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Lower Nob Hill residents press city to close or change 711 Post Street shelter; HSH proposes transition plans
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Summary
Neighbors described increased open drug use, trash and safety incidents near 711 Post Street and urged the city to close the shelter. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said closure would take "between 9 and 12 months to wind it down responsibly," announced stepped-up monitoring and a planned new one-year operator contract effective April 1, and committed to enhanced good-neighbor measures.
Residents and business owners from Lower Nob Hill urged the Board of Supervisors' Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee to close the 711 Post Street shelter or substantially change how it operates, saying the site has depressed neighborhood safety, cleanliness, and commerce since it opened in 2022.
Supervisor Danny Sauter, who requested the hearing, framed the issue as balancing the needs of people experiencing homelessness and the quality of life for the neighborhood. "This neighborhood has been ignored...and that's what today's hearing is all about," he said.
Emily Cohen, deputy director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), described the site as one of the city's largest shelters, currently serving about 280 people and more than 760 unique individuals in the last fiscal year. Cohen said HSH had placed Urban Alchemy on the controller's "tier 2" fiscal monitoring list earlier but has since closed out corrective actions after Urban Alchemy submitted documentation; HSH is negotiating a new nonprofit operator to take over the contract by April 1 and expects a one-year term that "would back into the shelter reprocurement timeline." On the question of closing the shelter, Cohen said the city's estimate is that a responsible wind-down would take "between 9 and 12 months to wind it down responsibly, relocating people to existing shelters within the community." She warned that removing beds without replacement could increase unsheltered homelessness in surrounding neighborhoods.
Public comment ran for more than an hour. Longtime residents and merchants described seeing open drug use, frequent overdoses, persistent trash and dog-waste problems, and repeated calls to police. A sampling of comments: Greg Pennington said the neighborhood's "quality of life...deteriorated dramatically"; Dawn Malaspina called 711 Post an "ill conceived COVID era action whose time has expired"; several speakers urged permanent closure or relocation.
Supervisor Sauter pressed HSH on options short of full closure: reducing bed counts, splitting the site into smaller facilities, stronger screening and weapons policies, and increased coordination with SFPD, DPW and neighborhood street teams. Cohen said the department will pilot a 24/7 text/call line posted outside the property, require locked trash cans and dog-waste stations under a strengthened good-neighbor policy, continue community ambassador funding, and escalate contract monitoring and performance metrics at reprocurement.
After public comment the committee voted to "hear and file" the hearing record. Supervisors signaled continued scrutiny: any extension or new operator would require measurable improvements in neighborhood conditions, HSH compliance, and stronger cross-agency support.
Next steps: HSH said it would continue negotiations with a replacement operator for April 1 and the board signaled it will track performance metrics and neighborhood impacts as reprocurement proceeds.
