{"id":34889,"date":"2024-07-16T13:10:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T20:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34889"},"modified":"2024-07-16T13:10:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T20:10:11","slug":"sfs-failed-shelter-policies-exposed-at-cova-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/sfs-failed-shelter-policies-exposed-at-cova-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"SF\u2019S FAILED SHELTER POLICIES EXPOSED AT COVA HOTEL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0July 15, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Unhoused Get Free Rent, Meals, Room with Private Bath\u2014For Years!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to harming nearby residents and Little Saigon\u2019s small businesses, San Francisco\u2019s Cova Hotel offers a welcome mat to unhoused arrivals to San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They get free rent, two free meals a day, and rooms with private bath. For years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, tenants in permanent supportive housing must pay rent.  None get free meals. Most lack private bathrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes no sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco\u2019s shelter system incentivizes people to remain homeless. It encourages unhoused people to come to the city to get a free hotel room and free meals\u2026potentially for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelters are supposed to be a step toward permanent housing. But none of the city\u2019s non-congregant shelters have time limits on stays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I doubt this is how San Francisco taxpayers want their money used.  They are funding a process that gives people who might have just arrived in the city and pitched a tent on a sidewalk the chance for a potential lifetime lease without paying rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder so many people surrounding the 95-unit Cova use drugs. When you don\u2019t have to pay for rent or food there\u2019s other places for your money to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What \u201cNon-Congregant Shelter\u201d Really Means<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cova exposes the dark truth behind calls to expand \u201cnon-congregant shelters.\u201d In practice it has meant converting tourist hotels in the Tenderloin to homeless shelters. And doing so without any public hearing or community meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cova is one of three tourist hotels where this has happened in the Tenderloin.  During Covid  many tourist hotels on both Seventh Street and Lombard became shelters. But even when owners sought to continue leasing for shelter use the city backed out. The city preferred to concentrate non-congregate shelters in the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing tourists with people with no to little income has badly hurt Tenderloin businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike tourists, the unhoused cannot financially support Tenderloin restaurants, bars and other businesses. Yet the city plunges forward in depleting the Tenderloin economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Attorney David Chiu will be in federal court this week seeking to dismiss a March 2024 lawsuit<\/a> brought by Tenderloin residents and small businesses against the city. The suit claims that City Hall has converted the Tenderloin into a drug containment zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s a containment zone? A place where the normal city rules for behavior do not apply. Where tents freely block sidewalks in violation of the Americans for Disabilities Act. Where residents are not entitled to the notice and meeting mandates granted all other neighborhoods. Where the city constantly expands homeless and mental health services while keeping other neighborhoods shelter-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiu\u2019s team will argue that the Tenderloin gets treated equally as other neighborhoods; his office should instead be advising its client to stop using the Tenderloin as a drug containment zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrecking Little Saigon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After working in the Tenderloin for 44 years I shouldn\u2019t be surprised by City Hall\u2019s mistreatment of the neighborhood. I describe in my book on the Tenderloin<\/a> how City Hall wrecked what had long been one of San Francisco\u2019s most prosperous neighborhoods; I thought those days were gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was wrong. Now it\u2019s up to the Board of Supervisors at its July 16 meeting to help rescue the Tenderloin by conditioning the extension of the Cova lease on providing 24\/7 street ambassadors on the block. The same condition Aaron Peskin secured for a shelter at 711 Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to community and supervisor input, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) seems open to conditioning the Cova\u2019s extension on providing street ambassadors. It has been very gratifying to hear supervisors backing Tenderloin residents and businesses in this struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervisor Preston, who represents the Tenderloin, is pushing HSH for a written commitment for street ambassadors on both sides of Ellis to begin by September 1. Supervisor Mandelman, a consistent champion of Tenderloin concerns over drug activities, strongly backs the community\u2019s position. Supervisor Safai went out to the Cova and posted a video on X describing the Ellis Street drug scene. Supervisors Peskin and Engardio have offered any help they could give to get the community the safety protections it needs. Supervisor Dorsey has also offered support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally HSH will agree to provide the ambassadors. If not, we need six votes to expressly condition the Cova extension on 24\/7 staffing being provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Hall\u2019s Longterm Goal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city indicated at the July 9 Finance Committee that it has bigger plans for the COVA. It wants to use the formerly tourist Cova Hotel as a  homeless shelter longterm. The measure before the Board asks for another seven months but there\u2019s a larger plan here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This plan  proceeds in secret despite the financial and human wreckage<\/a> the COVA has caused for nearby businesses and residents. The Cova is next door to a former tourist hotel at 685 Ellis that the city purchased in 2023 with Project Homekey funds. It\u2019s supposed to be permanent supportive housing. But HSH has decided to keep it a shelter for the next four to five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city never held a public hearing or community meeting to discuss whether converting a tourist hotel to a shelter right next to Little Saigon was good for the Tenderloin. The city doesn\u2019t feel public input is necessary in a containment zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When constituents and businesses in other districts read about all the harm the Cova has done to the Tenderloin, opposition to new shelters is understandable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Exit Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco\u2019s shelter policy has no exit strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why pay rent when the city is giving you a former tourist hotel with private bathrooms for free? With no end date! No wonder we see so much drug activities among those in the COVA\u2014they aren\u2019t spending any money on rent!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of using shelters to transition people to independence, the city is fostering dependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People think of shelters as temporary. And they think of people staying in cots in Navigation Centers, not in former tourist hotels with private baths. There needs to be a 14 day maximum stay in non-congregant shelters to prevent them from worsening the city\u2019s homeless crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Hall is full of plans for reviving downtown, Union Square, Powell Street, Fisherman\u2019s Wharf and other neighborhoods. It has no viable strategy to bring the Tenderloin back despite the harm that city tolerance of drug activities has done to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayoral candidates Daniel Lurie, Mark Farrell and Ahsha Safai all have homeless plans that rely on expanding non-congregant shelters. I think they need to tell voters whether they share the current administration\u2019s approach that 1) targets the Tenderloin and 2) offers unlimited stays with free rent, free meals and rooms with private bathrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope all mayoral candidates agree that its time for the city\u2019s non-congregate shelter policy to change. And that these buildings cannot be targeted to the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Posts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0July 15, 2024 (BeyondChron.org) Unhoused Get Free Rent, Meals, Room with Private Bath\u2014For Years! In addition to harming nearby residents and Little Saigon\u2019s small businesses, San Francisco\u2019s Cova Hotel offers a welcome mat to unhoused arrivals to San Francisco. They get free rent, two free meals a day, and… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34890,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34889\/revisions\/34890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}