Tenderloin homeless center opposed
A proposal to transform three vacant storefronts in the Tenderloin into a community center and shelter serving homeless people has prompted calls for a ban on retail conversions in the struggling neighborhood.
The Filipino Community Development Corp., in collaboration with more than a dozen other Tenderloin and South of Market nonprofit organizations, plans to open a community center and shelter at 418-422 Turk St. The groups will need to get city approval to change the use of the building before moving forward.
The proposed center would offer daytime services such as showers, laundry, case management and career training for up to 60 people a day and a nighttime shelter with 20 beds.
“Our goal is for people to come to our programs and get them into permanent housing,” said Lorenzo Listana, founding director of the Filipino Community Development Corp. “We want to prepare them to do their laundry and take care of their hygiene and rooms, so that they don’t get evicted and become homeless again.”
Plans for the property’s conversion, which were submitted to the city earlier this month, are aggravating long-standing frustrations among Tenderloin residents and business owners who say city officials treat the neighborhood as a “containment zone” for homelessness and open-air drug dealing.
A group of Tenderloin residents and businesses filed a federal lawsuit last month accusing San Francisco of failing to adequately address brazen drug dealing and use in the Tenderloin and ensure the sidewalks and public spaces are “clean, safe and accessible.”
Tenderloin business owners earlier this year organized in opposition to a new drop-in health and resource center planned for the middle of the Little Saigon commercial strip at 645 Larkin St. The San Francisco Community Health Clinic, which owns the space, has since placed plans for the drop-in center on “indefinite pause” and are instead using the space for administrative and staff offices.
Less than two weeks after announcing plans for a sober living facility on the edge of Chinatown, Mayor London Breed in February scrapped the plan following strong opposition from nearby merchants and advocates.
Randy Shaw, director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, said that preserving ground-floor retail space is critical to the neighborhood’s revitalization.
“We’d never think about doing this on Clement Street in the Richmond or 24th Street in Noe Valley,” he said. “We need a zoning change to ban retail conversions so this isn’t even in the realm of possibility.”
Kathy Looper, executive director of Reality House West, which owns the Cadillac Hotel, said she would also support such a policy.
“We need retail space to serve our community,” Looper said. “We need retail space to bring money into our community. We need retail space to help keep other retail stores alive.”
David Elliott Lewis, on the other hand, couldn’t imagine a better use for the dormant storefronts. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing offices are down the block and an outpatient addiction treatment facility is across the street.
“This is not a thriving retail corridor,” said Lewis, co-chair of the resident advocacy group Tenderloin People’s Congress. “Any use of the space is better than no use, and this is a very positive use.”
Listana had been working with other nonprofit leaders for nearly five years on this project, which they refer to as an “urban rest and sleep center.” It’s modeled after similar sites in Seattle and Jacksonville, which give unhoused people access to free showers, laundry and a safe place to relax and socialize. In San Francisco, anyone in the community would be welcome to use the services, whether or not they’re housed.
“This is an innovative solution that we think will succeed,” Listana said. “The problem is in the Tenderloin. We should solve it where it is.”
As part of a community benefits agreement, Build Inc., the developer of 469 Stevenson St., has committed to covering the center’s rent for at least three years. The owner of the property, affordable housing developer Frederick O. Lewis III, agreed to pay for the building’s renovations, according to Listana.
San Francisco originally set aside $350,000 for operating costs in the 2023-24 budget, but that funding was stripped during Breed’s midyear budget cuts.
The Filipino Community Development Corp. and partnering organizations are planning to fundraise with hopes of opening the center by the end of 2024, though it first needs city approval.