Supervisors press city on navigation-center outcomes, housing exits and 60-day stays

Supervisor Emily Cohen and others used a February hearing to probe whether the city—s navigation-center model is producing housing exits, which clients use what services, and how the centers affect host neighborhoods.

Jeff Kositsky of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing told the committee the city shelters about 7,000 people a year and helps roughly 2,000 people exit homelessness annually through a mix of permanent supportive housing, Homeward Bound and rapid rehousing. He emphasized that nav centers are only one component of a broader system: they are service-enriched, allow pets and possessions and aim to be lower-barrier than large congregate shelters. Kositsky said nav centers cost about $90—$95 per bed per night — higher than many shelters — because of staffing and services.

Kositsky explained the current approach: some nav center beds are short-term emergency beds (7 days), others are time-limited 60-day stays that can be extended when clients are actively working toward housing, and a subset are "pathways to housing" beds for priority clients that remain available until housing is secured. He said the city lacks sufficient housing exits: roughly 8,000 people become newly homeless each year, while available permanent exits remain limited, and that rationing of temporary beds is a painful but pragmatic response to that imbalance.

Supervisors repeatedly questioned the 60-day time limit. Several said short stays risk re-traumatizing residents who lose encampment-based community ties and then return to streets where they are vulnerable to violence. Kositsky acknowledged trauma concerns but said data and modeling show limited housing supply requires turnover: each navigation bed can serve roughly four people a year under the current policy; if beds were indefinite, turnover would be far lower and fewer people could be helped overall.

Department of Public Health representative Luis Calderon described the Hummingbird Navigation Center, a psychiatric respite model with 15 beds, clinical nursing staff and 14-day stays for medically vulnerable clients. Calderon said the Hummingbird program reduces frequent returns to psychiatric emergency services by providing short-term clinical stabilization and referrals to longer-term services.

Community providers who run nav centers and related shelters testified in support of the model but urged investments on backend housing and emergency-shelter capacity. Speakers from Community Housing Partnership, Episcopal Community Services and Saint Vincent described measurable exits to housing and average lengths of stay in some sites that exceed 60 days. Providers and business and neighborhood representatives urged more transparent metrics and a systemwide view that balances nav centers, larger shelters and housing supply.

Supervisor Ronan and others asked departments to supply clearer baselines and the specific metrics used to track success: how many people move from nav centers into permanent housing, return rates after exit, 311 and encampment trends near nav centers, and which services are associated with higher exit rates. Emily Cohen (Dept. of Homelessness) noted that adults, youth and families use separate assessment tools and that only 8 percent of nav-center exits were recorded as occurring because clients hit a time limit.

Next steps: Departments were asked to return with more robust data on navigation-center exits, recidivism, service utilization and neighborhood impacts; supervisors signaled interest in discussing bed-duration policy and the scale of vacancies/exits needed to reduce street homelessness.