S.F. plans to move entire homeless encampments into housing

Two shelter workers checked out the beds in one building of the navigation center Thursday March 5, 2015. San Francisco's new "navigation center" was unveiled to the public on Mission Street, a facility that will move entire encampments from the street and get them into permanent housing. less Two shelter workers checked out the beds in one building of the navigation center Thursday March 5, 2015. San Francisco's new "navigation center" was unveiled to the public on Mission Street, a facility that ... more Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close S.F. plans to move entire homeless encampments into housing 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Greg Fairrer lay facedown on the sidewalk in the Mission District on Thursday while one block away San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was trumpeting what could be Fairrer’s salvation — a homeless-aid Navigation Center designed to move entire homeless encampments from sidewalk to permanent homes in just 10 days.

Fairrer woke up in his tent as Lee was finishing his tour at the center. And, as word rippled through the nearby street camps that this new program they’ve been hearing about for some time will open in about a week, the former trucker clapped his hands.

“The street counselors have been telling us about this thing for days, but it sounded too good to be true,” said Fairrer, 52, who has been homeless since losing his last job more than a year ago. “But I guess if the mayor’s saying it will open, it must be so. It can’t come soon enough. Everyone in this camp wants off this sidewalk. I want to get back into my life.

“I just need the help.”

That’s exactly what Lee and about a dozen nonprofit and city government agencies want to give him — not just for Fairrer’s benefit, but to clear out the estimated 400 homeless people who have been camping in the Mission District and surrounding neighborhoods and triggering complaints for the past year.

The Navigation Center is one of the most innovative homeless-help experiments being undertaken in the U.S. — meaning that when it opens the week of March 16 at an old high school at 16th and Mission streets, it will be watched not just by every homeless camper in the vicinity, but by aid agencies around the nation.

Never been tried

One-stop help centers exist all over the U.S. — in San Francisco, there’s Project Homeless Connect, a 10-year-old effort to refer the homeless to job training, substance-abuse counseling and other programs that can pull them off the streets.

But what has never been tried is moving full encampments under one roof — dogs and couples and tents and all — and housing them there until permanent housing is found. The Navigation Center will be doing this as a pilot project for eight to 18 months, depending on its success.

The whole thing is a gamble of sorts, its creators admit. But for now, hopes are high.

“To have a newness to this, we have to have a sense that people actually will get help,” Lee told officials who came to tour the center, which the city Public Works Department just finished building out with dormitories, a laundry, counseling rooms, and pet and storage areas.

The center will be open 24 hours a day, but the idea is not just to provide an alternative spot to pitch a tent. By moving campers in as a group, the city hopes, they will trust the process more than many do in shelters, where, as Fairrer puts it, “you’re sleeping next to strangers and don’t know what to expect.”

Fast track to homes

This trust, planners hope, will lead to counselors being able to route people quickly into housing. “This will not be a center to just come in and out of all day,” Lee said.

The center is being funded by a $2 million anonymous donation funneled through the San Francisco Interfaith Council. An additional $1 million from the same donor is being used to help create what city planners hope will be 500 new supportive housing units — housing with counseling on-site — for the homeless by the end of the year.

“The status quo is not working, and as a city we can’t be afraid to break the mold and try new and innovative approaches,” said Supervisor Mark Farrell. “This is one of those approaches.”

Episcopal Community Services will be the lead nonprofit agency overseeing the center with the city’s Human Services Agency. The group’s executive director, Ken Reggio, said about a dozen organizations have been enlisted so far, including the health department and Project Homeless Connect, “and we will cast the net for more as broadly as we can to look to the needs of the people we’re trying to help.”

10-day cycle

As many as 75 people at a time will be housed at the center, he said, and the intent is to have about four service coordinators and four case managers on the grounds at all times. The goal is to cycle people out within 10 days.

Bevan Dufty, Lee’s coordinator of homeless programs, and others, including Supervisor David Campos, have been meeting with residents for months to win community backing for the center. Most of the neighborhood schools and churches signaled approval, as has the activist San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, but some residents are skeptical.

“We’ll see, huh?” James Robinson said as he took a look at the new center. He pointed at one of the dormitories.

“This is the poor,” he said, and then, waving a hand at the gentrifying Mission Street, he added, “and this out here is a lot of the new rich.”

Skepticism, hope

“I know how this goes. People will start complaining. That’s my concern,” Robinson said. “We need this type of thing, but how will people with money react having this around?”

Peter Avila, principal of nearby Marshall Elementary School, said he thinks those types of concerns will be outweighed by the benefits.

“On a daily basis, I’m having to kick homeless people off the sidewalk in front of my school,” Avila said. “They’re always back the next day. Hopefully, this will be a place where they actually come and get what they need.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron