Supervisor Shamann Walton hasn’t been shy about his opposition to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plans to build a homeless shelter in the Bayview, the neighborhood he represents.
He’s called Lurie an oligarch who considers people of color second-class citizens. He said the new mayor broke promises to listen to community feedback by building the shelter without their consent.
Now, Lurie is doubling down to expand homeless services for aging and infirm Bayview residents.
On Tuesday, the mayor introduced legislation at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting to amend the lease of the contested site, Jerrold Commons, to build out an additional 80 shelter beds. The project at 2177 Jerrold Ave. was previously announced with 68 beds across 60 cabins for people without homes, including eight cabins for people living in RVs.
The expanded shelter will prioritize people from the Bayview, particularly older individuals who have severe medical needs.
“San Franciscans expect their elected leaders to tackle the homelessness and behavioral health crisis head-on, and there is consensus on both sides of City Hall that we do that by adding interim housing and giving people on the street a better option,” Lurie said in a statement.
Lurie is using his fentanyl emergency powers to bypass a normal board approval process, which Lurie previously characterized as lengthy.
The move puts the ball in the supervisors’ court — for the first time since the emergency fentanyl legislation was passed, a 45-day “shotclock” will start, giving the board one chance to vote against Lurie’s legislation.
It may place Walton in a difficult political position.
He has previously said that instead of a homeless shelter, the community needs a safe parking site for people living in parked RVs. But opposing Lurie’s action would put Walton on record as opposing shelter beds intended to help aging, sick people in desperate need.
“The community does not support the project or the mayor’s continued unilateral decision-making,” Walton said in a statement Tuesday. “The mayor is bulldozing community. No one in [the] community supports the site. No one.”
Constituents in Walton’s district met for more than a year with city staffers to discuss solutions to the RVs, which staff later promised, the supervisor’s office said. When asked about its plans to address people living in parked RVs in the Bayview, the mayor’s office said building out city-sanctioned parking only helps temporarily and that longer-term solutions are needed.
The 80 additional beds slated for Jerrold Commons advance Lurie’s campaign promise to build 1,500 shelter beds. However, the target date for those beds has moved.
The mayor initially said it would be six months from the start of his administration, before adjusting that timeline to six months from March when he introduced his homeless plan, “Breaking the Cycle.” The definition of shelter beds has also been expanded to include behavioral health beds and other kinds of shelter.
According to the mayor’s office, Jerold Commons will offer a bevy of services to older people in poor health: a nursing station, medical facilities, case management from the Department of Public Health, and more extensive clinical services than most units in San Francisco’s shelter portfolio.
Historically, the city hasn’t targeted many services for people who are aging and health-impaired, Lurie’s office said.
If it passes the Board of Supervisors, Jerrold Commons will be a new model of doing so.