Editor:

We are failing our most vulnerable.

I recently attended the Homelessness Oversight Commission’s community meeting at Glide Memorial. The audience was predominately people who were currently or formerly un-housed, and nonprofit staff.  The stories shared were painful. The people told the City exactly what they need to thrive.   

I raised concerns about the City’s proposed project at 1234 Great Highway, a $200 million beachfront subsidized housing complex for a 50/50 mix of seniors and formerly un-housed seniors. The actual cost will approach nearly $2 million per unit when you factor in construction, financing, long-term maintenance and staffing. The project is misleadingly, being presented simply as senior affordable housing, but the reality is much more complicated – and dangerous.

How can the City justify touting equity, diversity and inclusion when 100 previously un-housed people will live at (1234GHW) all while thousands living near the Tenderloin will continue to live in squalor?

I toured the Willie B. Kennedy Apartments (WBKA), also a Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. (TNDC) run site and a comparable model to (1234 GHW), but with a significantly different mix.  I was told the manager runs several facilities with no managers working at night or on weekends. If something goes wrong the receptionist told me she was instructed to call 911.  

I ask the director of TNDC: “Do you vet the people or do they come directly off of the streets?”  “Do they transition from the street to a shelter to an SRO to ensure they can get along with others?”  “Are they required to get drug or mental health treatment if that is advised?”  The answer was “That would be illegal based on the state’s “Housing First” mandate and for our funding requirements.  

In the Western Addition, near (WBKA) subsidized units built just 30 years ago are already slated to be torn down. One man I spoke with lives with mold from an un-vented dryer and a leaking bathtub. Based on this, why should we trust the City to maintain (1234 GHW) or similar project any better?

Meanwhile, we’re spending massive sums on buildings and regularly voting on propositions to raise hundreds of millions for affordable housing, but not nearly enough on people. What if we spent more of our money to hire more social workers, mental health professionals and addiction counselors? When 80% of police calls are for the homeless, aren’t we hiring the wrong people for the job? 

We need accountability. Right now, hundreds of homeless nonprofits operate with public dollars, but without unified oversight. The City is rapidly approaching a $1 billion investment for replicate staff (executives, marketing staff, grant writers ….) for each nonprofit.  

Many of the nonprofits fail at basics as simple as advertising public meetings or housing lotteries in ways that actually reach most local residents. If the goal is transparency and fairness, why are they relying on random Facebook hashtags and buried web pages for outreach and to get community input?

Let’s dismantle the homeless Industrial complex.  The City should hire the best people from the non-profits and build a city-run support system with measurable goals and consequences for failure, and build facilities with wraparound services. Warehousing people is not the solution when dozens of body bags have come from just one hotel downtown. I applaud Mayor Lurie for transitioning toward “Recovery First” vs. “Housing First” policies and a less rigid focus on Harm Reduction Therapy when today’s harsh narcotics invariably enslave most users from even being able to make a choice. 

Mike Nohr

Board Secretary, musa-project.org