On this edition of Your Call, we're discussing what it will take to ensure basic safety in downtown San Francisco while treating the unhoused community with dignity and respect.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's administration has ordered The Hospitality House to close its Sixth Street Self-Help Center by December 31 and relocate staff back to their office in the Tenderloin.
Each year, around 4200 residents utilize the center, almost half of whom are in urgent need of housing, job opportunities, or treatment resources. Hospitality House has served SOMA residents for nearly 20 years.
This comes after months of advocacy from local business and neighborhood organizations – including the SoMa Business Association and the SOMA West Neighborhood Association – who have long argued that the concentration of service organizations around Sixth Street – including the Hospitality House Self-Help Center – have created a “containment zone” for the homelessness crisis and opioid epidemic in San Francisco.
Yesterday, residents, advocates, and community leaders gathered outside the Sixth Street Self-Help Center to make their opposition to the closure known and call on Mayor Lurie and the city of San Francisco to reconsider the closure.
Guests:
Chelsea Kurnick, summer fellow at KALW
Joe Wilson, executive director of Hospitality House
Cherie Davis, program manager for Hospitality House’s Sixth Street Self-Help Center
Henry Karnilowicz, president of the SoMa Business Association
Resources:
Mission Local: S.F. wants to ‘revitalize’ SoMA’s 6th St. corridor. It’s starting by closing a drop-in center.
The Frisc: Tough Love vs. Drop-In: A SoMa Center Must Close As SF’s Sober Version Opens Nearby
Hospitality House: SUPPORT Hospitality House’s Sixth Street Self-Help Center
Mission Local: S.F. hopes to expand RESET center if pilot proves successful, says mayor’s chief of public safety
KQED: Fewer People Are Sleeping on San Francisco Streets. But Family Homelessness Is Up
San Francisco Chronicle: 34 people died in July in San Francisco from accidental overdoses
