Supervisors hear repeated accounts of long waits, access and health gaps in San Francisco shelter system

Dozens of shelter residents, city health and human-services staff and advocates told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee on April 5 that the city’s shelter-access system places undue burdens on people seeking emergency and longer-term beds. The testimony — part policy review and part raw street-level testimony — centered on long pre-dawn lines, limited transportation supports and shrinking case-management capacity.

The hearing opened with Chair Supervisor Jane Kim saying the review was “motivated by a stay that I had, personally made at Nextdoor Shelter in January,” and asking city staff to explain bed counts, reservation rules and service availability. HSA Housing and Homeless Division director Joyce Crum told the committee the single-adult system has roughly 1,134 beds: about 700 resource-center 90-day beds, approximately 390 beds tied to the county adult assistance program (CAP), and about 40 beds for veterans and targeted partnerships. On Jan. 18, Crum said, 36 of 1,134 beds (about 3 percent) were vacant; vacancies often result from late passes and no-shows.

But advocates and residents said beds on paper do not match what people experience in the street. Coalition on Homelessness outreach and footage…