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Last week announced our first Safe Sleeping Village in Civic Center to address the rise in tent encampments in the surrounding area. Today we're announcing we'll be opening the next site at the former McDonald's lot on Stanyan. Here's a thread on why we're willing to try this:
During normal times, two of the main ways we help people out of homelessness are shelter placements and homeward bound, where we connect people with a relative or friend willing to take them in. Because of COVID-19, both of these have been severely limited, tying our hands.
Upon taking office I set out to add 1,000 new shelter beds. But settings like shelters are now easy targets for this virus. The largest outbreak in SF was in a shelter. We've had to reduce capacity in shelters by 76% for social distancing and stop taking in new people.
Almost 1,000 people who were in shelters have been moved into hotels, and we're continuing to move more homeless people into these rooms every day. But the logistical challenges of this are immense, which I outlined here:https://medium.com/@LondonBreed/homelessness-hotels-and-covid-19-dac646fb6b51 …
Homeward bound is also a challenge. Many people don't want to take someone in for fear of contracting the virus. Additionally, bus routes have been severely reduced, so even getting someone home is difficult. In January, 50 households used homeward bound. In April, only 2.
Add to this the fact that a number of people tend to live on the brink of homelessness, often couch surfing or finding other temporary housing that people are now uncomfortable with because they're trying to shelter in place.
As a result, we're seeing tent encampments pop up again throughout the City. We're following the guidance from the CDC, which is to encourage distancing in encampments, but the situation is getting out of hand. It's not fair to anyone, especially the residents in these areas.
So while in normal times I would say that we should focus on bringing people inside and not sanctioning tent encampments, we frankly do not have many other options right now. Having places with resources serving people in the neighborhood is better than unsanctioned encampments.
So we will be moving 40 tents to the site on Stanyan. Supervisor @DeanPreston is working with neighbors on the implementation.
This is in addition to the 70 tents at the Civic Center site, and we're looking for more sites right now.
But let's be clear--this crisis did not cause this situation. It only exacerbated it. We have failed to deal with our housing shortage crisis and address mental health and addiction for decades. I'm going to continue to fight to address this, even when it's not always popular.
We need to reform our broken bureaucracy to make it faster and cheaper to build new housing, new affordable housing, and new permanent supportive housing. We need to invest in mental health and addiction services. We cannot wait or allow the usual NIMBYism to get in the way.
Please, we need you to do more -- Follow the unanimous decision of our elected supervisors! @LondonBreed you are personally responsible for death and suffering #HousingForAll
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