Former Supervisor Hillary Ronen fought like heck to get ‘tiny homes for the homeless’ cabins at 16th and Mission. Now that those cabins are moving to the Bayview, Supervisor Shamann Walton is on a warpath against them, even though they will be empty.
There has been a years-long saga over a “tiny homes for the homeless” cabin site at 16th and Mission streets, and one reason it went on for years was that neighbors were worried they would bring more blight to an already blighted neighborhood. Then-Supervisor Hillary Ronen did a lot of politicking to make the site a reality, and the cabins opened to around 60 residents in April 2024.
But the cabins were just a temporary placeholder as the city prepared to break ground on a 450-unit affordable housing project there — on the lot adjacent to the BART plaza formerly occupied by Walgreens, and its off-alley parking lot. And so the tiny cabin community closed in August and September of this year, and those cabins are slated to be shipped elsewhere.
A new Mission Local report says they’re moving to the Bayview District, at a facility slated to become a larger homeless shelter called Jerrold Commons. But that Mission Local report also points out that the Bayview District's Supervisor Shamann Walton is vocally opposed to moving the cabins to the Bayview, seeing this as Lurie’s attempt to dump home homeless shelters onto District 10 without even engaging District 10 residents on the decision.
“This is another opportunity to strong-arm the community,” Walton told Mission Local.
Certainly Walton has a point that a disproportionate number of SF homeless shelters are in District 10, while there are no shelters at all in several other city districts. But in this case, the cabins are simply being moved to Jerrold Commons for storage. There won’t be anyone living in them.
“The San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is planning to temporarily store 60 vacant cabin structures in the unused space at Jerrold Commons while we identify a long-term site,” Homelessness and Supportive Housing spokesperson Emily Cohen told Mission Local. “We have no plans to operate the cabins and host clients while they are in storage.”
But as KQED’s coverage of the matter explains, Walton is concerned that Lurie could be pulling a bait-and-switch, and simply planning to leave the cabins there to serve as permanent homeless shelters while sidestepping any public input or hearings.
“First, the mayor tried to turn Jerrold into a 200-bed shelter site with no RV parking and no community input. Now, he’s trying to quietly drop in cabins from the Mission and talk about expansion later,” Walton told KQED. “At no point has this administration come back to the community in good faith for this decision.”
In his tenure as mayor thus far, Lurie has had great success in drawing big events and new investment to San Francisco. But his stumbles (or perceived stumbles) on homelessness are odd, considering that he made his reputation on fighting homelessness with his Tipping Point nonprofit. This may be another example where he can't build consensus on the homelessness issue the way he seems to be able to on other issues.
Regardless, KQED reports the 60 tiny cabins are slated to be moved to Jerrold Commons “over the next few weeks.”
Image: Five Keys Housing
