Mayor Dan Lurie ran on a promise to build 1,500 additional shelter beds in the city, complete with supportive services. Now, his office says they are “shifting strategy” to focus on prevention and mental health treatment.
San Francisco Mayor Dan Lurie is backing away from his bold promises to reduce homelessness in the city, which remains 1,000 shelter beds short of meeting demand, report Josh Koehn and David Sjostedt in The San Francisco Standard.
The mayor ran on a promise of building 1,500 additional shelter beds. Now, his office announced it is “shifting its strategy on homelessness” and abandoning that goal in favor of “fixing a broken system that fails to properly coordinate agencies and address the root causes of homelessness, such as drug addiction and mental health issues,” according to Kunal Modi, the mayor’s top policy chief on homelessness.
Although the city has added (“or announced plans for”) at least 436 shelter beds during Lurie’s administration, it has also slated 241 beds for closure. “Margot Kushel, a homelessness researcher at UCSF, commended the administration’s revised approach but stressed that there remains a shortage of shelter beds — even as the city arrests people for repeatedly pitching tents on the street.”
FULL STORY: 1,000 homeless beds short of goal, Lurie abandons signature campaign promise
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