the streets in every community throughout San Francisco and don’t focus them on our area.” It’s about balance.”

City officials point to the high concentration of people living in RVs and cars as justification for opening a large center to cater to them.

Regulatory District 10, which includes Bayview-Hunters Point, had more than 500 occupied vehicles in November — up from about 300 in April 2019, city data said. District 10’s latest count was far higher than that of the next most concentrated area, District 7, which had about 150 inhabited vehicles in November.

“The one common denominator that we can all agree on is that we have a lot of people living in vehicles in District 10,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the area. “My job is to make sure we are responsive to the needs of the community and also to the needs of people who are not housed in vehicles or on the road. You can do both.”

About 20 vehicle residents gathered outside the Carroll property Wednesday afternoon to discuss the next step. Several said cooking and generator restrictions were one of the main reasons they didn’t want to move to the new location. Local residents also worried about whether the site would have enough water and electricity.

“They make it really impossible for people to be there,” said Cynthia Keener, 57.

She said she uses a nebulizer twice a day because she has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and she doesn’t think the new property has enough infrastructure to accommodate her needs. She wondered if it wouldn’t be better to park her vehicle back on the street instead of driving to the sanctioned Candlestick Point lot.

Sonya Rekula-Talone, 54, said she and her husband had their own generator powering their vehicle, which was parked in the Carroll parking lot, on Wednesday. Her husband uses a walker and she works night shifts, so she was very concerned about the ban on generators at the new location.

“I will not leave my husband alone in the dark when he can barely walk,” she said.

Anderson, meanwhile, said that as of Thursday, some residents of the Carroll property were determined not to go to the new site until their demands were met, and he continued to lobby them.

“You don’t want to go anywhere where the situation is worse than here,” he said.

JD Morris is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO – A large mixed-use project in South San Francisco that will include a new Safeway store is advancing the purchase of a select lot for development by a real estate company.

Steelwave, a seasoned developer acting through a subsidiary, has purchased a large lot at 180 El Camino Real in South San Francisco on which the project is to be built, according to documents filed with the San Mateo County Real Estate Agency.

The subsidiary paid $ 98 million for the package and bought the 14.5-acre site from Shamaim LLC, according to district documents filed on Dec. 28.

Newmark brokers Steven Golubchik, Nicholas Bicardo, Edmund Najera, Jonathan Schaefler and Darren Hollak arranged the real estate transaction, the commercial real estate company said.

“180 El Camino was one of the few remaining opportunities to grow in South San Francisco,” said Golubchik, a Newmark vice chairman and head of the real estate company’s Northern California Capital Markets Unit. Golubchik added that the property had received “robust” interest from potential buyers.

The Steelwave entity completed the property purchase through a cash deal, according to the county records.

According to the planning documents of South San Francisco, one of the heart of the project will be a new Safeway store.

“The revitalization of this property has been in the works for many years, but it’s worth the wait,” South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego said in a prepared announcement.

The new Safeway store will be approximately 63,700 square feet, city officials said.

An existing mall on the site, known over the years as the Spruce Shopping Center, located on the southeast corner of El Camino Real and Spruce Avenue, has stood vacant in recent years.

Steelwave is also planning several buildings consisting of offices and research sites on the site adjacent to the Safeway business location.

The office and research buildings are expected to have a total area of ​​750,000 square meters, according to a very tentative proposal submitted to the city council.

With the exception of the Safeway store, 19,500 square feet of retail space could potentially be part of the project.

Steelwave is coordinating the exact plans for the office and research space as well as the additional retail locations outside the Safeway store.

Construction of the new Safeway store is slated to begin this spring and be completed in the summer of 2023, officials from South San Francisco said.

The development area is within 2 miles of the San Bruno BART station.

Residents of South San Francisco have been waiting for the retail complex to be modernized for several years, but earlier proposals had not been implemented as an actual project.

“The new Safeway will anchor and stimulate positive improvements in the area and provide our residents with more shopping and dining options,” said Mayor Addiego.

180 El Camino Real in San Francisco, a development site for a mixed-use office and retail project, concept. (Google Maps)

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The city of San Francisco is nearing the opening of a safe injection site that would be the first in the United States.

Mayor of London Breed on Tuesday passed a law to buy a property in the city to act as a safe injection site and provide behavioral health services. Next, the planned takeover will go through a public process with the Supervisory Board for approval.

