Some 40 people accepted placement in the Mission’s Navigation Center at 1950 Mission St. after a large-scale encampment at 16th Street and San Bruno Avenue was removed by the city Thursday morning.
At the same time, three young women – one who has been on the street for 15 years – were turned away because they were part of another encampment.
It’s unclear how many people camping at 16th and San Bruno also failed to find a place, but it could have been as many as 50 given the longevity of the encampment.
Public Works cleaning crews and Homeless Outreach Team spearheaded the encampment resolution effort that began at 7 a.m. with teams assisting the homeless in dismantling their tents.
Human Rights Advocate Kelley Cutler from the Coalition on Homelessness, oversaw the resolution and educated campers on their rights and shelter options.
Randy Quezada, spokesperson for the Department on Homelessness and Supportive Housing, confirmed that in total, 40 people had been placed in the Navigation Center at 1950 Mission St., but declined to give the number of people who had been living at the encampment before Thursday morning.
“The space was very dynamic with people coming and going especially in that area where there were many encampments,” said Quezada.
Despite the relative success in connecting a number of campers to the Navigation Center, some declined their placement offers while others clamored to get in.
“They offered me the Navigation Center and that’s it, “ said a woman who gave her name as Angel Eyes. “I’m undecided. I feel like that’s a big decisions to make right at this moment. I just spent all morning packing my things.”
Others were eager to make use of the coveted resource. Three young women who were not inhabitants of the San Bruno encampment approached outreach workers, bags in hands, in the hope of being placed at the Navigation Center. But because they were not part of the encampment targeted for resolution, the women were turned away.
“There has to be another way. What about the Navigation Center that’s on 12th street?” One of the women asked. But that center too required a placement process, she was told.
As the women moved on, they were advised to move closer to the Mission’s Navigation Center.
“People want to get in, people want services,” said Cutler. “There are two narratives out there – that people don’t want services and that people are not from San Francisco – both are not true.”
Cutler, a former youth outreach worker for Larkin Street Youth Services, said she recognized at least two of the women and estimated that they had been homeless for some 15 years.
“I see a lot of folks out here that were homeless youth years ago. I see my kids regularly down here,” said Cutler, adding that she had first interacted with the woman when she was 15 years old.
“I’m thrilled to see they are still alive, but it’s heartbreaking that our system has failed them and that they are still forced to live on the street,” she said.
By 11 a.m., much of the encampment had been largely cleared, and surrounding businesses immediately began to erect barricades along the sidewalks to disincentivize campers from returning.
Those who did not receive shelter placement moved on, some just a block away.
“…they were advised to move closer to the Mission’s Navigation Center.”
I’m all for moving people *into* Navigation Centers and other supportive environments, but…this shows official advice for homeless people to concentrate within a 2 block radius of 15th and Mission, despite this being a problem that belongs to the entire 7×7. How is this okay?
Sorry, one more question. The photo of the chest high barrier, are those there to put on the sidewalk and prevent the space from being reoccupied?
Thanks for reporting on these issue. I think lots of us care, but its hard to know what is really happening.
I wonder about the logistics though. Yesterday we heard the Mission’s other Navigation Center was built for 120 people, had only 10 people in it, yet all these people are being sent to the original Navigation Center.
How could there be so many empty spots in the original navigation center? Are high vacancy rates typical or were a lot of people just kicked out? What happens in the rain and cold of January when DHSH plan to kick out 120 beds from the new navigation center?
This happens to be just out of the targeted area for the new Navigation Center… by about a block. The targeted area is from Valencia to Potrero and Cesar Chavez to Division.
It only has 10 people in it at the moment (although I think it’s more now) because they only have the capacity to have that many people. It’s important to understand that this is a completely new program and it takes time to staff it. They are working on it though.
Here is a good article about what’s happening/happened with the Nav Center… http://sfpublicpress.org/news/homelessness/navigation/2017-06/navigation-center-exits
The Navigation Center is basically just a shelter. It does cost a lot more though because they put more resources into it, such as case managers and social workers.
What’s going to happen in January is yet to be seen. When they closed down pier 80 lots of folks had to go back on the street. The 16th Street Nav Center is set to close around the same time. The City is working on finding new locations, but NIMBY is everywhere. Bottom line is we need more housing.
The barriers are to keep people from coming back. I joke and tell people to buy stocks in barriers because the City is using A LOT of them these days! These barriers in the photo happen to have been purchased/rented by the merchant in this area. I remember one of them being quoted in an article saying they spent $7000 on barriers and yet it didn’t solve the issue. Barriers don’t end homelessness, housing does.
Kelley,
Thanks for your words here. A thought about NIMBY – as I mentioned in a comment below, and basically what you just said here, it seems to be official policy to have targeted areas relatively closed to the Navigation Centers for moving people in there. This incentivizes people to specifically concentrate themselves on sidewalks in those targeted areas only. I live basically smack in between the 15th/Mission one and the 12th St one, and while my neighbors and I actually supported both of those, it’s going to be an extremely hard sell for subsequent ones given this secondary effect. If people could be placed in these Navigation Centers from all over the city, rather than incentivizing movement to these “targeted areas”, then the Centers themselves would have much less impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. (Walk by 12th and Market and you’d barely notice that there even is a shelter there…)
-Alex
Thank you. you seem to know a lot about the homeless situation in San Francisco , and generally want the best.
Its is really jarring that San Francisco is at the same time the epicenter of tech boom time at the international level, mixed with Great Depression Hooverviles and 3rd world ghetto suffering.