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by\u00a0ELENI BALAKRISHNAN<\/a><\/strong> April 24, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_4172-2-780x585.jpeg\")
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHelp us reach 5,000 donors!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
We have an ambitious goal for 2025: Double the total number of donors<\/strong> from last year to over 5,000! We are already 20 percent of the way there<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Become a donor today!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The San Francisco Department of Public Health opened a 16-bed facility at 822 Geary St. to to provide medical care for homeless people in crisis on city streets, as an alternative to taking them to jail or filling hospital emergency rooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Visitors will be primarily people who don\u2019t need to be urgently hospitalized, but need lower-level medical care, officials said today. Street teams, police and EMS vehicles will be able to drop people off at the center 24 hours a day, seven days a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTreatment for people in crisis. More capacity in our emergency rooms. More officers back on the street more quickly, and it will be open around the clock,\u201d Mayor Daniel Lurie said this morning, emphasizing that the city must \u201cmove with urgency<\/a>\u201d to get people off the streets<\/a> and address consistent overdose deaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brand-new center, located at what was once a Goodwill store, and which was originally slated to become a supervised-consumption site, appeared fully set up this morning. The center, which was originally funded and created by Mayor London Breed\u2019s administration, had multiple living-room areas with armchairs, a consultation and an exam room, and two bedrooms set up with a bed and a chair. The city purchased the site in 2021 using funding from Prop. C<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Department of Public Health Director Daniel Tsai said it was important to get homeless people off the streets and into \u201ceffective treatment and sustained recovery.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, though, the center may provide just temporary relief; the stabilization center will only be able to host patients at the center for 23 hours at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tsai said people will be assigned case managers, and be taken to the next step of care after their stay, but where that will be is still unclear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The city has a major shortage<\/a> of shelter beds overall, and Lurie campaigned for mayor on a promise to expand the number of shelter beds in the city by 1,500 within six months of his taking office in January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, 525 people are on a waiting list<\/a> for shelter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy administration will build adequate shelter beds,\u201d Lurie\u2019s campaign website reads. \u201cBy building the beds necessary to house the homeless, we will no longer push the problem from one streetcorner to another.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kunal Modi, Lurie\u2019s Chief of Health, Homelessness, and Family Services, told Mission Local<\/em> today that the 16 beds at the stabilization center would contribute to that count, despite only hosting patients for one day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked how the beds would be sustainable in such a short-term model, Modi said there would be other<\/a> efforts<\/a> to supplement the crisis center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is one part of our strategy. There\u2019s no single opening that is, itself, a silver bullet,\u201d he said, and said there would be \u201ca range of steps or other beds that we\u2019re going to continue to open because we need to have an entire continuum of care for folks.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The costs of operating the center, which is required to have a physician on call at all times, and at least one licensed clinical professional for every four clients, are still unclear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Patty Blum, vice president of Crestwood Behavioral Health, which will operate the center, said this morning, as she gave a tour of the facility, that staffing levels at the center are \u201cextraordinarily high,\u201d and that patients will be constantly observed while there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blum said the facility will also be staffed with registered nurses, case managers, recovery coaches, and dual-recovery certified coaches. The site will also host overnight security, and police and GLIDE ambassadors will oversee the surrounding blocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe most expensive thing is letting people who are in distress continue to be outside,\u201d Modi said in an interview, \u201cand cycling unnecessarily through our hospitals or other places that are not the right care settings for them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Police Chief Bill Scott told Mission Local<\/em> that the center was a needed option for officers interacting with homeless people in crisis on the streets, and jailing people is not always the best option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of folks end up in the emergency room or, depending on what the dynamics are, they end up being taken to jail,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThe law allows us as police officers to be able to detain, even arrest, bring people to a facility like this under state law, and then we can release them here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n At that point, people will \u201cvoluntarily\u201d receive treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom<\/strong> that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2025, we have a lofty goal: 5,000 donors by the end of the year \u2014 more than double the number we had last year.\u00a0We are 20 percent of the way there:\u00a0Donate today and help us reach our goal!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n eleni@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleni reports on policing and criminal justice in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.More by Eleni Balakrishnan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new center, operated by the Department of Public Health, will be an alternative to jail and the hospital. by\u00a0ELENI BALAKRISHNAN April 24, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) Help us reach 5,000 donors! We have an ambitious goal for 2025: Double the total number of donors from last year to over 5,000! We are already 20… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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LATEST NEWS<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOver 1\/4 of S.F.\u2019s drug arrests or citations now come from 16th and Mission<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"S.F.](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/directors-1200x900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nS.F. supervisors, nonprofits sound alarm on Mayor Lurie\u2019s cuts to free civil legal aid <\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"S.F.](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1edit-dorsey-1200x900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nS.F. \u2018recovery first\u2019 drug plan sees key word change after criticism from advocates<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nELENI BALAKRISHNAN<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n