Homeless parking lot to open
S.F. proposes first ‘safe’ spot for those in vehicles
San Francisco plans to open its first facility to serve the rising population of homeless people living out of their vans and RVs. A parking lot near the Balboa Park BART Station will be turned into a “triage lot,” where people can park their vehicles overnight and access showers, bathrooms and services to help them find other housing options.
It is unclear whether the plan will stoke as much community opposition as other proposed homeless services in the city, such as the controversial Embarcadero Navigation Center, but officials want to move forward as quickly as possible and open the site by winter.
Officials hope to replicate this oneyear pilot program, if it’s successful, in other areas of the city, where people are increasingly using their vehicles for shelter. The city’s most recent survey of the homeless showed that 35% of unsheltered homeless people lived in vehicles, up from 13% in 2015.
“When we have this option, we can say to people, ‘we have an option for you’ and ‘where you are right now is not safe,’ ” said Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, whose district includes the site, which is tucked at the corner of San Jose and Geneva avenues. “And they can say yes or no. And if they say no, they will not necessarily be able to stay where they are.”
People living out of their vehicles is the next frontier of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis. The city’s homeless population has risen 30% since 2017 , much of that attributed to people living out of their vehicles. Such safe parking centers have also been popping up all
over the West Coast, as cities wrangle with how to help this population before they slip further into homelessness.
The facility will be in a cityowned lot called the Upper Yard, which sits like an island between two major roads and a highway onramp. Safaí said a developer will break ground on an affordable housing project on the site in the fall of 2020. Across the street is cityowned land under development that Safaí said will be turned into a performing arts and cultural space.
On Monday afternoon, the only people walking around near the proposed site were those in transit: People were either getting on or off Muni, heading into the BART station or walking into a nearby coffee shop across the street. A quiet neighborhood begins around the corner from the site, with rows of colorfully painted homes and wellmanicured landscaping.
“Oh my god,” said nearby resident Manuela Escobar, 88, when a reporter informed her of the site proposed a few blocks away from her home. She was initially shocked by the news, but then seemed to shrug it off.
“I guess they have to live somewhere,” she said.
About 30 midtolarge vehicles will fit at the site. Some will be occupied overnight, while others will just be stored there while their inhabitants sleep elsewhere, like at a Navigation Center — if a bed is available. People must be referred to the site by a Homeless Outreach Team member and will be allowed to stay for 90 days at a time.
The site will also have case managers to help connect people to services, such as Navigation Centers, mental health care or longterm housing. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is also working with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to figure out a way to lower fees and fines for people who are sleeping in their vehicles.
Families living in their vehicles with young children will first be offered a spot in a family shelter. But, if an outreach worker comes across a family living in a vehicle that either does not want to accept other city services — or there is nothing else available — Safaí said a possible exception could be made.
While the proposed site is in an area with one of the lowest homeless populations in the city, Safaí said vehicle campers have become increasingly common in his district, which includes the Excelsior and Mission Terrace, over the past year and a half.
“This is a real step forward in addressing the need of that neighborhood,” he said.
The pilot program — which Safaí cosponsored with Supervisor Vallie Brown — comes as the city faces a lawsuit over the proposed Navigation Center on the Embarcadero. Residents who live near the proposed site argue that the homeless shelter will attract more crime and blight to the heavily visited waterfront neighborhood.
The residents took the matter to court last week, in hopes of halting the project from moving forward. In an attempt to avoid such pushback, Safaí said he has already spoken to people in the community about the site and plans to increase his outreach this week.
He said he is “cautiously optimistic” about how his constituents will react.
Roniel Renigen, a server and cook at Turo Cafe and Grill — which sits across the street from the Balboa Park BART Station — said he wouldn’t mind such a site in the neighborhood.
“If it’s legalized, I don’t mind,” he said. “We already get a lot of people here that are homeless. We still try to help them out here, and it wouldn’t be an issue for us.”
David Hooper, president of the New Mission Terrace Improvement Association, said he lives “two long city blocks” away from the proposed site and is supportive of the idea. While Hooper said he expects some people will oppose the site, he said it’s important for the district to play its part in helping address the city’s homelessness crisis.
“You can’t just create another location,” Hooper said. The proposed site “is not on top of someone’s home. It’s flat. It’s paved. It’s visible. Everyone will know that the issue is being addressed.”
While some may be happy to accept the services, persuading people to come to such a site could be a hard sell for those who don’t want to be bothered by case managers and rules about how they have to maintain their vehicle.
“There will always be some people who would actually prefer not being there, but the majority would want to participate in a program like this,” said Sam Lew, policy director for the Coalition on Homelessness. Lew added that people will likely be attracted by the idea that it is a safe place to park, where they won’t risk a citation or towing.
But, she added, the 30 or so spots at the site aren’t enough to address the city’s growing population of people living in their vehicles. She said she would like to see similar sites proposed around the city.
“We know that there are hundreds of people who are living in their vehicles,” Lew said. “Choosing to live in your car is often the best option people have before living on the streets.”
Chris Ramos, 30, who is working on the construction project across the street from the proposed site, was receptive to the plan.
“Why not?” he said of the site. “They need to do it somewhere because they’re parking anywhere and everywhere around the city.”
Jeff Kositsky, director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, estimated it will cost the city around a half million dollars in startup costs to prepare the site — possibly less — and another $40,000 to $50,000 a month to operate. He hopes to have it open by November or December.
He emphasized that the city will learn from this pilot program what works and what doesn’t.
“The city needs to always be looking for innovative ideas and new ideas to add to our robust packages of services in the city,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”