San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed today announced the opening of 20 new beds at the Civic Center Navigation Center, which brings the total number of Navigation Center beds at Civic Center to 113. The new beds will be used to address homelessness in the area, with a particular emphasis for people at the cross-section of homelessness, mental illness, and substance use disorder.

Mayor Breed is committed to dramatically expanding shelters and Navigation Centers to provide a safe place for people to be off the street and be connected with long-term services. In October 2018, she announced a goal of opening 1,000 new shelter beds by the end of 2020. With the expansion of Civic Center Navigation Center, Mayor Breed has added 366 new shelter beds toward the 1,000 bed goal. There are an additional 224 beds under construction, and 200 beds in the pipeline.

“Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep at night, and we need to keep adding beds so that we can offer shelter to anyone who wants it,” said Mayor Breed. “The new beds at Civic Center Navigation Center get us one step closer to providing the shelter we need in our city, in a location where there are many people currently experiencing homelessness. We must continue adding more shelters and housing throughout San Francisco and connecting people to the services that can help get them off the streets and out of homelessness.”

The Civic Center Navigation Center opened in the summer of 2016 with 93 beds. The Navigation Center is operated by the Community Housing Partnership (CHP).

After three years of successful operation, the City has expanded the capacity of the Navigation Center by adding 20 beds. Since its opening, the Civic Center Navigation Center has served 505 people. 52% of clients exiting Navigation Centers from 2016 to October 2019 had positive exits, either to Homeward Bound, permanent housing, or temporary placement.

Navigation Centers are designed to serve San Franciscans who are living unsheltered in the community. Navigation Centers allow people to bring their partners, pets, and belongings with them, lowering barriers to coming inside. In addition to shelter, on-site case managers provide support to connect guests with employment opportunities, health services, public benefits and housing via the Coordinated Entry system.

In San Francisco, there are currently 3,400 shelter beds available per night through traditional shelters, stabilization beds, Navigation Centers, and Transitional Housing. However, 65% of San Francisco’s homeless population lives unsheltered on the city streets, which clearly demonstrates the need for more shelter beds.

“Expansion in our temporary shelter system, including Navigation Centers like Civic Center, is nothing less than life saving for people living unsheltered,” said Jeff Kositsky, Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “Mayor Breed’s leadership to expand shelter while also expanding problem solving/diversion and housing exits is a game changer. I’m grateful to our partners at CHP for this expansion and to our non-profit and City partner colleagues who are working tirelessly to reach Mayor Breed’s goal of opening 1,000 new shelter beds by the end of 2020.”

“Community Housing Partnership, in full collaboration with Strada Investment Group and the John Stewart Co., is excited to announce that 20 additional units at the Civic Center Hotel Navigation Center are now fully available to be utilized by people experiencing homelessness,” said Christy Saxton, Chief Operating Officer at the Community Housing Partnership. “This opportunity was made possible through the support of both the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and Mayor Breed. Because of this great partnership we are now able to house up to 113 people every night at the Civic Center which will continue to help San Francisco combat the homeless crisis.”

Mayor Breed recently launched a new behavioral health initiative—UrgentCareSF—which includes a plan to help the approximately 4,000 homeless San Franciscans who have mental illness and substance use disorders. UrgentCareSF is based in clinical expertise, evidence-based programs, data analysis, and the principles of harm reduction and compassion. The four priorities of the program are:

• Building a new system of care coordination, outreach, low-barrier services, and harm reduction, including for those who cannot make decisions for themselves.
• Expanding treatment capacity and reducing administrative barriers to eliminate wait times for services.
• Focusing on the workforce needs that are required in order to provide mental health care and substance use treatment to people.
• Providing housing options for people exiting treatment services in order to support behavioral health chronic disease management.

UrgentCareSF was designed based on public health data and a comprehensive assessment of the City’s mental health system. Each element of the initiative is rooted in data analysis and clinical expertise. For more details, visit http://sfmayor.org/urgentcaresf.

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