Mayor urges Board to declare shelter emergency, move a thousand people indoors this winter

Mayor Edwin Lee asked the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to declare a shelter emergency and authorize rapid deployment of navigation centers and related resources to move 1,000 people off the streets this winter. Lee told the board the city will rely on emergency navigation centers, medical respite beds, supportive housing and partnerships with faith groups to reach that goal.

Lee said the city is piloting a unified command structure in the Civic Center area and that results from that pilot included 85 referrals to substance-abuse treatment centers, sobering centers, shelters and health-care facilities. "We need to act now," Lee said, urging supervisors to approve a resolution that would allow the city to quickly construct emergency navigation centers and purchase equipment to operate them.

The mayor described the winter effort as a coordinated interagency push involving the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, public works and nonprofit shelter contractors. He thanked several supervisors for identifying potential navigation-center sites in their districts and named Jeff Kosinski, director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, and Public Works Director Mohammad Nuru for their work.

Lee said the city will work closely with faith-based groups and the newly launched San Francisco Interfaith Council winter-shelter program to expand capacity. He described navigation centers as immediate-respite sites that connect people to treatment, housing and health care, and stressed the need to maximize existing supportive services and to use a coordinated, compassionate approach for encampment clearings.

The mayor cautioned that homelessness is complex and said the city will take every available step over the coming months to reduce the number of people living on the street. He did not identify specific sites, funding sources or a final vote outcome; instead he requested the board's help in passing a resolution declaring a shelter emergency and in identifying appropriate locations for navigation centers.

Supervisors acknowledged the mayor's request during the meeting but did not take an immediate vote on a shelter-emergency resolution during the session recorded in the transcript. The mayor’s remarks were framed as an appeal for quick action and interagency cooperation rather than as a report of an already enacted measure.

The request will now go through the Board’s regular ordinance/resolution process and any authorization to build emergency navigation centers would require further action by the Board and coordination with city departments and contract partners.