A final request

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who died early Tuesday morning, spent his final days pushing hard for badly needed homeless facilities. In a vote that mirrors many of the frustrations of governing in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors passed half of his request.

The board approved a measure to declare a citywide homeless shelter emergency. Lee had proposed this because it will speed the construction bidding process, allowing San Francisco to build new homeless facilities faster.

The measure is important and necessary. Lee’s goal, to get 1,000 more people off the streets this winter, was a salutary one. It won’t happen without more shelter facilities — and they need to be built fast.

Yet one of Lee’s other requests, to add showers and laundry facilities at the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, was met with conflict and delay at the board.

Supervisor Jane Kim, whose district includes the city department building near the Tenderloin, said the plan to add showers and laundry didn’t qualify as an emergency. She also noted that neighborhood residents are objecting to the plan — on the basis that the neighborhood already had too many homeless services.

On one point, Kim is correct. A handful of neighborhoods in San Francisco, including the Tenderloin and the Mission, have taken on a disproportionate burden of providing homeless services. Other San Francisco districts have fought expanding homeless services to their neighborhoods, and these districts need to step up and do far more. It will be impossible for San Francisco to improve its intractable homeless problem if they don’t.

Yet Kim must also lead by example. And there are few better locations for homeless people to access showers and laundry facilities than the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

The mayor’s final request deserves to be honored as soon as possible.