by XUEER LU March 27, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)
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In an executive directive released earlier this month, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie altered a key campaign promise to end street homelessness within the first six months of his administration by, in part, standing up 1,500 shelter beds across the city.
He did this both by pushing back the target date for creating those beds and by redefining what constitutes a “shelter bed.”
The new definition is far more expansive, and sweeps up a broad assortment of “beds” that have little, if anything, to do with permanent shelter.
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Lurie is also, seemingly, counting 361 beds already in the pipeline last year under former Mayor London Breed toward his goal, nearly a quarter of the goal.
Shelter beds are generally defined as temporary housing for homeless people, a place for individuals or families to live while figuring out a more permanent housing solution.
Lurie’s new definition, however, includes a wider-ranging swath of beds, including “interim housing and stabilization/treatment beds, including emergency shelter, hotel vouchers, transitional housing, stabilization centers, recovery and sober housing, and residential treatment,” according to the March 17 executive directive.
The directive additionally pushed the timeline to create these beds back two months, from June to mid-September.
The mayor’s office, for its part, said that these beds are not meant to be a “forever” solution.
The 1,500 beds are considered a temporary increase in shelter capacity, so that more people experiencing homelessness and mental-health crises can be moved off the street immediately, a spokesperson for Lurie explained.
“They will improve the flow and system and move people in there faster,” the mayor’s office added. “It is not a permanent solution.”
Lurie’s goal to eradicate unsheltered living was ambitious and, earlier this year, walked back: A few weeks after he was sworn in as mayor in January, his advisor described the promise to end street homelessness as a “slip-up.”
But Lurie’s administration stated that it has moved fast to enact his 1,500 bed goal: In a March 25 press release, the mayor’s office claimed that 700 beds are already in the stage of “implementation planning.” The office said that none of the 700 beds are yet under construction, but that all have been identified, including “200-plus” beds at 2177 Jerrold Ave. in Bayview.
Not all of those would be new beds, however. The Jerrold Avenue site would replace 60 “tiny homes” and 20 RV parking spots planned for that lot under then-Mayor London Breed; the city leased the land last year for that purpose.
The beds on the Jerrold Avenue site were among the 361 already in the pipeline in late 2024 under Breed. And it is unclear if Lurie is counting those toward his goal; when asked, his spokesperson declined to answer.
Lurie’s path to 1,500 beds, meanwhile, is already facing pushback.
On March 3, Mission Local reported that Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents District 10, bristled at Lurie’s plan to replace the “homeless village” planned for 2177 Jerrold with shelter beds. Walton called Lurie’s move “inequitable” and “unjust.” Walton’s district has four other shelters, including the Bayshore Navigation Center, which offers 128 beds and is a five-minute walk away.
“What they think they can do and what the community accepts are different things,” Walton told Mission Local earlier this month.
Lurie’s plan also calls to extend the use of two hotels in Lower Nob Hill, the Monarch Hotel at 1015 Geary St., and the Adante Hotel at 610 Geary St. Both sites were among the 25 hotels converted to homeless shelters during the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposed extension, also, was met with outcry from neighbors.
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XUEER LU
Xueer is a California Local News Fellow, working on data and covering housing. Xueer is a bilingual multimedia journalist fluent in Chinese and English and is passionate about data, graphics, and innovative ways of storytelling. Xueer graduated from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism with a Master’s Degree in May 2023. She also loves cooking, photography, and scuba diving.More by Xueer Lu
