SF Mayor Lurie moves ahead with plans to add 1,500 beds for unhoused: Here's a look at proposal
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Mayor Daniel Lurie's says his proposal to add 1,500 beds for the unhoused is slowly coming together--despite being a challenging proposition.
Let's put this in perceptive. Presently, there are 3,200 shelter beds across the city. His plan would add about one-third of that existing number.
"Our plan is to work with communities and find space," expressed Mayor Lurie.
Ah yes, space, that word that really doesn't exist in San Francisco. But let's give it a whirl.
Consider this, the Navigation Center along the Embarcadero, one of the largest in the city, has 200 beds.
MORE: SF makes yet another attempt to solve chronic homelessness. Will it work this time?
You would need more than seven to get close to Mayor Lurie's projected 1,500 beds.
"We're working, we're going to use existing sites, we'll have some new sites but we're working with community groups and supervisors to determine those now," insisted Lurie.
According to information obtained by ABC7 news, those extra beds would not be exclusive to shelters.
There may be psychiatric locked beds for those with serious mental health issues, housing vouchers for families, beds featured in tiny homes and residential treatment beds, to name a few.
The Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee has already discussed a plan to allow this tourist hotel to transition to a sober living residential program that would house and care for those in recovery.
MORE: Here's how an unhoused person navigates San Francisco's shelter system
Steven Good whose nonprofit runs the Embarcadero Navigation Center says, that may open the possibility for the smaller hotels that are struggling financially.
"There are plenty of hotels right now that are suffering that would gladly hand over their buildings to accommodate more homeless individuals. Beyond that, I really don't know if we're going to find more land to put up structures like this," explained Good, CEO of Five Keys.
There are two hotels in the Tenderloin, the Monarch and the Adante that had very low occupancy rates. Since the pandemic, they have operated as emergency shelters receiving funds from the city.
Another struggling hotel, the Cova, converted in 2022.
But there has been push back from labor and at least one supervisor.
"I share concerns of labor about the loss of hotel jobs and more broadly, I have concerns about losing tourist hotels even if temporarily," said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey who represents the South of Market Area.
Because here's the reality, during the pandemic when some hotels were temporarily occupied by people living on the streets, the city ended up paying dearly after they left.
"For the shelter in place programs, damage costs alone ended up exceeding $60 million," revealed Dorsey.
Also not clear is where will the city find the money to pay for those new shelters and add the needed personnel to run them? And then there's the unanswered question, what to do with people who refuse shelter.
Last November, we found Ann Worrell living in a tent. Here's what she told us.
"I find it more peaceful in my tent. I call it my little hobbit hole and I have more serenity and tranquility this way," said Worrell.
This week, we ran into her, making her own shelter in the doorway of an empty business.
There are 50 shelters operating throughout the city. A disproportionate number of them are in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods.
"I really think you need to spread it out across the city. It's not fair to give one community the burden of having to deal with multiple shelters," insisted Good.
A year ago, conditions on the streets forced some merchants and two hotels in the Tenderloin, the Best Western and the Phoenix to sue the city over the illegal drug use here.
"It was very bad, I just got the store open and running for six months. In the beginning there was a block of like homelessness and drugs," said Danny Ngo, who owns a sandwich shop across from the Phoenix Hotel.
Today, because of that lawsuit, conditions have improved. Ngo supports Lurie's plan to aggressively house more people.
"San Francisco, I'm a native, I know we always have this bust and boom happening. Hopefully next summer, we'll see, when the sun comes out it it's going to be better, it's going to be better," added Ngo.
