The city has three active Navigation Centers now. The first opened in 2015 in the Mission District. Soon, the Mission will get a temporary second one that will cost two-and-a-half million dollars to operate for about half-a-year. Laura Waxmann is a reporter with Mission Local, who focuses much of her work on homelessness. She explained how the Navigation Center initiative has changed and expanded over the last few years.
WAXMANN: I think there needs to be services in other neighborhoods as well, I believe that. But I do see the point of having a navigation center near a homeless encampment. People have property, people have things that they can't move by themselves — people have communities . . . I do see the point of keeping people close to their community.
Laura Waxmann is a reporter with Mission Local, a news source serving San Francisco’s Mission District.