A few years ago, Mariah Dixon came from Atlanta to San Francisco as a teenager to live with her aunt, but that arrangement didn’t work out. She needed to finish high school, and she needed to find housing.
Dixon found her way to a homeless shelter run by Larkin Street Youth Services, and the nonprofit later offered her transitional housing — a place to stay for two years to put stability in her life — with a choice of neighborhoods, either the Tenderloin or the Haight-Ashbury.
Dixon chose the Haight: “There was more of a sense of community.”
Now 20 years old, Dixon’s time in Larkin Street’s group home on Haight Street is coming to a close. She might not realize it, but her story is part of an ongoing tug of war between Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Dean Preston over — as usual — housing. The City Hall rivals seem to challenge each other at nearly every turn, frequently over affordable housing and how to pay for it.
Their most recent disagreement is about homes reserved for homeless youth. Preston, whose District 5 includes the Haight, crafted a bill earlier this year to demand more housing just like Dixon’s in the neighborhood, where services are already tilted toward that population. The bill passed unanimously, but last week a mayoral spokesperson told the Examiner that Breed declined to sign it.
Just because it’s veto-proof doesn’t mean the housing will happen. In early 2020, the mayor refused to honor the supervisors’ unanimous call to move more than 8,000 people off the streets and into emergency “shelter in place” hotels. The same dismissal could happen here. All Breed has to do is wait until the law sunsets at the end of 2023.
The number of homes specified in Preston’s bill is small, only 20, but it underscores a philosophical rift between the supervisor and the mayor — as well as their respective allies — over the city’s strategy for young folks like Dixon.
‘Better off outside’
When the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) announced in May that the city’s homeless population had dropped 3.5 percent over three years, the mayor touted her own strategy as a big reason. Through HSH, Breed has emphasized permanent housing, backed by a growing consensus of “housing first” — that is, give people a stable living situation before requiring mental health treatment, or a job, or other milestones.
“This shows that we are moving in the right direction,” Breed said in May.
“Housing first” is the current best practice, and providers working with young people agree. However, for young adults under 25, who made up 14 percent of SF’s homeless in the city’s 2019 count, the point of contention is what kind of housing and where it’s located. That’s the reason for Breed’s snub of Preston’s bill.
Nearly half the youth in the 2019 homeless count identified as LGBTQ; they face harassment and danger in shelters and single room occupancy (SRO) hotels, often the first stop for people leaving the streets. The Homeless Youth Alliance, headquartered in the Haight, no longer helps young people find SRO rooms in the Tenderloin, according to executive director Mary Howe. “Generally, they’ll stay one or two nights and then give us back the keys and say, ‘I’m better off outside,’ which they probably were,” she says.
Sherilyn Adams, Larkin Street’s executive director, says young people “have been very vocal for years about having more places, smaller places, outside the Tenderloin.”
‘This is a very vulnerable population that is a part of the fabric of the Haight.’ — District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston
The city has moved in that direction, but not as fast as the providers would like. Before the pandemic a specialized shelter near Polk Street opened with some support from nearby merchants. Another site, with 25 rooms of permanent housing, recently opened in the Mission with a state grant. Next year, the city anticipates opening a Hayes Valley site with half its 63 units reserved for young people. There are even plans for the Haight. At 730 Stanyan, the old McDonalds site where Haight Street meets Golden Gate Park, the 100 percent affordable housing will include 30 units for formerly homeless young adults.
Very specific. Too specific?
But permanent housing for young adults coming off the street can be too abrupt a step, advocates say. There aren’t enough caseworkers to offer support, and bigger buildings like SROs often aren’t appropriate.
Preston’s bill is very specific: Build a small transitional group home in the Haight. “This is a very vulnerable population that is a part of the fabric of the Haight, and there’s very little the city has done over the last decade to support them,” Preston tells The Frisc.
The mayor objected to the specificity. Her spokesperson told the Examiner that Breed will pursue plans for 50 to 80 units of permanent housing for LGBTQ youth without tying the search to one neighborhood.
When asked about Breed’s refusal to sign his bill, Preston blames people in the Haight, long opposed to homeless services, who “have her ear.”
One local group that historically has opposed services is the Cole Valley Improvement Association. Representatives did not respond to The Frisc’s inquiries.
HSH deputy director of communications and government affairs Emily Cohen says the city needs both transitional and permanent solutions: “We have a very diverse youth population that needs a spectrum of services, just like everyone else.”
SF has 159 units of transitional youth housing, according to Cohen, but permanent housing is the focus. She also notes that the next HSH budget — $1.3 billion the next two years — has funds to cut by half the ratio of young residents to caseworkers, down to 20 to 1.
Why the Haight
Young people become homeless for many reasons, such as aging out of foster care, fleeing an abusive home, or a family rejection of their sexual orientation. Many come to the Haight, as young people have done for generations to find kindred spirits and get a taste of San Francisco. (Some even bought homes, stayed on, and grew wealthy by owning neighborhood real estate.)
In 2019, District 5 had SF’s fourth highest number of unhoused youth. “The Haight is where you can identify any way you want and no one’s gonna blink an eye, especially for queer and nonconforming youth,” says Howe, whose Homeless Youth Alliance is one of three nonprofits with drop-in services there. Among the offerings are health clinics, housing referral help, and employment counseling.
Howe adds that young people want to come to the Haight for services because it is safer and has less drug trade than other neighborhoods. And as Mariah Dixon makes clear, it’s a nicer place to live.
Larkin’s Street home for up to 15 residents near Buena Vista Park has the vibe of a small college dorm, with private or shared rooms, common areas to watch television, use the internet, and play air hockey. There’s a garden out front where residents can tend to cherry tomato vines and young citrus trees.
Dixon, walking down the hallway in a tie-dye T shirt, slides, and black and white socks, shows off her room and jokes that she’s been at the Haight Street house for “10 years.” (It’s actually been two.) In that time, she’s gotten therapy and treatment for mental health issues, earned her high school diploma, and gained programming skills. She’s currently a web development intern with SF nonprofit Matter of Trust and hopes to land a job eventually as a “full stack engineer” with the skills to do an entire software development project on her own.
Two years at the house is the limit, and Dixon’s face lights up with an effervescent smile when she says she’s moving to an apartment in Oakland. Facing this big move, she credits Larkin Street’s help, especially having easy access to staff with a 15-to-1 ratio of residents to counselors.
“They’ve helped us with networking and getting us out to do a lot of things together,” she says. “They’re really cool.”
Kristi Coale is a staff writer covering homelessness and more for The Frisc.