If some members of the Board of Supervisors get their way, it’ll be city law that every San Francisco district must approve its own new homeless shelter.
It’s been dubbed the “geographic equity” law. The aim is to ease the burden on the Tenderloin, Bayview, and South of Market by requiring leaders in the Sunset, Richmond, and the rest of the city’s 11 supervisoral districts to put temporary roofs over the heads of homeless denizens.
But the bill — written by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin and other neighborhoods — faces a major obstacle: Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Newly revealed amendments authored by the mayor’s office would essentially gut the geographic equity law, critics fear.
Lurie’s edits would remove a requirement that each district approve one homeless shelter by mid-2026 and instead require that each district merely “endeavor to” approve one.
Kate Robinson, executive director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, has long advocated for the city to stop treating that neighborhood as a containment zone for drug use and homeless services.
Lurie’s draft amendments dashed her hopes for the legislation.
“Instead of turning this into a real ordinance, to say ‘endeavor’ really gives it no teeth,” Robinson said. “We need real commitment to geographic equity.”
Lurie’s stance is surprising to many, considering that on the campaign trail he promised to ensure every district takes on the responsibility of helping people who are without homes or are addicted to drugs.
If the mayor truly wants to gut the law, he has a weighty bargaining chip: his veto power.
City Hall insiders are placing bets on whether Lurie will employ this power for the first time should negotiations not prove fruitful. Charles Lutvak, the mayor’s spokesperson, said the city is using a data-driven strategy to identify the right locations for new homeless services.
“Voters gave Mayor Lurie and the Board of Supervisors a shared mandate to tackle our behavioral health and homelessness crisis,” Lutvak said. “We will continue working with Supervisor Mahmood and the entire board to build on that strategy and give people struggling on our streets a better option.”
The Standard obtained the mayor’s draft amendments to the geographic equity legislation in a public records request.
If approved, the law would require each district to green-light at least one new shelter, transitional housing facility, behavioral health residential care facility, or outpatient clinic by June 2026.
The law would also bar the city from building shelter facilities within 1,000 feet of an existing one. That effectively exempts wide swaths of the Tenderloin, SoMa, and the Mission, as well as part of the Bayview.
Mahmood characterized the mayor’s amendments as an early starting point for discussion.
“We’re operating in the spirit of collaboration,” Mahmood told The Standard. “The mayor and our office are not going to agree on 100% of things. We want to help people with unmet needs across the city. Our methodologies may differ.”
He declined to comment on the specifics of the amendments.
While the proposed law doesn’t have the sharpest teeth to begin with — it has no enforcement mechanism, though it would offer a legal remedy for those wanting to pursue action against the city — other amendments suggested by Lurie would further blunt its fangs.
For example, once the number of available shelter beds in a neighborhood is on par with the number of homeless people, there would be a moratorium on new shelters. That’s a high bar: the more than 8,000 homeless denizens far exceed the number of beds available citywide. The legislation’s existing mechanism would simply bar a shelter from being built within 1,000 feet of another, a far more likely scenario.
Lurie also aims to exempt family, domestic violence, and sober shelters from the moratorium. He wants the date kicked back, too: The proposed amendments would delay the law’s implementation by at least six months.
Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the Bayview and other neighborhoods, is a co-sponsor of Mahmood’s legislation. He thinks Lurie’s amendments fly in the face of geographic equity.
“What I saw from the mayor’s office basically really watered down the legislation and would make it go against the intent or even the purpose of the legislation,” he said.
Negotiations around the legislation are expected to last through July, as the Board of Supervisors will spend most of June focused on the city’s budget. If Mahmood rejects Lurie’s amendments, the only way he could overcome a veto is with a supermajority of the Board of Supervisors — eight votes out of 11.
Mahmood said he is confident he’ll get the votes. But Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond district, said the legislation needs more work to earn her support.
“The Richmond is not immune to homelessness and people suffering from mental health illnesses. We need to find solutions that meet the needs and demands of our community, not a one-size-fits-all solution,” she said in a statement. “I urge the Mayor and Supervisor Mahmood to work together to craft a plan that delivers effective and sustainable results for all of San Francisco.”
To some degree, Lurie is already pushing for more services across the city. While he is expanding a homeless shelter in the Bayview, earning Walton’s ire, he also supports a Salvation Army-run sober living facility in the well-to-do Marina neighborhood that is garnering pushback.
Still, Lurie’s proposed amendments seem to be out of step with his promises on the campaign trail.
At an August neighborhood meeting in the Mission, a resident asked Lurie if he would require other neighborhoods to do their part for homeless San Franciscans, even if residents object.
“The shelter plan, my emergency shelter plan, that has to be in every neighborhood,” Lurie answered. “You have my commitment when it comes to decreasing the homeless population: We all have to be in it together.
“I will be the first one in line to make sure we get stuff done in every district in this city,” he added.
Adam Lashinsky contributed to this report.