Citywide Resources to Address Homelessness and Behavioral Health
There are far too many people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco — with over 5,000 people experiencing homelessness on our streets and in our public spaces on any given night. Many of the people experiencing homelessness are also suffering from mental illness and substance use disorder, and I’ve made it a priority to help them get the support and treatment they need.
This is a citywide issue that demands a citywide response. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Department of Public Health, our non-profit service providers, and my office are working together to address this crisis head-on.
In our 2019–20 and 2020–21 City budget, we provided funding for 212 behavioral health beds, but we know we need a lot more resources to meet the need on our streets. In addition to opening 1,000 new shelter beds by the end of the year, I recently set a new goal to create 2,000 new placements for people experiencing homelessness to get connected to services and on the path to housing. These resources will include behavioral health beds, shelters and Navigation Centers, drop-in centers, and permanent supportive housing. In addition to creating these new placements, we need to maintain the behavioral health resources we already have.
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Here’s what we’ve done to expand mental health and substance use treatment in the past few months:
Navigation Centers
Shelters and Navigation Centers are the first step to getting people off the street. In January, I announced that we’re on track to add 1,000 new shelter beds by the end year. Most recently, we opened a new Navigation Center and announced plans for two additional Navigation Centers.
Embarcadero Navigation Center — We opened the 200-bed Navigation Center on the Embarcadero.
Vehicle Triage Center — We created a Vehicle Triage Center to provide a secure location and services for people who are living in their vehicles. The Triage Center is located near the Balboa Park BART station in the OMI area.
TAY Navigation Center — In December last year, Supervisor Peskin and I announced plans to create a Navigation Center for Transitional Age Youth (ages 18–24) at 888 Post in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood.
33 Gough Navigation Center — We are in the planning process for a new 200-bed Navigation Center in the Upper Market Area at 33 Gough Street, at the intersection of the Lower Haight, Hayes Valley, Duboce Park, Mid-Market, and SoMa.
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Behavioral Health Resources
In addition to having shelter beds for people experiencing homelessness, we’re working to create more service specifically for people who need behavioral health care — whether that’s substance use treatment or mental health care.
Drug Sobering Center — Last year Supervisor Mandelman and I convened a Meth Task Force to address the rise of meth use and overdoses in San Francisco. The main recommendation from the Task Force was to create a drug sobering center to provide a place for people to move safely through intoxication, have an opportunity to engage in conversation about wellness and recovery options available to them, and be connected to housing resources.
Last week we announced that a 15-bed drug sobering center will be located at 180 Jones Street, the future site of a 71-unit affordable housing development. The Sobering Center will operate as a pilot program, so we can learn what works and what doesn’t, and use those best practices as we create additional drug sobering centers.
30 new Hummingbird Place behavioral health beds — last week, Supervisor Mandelman and I announced a new Hummingbird Place behavioral health respite center on Valencia Street, in partnership with Department of Public Health, Tipping Point Community, The Salvation Army, and PRC/Baker Places. With 30 overnight beds and the ability to serve up to 25 daytime drop-in clients, the new Hummingbird Place on Valencia Street will meet a critical need in our behavioral health system, by providing a place for people with mental health issues and substance use disorder to rest and get connected to care.
72 residential step-down beds — In November, we announced the opening of 72 behavioral health beds on Treasure Island. These beds are for people who are “stepping-down” from residential treatment, and provide a safe place for people to live while they continue their outpatient substance use treatment. These types of programs help people get better without having to worry about where they’ll sleep at night.
Substance use treatment beds — San Francisco has a network of voluntary substance use treatment beds — but it’s not always easy to find available beds or know where to go. To fix this, DPH developed an online bed tracker (FindTreatmentSF.org) that allows the public, providers, and potential clients to see where substance use treatment beds are available on a daily basis. Based on data from that tracker, we can see that some types of beds are in higher demand than others. DPH will begin converting persistently vacant beds to types that are in greater demand so that people can more easily access the care they need.
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Housing
As I’ve said before — the issues of homelessness and housing go hand in hand. We’re focusing on building more housing, especially permanent supportive housing, to provide more places for people to live once they exit shelters and Navigation Centers.
In January, we announced that the City is providing funding to create 151 new permanent supportive housing and step-up units at The Abigail Hotel in Civic Center and The Post Hotel in the Union Square area.
We also celebrated the groundbreaking of La Casa de la Misión, which will provide 44 units of permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless seniors in the Mission.
Over the coming years, we’ll be creating more affordable housing throughout the city with funding from the $600 million Affordable Housing Bond. We’ll also be working on ways to streamline the housing permitting process so it’s easier to build housing and create more places for people to live.
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More to Come
Homelessness and behavioral health challenges affect every neighborhood in San Francisco. That’s why we are implementing a citywide, coordinated response. There’s a lot to do, but we are committed to getting people the behavioral health care, shelter, and housing they need.
Over the coming months we’ll be:
· Identifying additional Board and Care facilities that need City assistance,
· Opening new Navigation Centers, Hummingbird Place, & Drug Sobering Center,
· Studying the Drug Sobering Center so we can replicate it in other neighborhoods,
· Identifying opportunities for additional Navigation Centers and shelters, and
· Opening more permanent supportive housing.
