S.F. urged to rethink hotel plan to house homeless in Japantown
Supervisor Dean Preston came out Thursday against San Francisco officials’ plan to immediately buy a Japantown hotel and turn it into supportive housing for formerly homeless people after keeping mostly mum on the controversy for weeks. Preston asked the city to slow down the process for that site and instead consider purchasing two other hotels in his district.
Many Japantown residents, community leaders and business owners who fear for the neighborhood’s economic survival are fighting the conversion of the 131-room tourist hotel at 1800 Sutter St. But advocates for the homeless say every neighborhood needs to do its share to house the unsheltered.
City officials recently said they planned to slow down the process due to opposition.
Preston — who’s long touted his support for affordable housing and often criticized what he says is the city’s slow response to homelessness — weighed in on the city’s proposed acquisition in a letter to the head of the city’s homeless department late Thursday. He shared the letter on Twitter, where it was met with criticism.
In the letter, Preston proposed the city purchase two other hotels in his district for homeless housing while continuing conversations about
the Buchanan Hotel.
Preston urged the city to consider the Majestic Hotel at 1500 Sutter St. and the Gotham Hotel at 835 Turk St., whose owners expressed interest in selling. The locations were in good condition and would create at least 174 units of supportive housing, he said.
Preston said the Buchanan, which was among a list of eight sites, including six tourist hotels, in his district the city considered buying, “was not my office’s choice.” He had “warned this site in particular could be most controversial because of the precarious situation in Japantown.”
“We reject a zero-sum game that pits marginalized city residents against each other,” Preston wrote. “The sole focus should not be whether (District Five) adds one supportive housing site specifically at 1800 Sutter. We need to scale up to meet the need, and there’s no reason to limit that conversation to one controversial site.”
Preston asked the city to continue community engagement to address concerns at the Buchanan. But the city has said it faces a time crunch to get matching state funding to finance purchasing the hotel. The state opened its funding program Thursday and will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis starting in three weeks.
The city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said in a statement that it was holding off on asking supervisors to approve the 1800 Sutter acquisition as it continued community outreach.
The department said it would “assess which projects are best positioned to take advantage” of state funding and the timeline when considering the alternate sites proposed by Preston.
The department said it would “continue to assess additional opportunities to acquire properties, not only in District 5 but across the City.”
In August, the city proposed buying four properties, including three in the Excelsior, the Mission and SoMa. The sites in the Mission and SoMa were introduced to the Board of Supervisors last week, but the other two were delayed to provide more time for community feedback and negotiations.
While some neighbors bemoaned other homeless housing proposals in virtual community meetings, the supervisors in those districts are championing the projects. Preston reserved his judgment on the Buchanan Hotel through two three-hour community meetings where dozens of people gave public comment, some from as far as Pasadena.
Opponents cited the feared economic impact of losing one of two tourist hotels in Japantown, a historically marginalized community. Others voiced concern about safety and cleanliness for a neighboring preschool after the hotel was used to temporarily shelter people living on the streets during the pandemic.
Supporters stressed housing as a human right and said every neighborhood in the city has a responsibility to help amid a crisis with thousands on the streets.
In his letter, Preston said he did not share the same quality-of-life concerns about having supportive housing in Japantown, but he was worried about the consequences of losing the hotel for a small and already struggling historic neighborhood. He was also concerned about around 30 unionized workers at the hotel whose job future was uncertain with the proposed sale.
He encouraged the city to keep the Buchanan as a temporary shelter-in-place hotel until residents can be placed in long-term housing and a solution is found.
“It has become very clear over the course of this community process that there is a strong desire to have more permanent supportive housing in District 5,” Preston said. “At the same time, the concerns raised on the Buchanan acquisition necessitate that the City plan with, and not for, the Japantown community and impacted workers.”