When Sandra Rodrigues returned to her San Francisco homeless shelter on Saturday evening, she was greeted by an unnerving surprise. Blood was spattered in the lobby, and police tape blocked the entrance to the three-story building, where a man had been shot four times in the stomach.
Up to that point, the four months she spent living at the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Multi-Service Center South — which bills itself as the city’s largest and most extensive homeless shelter, at 525 Fifth St. — had been positive, she said. But suddenly, she was afraid for her safety.
She wondered whether any of her friends at the facility, or the social workers she’d come to rely upon, were injured or dead.
A suspect was promptly arrested in the shooting, with police taking a 29-year-old man named Taylor Reed into custody that same evening. Reed is now facing attempted murder and other charges.
The condition of the victim, who was a shelter occupant, has stabilized since being hospitalized last weekend with injuries authorities described as life-threatening, according to court documents.
“It’s a traumatizing thing to have happen where you live,” Rodrigues said. “It was scary.”
While Rodrigues and others at the facility say Saturday’s shooting was an anomaly, critical incidents reported within the city’s shelter system have more than doubled over the past two years, according to data from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing obtained by The Standard through a public records request.
The city’s 33 shelters saw an average of 9.5 incidents per day in 2024, data show — up from 4.2 in 2022. The incidents range from “rampages” to overdoses and mental health emergencies, showing the challenges faced by workers and clients of the safety-net facilities.
“At around 5:13 a.m. [a client] began to be disruptive, aggressive, and uncontrollable,” one incident report reads, describing a client who was kicked out at the Next Door Shelter at 1001 Polk St. “This behavior escalated into antagonizing other guests and throwing things around … Disruptive behavior continued for more than an hour with such intensity.”
“[A client] was sucker punched by another guest,” another report from Next Door states. “The alleged assailant had already fled after the incident and never returned.”
Last year’s homeless census — a limited point-in-time survey of the city’s unsheltered population — found a 15% increase in mental illness and a 20% rise in serious health conditions among San Francisco’s unhoused between 2022 and 2024.
Some experts say the uptick is tied to the length of time people remain homeless. The share of people who have been unhoused for more than a year in San Francisco rose 27% during that same two-year period.
Shelter staffers who spoke to The Standard under the condition of anonymity said they’re not equipped to treat physical and mental health conditions in their facilities. There have been 67 suicide attempts in the city’s shelters since 2018, according to the reports.
“Every day there’s someone that goes into an ambulance,” one worker said. “The services we offer here are extremely limited.”
Ray Mackey, who has stayed at the MSC-South shelter since Thanksgiving, said he was in the lobby Saturday when the shooting took place. He said he watched the victim crawl away, and has since experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“What concerned us is they didn’t have a check-in to make sure we’re OK,” Mackey said. “And some of us aren’t.”
The city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said medical and behavioral health emergencies are the main drivers of the rise in incident reports. There was also a change in the scope of situations that shelter staff are required to report, which the department attributes to a 4.85% increase.
In response to the more frequent emergencies, the department said it has increased investments in behavioral health services and case management.
“This speaks to the vulnerability of the community we serve in shelter,” the department said in an emailed statement. “The city of San Francisco prioritizes the safety and well-being of its nonprofit staff and guests through a comprehensive approach that includes specialized de-escalation training for staff, security measures and protocols and onsite behavioral health services.”
Patrick Schmalz, CEO of the St. Vincent De Paul Society, said the shelter has activated an emergency plan since the shooting. He said case managers conduct daily mental health checks with clients, and that the shelter provides rotating health, legal, immigration, and career clinics.
Lurie’s dilemma
The increasing crises at the city’s shelters pose a predicament for Mayor Daniel Lurie, whose top campaign promise was to build 1,500 shelter beds in the first six months of his administration.
With hundreds of people on the waitlist at a given time for a place to sleep, there’s a dire need for shelter in San Francisco. However, some providers and advocates wonder if a shelter-first approach will lengthen the time people spend homeless.
Furthermore, to achieve Lurie’s goal, city workers will need to convince homeless people that the facilities are a safe place to stay. The new mayor may also face pushback from housed San Franciscans who are unwilling to welcome shelters into their neighborhoods.
Steve Good, CEO of the nonprofit Five Keys, is no stranger to how forceful opposition can slow the opening of shelters. In 2019, Good’s nonprofit embarked on an effort to build a 200-bed navigation center on the Embarcadero. The development was plagued by lawsuits, petitions, and protests from neighbors, but it eventually opened that year.
“[The city] does a really good job of trying to involve the community,” Good said. “And there’s still a huge opposition. It’s a real thing, and it’s a problem.”
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said shelter staff reporting more incidents inside the shelters doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more crime happening outside the facilities. To underscore that point, the city provided data showing there has been a decrease in crime around the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center since its opening.
“That said, we also know that a concentration of homeless service sites can impact a local community,” the department said. “Because of this, HSH has developed a robust process for working with local neighborhoods when we open new shelters.”
It’s unclear whether Lurie’s plan to expedite the building of shelters will leave time for this neighborhood outreach. His team didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Lurie’s plan also comes at a time of financial uncertainty. As the city grapples with a roughly $876 million budget deficit next year, many homeless people and their advocates say they hope Lurie’s ambitious shelter timeline won’t come at the expense of quality services.
“The mayor should invest in the shelters that are here now,” Rodrigues said. “They don’t give us pillows.”
Joe Wilson, executive director of Hospitality House, a nonprofit providing job support, food, and beds, said he worries that over-investment in shelters could come at the expense of more lasting solutions, and potentially make things worse.
“Failure to make necessary investments in more permanent solutions beyond emergency shelter has immediate consequences, including on our mental health system,” he said. “The longer people are out on the street, the longer nonprofit staff have to labor valiantly with fewer resources than are needed to effectively address this problem.”