Mission Cabins, a two-year homeless-shelter project offering 60 tiny homes to adults experiencing homelessness, will open its doors this morning to residents at 1979 Mission St., next to the northeastern 16th Street BART Plaza.
The project will house up to 68 adults. Sitting on a 24,000-square-foot parking lot surrounded by eight-foot-tall black wire fences, the cabin village features 52 65-square-foot single rooms and eight 78-square-foot double rooms for couples. The rooms for couples sit on the east side of the site.
Deborah Bouck, communications and community engagement lead at the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said that the program is invitation-only, and will not accept walk-ins or applications. The site’s service provider, the nonprofit Five Keys Schools and Programs, and the department’s homeless outreach program aim to move in five people a day until the cabins are all occupied.
Two wooden steps lead into each cabin. Each room has a lock on the door and a window. The inside is furnished with a single or double bed with pink or dark gray bedding, a bath towel and a three-drawer cabinet in the corner. A potted plant sits atop the cabinet, and along the wall is an air-conditioning unit with a light above it.
Guests are allowed to bring in their own possessions, and can put their belongings in one of five shared storage units if they require the extra space.
Between the rows of rooms are communal sitting areas. Each has three green round metal tables with chairs. A stripe of light pink paint covers some of the old parking-lot lines.
Six wheelchair-accessible rooms — the same size as the double rooms — are situated on the southeastern side of the site. Close by are 11 all-gender restrooms, each with a toilet and shower.
Not only can guests bring in their belongings, they can also bring in their pets. “It is a low barrier for people to access housing with care,” Bouck said. Down the staircase next to the bathroom is a small dog park with a lawn with artificial grass and two blue picnic tables.
There is no kitchen on-site, but Five Keys will have two meals a day delivered to the residents.
The only entrance to the site will be on Mission Street, with Five Keys staff at the gate 24/7; there is an emergency exit on Capp Street. Residents are required to sign in and out as they come and go. If a resident has not returned to the site after 48 hours, their bed will be considered abandoned, and their room will be cleared out for the next resident to move in.
On the afternoon of April 10 — just four days before opening — two Five Keys staff members, Elmer Bamaca and his coworker Vladimir Magallan, were on-site preparing for the site’s launch.
“I’m excited to see people come in,” said Bamaca, 24, with a smile. Bamaca, who has been with Five Keys for about a month, laid out the site’s schedule: A day shift from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., a swing shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and a graveyard shift from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. the next morning. Bamaca will start his day shift on Monday.
Steve Good, president and CEO of Five Keys, said that, during the day, the site will be staffed with three “ambassadors” who will manage the site and help residents, a supervisor, a site director and security staff. At night, there will be only ambassadors and security personnel. Good added that there will be one to 25 case managers on-site, depending on the need, as well as two cleaners at peak times.
“I think our team is fully prepared, and we’ll go in full service on the first day,” said Good. “We will make sure that this place doesn’t become a magnet for crime.”
But the Mission cabins are only temporary housing, Bouck said, and are not intended for people to “stay indefinitely.” After the two-year contract is up, the cabins will be moved out and the site will be developed into the “Marvel in the Mission,” an affordable-housing project developed by the Mission Economic Development Agency and Mission Housing that will produce at least 350 homes.
Bouck said that, six months prior to the site closure, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing will stop taking in new residents and will focus on moving all eligible residents into permanent housing. They will transfer those without immediate housing options into other shelters.
“This process can take a few months to be done in a client-centered and compassionate way,” Bouck said.
Antoine Waite, a 30-year-old who has been living on the streets around the area of 16th and Mission streets, said he has been contacted by the outreach team recently, and will be starting his stay at the cabin village on Day One. “I’m going in the morning on Monday,” Waite said. “I want to get established, starting from there.”
It’s a noble effort. Let’s hope that some homeless people use the opportunity to rebuild their lives.
Hope? Some? Not good enough for what’s being spent, honestly.
This is great news. I’m excited for our homeless neighbors who will be able to come indoors!
But please correct the headline that mistakenly says the cabins are at the 16th St BART plaza! That’s misleading since they’re actually on an adjacent lot. Is the Mission St. entrance on the far side of the old Walgreens? The cabins aren’t even visible from the station plaza, right? (Full disclosure – I work for BART).
Question: What are the success metrics for this undertaking?
perhaps as the city transitions to being less car focused, with improved public transit and alternative transport such as walking, bicycling, and taxis(human or AI driven), perhaps more parking lots will be in the process of being developed into affordable housing where some of these cabins can be moved to temporarily after the 2 years is up. it would be a shame if they are just thrown away after 2 years if they can be in good enough shape to be reused at a different site.