A safe injection site, also known as a safe drug use site, provides a clean place where people can bring illegal drugs and use them with sterile supplies under the supervision of trained personnel ready to respond in the event of an overdose. The sites also serve as a bridge between drug users and services such as rehabilitation.

Critics argue that injection sites encourage drug use and crime in the surrounding neighborhood. Proponents cite research that suggests injection sites can reduce overdosing, risky behavior, and limit drug use in public spaces. Sites have been up and running in Europe for decades, and more recently Australia and Canada, but attempts to open them in the US have faced litigation.

The city has been considering opening a site for years, and while the federal government and state don’t legally allow injection sites, the city passed law last year to approve a site through an overdose prevention program, KTVU reported. In addition, State Senator Scott Wiener is pursuing laws that allow San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles to open them.

SFGATE contacted the mayor’s office for answers to questions about the potential location.

Q: Where would the proposed site open?
ONE: The city is considering a location in the Tenderloin district at 822 Geary St. and 629 Hyde St. (corner of Geary and Hyde), the mayor’s office said.

Q: How quickly could the site open?
ONE: It could open in the spring.

Q: What does the site cost?
ONE: $ 6.3 million.

Q: Who would pay for the project?
ONE: Money from Proposition C, a gross income tax measure for homeless assistance that was passed with 61% of the vote in 2018, would fund the project. Prop. C has raised millions in revenue, but funds have been tied up in a lawsuit following a lawsuit that argued that a two-thirds majority was required to pass the tax. A superior court judge in San Francisco ruled in 2019 that the tax was legal. An appeal was lodged against this judgment and a state appeals court upheld it in summer 2020.

Q: Who would be running the site?
ONE: “We are discussing with our non-profit partners about their ability to open and operate safe consumption programs directly for those in need,” said a statement from the mayor’s office. “The city is also looking into creating a city-sponsored program to work with nonprofits to operate sites, identify potential locations, and develop a strategy to ensure that the surrounding areas see a tangible difference on our roads. ”

Q: Will the site offer additional services?
ONE: “The suggestion is to use this website for a variety of behavioral health needs,” the city said. “The legislation does not dictate the type of services offered on the website.”

Bay City News contributed to this story.

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For years, San Francisco’s quest to have a safe drug use website has been more talk than action.

Officials like Mayor London Breed reiterated their support for these sites – where people can use drugs under the supervision of health professionals who can reverse overdoses – but have been cautious about moving forward without the approval of the state and federal governments.

Now that is starting to change. Following a board vote in October calling on Breed to use their emergency powers to open a safe consumption point, The City is quickly acquiring a building in the Tenderloin that could house the site. Officials are also working out the legal and logistical details of the operation.

The two safe toons in New York City that opened in November – which have not yet been closed by federal officials – have put pressure on the federal government to clarify their legality. And a bill by State Senator Scott Wiener could pave the way for California to legalize safe consumption locations by early 2023.

Still, many challenges remain in getting one or more of these sites up and running in San Francisco, where 545 people died of overdoses between January and October.

On Wednesday, the board’s budget and finance committee unanimously voted to purchase 822 Geary St. and adjacent property that could house a secure consumption point. The matter will be submitted to the full committee for approval on Tuesday, where it is expected to be passed.

The way from there is less clear.

The authority responsible for opening a safe consumption point is the Department of Public Health (DPH). In a statement, a department spokesperson wrote that The City “remains in the exploratory phase of opening a safe toast”. The department is “considering” using the room at 822 Geary both as a safe place to consume and as a crisis diversion unit that would provide 15 behavioral medicine beds. The $ 6.3 million purchase price for the site would come from Prop. C, the city’s 2020 homeless service tax.

DPH plans to host community meetings and provide other opportunities for the public to get involved in its plans for 822 Geary, which so far have largely taken place behind closed doors. While city officials had previously targeted an opening date as early as next spring, DPH employees reported at the budget and finance committee meeting on Wednesday that the facility could open by September.

At the same time, city attorney David Chiu has begun reaching out to federal and state officials regarding a safe consumption point in San Francisco and is advising the mayor on how to proceed, according to spokeswoman Jen Kwart.

It could be clear soon, with a letter from the Department of Justice expected by Jan 5th on a case of a safe consumption point in Philadelphia. Also in January, Wiener plans to reintroduce SB 57 into the state legislature, a bill from last year that would legalize safe consumption locations in major California cities, his office confirmed. If passed, the bill – the latest in a long line of attempts to legalize safe consumption locations at the state level – would not come into force until January 2023.

