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CLOCK RUNS OUT
People placed in navigation centers return to streets. | 6
CITATIONS FALLING
SFPD ticket fewer ‘quality of life’ infractions. | 4
DON’T COME BACK S.F. tries to stop encampments from popping up again. | 12
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SFPUBLICPRESS.ORG
SUMMER 2017 • ISSUE 22
NAVIGATING
HOMELESSNESS
WHICH WAY HOME?
Homeless campers on San Bruno Avenue in Potrero Hill began packing up at dawn in late May, before city crews came to haul away what they left behind.
LIMITED OPTIONS
Homeward Bound: Free bus tickets out of town to friends or family members who promise to take them in.
Navigation centers have taken in nearly 1,200 homeless people, increasingly from tent encampments. Though the original goal was to transition into permanent housing, fewer than one-quarter have ended up housed in the city.
Photo by Judith Calson // Public Press MORE PHOTOS: The nomads from “Box City,” Pages 6–7
As Shelter Wait Times Soar, Older Homeless in Housing Limbo By Sara Bloomberg // Public Press
Back to streets: When time is up, center residents must leave. Long-term supportive housing: Subsidized units, which offer on-site medical and social services.
Source: S.F. Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Illustration by Anna Vignet // Public Press
*2% Temporary housing
More Returning to Streets From Navigation Centers Bus Tickets Most Common ‘Housing’ Outcome By Noah Arroyo and Hannah Kaplan // Public Press
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n March 2015, as he geared up for reelection, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced the creation of the city’s first navigation center, described as “a pioneering approach” to helping homeless people get off the streets and into housing. He would later call it “a national model.” Lee billed the navigation center as a place where people would stay for three to 10 days “before moving on to housing or residential treatment.” Unlike at the city’s shelters, entire tent encampments could enter the center. The homeless could come with their pets and possessions, and they faced no curfews. By getting services on site, they no longer had to trek to government and nonprofit offices. But what has come of the people who stepped into this novel experiment, in many cases expecting to depart the streets
for permanent homes? After two years, fewer than a quarter of the nearly 1,200 people who entered the first two navigation centers have been placed in verified long-term housing, a Public Press analysis of city records shows. Officials, however, have claimed a figure about three times larger. That is because they have been counting people who followed their time at the navigation centers with free bus tickets out of town, supposedly to live with family or friends — but with no guarantee of stability, and minimal follow-up. Increasingly in recent months, people who stayed at the centers have returned to the streets. More than one-quarter of all who have passed through since 2015 have become homeless again. These outcomes are due in part to management decisions by Jeff Kositsky, the first director of the Department of Home-
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lessness and Supportive Housing, which began operating in July 2016 and inherited control of the facilities. Lee’s hopes for quick housing placements were wildly off the mark. Rather than days, finding a permanent home was taking an average of three months, and in some cases almost a year, the city controller reported last year. “The initial idea was that everybody who goes in is going to get access to housing,” no matter how long it took, Kositsky said. Last fall he imposed a 30-day time limit, freeing up beds the city could then fill with people from encampments that were being cleared, he said. This approach better integrated the centers with other services. Some providers and activists spoke out against the limit, saying it fundamentally altered the program’s original purpose. “That’s why it was called ‘navigation’ — it was to navigate people into housing,” said Laura Guzman, who helped manage the NAVIGATION continued on Page 8
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or thousands of San Francisco homeless people, the city’s emergency shelter wait list has provided a temporary reprieve from living on the streets. But the wait time for a bed has hit a record high, as growing demand outstrips availability, city records show. The monthly median wait time for a 90day bed increased from 26 days in early 2014, when the city began posting data online, to a peak of 56 in February 2017. By April, it eased to 46 days. Among those waiting weeks on the list recently were a 97-year-old and three people in their 80s. They were just a few of the record number of homeless people
seeking a bed on a list that has become a fixture in the lives of many. The increasing wait for a shelter bed comes despite a relatively constant homeless population during the same period. The just-released 2017 biennial count came to 7,499, about the same as two years ago. A top city official said several factors may be responsible for the growing wait list. Sam Dodge, deputy director of the city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said he suspected that not everyone on the list was unhoused. He said people repeatedly use the wait list for a complex set of reasons. SHELTERS continued on Page 3
STILL ON THE STREET
Elizabeth Stromer is homeless despite several stays at the navigation centers, she says. Photo by Noah Arroyo // Public Press PHOTO STORY INSIDE: Daily life on the streets, Page 3.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE Short documentary features local activist’s life story. | 11
FAIR WAGES Legislative Women’s Caucus pushes bills for equal pay. | 10
HIGHLIGHTS from our nonprofit news partners. | 9