DOLORES STREET SHELTER CLOSURE AVERTED
Homeless Advocates for the Mission (HAM), together with Supervisor Bevan Dufty, Mission residents, neighborhood organizations, and the Coalition on Homelessness, launched a successful campaign to stop the closure of 20 shelter beds in the Mission for homeless Latino immigrants. The campaign highlighted the growing crisis of homelessness in the Latino community and raised critical unanswered policy questions for San Francisco to consider when addressing the unique needs of homeless Latinos.
Dolores Street Community Services offers the only shelter program in San Francisco for homeless Latino immigrants, operating 100 beds in four shelter sites in the Mission. The shelter at Golden Gate Lutheran Church houses 20% of neighborhood shelter beds and the kitchen is used to cook dinner for all neighborhood shelter residents. The emergency effort to save the shelter beds began after the shelter program of Dolores Street Community Services was given 30 days notice to vacate the church by the Department of Building Inspections. When Dolores Street and HAM turned to the Department of Human Services for support to create a plan for relocation, the department responded by saying that because of the policy shift from shelter to housing of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, they would not be interested in continuing to fund the 20 shelter beds after the August 1 closure.
Aware of the importance of shelter services to both the Mission and Castro neighborhoods, Supervisor Dufty spearheaded conversations with Dolores Street, HAM representatives, Mayor’s Office, DBI and DHS to highlight the situation of homeless Latinos and to successfully preserve the few options available to the community for staying off the streets. After discussions with city officials, a press conference, and an outpouring of community support that reiterated the overwhelming need of the Latino community for safe shelter and housing options, the Department of Human Services agreed to continue funding the 20 beds of the shelter program and the City offered some assistance in the process to relocate the shelter.
While the community is celebrating the renewed commitment by the City to continue supporting these crucial services, questions have again emerged regarding city homeless policies, such as Care Not Cash and the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, and their harmful impacts on the Latino community. Less than one year after HAM and the Coalition on Homelessness protected services for homeless Latinos by preventing displacement of immigrants from shelters due to Care Not Cash implementation, the community is again fighting for the protection of the same shelter beds— this time threatened by the implementation of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.
For Latino immigrants, homelessness is not addressed by San Francisco’s current housing solutions. Everyday, homeless and low-income city residents struggle to survive in the face of the city’s high cost of housing. Some estimates claim that Latinos make up 15-20% of San Francisco’s homeless population, which would place the number in the thousands on any given night. The few housing options that do exist are often denied to homeless Latino immigrants because of language, legal or cultural barriers. Because of legal status, most homeless Latino immigrants do not qualify for federal low-income housing programs. In San Francisco, they do not qualify for Care Not Cash housing given to public assistance recipients. The result is that homeless Latino immigrants in San Francisco have few housing options other than homelessness—whether it be sleeping on the streets, staying in shelters, or living in dangerously overcrowded, illegally-rented rooms, many times with up to 10 or 12 people.
Numerous communities in San Francisco, such as immigrant homeless, seniors, and the disabled not on county assistance, do not have equal access to housing through emerging programs such as Care Not Cash. While they seek housing or wait on waiting lists, they necessarily depend on shelters, drop-ins, outreach programs, medical facilities, and other community services to meet their shelter, health and safety needs. Even with the advantages of having access through Care Not Cash programs, there is still not enough housing for everyone who needs it, and people continue to wait on lists and struggle with homelessness. The emphasis by the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness to reduce shelter and divert the money to housing punishes those who already have the least access to housing services, like it threatened to do in the Mission for Latino immigrant homeless.
The community’s cries to save shelter beds in the Mission should be a call for other communities and policy makers to evaluate the impacts of shelter bed reductions for vulnerable populations under Care Not Cash and the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Any further shelter bed reduction should be met with a concerned response from our neighborhoods, our community services and our city leaders because as the experience of the Mission shows— eliminating shelter beds hurts the most vulnerable in our communities.
HAM