Waterfront site eyed for new center to help homeless

City officials are considering building a Navigation Center on a parking lot off the Embarcadero, a part of the city that has yet to host one of homeless shelters that also offers services, said District Three Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

The site under discussion, at Kearny and Bay streets, is a few blocks from Pier 39 in one direction and a few blocks from the city’s cruise ship terminal in the other.

Peskin, whose district includes Telegraph Hill, North Beach, Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf, said he is working with the mayor’s office on the project and that “preliminary research is being done by government agencies” to assess the feasibility of opening the Navigation Center.

Peskin said the parking lot could be an ideal site for the facility because there are few residences or businesses nearby. He said he would do the “appropriate public outreach” before any plans are finalized.

Mayor London Breed’s spokesman, Jeff Cretan, said the city is considering a number of sites for new Navigation Centers — including the Embarcadero parking lot — but there has been “no formal selection” of any sites yet.

“We are committed to working with Supervisor Peskin on trying to find a Navigation Center site,” Cretan said. “But that being said, we have not made a selection of a specific site.”

The Department of Public Works is “always scouting for possible sites for Navigation Centers,” said Rachel Gordon, a department spokeswoman. While there are no official plans in place for the parking lot near the Embarcadero, she said, it is being looked at.

Navigation Centers are shelters that allow homeless people to bring in their partners and pets, and offer substanceabuse treatment and job training.

There are currently four Navigation Centers operated by the Department of Homeless and Supportive Housing — two in the Mission District, one in Mid-Market and another in Dogpatch. A fifth center, called Hummingbird Place, is operated by the Department of Public Health in the Mission.

This isn’t the first time Peskin has attempted to open a Navigation Center in his district. His proposal to turn a North Beach parking lot or an Embarcadero pier into a Navigation Center last year worried some residents and people who work in the area. Some said they were frustrated that they hadn’t been consulted about the proposal before Peskin floated it at a November 2017 Board of Supervisors meeting.

Sunny Angulo, Peskin’s legislative aide, said the supervisor held a community meeting to discuss the site at Kearny and Bay streets “almost a year ago, where almost 200 people came.”

“Obviously, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, but we’re excited about it,” she said.

— Trisha Thadani A place to tell: Sexual assault survivors now have a designated city office to report complaints and allegations of sexual harassment, after Mayor London Breed signed legislation Thursday to create it.

The Office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention will field complaints from the public about how other city departments have handled their cases. It is meant to be an additional resource for survivors if they don’t feel they are getting adequate help from other city agencies, such as the Police Department.

Under existing law, there is no central office for survivors to file complaints. As a result, some survivors said, they had to recount their experiences several times to authorities at city departments, police stations or hospitals, the mayor’s office said.

“Survivors who come forward to report sexual assault or harassment deserve to be treated with respect while their cases are investigated. Instead, they often have to recount their deeply personal and painful experiences to multiple different authorities,” Breed said in a statement.

The legislation was created by Supervisor Hillary Ronen and passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors last week.

“By passing my legislation that creates a dedicated team to oversee accountability within our city departments when sexual violence cases are disregarded by any city department or employee, we are disrupting the current culture of injustice, and sending a message as a city that every survivor deserves respect,” Ronen said in a statement.

— Trisha Thadani