The location of the planned location in San Francisco and the related communication from The City have already triggered criticism.

Randy Shaw, executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and an occasional employee of Examiner, supports safe consumer locations but is opposed to the Geary location. Glide Memorial Church or another existing needle swap closer to the heart of the tenderloin would make more sense, he said. Shaw also said the location is linked to the tenderloin’s history as a “containment zone” for drug use.

“This idea that the Tenderloin is the place because that’s where the drug dealers are – I mean, The City put the drug dealers in there,” Shaw said.

But for harm reduction advocates, the Geary site is just a first step. “For this program to be successful, there must be more than one location,” said Gary McCoy, policy director at HealthRIGHT 360, who previously went on hunger strike to campaign for The City to open a safe place of consumption. . “One location would not have the capacity needed to be successful and actually save the lives we need to save.”

Data from the chief medical officer’s office shows the tenderloin is a good place to start. The data shows that 21% of drug overdose deaths in The City in 2021 occurred there – more than any other neighborhood – with a further 17% in adjacent Nob Hill, near the planned location at 822 Geary.

While San Francisco is proceeding cautiously, outgoing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio offers another blueprint: to dare the federal government to shut down safe consumption points in that city in a year the US recorded 100,000 overdose deaths. De Blasio “didn’t care about NIMBYism because this is an emergency,” said McCoy. “I don’t think anyone wanted to be first, but I hope New York City motivates everyone else who wanted to.”

bschneider@sfexaminer.com

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Der neue sichere Parkplatz der Stadt wird rund um Candlestick Point verstärkt durchgesetzt.

Ende Oktober kündigte der Bürgermeister von San Francisco, London Breed, Pläne für einen sicheren Parkplatz für Menschen an, die in ihren Wohnmobilen im Candlestick Point State Recreation Area im Viertel Bayview-Hunter’s Point untergebracht sind. Der geplante Standort wird 150 Parkplätze mit einer Kapazität für 177 Bewohner umfassen und über Strom, Beleuchtung, 24-Stunden-Sicherheitsdienst, Toiletten, Trinkwasser- und Schwarzwasserpumpen für die Entsorgung von Wohnmobilabfällen verfügen. Die Site, die offiziell als „Fahrzeugtriagezentrum“ bezeichnet wird, wird auch Fallmanagement- und Wohnungsdienstleistungen umfassen, die Menschen in eine dauerhafte Unterkunft bringen sollen.

Die Strategie ist teilweise eine Reaktion auf einen beschleunigten Trend, dass Menschen während der Pandemie in ihren Fahrzeugen leben. Im November lebten nach Angaben der Stadt 673 Menschen in Wohnmobilen, Wohnmobilen und Lieferwagen und weitere 332 in Personenkraftwagen in ganz San Francisco. Im Januar 2020 waren es 554 bzw. 260.

Für Menschen, die keinen anderen Unterschlupf haben, bietet das Wohnen in einem Fahrzeug Schutz vor Witterungseinflüssen, Hitze, einen Platz zum Schlafen, Kochen und die Toilette zu benutzen. Aber der Ansatz hat Nachteile; Trinkwasser zu finden ist schwierig, und Wohnmobile produzieren Abfall, der schwer zu entsorgen ist, was zu Beschwerden von Nachbarn führt. Und Beamte der Stadt fahren häufig ab oder ziehen Fahrzeuge ab, in denen Menschen leben. Die Parkgesetze der Stadt – einschließlich eines Parkverbots auf öffentlichen Straßen für mehr als 72 Stunden – machen es den Menschen, die in ihren Fahrzeugen leben, leicht, Tickets zu sammeln. Fünf oder mehr unbezahlte Tickets können dazu führen, dass ein Auto oder ein Lieferwagen abgeschleppt wird, manchmal auch als „Armutsabschleppdienst“ bezeichnet, da sie Menschen, die in ihren Fahrzeugen Schutz suchen, unverhältnismäßig stark beeinträchtigen.

Der neue Standort wird einen sicheren, sanktionierten Ort zum Parken sowie Ressourcen bieten, von denen die Stadt hofft, dass mehr Menschen mit Ressourcen verbunden sind und weniger Beschwerden über Schutt und Abfall auftreten. Aber die Stadt verdoppelt auch die Durchsetzung, um mit Wohnmobilen außerhalb des Parks umzugehen.

Und das geplante Gelände wird vorübergehend sein – die Stadt hat nicht angegeben, wie lange es dauern wird, verhandelt jedoch mit dem State Parks Department einen zweijährigen Pachtvertrag für das Land. Befürworter von Personen, die in Fahrzeugen untergebracht sind, befürchten, dass dies nicht lange genug sein wird, um Menschen dauerhaft unterzubringen – und die Stadt hat bereits eine Vorkehrung getroffen, um nahegelegene Wohnmobile abzuschleppen und zu bezahlen, wenn sie den sicheren Wohnmobil-Standort einrichten. Der San Francisco Chronicle berichtete, dass die Stadt eine Vereinbarung mit dem State Parks Department getroffen hat, dem das Land gehört, das die Stadt pachten wird, um die Polizeipräsenz im Park zu erhöhen und Fahrzeuge auf den angrenzenden Straßen abzuschleppen.

„Bei jedem Programm, das sie öffnen, kommt es zur Durchsetzung, weil das System es so macht“, sagt Kelley Cutler, eine Organisatorin der Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco.

Ob das Gelände im Candlestick Park den Bewohnern zu dauerhaften Unterkünften verhelfen kann, bleibt abzuwarten. Ein früherer Fahrzeug-Triage-Standort in San Francisco war von November 2019 bis November 2020 in Betrieb und zeigte laut einem Bericht des städtischen Rechnungsprüfers gemischte Ergebnisse. Der Standort, der auch vom San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) beaufsichtigt wurde, stellte 29 Parkplätze für 75 Personen in der 2940 San Jose Avenue in der Nähe des Balboa Park BART State zu Gesamtkosten von 1,6 Millionen US-Dollar zur Verfügung. Die Stadt schloss einen Vertrag mit einer gemeinnützigen Organisation, die Wäsche-, Dusch- und Sicherheitsdienste bereitstellte.

57 Prozent der Bewohner des San Jose Avenue-Geländes hatten Anspruch auf geförderten Wohnraum und der Rest war mit Fallmanagern verbunden, die versuchten, die Gäste durch „Problemlösung“ neu zu beherbergen, einschließlich Arbeitsvermittlung, Kleinstipendien und Kontaktaufnahme zur Familie Mitglieder. Aber der Bericht sagt, dass nur 25 Prozent der Bewohner das ganze Jahr über in Wohnungen untergebracht wurden. 8 Gäste wurden aus gesundheitlichen Gründen in Hotels untergebracht oder untergebracht. Und 7 Personen – insgesamt 3 Haushalte – wurden gebeten, die Website aufgrund von Verhaltensproblemen von Mitgliedern ihres Haushalts zu verlassen.

Next City bat HSH um Klärung der oben genannten Verhaltensprobleme, erhielt jedoch zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung keine Antwort.

Trotz des Versprechens, dass das Gelände zu einer Verringerung der illegalen Entsorgung von Wohnmobilabfällen führen wird – lange Zeit ein Problem im Park – hat das geplante Gelände vorhersehbar den Zorn der Einheimischen geweckt, die glauben, dass es die Präsenz von Wohnmobillagern verlängern wird. (Befürworter sagen jedoch, dass die örtliche Opposition gegen Menschen, die in Wohnmobilen leben, eine verstärkte Durchsetzung vorantreibt, die in Fahrzeugen untergebrachte Bewohner vertrieben und die Obdachlosigkeit verlängert hat.)

Das Viertel Bayview-Hunter’s Point war in der Vergangenheit mit Unterinvestitionen konfrontiert; es wurde Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts, als es überwiegend schwarz war, neu gezeichnet; 1963 drehte der Autor James Baldwin einen Dokumentarfilm über seine schwarzen Bewohner, in dem er minderwertige Wohnverhältnisse und industrielle Schadstoffe hervorhob. In den 90er und 2000er Jahren wurde ein Großteil der schwarzen Bevölkerung durch die Sanierung vertrieben. Einige lokale Gegner der Site haben diese Geschichte als Beweis dafür angeführt, dass die Nachbarschaft als Wegwerfartikel behandelt wird.

„Ursprünglich dachten wir, ein Triage-Center für Fahrzeuge wäre eine gute Idee, aber wir wussten nicht, dass es im State Park sein würde, und das ist einfach ein schrecklicher Ort dafür“, sagt Marsha Maloof, die Präsidentin des Bayview Hill Nachbarschaftsverein, der sich dem Standort widersetzt. Maloof sagt, dass die Nachbarschaft und der State Park unter zu wenig Investitionen leiden und die Gemeinde jahrelang darum gekämpft habe, ihn offen zu halten. Es leidet immer noch unter einem Mangel an Müllabfuhr und nicht funktionierenden Toiletten, sagt sie.

Sie sagte, die Stadt könnte Ressourcen dorthin bringen, wo Wohnmobile derzeit geparkt sind, anstatt sie in den Park zu bringen.

Maloof und der Nachbarschaftsverband haben Gespräche mit Bürgermeister London Breed, dem Präsidenten des Aufsichtsrats von San Francisco, Shamann Walton, und mit der Stadtplanungskommission geführt, sagt jedoch, dass niemand offen für eine Änderung des Standorts schien.

„Das Vehicle Triage Center am Candlestick Point wird ein Maß an Dienstleistungen und Sicherheit bieten, das für die Menschen, die in ihren Fahrzeugen in der Gegend leben, benötigt wird“, sagte Bürgermeister Breed in einer Pressemitteilung.

Gwendolyn Westbrook, Direktorin des United Council of Human Services, bewirbt sich um den Vertrag über die Erbringung von Dienstleistungen auf dem sicheren Parkplatz von Candlestick Point. Die Ablehnung des sicheren Wohnmobilstellplatzes aufgrund der Geschichte des Viertels sei wenig sinnvoll, da der Wohnmobilstellplatz das Gelände sauberer mache und langjährige Bewohner dauerhaft beherbergen solle. Sie sagt auch, dass die Leute, die derzeit in der Nähe des Parks parken, langjährige Einwohner von San Francisco sind, die aus Erschwinglichkeitsgründen vertrieben wurden, und viele stammen aus dem Bayview.

„Die wissen im Grunde nicht, wovon sie reden“, sagt Westbrook über die Gegner des sicheren Parkplatzes. „Die Leute da draußen sind aus San Francisco. Sie haben hier draußen die Gentrifizierung durchgemacht und die Leute sind auf der Straße gelandet“, sagt sie. Einige der Leute, die im Lager leben, sind Leute, mit denen sie zur High School gegangen ist, und einige leben seit 15 Jahren in einem Fahrzeug in der Nachbarschaft, sagt Westbrook.

Westbrook hofft, dass die Stadt den Candlestick Park lange genug in Betrieb hält, damit die Menschen umgesiedelt werden können.

„Ich hoffe, dass sie es behalten können, bis die Leute in Wohnungen untergebracht sind, denn was soll das alles machen, und dann schließt man es und die Leute sind immer noch da?“ Sie sagt. Westbrook fügte hinzu, dass es einige Zeit dauern kann, bis die Stadt genügend Wohnungen für einkommensschwache Wohnungen baut, um Bewohner unterzubringen.

Laut Cutler with Coalition on Homelessness, der auch im Aufsichtsgremium für den sicheren Parkplatz an der San Jose Avenue tätig war, ist die Schwierigkeit beim Übergang in eine Wohnung ein Zeichen dafür, dass nicht genügend bezahlbarer Wohnraum zur Verfügung steht, um Menschen zu „triagieren“. der Sprachgebrauch der Stadt. Cutler sagt, dass die Daten des San Jose Avenue-Piloten auch durch die für die Site verwendeten Auswahlkriterien verzerrt sind. Nach Angaben des Rechnungsprüfungsbüros fand die Site Kunden, indem sie über ihr Homeless Outreach Team Flyer verschickte; Personen, die Anspruch auf geförderten Wohnraum oder andere Leistungen hatten, wurden priorisiert, ebenso wie Personen mit gesundheitlichen Problemen, die sich aus dem langfristigen Leben eines Wohnmobils ergaben. (Die Candlestick Point-Site wird auch nur auf Einladung zugänglich sein, was nach Ansicht der Stadt wichtig ist, um zu verhindern, dass sich mehr Wohnmobile von außerhalb der Nachbarschaft versammeln, was als “Magneteffekt” bezeichnet wird.)

„Im Grunde haben sie sich die Rosinen ausgesucht, wer reingekommen ist, und die anderen haben sich einfach nicht qualifiziert, und die Quoten, mit denen Leute von dort ins Wohnungswesen kommen, waren nicht großartig“, sagt Cutler. Bei der Suche nach Personen, die sich für eine Wohnung qualifiziert haben, besteht die Gefahr, dass das Programm Leute auslässt, sagt Cutler. „Innerhalb der Wohnmobilbevölkerung ist das sehr vielfältig, es gibt Familien, Senioren, Berufstätige, viele Menschen unter diesem Dach, die in Fahrzeugen leben.“

Die Zunahme der Durchsetzung trotz fehlender offizieller Dienste ist ein Thema, das sich in der Vergangenheit der Koalition gegen Obdachlosigkeit angenommen hat. In einem kürzlich veröffentlichten Bericht beschuldigte die gemeinnützige Organisation das Healthy Streets Operating Center, die behördenübergreifende Taskforce der Stadt, die für die Räumung von Lagern zuständig ist, Durchsuchungen durchzuführen, unabhängig davon, ob Ressourcen für die Menschen, die zum Verlassen aufgefordert wurden, verfügbar waren oder nicht. Dies würde gegen Martin gegen Boise verstoßen, der behauptete, dass Beamte keine Obdachlosenlager ohne verfügbare Unterkünfte räumen können.

„Ich kann Ihnen nicht sagen, wie oft Leute nur um diese magische Karte gebeten haben, die Sie jemandem geben können, der nicht untergebracht ist“, sagt Cutler. „Es ist nicht so, dass die Leute serviceresistent sind, sondern dass es nur sehr wenige Ressourcen gibt.“

Cutler sagt, dass es einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Pushback der Gemeinde wie dem der Nachbarschaftsvereinigung und der Durchsetzung gibt; Dies führt oft dazu, dass die Stadt die Durchsetzung jedes Mal erhöht, wenn neue Obdachlosendienste wie ein Tierheim oder eine Navigationsseite eröffnet werden. Und obwohl Programme wie der sichere Parkplatz nur vorübergehend sind, bleiben die Beschränkungen in der Regel noch lange nach ihrer Aufhebung bestehen.

„Egal, wohin Sie in der Stadt gehen, um Ressourcen für Menschen ohne Unterkunft zu schaffen, es ist ein Kampf“, sagt Cutler. „Um die Gemüter der jetzigen Bewohner zu beruhigen, setzen sie weiterhin mehr Strafverfolgungsbehörden ein. Das ist kein Problem der Strafverfolgung.“ Sie sagt, dass Fahrzeuggemeinschaften aufgrund von Nachbarschaftsbeschwerden ständig vertrieben werden, nur um sich in einer neuen Nachbarschaft zu versammeln, wo sie schließlich vertrieben werden. „Das geht schon seit Jahren so“, sagt sie.

Im Moment treibt die Stadt den Plan für einen vorübergehend sicheren Wohnmobilstellplatz und eine verstärkte Durchsetzung voran und strebt einen Starttermin im Januar 2022 an. Anfang November richtete die Stadt auch einen Notfall-Wohnmobilstellplatz in der Carroll Avenue 1236 für Menschen ein, die in Fahrzeugen entlang des Hunters Point Expressway leben, die von den jüngsten Stürmen betroffen waren. Dieser Park bleibt geöffnet, bis der Candlestick Point-Standort fertig ist, sagt die Stadt.

Cutler sagt insgesamt, dass der Plan, den Leuten Ressourcen zur Verfügung zu stellen, gut ist Ernennung, das geht in die richtige Richtung“, sagt Cutler. Sie warnt jedoch davor, dass es eine falsche Bezeichnung ist, es als Triage-Zentrum zu bezeichnen, da dies impliziert, dass alle Menschen direkt in eine dauerhafte Unterkunft übergehen werden. “Das ist einfach nicht die Realität, die Realität ist, dass es Zeit brauchen wird.”

Anmerkung der Redaktion: Nach Redaktionsschluss stellte das San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) Next City eine Kopie der Ausschreibung für den sicheren Parkplatz zur Verfügung, die besagt, dass der Standort 4 Mitarbeiter und einen Fallmanager beschäftigen wird und wird Überweisungen zu psychischen Erkrankungen, Sozialleistungen und Arbeitsvermittlungsstellen anbieten.

Auf Fragen zu Personen, die zur Ausreise aufgefordert wurden, sagte die HSH, sie könne sich zu bestimmten Fällen nicht äußern, nannte aber eine Liste möglicher Verstöße, darunter die Verweigerung der Einhaltung von Maskenpflichten, Gewalttaten, „störendes Verhalten“, das ein klares Risiko darstellt an andere, die eine Waffe und Eigentumsvernichtung besitzen.

Roshan Abraham ist Korrespondentin für Wohnungswesen von Next City und ehemaliger Stipendiat von Equitable Cities. Er hat seinen Sitz in Queens. Folgen Sie ihm auf Twitter unter @roshantone.

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October 25, 2021

After serving as a shelter-in-place hotel during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Abigail Hotel will reopen as permanent accommodation

San Francisco, California – Mayor of London N. Breed and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) announced today that the city, in partnership with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC), is reopening the Abigail Hotel as a Step Up Housing location. Abigail will offer 59 adult housing units successfully transitioning from Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) to affordable housing with a more independent housing model.

“During the pandemic, San Francisco provided emergency shelters and shelter to thousands of people without shelter, and as we continue our city’s recovery we must do everything in our power to ensure that the same people have access to permanent shelter.” said Mayor Breed. “We know housing is the solution to homelessness, and the Abigail Hotel will provide permanent living space for people with a history of homelessness and access to supportive housing for those new to the streets.”

The Abigail Hotel was one of the first Shelter-In-Place (SIP) locations to open during the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting adolescents in transition (TAY). It was demobilized as a SIP location on June 30, 2021 in order to transition to its current status as a Step Up Housing location. All of the rooms at the Abigail are en-suite and the building has a spacious lobby and common room, as well as a state-of-the-art kitchen. The Tenderloin Housing Clinic will manage the site and provide case management services to the independent residents five days a week.

More information about the Tenderloin Housing Clinic can be found here: www.thclinic.org/

“It is exciting to see another of the SIP hotels continue to be part of the city’s long-term strategy to accommodate all of our residents,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney. “The Abigail Hotel will provide better accommodation for those who have completed their permanent support housing and can live more independently. By providing more of these housing options for our city’s most vulnerable residents, we are creating a significant part of the framework that will help us finally get our homelessness crisis under control. “

“We are excited to convert the Abigail Hotel to improve housing,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

“As people start looking for accommodation, they are releasing urgently needed places in permanent support housing for vulnerable people who have needed their first home or the first home in a long time.”

“This opening marks the historic return of the Abigail Hotel to permanent housing for low-income San Franciscans,” said Randy Shaw, general manager of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. “40 years ago, tenants fought to keep Abigail an affordable residential SRO. Thanks to Mayor Breed and HSH, their mission has now been accomplished.”

Step Up Housing, part of the city’s Homeless Response System, offers Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) residents the opportunity to move from intensive supportive housing to a more independent life. By participating in the program, tenants make their PSH unit available to other homeless people. The city currently operates nearly 400 residential units for adults and families.

For more information on the San Francisco Homeless Response System and the Housing Ladder Program, visit: hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/housing-ladder/

The reopening of the Abigail Hotel is part of Mayor Breed’s larger plan to tackle homelessness in San Francisco. Mayor Breed’s strategy includes her homelessness recovery plan, which will expand the city’s homeless response system and purchase or lease 1,500 new PSH units over the next two years, the largest one-off expansion in the city in 20 years.

This press release was produced by the San Francisco Office of the Mayor. The views expressed here are your own.

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During a typical year there are a few 55 million people pass through San Francisco International (SFO), the country’s seventh largest airport. At some point during their journey to or from the terminal, each of them will travel through a seemingly nondescript 180-acre property, muddy and spartan, bordered by highways and railroad tracks, bisected by rows of power lines. It may look like any other overgrown building lot, but this one is home to the world’s largest population of the strikingly beautiful and critically endangered San Francisco garter snake. A recent study by the US Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed the occurrence of approximately 1,300 snakes on SFO’s West of Bayshore property – the highest concentration ever recorded.

The data marks a hard-won victory for Natalie Reeder, who has worked to keep the site snake friendly for more than a dozen years, first as a consultant and now as an SFO airport biologist. She says airports usually hire scientists like her to keep animals out; their job is to make them stay. Shipowner and her team are responsible for managing the “kind of evil” property west of Bayshore to support the gorgeous but withdrawn snake.

Simply put, the San Francisco garter snake is a stunner. The famous herpetologist and travel guide author Robert Stebbins – a man who had seen many snakes – once considered it “the most beautiful snake in North America”. Though eye-catching and wearing bold stripes in turquoise and red down the length of its four-foot-long body, the snake is notoriously introverted, quick to flee, and difficult to catch. This has made it difficult to count them accurately.

The San Francisco garter snake has been on the federal list of endangered species for more than half a century. Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0 / Flickr

What conservationists have long known, however, is that the snake is in trouble. Endemic only to the San Francisco Peninsula, the showy creature has seen its wetlands filled with fields or paved by urban sprawl. Its main food source, the California red footed frog, has declined for the same reasons. Even if it could find suitable territory, the snake wasn’t safe. The reptile is valued for its exquisite colors and is a popular target for poachers and foragers.

These threats put the San Francisco garter snake on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) first list of endangered species, published in 1967, though it would take the agency nearly two decades to come up with a recovery plan for the animal. That 1985 document identified West of Bayshore as one of the last remaining places of refuge for the serpent and called for a moratorium on development there. (Just in time too: Shipowner says plans for a subdivision are in the works.) For 23 years, the land remained largely untouched, protected, but neglected, and filled with invasive plants and harmful industrial sewage from the area.

In 2008, according to an unscientific but worrying population survey, SFO took snakes seriously. They worked with the USFWS to develop an updated recovery strategy for the San Francisco garter snake and the most important animal for its survival, the California red-legged frog. This is where Natalie Reeder came in.

SFO Airport Biologist Natalie Reeder has led efforts to protect and preserve the West of Bayshore property. Courtesy SFO

Since then, her team has worked to rebuild the snake’s goldilocks-like dream home – not too wet, not too dry, open shores for sunbathing, but thick bulrushes to protect against predators. They built rain ponds, deepened existing wetlands, and cleared overgrown drainage canals that benefited both snakes and frogs. Instead of cutting a firebreak every summer and exposing the soft animals to potentially deadly blades and tractor tires, they brought hundreds of goats to clear the land.

Reeder says SFO has also “increased security” and reinforced the property with gates and fences to protect the habitat and prevent illegal collections.

Invasive plants looking for a hold on the site will always be a problem, and thanks to the surrounding impenetrable surfaces, shipowners and their team will likely never be able to isolate west of Bayshore from urban and industrial sewage. But the environmental improvements and increased security seemed to have tipped conditions there in favor of the snake.

The California red-legged frog is the main meal of the San Francisco garter snake. John Kunna / Courtesy Natalie Reeder

“That is really encouraging [the snakes] can exist in such high urban density, ”says Brian Halstead, a USGS wildlife biologist and one of the study’s authors. He and his colleagues spent two years studying the population and genetic variation of the snakes at the seven known locations. While the team at SFO had good news to report, it found less encouraging data elsewhere.

For one, the populations at four of the sites studied were precariously low, with fewer than an estimated 100 snakes. In addition, all seven locations are geographically isolated and scattered across the peninsula, preventing snakes from moving to and from neighboring locations and potentially compromising genetic diversity. Halsted says improving connectivity will be important to the snakes’ long-term prognosis, including possibly establishing translocation or breeding programs in captivity.

With 1,300 individuals on the 180 acre site, Shipowner thinks west of Bayshore might have “the carrying capacity” for the snake. To prevent overpopulation and improve genetic diversity in other locations, she believes that “some of these snakes need to start moving one way or another”. The USGS study also found that the West of Bayshore property could be an ideal source population to infuse new snakes into other locations.

The San Francisco International Airport site is deep and prone to sea level rise. Russss, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia

While shipowner describes the low population figures in other places as “pretty scary”, she is most concerned about the effects of climate change. She says the airport is upgrading its infrastructure to act as a buffer against sea level rise, but the land west of Bayshore is deep and particularly vulnerable to saltwater ingress, which would be fatal to the California red-legged frog. At the other end of the spectrum, the state’s increasingly long and intense droughts could prove disastrous for both species and the humid places they need to survive.

More than snakes and frogs depend on West of Bayshore: Thanks to improvements by Shipowner and her team, the site has attracted a host of other wildlife. The San Francisco garter snake now shares its home with two other species of snake, the gopher snake and the yellow-bellied speeder, as well as deer, foxes, birds and thousands of invertebrates, and shows what is possible, says Reeder, when animals “one have a bit of space and a bit of food. “

Reeder hopes the explosion of life in this overgrown property could inspire people across the peninsula and beyond to help protect urban open spaces, no matter how small or unsightly.

“Nature is not a place to go,” she says. “Nature is here, even in some of the most industrial and commercial areas.”

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