SF Politics

Embarcadero Navigation Center, Once the Focus of Much Rage From Neighbors, Quietly Gets Two-Year Extension

One would assume that the most vocal of the neighbors who objected to the Embarcadero Navigation Center knew that an extension was on the table for public comment. But apparently the two-year extension went through with very little opposition.

SF News

Omicron Outbreaks Hit Multiple Bay Area Homeless Shelters, Including Two In SF

Two years into this pandemic, the Bay Area is facing yet another crisis involving the homeless and COVID-19.

SF News

City Plans to Buy 114-Room Fillmore District Hotel to House Formerly Homeless

After a deal to purchase a tourist hotel in Japantown was met with loud pushback from the the community, the SF Board of Supervisors is now looking to buy the former Gotham Hotel, lately known as Vantaggio Suites, at 835 Turk Street.

SF Politics

Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Groups Taking Credit/Shifting Blame For Former McDonald’s Site Remaining Empty

One neighborhood group is taking credit for killing off plans for a homeless drop-in center at the blighted Stanyan Street ex-McDonald’s site, others are baffled that the city may let it sit empty for years.

SF News

Bayview Neighbors Push Back on Plan to Create RV Parking Lot for Homeless at Candlestick

A proposed new "Vehicle Triage Center" out at Candlestick Point has some NIMBY neighbors angry, but Supervisor Shamann Walton is reminding everyone that the homeless and their cars and RVs are already in the area anyway.

SF News

Some Neighbors Bristle as Former McDonald's Site In Haight Goes From Tent Village to Homeless Drop-In Center

The notorious former McDonald's property at 730 Stanyan hasn't exactly been less of nuisance to the neighborhood since the McDonald's was torn down last year.

SF News

SF Plans to Buy Four More Hotels to Shelter Homeless Population

Four hotels and a total of 368 units will be opened as permanent housing for the unsheltered population, as that sweet Prop. C “homeless tax” money starts rolling in.

SF News

Tiny House Village For Oakland Homeless Goes In at Long-Vacant Lot Beside Lake Merritt

A village of tiny houses able to give shelter to 79 homeless individuals began construction today on a Lake Merritt-adjacent lot in Oakland, and it should be habitable very quickly.

SF News

Sausalito Police Bulldoze Tent Encampment at Formerly Ritzy Park

Dunphy Park had typically been home to kayakers and an outdoor art festival, but the 35 unsheltered people who'd set up an encampment there were very unceremoniously given the boot early Tuesday morning.

SF Politics

Breed’s New Budget Commits $1 Billion to Fighting Homlesseness Amidst Unexpected Surplus

Mayor Breed announced her $13 billion budget Tuesday, with a surprise $157 million surplus, and a billion-dollar pledge to housing the homeless population.

Arts & Entertainment

Sausalito's Famed Labor Day Art Festival Getting Canceled Over Homeless Encampment

An impasse over a homeless encampment in a downtown Sausalito park has led organizers of the city's annual art festival over Labor Day Weekend to say the festival is being canceled for the second year in a row.

SF Politics

Mayor Breed Taps New Director of Department of Homelessness As Crisis Continues Spiraling

Breed announced Thursday that she had appointed Shireen McSpadden, the current executive director of the Department of Disability and Aging Services, to be the next head of the city's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

SF News

Santa Rosa Police Ask for Public's Help In Finding Suspect In Hit-and-Run That Killed Homeless Woman

The suspect remains at large in a hit-and-run homicide at a homeless encampment last week in Santa Rosa, which police have characterized as intentional.

SF News

Insanely, It Is Costing San Francisco $5,000/Month For Each Homeless Tent

In the six "Safe Sleeping Villages" set up by the city of San Francisco during the pandemic, the cost of maintaining a single tent-camping spot is $5,000 per month, or $61,000 per year — more than it would cost to put each of these people in a market-rate apartment.

SF News

Homeless Man In Critical Condition After Apparently Being Set on Fire In Oakland

A man whose age and identity are still not known was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday night after apparently being set ablaze in East Oakland.

SF Politics

With FEMA Funding Assured, SF Supervisors Approve 400 More Hotel Rooms for Homeless

The SF Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an expansion of the shelter-in-place hotel program for the homeless, adding 400 more hotel rooms to the 1,800 currently in use.

SF News

Another Encampment Fire Sends Smoke Over Bayview

A fire at a homeless encampment in the Bayview on Wednesday sent a plume of smoke over the city, and it's the second time in four months that an encampment in the neighborhood has burned.

SF Politics

Fox News Apoplectic That FEMA Will Fund SF Homeless Hotels, Unaware This Started Under Trump

The right-wing news network’s outrage that “Biden may force American taxpayers to foot bill” for shelter-in-place hotel rooms fails to acknowledge that Trump forced taxpayers to foot the same bill.

SF News

San Francisco and Other Cities Seek to Cancel Homeless Census Due to Pandemic Surge

The biennial "Point in Time Count" of the homeless, typically conducted in January of odd-numbered years in San Francisco, is likely to be canceled or postponed this year due to concerns about putting front-line census-takers and other at risk of contracted COVID-19.

SF Politics

Op-Ed: Some Homeless People Prefer the Street to 'Jail Lite' Rules at Hotel Shelters

Programs in San Francisco and Alameda counties to house the homeless in hotels tend to have some draconian rules for those who accept shelter, and several individuals who have experienced these hotel accommodations say they're not worth the cost their freedoms.

SF Politics

Hotels-for-Homeless Program Begins Wind-Down Next Week With 500 Moving Out

San Francisco's lauded but temporary program of housing vulnerable and elderly homeless individuals in hotel rooms during the pandemic is set to wind down over the next seven to eight months, and next week the first wave of hotel closures begins.

SF News

Club Owner Blamed In Encampment Sweep Corrects Report, Says the Homeless Issue Can't Be Solved With 'Hysterical' Crusades

Following a story about a sidewalk homeless encampment in SoMa that was cleared one night in September by a private company, the man behind the situation wants to clear the air and tell his side of what happened.

SF News

City Looks to Buy 232-Unit Lower Nob Hill SRO and Turn It Into Supportive Housing

With the help of a state grant, San Francisco may purchase a large single-room-occupancy hotel building that for years has been a senior-housing complex.

SF News

Event Company at Former Market Street Honda Dealership Seen Conducting Unsanctioned Sweep of Homeless Camp

A private company allegedly took it upon themselves last week to clear out an encampment that had been established for about six months outside the former Honda dealership on Market Street at South Van Ness.

SF News

San Francisco Takes Steps To Find Long-Term Housing For Some Homeless Now In Hotels

At least 200 of the homeless people currently residing in hotels due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be placed in long-term housing, subsidized by philanthropic funds for 18 months.