San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Mayor London Breed breaks funding promise for homeless shelter in Tenderloin district
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has pulled the plug on a homeless center in the heart of the city as part of sweeping midyear cutbacks.
The move isn’t sitting well with homeless advocates and community organizations that have spent years planning the new center where the city’s homeless would be able to get food, a hot shower, connect to social services, and spend the night.
The city had pledged to fund the Tenderloin Urban Rest and Sleep Center, but Breed, citing cutbacks across the board in anticipation of a steep budget shortfall, has reneged on the promise.
Breed announced the midcycle budget cuts as her administration attempts to pass its next budget in July. That has translated into hitting the pause button on programs like the homeless center which had been funded in the previous budget but have not yet launched.
“The reductions leave intact basic city services and priorities so we can continue making progress on hiring police officers, expanding shelter beds, advancing behavioral health initiatives, and cleaning up our streets,” Breed, who is up for reelection, wrote to department heads when announcing the cuts.
San Francisco has long struggled with homelessness. In the Tenderloin district, it is common to see piles of needles, waste, and human agony on the streets. Plans for the Turk Street center had been modeled after a program in Seattle that the nonprofit group leading the plans for the San Francisco project said was a success.
“It’s not just about giving them a bed,” Filipino Community Development Corporation founding director Lorenzo Listana told the San Francisco Examiner.
Listana said the ultimate goal would be to help people experiencing homelessness find stability and eventually permanent housing. The center, which had been in the works since 2019 and secured its financial commitment from the city in 2023, was on track to serve “dozens of people a day” and “help replace some of the services lost when The City closed the Tenderloin Center in late 2022.” The new center would have also operated 24 hours a day and accommodated about 20 people overnight.
Despite the setback, Listana has vowed to keep moving forward with the project.
“Whatever it takes, we will do it, with or without the city’s support,” Listana told the newspaper.
Earlier this week, outreach workers fanned out across the city to count the homeless as part of a federally mandated study. While the results of the tally won’t be released for another few months, it could have broad implications for Breed and her reelection campaign.
In November, she ruffled feathers when she claimed that 65% of San Francisco’s homeless population rejected shelter when it was offered to them by the city’s street outreach team in October. In September, 60% purportedly said no to shelter. Breed’s office received a lot of blowback on the statistics it cited and how it was collected.
Still, the city has seen some modest movement in decreasing homelessness.
Two years ago, the city was one of the few in the state to post a decline in its homeless population. The city counted 7,754 homeless people, a 3.5% overall drop from 2019 and a 15% drop in unsheltered homelessness, which means people living on the streets. Breed attributed the drop to her administration’s dedication to getting people off the streets.
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However, if the numbers show an increase this year, candidates jockeying for her job will almost assuredly ask why San Francisco’s persistent homelessness crisis and drug epidemic have gotten worse under her watch.
Breed’s office did not respond to an email seeking further comment.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
One of San Francisco’s busiest freeways remained shut down Saturday, creating major traffic delays and dampening business for some local restaurants and shops.
All eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 just before the Bay Bridge are closed as crews work around the clock to rehabilitate the roadway. The 55-hour shutdown, which began on Friday night, is scheduled to last until Monday morning in time for the commute.
The closure has forced drivers onto detour routes, leading to heavy congestion for those trying to reach the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley.
The impact is being felt beyond the roadways.
At MoMo’s, a restaurant across from Oracle Park, staff found business noticeably slower.
“A little bit more mellow than usual. We usually see a little bit more foot traffic, a little bit more people on Saturdays,” said Daniel Bermudez, executive chef at MoMo’s.
Bermudez believes the freeway closure may be discouraging visitors from coming into the city this weekend, despite favorable weather.
“The weather is beautiful today. It’s nice and sunny. So we have plenty of tables outside,” he said.
With the San Francisco Giants playing an away game, the restaurant had hoped fans would still gather to watch, but turnout during game time remained light.
“This is kind of like our off-season Saturday. A lot slower than our baseball weekend,” said Casandra Alarcon, general manager at MoMo’s.
Other small businesses in the Mission Bay and South of Market neighborhoods reported similar trends, saying most of their customers are regulars who live nearby rather than visitors.
“A little bit slower for sure. Before, we had tourists come and walk to the baseball park,” said Ajaree Safron, manager at Brickhouse Cafe & Bar.
Caltrans has shut down eastbound lanes between 17th and 4th streets to repave the 71-year-old roadway. The goal is to extend the life of the Bayshore Freeway by another decade.
City and transportation officials said the timing of the closure was intentional, noting fewer major events scheduled in San Francisco this weekend, aside from the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Westbound lanes remain open, and officials said traffic heading into San Francisco from the East Bay has not been significantly affected.
“Getting into the city, it wasn’t too bad. Regular [traffic], what we expect on a Saturday morning,” said visitor Andrea Inouye.
While the closure has posed challenges for businesses, some workers said they are taking it in stride.
“Hopefully, it’s not for too long and we get past it, and get back to our normal routine,” Bermudez said.
Despite early concerns about widespread gridlock, transportation officials said the region has avoided the worst-case scenario. Traffic remains heavy in areas near detours, but the anticipated “carmageddon” has not materialized, in part because many drivers chose to avoid the area or take public transit.
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