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Committee amends and continues Monarch Hotel lease to allow one‑year operation while HSH plans wind‑down
Summary
The Budget and Finance Committee amended a proposed lease and voted to continue consideration to April 9 after approving a substantive change: a retroactive one‑year lease for the Monarch Hotel (1015 Geary Street) as a 102‑unit noncongregate shelter, with annual base rent of about $1.6 million and a $100,000 final payment due upon surrender.
The Budget and Finance Committee on March 26 amended and continued a proposed lease between the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) and the Lombard Hotel Group for use of the Monarch Hotel (1015 Geary Street) as a noncongregate adult shelter.
HSH Deputy Director for Communications and Legislative Affairs Emily Cohen told the committee the city has operated the Monarch as a hotel‑based shelter since 2020 as part of the COVID response and that HSH renegotiated the booking agreement into a lease intended to reduce costs. The amended lease now before the committee is retroactive to April 1, 2025, and provides a one‑year initial term (April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026) with no options to extend, an annual base rent of $1,597,320 (approximately $1.6 million), and a $100,000 final payment due upon surrender to compensate the landlord for short‑term use and exit costs.
Cohen said HSH will use the year to wind down the Monarch program in a client‑centered way and to reduce the shelter’s concentration in the Tenderloin and Lower Nob Hill neighborhoods. She said the negotiated lease rate will save the city roughly $1.4 million annually compared with the prior booking agreement and that using the city’s own meal provider will save about $500,000 a year. HSH also said it will expand Glide Street Ambassador services to cover the Monarch area and require the operator (We Hope) to perform additional perimeter checks and reporting.
A range of neighborhood residents, service providers and outreach workers addressed the committee. Speakers included outreach workers and clinicians who urged continuing hotel‑based noncongregate options for people with severe mental illness, and neighborhood residents and business representatives who urged a one‑year limit and called for the city to disperse services geographically and accelerate permanent housing exits. HSH provided program statistics: Monarch served 217 adults in the last fiscal year; about 45 percent were over age 45, nearly 40 percent were women, roughly 30 percent were African American and 16 percent identified as LGBTQ.
The committee voted to adopt the substantive amendments as read into the record and then to continue the amended resolution to the committee’s next meeting on April 9 for further review and final action; both the amendment and the continuance passed by roll call (Dorsey, Engadio, Chan: aye).
