San Francisco, CA — The Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, a 200-bed facility to provide temporary shelter beds for unsheltered individuals, will open by the end of the year. Mayor London N. Breed, Senator Scott Wiener, Assemblymember Phil Ting, and Supervisor Matt Haney toured the facility today, along with community members and service providers.

The SAFE Navigation Center will help get people off the streets and connected to the social services and care they need. The project is a key part of the Mayor’s commitment to open 1,000 new shelter beds by the end of 2020. Once the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center is at full capacity, the City will have opened 566 shelter beds toward that goal.

“This SAFE Navigation Center will provide a dignified place for people experiencing homelessness to get off of the street and access services,” said Mayor Breed. “This is more than a facility and more than beds—it will be a place of hope for our most vulnerable residents, and a place where they can rest, recuperate, and move forward on their journey out of homelessness.”

SAFE Navigation Centers build off the best practices of existing Navigation Centers, while making them more scalable and sustainable. They include temporary residential facilities, onsite support services, and provide a critical alternative to unsheltered homelessness. SAFE Navigation Centers welcome partners and pets, provide safe storage for belongings, 24/7 access, and trauma-informed care.

With the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, there are now seven Navigation Centers in San Francisco, providing approximately 720 beds. The Navigation Centers have served over 5,000 people since they launched in 2015. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) oversees the development and operations of the City’s Temporary Shelter system which includes Navigation Centers. HSH will partner with Five Keys, which will operate the new facility, and currently operates the Bayshore Navigation Center. San Francisco Public Works managed the design and construction of the project.

Senator Wiener recently championed and passed legislation to streamline the development of Navigation Centers throughout the state. Senator Wiener’s legislation to streamline the approval of navigation centers was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, as part of Assembly Bill 101, a budget trailer bill. Previously part of Senate Bill 48, this policy aims to ensure that homeless individuals and families throughout California have reasonable access to shelter, including navigation centers.

As Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, Assemblymember Ting was instrumental in securing new state resources for homelessness services. In 2018, San Francisco received approximately $28 million in one-time resources from the state to address homelessness. In 2019, under Assemblymember Ting’s leadership, the state included $650 million in flexible one-time funds for shelters, permanent supportive housing, and other related services. These resources have been essential in supporting the expansion of navigation centers, like the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, as well as long-term solutions like rapid rehousing. The passage of Ting’s Assembly Bill 932 in 2017 also allowed San Francisco to enact an ordinance to expedite the local approval process of temporary shelters on public land.

The Navigation Center will begin serving 130 individuals, which mirrors other existing Navigation Centers in San Francisco. Following the opening, the SAFE Navigation Center will add an additional 70 beds over a six-month period to reach 200 beds. The area surrounding the Navigation Center will receive an increased presence of beat officers. The lease for the SAFE Navigation Center is for an initial two years, after which the Port Commission will have the option to extend the lease for an additional two-years.

During the first two years of operation, the City will issue quarterly reports on the unsheltered homeless count in the outreach zone, cleaning operations, crime statistics, and program utilization and outcomes.

“The SAFE Navigation Center will provide so many people experiencing homelessness with the shelter and services they need,” said Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). “Everyone deserves safety, shelter, and the opportunity to get back on their feet. The SAFE Navigation Center offers that and more, and I’m thrilled to see this major step towards sheltering our most vulnerable San Franciscans.”

“It’s exciting to see our state and city partnership to combat homelessness continue to make a big impact. Navigation Centers combine shelter with onsite services and have been a critical piece of the puzzle in moving people off the streets and into permanent housing,” said Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. “This latest opening, supported by $4.1 million in state funds I helped secure, builds on our momentum to help our most vulnerable residents.”

“This Navigation Center will be a critical tool in responding to the homelessness crisis and will get people who are living on the streets in South Beach, Rincon Hill, and along the Embarcadero into shelter and services,” said Supervisor Haney. “This Navigation Center will help people enroll in benefits, access health care, connect with a case manager, and most importantly be a safe, supportive place for people to transition off the streets and ultimately into housing. Navigation Centers are urgently needed all over the city to respond to the homelessness crisis. I’m committed to working with Mayor Breed and HSH, and fighting every day to ensure that we fulfill our commitments to the center’s clients and neighbors.”

“Our whole community is safer when people have a place to sleep inside,” said Jeff Kositsky, Director of HSH. “Navigation Centers are a key tool in the Homelessness Response System where the ultimate goal is to help people end their experience of homelessness. We are grateful for the Mayor’s leadership, the support from our representatives in Sacramento and in San Francisco, and our local City partners and providers to bring this critical resource to serve the most vulnerable among us.”

“We know that it takes innovation, compassion, determination and strong partnerships to successfully address the challenges of homelessness in our city and our team at San Francisco Public Works is honored and excited to work on solutions both on the drawing board and on the ground,” said San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru. “The Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center bolsters our capacity to serve our unhoused residents by moving people off the streets and into a safe and supportive environment.”

“The Port is proud to do our part to help address the ongoing homelessness challenge our City is confronting,” said Elaine Forbes, Executive Director of the Port of San Francisco. “The Central Waterfront Navigation Center has operated successfully on Port Property since 2017 and we look forward to the opening of the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center. We have been working closely with neighbors and stakeholders to ensure that this site is set-up for success and are confident that this site will be a good neighbor. I’d like to thank Mayor Breed for her leadership and commitment to addressing homelessness along the waterfront and throughout the City.”

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