"We are really at the point of boiling": a shelter for the homeless and impending IPOs have San Francisco exhausted

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – San Francisco's famous waterfront is home to joggers, admiring tourists and high-rise condos with impressive views. It could also become the site of a new homeless shelter that can accommodate up to 200 people.

Angry residents held numerous public meetings, mocking city officials and even criticizing London Mayor Breed about the proposal. They say that they were caught off guard and argue that Twitter's billionaire executive, Jack Dorsey, and other technical officials who support the idea should put pressure on those in charge. the city for them to build a shelter at home.

The turmoil of the waterfront is one of the recent examples of conflict in an expensive city both overwhelmed by technological wealth and passionate about social justice. Companies in San Francisco, Pinterest and Lyft, have recently IPOs and Uber and Slack are coming soon, which is fearing newly struck millionaires to break the few family homes of less than $ 2 million.

City supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer struggled to tears during a difficult hearing about a housing density bill, urging her critics to visit poor seniors his district who eat cat food for dinner. Opponents of the bill turned their backs on supervisor Vallie Brown, who vigorously defended the bill.

And while the city continued to face a housing shortage, the entire board of supervisors was criticized on social media this month for rejecting a 63-unit housing project because it would project shadows on a nearby park in an area with few green spaces.

"We are really at the point of boiling, whether it's the housing crisis, the quality of life, exacerbated by the worst traffic jams in the United States or the crisis in the US. Affordability, "said supervisor Aaron Peskin.

A New York Times article in March on upcoming IPOs sparked rampant activity among potential buyers and a call from the mayor for an audition on how all this new wealth will affect gentrification and city revenues .

Realtor John Townsend had the item on hand as he showed a $ 1.15 million, 1,500 square foot (139 square meter) three-bedroom condo and bathroom. He added that he had doubled the traffic on the weekend after the Lyft mobile phone company went public in March. The condo, which needed updates, sold above the asking price.

"You're going to have an incredible demand period not just from technology, but by lowering interest rates over the last week," Townsend said. "The real problem is that we can not even respond to the remote demand."

The market for single-detached homes under $ 2 million is going crazy, especially in neighborhoods attractive to younger generations and young families, said real estate agent Monica Sagullo.

IPOs are "in the back of the mind, and the people who have to buy are those who go there – the families who need houses, the double income," she said.

A family of four earning $ 117,400 a year is considered low-income in San Francisco, where the median selling price of a two-bedroom apartment is $ 1.3 million. Yet every night, the city of 885,000 has about 4,400 homeless people in alleys and gates and nestled in Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco opened its first homeless "navigation center" in 2015 and currently operates six throughout the city. Unlike traditional shelters, the centers allow people to bring pets and do not expel them in the morning.

The proposed navigation center in the Embarcadero is an essential part of the mayor's campaign, which planned to open 1,000 new shelters by the end of 2020. It would be placed in a parking lot owned at the port of San Francisco.

Commissioners must vote Tuesday on the opportunity to lease the land to the city.

Following the announcement of Breed's plan, opponents launched a GoFundMe campaign entitled "Safe Embarcadero for All". Supporters of the hosting centers quickly announced the campaign on social networks, which caused a sometimes difficult battle. The campaign against the shelter raised $ 100,000. The "SAFER Embarcadero for ALL" campaign is worth $ 175,000, including $ 25,000 from Dorsey on Twitter and $ 10,000 from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson.

The towers surrounding the terrain are expensive. A three-bed and three-bathroom apartment in Brannan condo towers is sold for nearly $ 2.5 million in February; the monthly fee is $ 1200. In the nearby Watermark building, which includes a rooftop pool, a two-bed and two-bath condo sold for over $ 1.3 million in October – also with a monthly fee greater than $ 1,000.

"It is very difficult for people who are not at the forefront of wealth, in terms of wealth, to think that they can even get out of it in San Francisco, or own or have a business. long-term commitment to be here, and this creates a lot of anxiety, "said supervisor Matt Haney, who represents the district and supports the housing plan.

Haney, who rents a studio in the dilapidated Tenderloin neighborhood, has introduced legislation requiring all 11 districts of San Francisco to create space for a homeless shelter.

Many proponents of the waterfront proposal, including those living in the neighborhood, say the shelters are safe and the opponents are heartless. But opponents say that a shelter is not appropriate in a neighborhood filled with tourists and children and little homeless. They worry about crime and real estate values ​​and want to know why the centers of navigation are not evenly distributed around San Francisco.

"There are other people in the city who call us wealthy and do not like to see the homeless population, that's not true at all," Wallace Lee said. , a housewife who leads the opposition.

Stacey Reynolds-Peterson has rented a two-bedroom unit under the market in a building located near the proposed shelter since 1991, while the area was full of sinister warehouses. Retired due to a disability, she spends most of her income on the monthly rent of $ 2,700 and plans to move to the North as she can not afford to go to the North. to offer San Francisco.

"We have homeless people, I see them every day and they are nice, but it will attract more people," she said. "Before, I loved the city and I was proud of the city.Now I'm not, it's dirty and it's ugly."