House Activists see shelter closures a mistake despite increased permanent housing

District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly tells rally need for shelters
still too great for closures.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

By Pat Murphy

February 13, 2006

Housing activists this afternoon urged caution in diverting homeless shelter funding away to additional supportive housing.

Despite increased availability of permanent housing the need for shelters still exists, said Eric Quezada in a 1:00 p.m. City Hall steps press conference.

Quezada spoke on behalf of Housing Justice and serves as executive director of Dolores Street Community Services

He organized the rally in conjunction with District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly, with Daly moments later convening a hearing on the issue before the Government and Audit Oversight Committee.

"While the increase in the City's subsidized housing is a step in the right direction, the City still lacks the housing and shelter needed to accommodate thousands of people experiencing homelessness each night," Daly stated.

Maggie Agnew broke into tears, and took speakers with her,
relating her struggle for housing.

A city administration official insisted those most in need of immediate and temporary shelter will not be displaced.

"I want folks to hear loud and clear that we will continue to decrease the number of (shelter) beds...as we continue to more of those people into housing," said Darius Kayhan, supportive housing manager for the Human Resources Department.

"And we will not stop serving...seniors, immigrants, people on Social Security, and insuring that they have a safe place to sleep and also that we have a place to refer them to for housing," Kayhan told the committee.

He recalled the trend away from shelters to supportive housing began as early as 1999 when Mission Rock Shelter was closed.

"Instead of pulling that money out, when we lost that shelter and had to move on...we started to rethink where are we going with this?" recalled Kayhan.

"There was enough data already at that time that we knew...that we need to redirect our money and redirect our implementation around permanent supportive housing.

"We took that money and leased two large residential hotels and turned them into supportive housing - that being the Mission Hotel in the Mission District and the Jefferson Hotel in the Tenderloin District.

"We were able to move the vast majority of folks out of the Mission Rock Shelter and into supportive housing where they paid rent, they had the dignity of their own room, they had a key, and they had onsite support services."

The committee filed the hearing without action as informational.

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