San Francisco officials signaled a willingness Monday to compromise — slightly — with residents of Rincon Hill, South Beach and other waterfront neighborhoods who are staunchly opposed to a plan to bring a Navigation Center to the Embarcadero.

After more than a month of divisive, sometimes vitriolic debate, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Matt Haney jointly announced changes to the city’s proposal meant to make the center’s arrival less jarring for its future neighbors.

It’s unlikely that the revised plan will do much to assuage the project’s detractors, who broadly believe that a Navigation Center will turn the tourist-heavy Embarcadero into a dirty, dangerous place. City officials informed the South Beach-Rincon-Mission Bay Neighborhood Association at a meeting Monday night.

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Breed isn’t budging on the physical size of the shelter. But rather than open the center with 200 beds as was initially proposed, the facility would start with 130 beds. More would be added gradually, eventually getting to 200 over a six-month span.

Instead of operating the site for four years, as originally proposed, the city is seeking a two-year lease with the Port of San Francisco and an option to renew for another two years if the center is working as intended and well-integrated into the neighborhood.

And to placate concerns about public safety, officials have also promised to have uniformed police officers patrol the center and the surrounding area seven days a week.

“I am committed to opening 200 new beds at this site, so we can bring shelter and services to those struggling on our waterfront and throughout our city,” Breed said in a statement. “With these updates to our proposal, we can deliver on that commitment and make the opening of this center a success for both our unsheltered residents and those living in the surrounding neighborhood.”

Many opponents believe that a residential facility for the homeless will become a magnet for crime, particularly injection-drug use. At recent public forums about the center, some described harrowing, sometimes violent altercations with people they believed were homeless. Few were swayed by assurances by officials that homeless people were more likely to be the victims of crimes, not the perpetrators.

“The updates are totally non-responsive to the community's concerns about open drug use and crime,” said Wallace Lee, a waterfront resident affiliated with Safe Embarcadero, a coalition of residents that’s sprung up to contest the proposed shelter. Lee attended Monday night’s community meeting.

City homelessness officials estimate there are more than 4,000 people living on San Francisco streets, and more than 1,100 are on the city’s shelter waiting list each night. One recent count on the waterfront by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing found 179 people sleeping outdoors.

The 2.3-acre parcel where Breed and Haney want to build what would become San Francisco’s largest Navigation Center is owned by the Port of San Francisco. The five-member Port Commission will consider the new revisions to the plan before voting on whether to lease the plot to the city on April 23.

The site, known as Seawall Lot 330, is currently used as a parking lot across from Piers 30-32. The center’s opponents have raised more than $100,000 to fund a legal challenge to the center if the city moves forward. A rival fund supporting the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, which backs the center and similar initiatives, raised more than $176,000.

It’s not the first time the Port Commission has considered a proposal to locate homeless services on its land. The commission voted in 2016 to lease a parcel on 25th Street to build the Dogpatch Navigation Center, which is widely considered to be a success.

Breed has championed the proposal as an essential part of the city’s immediate efforts to bring homeless people off the streets. She has set a goal of opening 1,000 shelter beds by the end of 2020. Just 212 beds have been made available since she announced that pledge.

Navigation Centers are homeless shelters that allow for round-the-clock stays and provide intensive on-site services — like addiction treatment and housing counseling — meant to guide people toward more stable living conditions. Compared to traditional overnight shelters, Navigation Centers are also more permissive, allowing residents to bring more belongings, partners and pets. Opposition to the center has drawn intense criticism from many who see the shelter as a moral imperative for the city.

Haney, who represents District Six where the center would be built, supports the shelter. District Six contains by far the highest number of homeless people and, as a result, the largest concentration of shelters, Navigation Centers and services.

To get the rest of the city to shoulder more responsibility for housing the homeless, Haney plans to introduce legislation Tuesday that would compel each district that doesn’t already have a Navigation Center to open one in the next 30 months. Finding affordable, viable sites for shelters in San Francisco has been notoriously difficult and it remains unclear how Haney’s ordinance would enforce the 30-month deadline.

“The mayor’s office and Department of Homelessness have committed to me and to the community that this center will be well-run and safe, and be a true ‘navigation’ center, which effectively transitions people from homelessness into services and housing,” Haney said. “These changes reflect that commitment, and they come as a result of dozens of community meetings and collaboration with neighborhood leaders and service providers.”

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa