Supes OK with homeless shelters — in other districts

Mayor Ed Lee tours the Dogpatch Navigation Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee tours the Dogpatch Navigation Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Supes OK with homeless shelters — in other districts 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

As he rolled out a city budget that prioritizes services for homeless people, Mayor Ed Lee issued a challenge to San Francisco’s 11 supervisors: Find places in your district for Navigation Centers to help get this population off the streets.

Lee has set aside $6 million over the next two years to open a Navigation Center — a shelter that offers substance-abuse treatment and job training, and allows homeless people to bring along their partners and pets. Such facilities — three are open and locations have been chosen for three more — are central to the mayor’s strategy to end homelessness, but they’ve met resistance from many San Francisco residents and officials, who don’t want to live next door to a homeless hub.

When Lee announced the $6 million funding in his budget proposal Thursday morning during an address to the Board of Supervisors, he asked each one to help scout a location for the new center — the implication being that all parts of the city are candidates. Finding an appropriate site can be a painstaking process that requires community input, which is why the mayor sought the board’s help, said Lee’s spokeswoman, Deirdre Hussey.

Lee got a warm response from the three supervisors who have centers in their districts, and want the rest of their colleagues to pitch in. But others were lukewarm at best.

“The minimum footprint for one of these buildings is 10,000 square feet, and we just don’t have space like that,” said Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who represents the Excelsior, the southern edge of the city that’s blanketed with single-family homes. Fewer than 200 homeless people live there, he noted, so there’s little demand — or desire — for the types of services that abound in the Mission, the Tenderloin or South of Market.

“In a practical, a planning and a policy sense, I don’t think there’s much need” for a Navigation Center, Safai said. “And I don’t think my district would be very supportive.”

Other supervisors who represent the more residential, well-to-do or moderate-leaning areas that don’t have a lot of in-your-face homelessness were also dubious of the idea.

“For me, the question is who would the Navigation Center be serving,” said Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, whose district includes the Castro. He said he would cooperate with the mayor’s office to look for a location but would want the center to cater to young adults, especially LGBTQ youth who are estranged from their families.

Board President London Breed, who confronted opposition from property owners when she sought sites for a Navigation Center in the Haight, questioned whether these facilities are a good fit for every neighborhood.

“We tried to identify sites, but the people who owned those properties were unwilling to work with the city,” Breed said. Over the past three years, she has helped secure more than $500,000 in city funding and private donations for an organization called Taking It to the Streets, which shuttles transient youth from Haight Street to SROs in SoMa, which is represented by Supervisor Jane Kim.

Lee and Jeff Kositsky, director of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, say that all districts should help shoulder the burden of a citywide problem. Currently, the city has Navigation Centers located in Civic Center, the Mission and the Bayview. A fourth, temporary center is expected to open June 19 at 1515 S. Van Ness Ave. Two more are planned at San Francisco General Hospital, on the border of the Mission and Potrero Hill, and at 520 Jessie Street in SoMa.

“I think it would be great to have Navigation Centers in all the districts,” Kositsky said. “We need more temporary and permanent places (for people) to be ... and at the end of the day, there’s no district except District 6 (SoMa) that’s really carrying its weight.”

The supervisors — Kim, Hillary Ronen and Malia Cohen — who represent districts with navigation centers all supported Lee’s push for a more equitable distribution of the facilities. Last month, they made a similar demand, co-sponsoring a resolution for “geographic equity” of Navigation Centers and other homeless services.

“I almost jumped out of my seat clapping when (Lee) said it” in his budget speech, Ronen said. “San Franciscans have made it crystal clear that homelessness is their top priority. Asking a few neighborhoods to carry the entire burden of the homeless crisis makes no sense. It’s unfair and ineffective. Every district needs to toughen up and do their part.”

Ronen faced stout criticism from many constituents when she proposed opening a temporary 100-bed center in the South Van Ness Avenue building owned by Lennar Multifamily Communities. Lennar will begin building a market-rate development at the site next year.

Cohen, who campaigned hard for the Dogpatch Navigation Center that opened in her district last week, said she wants to see similar facilities on the suburban west side.

“We are in the midst of a crisis, and we need all hands on deck,” she said.

Westside Supervisors Norman Yee and Katy Tang expressed cautious support for the centers, which are hard to sell in parts of the city where even tall residential buildings can start a fight.

“There’s going to be push back, no doubt about it,” said Yee, whose district includes West Portal and Forest Hill. He said he’s committed to working with the mayor’s office to see if he can identify “anything appropriate” for a Navigation Center.

Tang, who represents the Sunset, said she’s spoken with Richmond District Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer about coming together to serve the street dwellers in their adjoining neighborhoods.

“There’s no reason why we should provide disjointed services based on supervisorial district boundaries if we can collaborate when appropriate,” Tang said.

Supervisor Mark Farrell, who represents the Marina, said he is looking at sites for supportive housing for the homeless in his district, but that he is reluctant to open a Navigation Center.

“Services should be community-based and meet people where they are,” Farrell said. He noted that Navigation Centers are best suited to areas where encampments and street homelessness are “most acute”— which is not the Marina.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan