Homeless advocates note massive decrease in San Francisco shelters despite need

SAN FRANCISCO - Advocates for the unhoused in San Francisco are worried about a round of closures of long-term shelters in the city's Tenderloin District. The city says they are working to put long-term fixes in place. 

What we know:

District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter, who represents neighborhoods, including Union Square, North Beach, Russian Hill, and Chinatown, officially confirmed the closure of the 280-bed facility at 711 Post by April of next year.

The city is saying those long-term solutions begin with facilities like the RESET Center, where the city can offer services as a first step toward treatment and housing. The city's de facto sobering center was slated to open at 444 6th Street this spring, but the city attorney has some concerns about whether the center can be legally considered a jail or detention facility. The center is currently still under construction. 

Spreading services around

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, whose district includes the Tenderloin, said the move to shutter some shelters is aimed at making sure that the homelessness crisis isn't just isolated to one or two neighborhoods, and he said there needs to be a focus on programs that work.

"We're going to take a non-performing sites like the Monarch [hotel] away in exchange for 822 Geary, which is more performance and more evidence and data-based going forward," said Mahmood. "This is also a commitment on behalf of the city that we're going to ensure that there's no longer a concentration of services, in just one neighborhood that we're going to and replace the Monarch and the Adante, build more silver centers based on evidence and data, but also spread them through throughout the city not just in one neighborhood."

Closures are devastating 

But, homeless advocates are raising concerns, saying the closure of the shelters has been devastating to those who live in them. They say while the goal of offering services is praiseworthy, advocates say the way the city has executed the plans means the city has lost shelter beds at a time when they are critically needed. 

"That means that we've lost 66% of that type of shelter for adults and so that would mean more people on the street," said Jennifer Friedenbach from the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco. 

"Folks with severe mental illnesses or severe substance-use disorders, there's no ability for street teams to put them into placement and have them stabilized. There's been a huge focus on the front end of, you know, support for you know, maybe 72 hours or something like that. There's been some expansions there, but that's actually not the important intervention. The important intervention is the stability."

Timeline:

It will take about a year to wind down operations at 711 Post and find shelter for the 280 or so residents there.