San Francisco has a homeless plan. I have my doubts

Apartments?

One good thing about the pandemic. It won’t make the homeless crisis in San Francisco any worse.

It already is worse. The Coronavirus just won’t make it any better.

The problems are as obvious as the tent cities on the sidewalks. Social distancing means having to cut shelter occupancy in half. Some shelters have closed altogether. There are simply fewer beds available, which means more people on the streets.

Luckily, San Francisco has a plan. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about it.

When it became clear that the virus had driven even more people into tents on the street, San Francisco made the move that we have been hearing about for eons. The city leased some 2,400 hotel rooms and moved homeless people into them. As of July 9, Bay Area News Group said that data from the state showed that 1,860 of those rooms were occupied.

And of course — because it is San Francisco — there was controversy right away. In May KTVU reported that the city was providing alcohol, nicotine, methadone and cannabis, at city expense, to the housed homeless. The justification was that by giving them the substances, they’d be less likely to leave the hotel to look for them.

There was also a harrowing report by free lance journalist Erica Sandberg, a consumer finance reporter who lives in San Francisco. She told of a guest ranting in a hotel lobby, of destroyed rooms and syringes on the floors.

Sandberg’s allegations appeared in the New York Post and as far has I know were not confirmed by local publications. Much of what she writes, i.e. “four deaths in one hotel,” is unsourced.

Either she’s got the goods or she’s relying on anecdotal information that may or may not be true.

Still, wouldn’t you admit that was the concern when you heard the city was moving people from a tent into a hotel? Erratic behavior is common in the tent towns. Why wouldn’t it happen in a hotel?

Besides, down the road, what is the outcome for these people? They were only supposed to be in hotels until the COVID-19 threat ended.

But it isn’t ending and may not for months. They can’t stay in hotels forever.

So you will be delighted to hear that there is a plan. I just am not buying it.

Early this month Mayor London Breed announced an initiative that would move 200 homeless to rental apartments in “scattered-site housing,” meaning that they will be in neighborhoods all over the city.

So, a couple of points. If you thought people were up in arms when a Navigation Center was built near Piers 30-32, wait until you tell families in the Sunset that formerly homeless people are renting apartments in the neighborhood.

Granted, that’s not right. It’s not fair. But I’m betting that’s the reaction you are going to get.

Second, there was a lot of optimistic talk about how rents are down over 11 percent from a year ago. They probably are. But when was the last time you talked to someone in SF who raved about how cheap his rent is now?

Instead, what we hear are people who, now that they can work remotely, are moving out of the city to someplace more affordable.

San Francisco is still an expensive place. I’m having my doubts about finding hundreds of vacant apartments at a reasonable rate.

And if you do, SF landlords are used to doing some pretty extensive background checks for potential renters. Are you going to convince them they’d rather rent to a formerly homeless person?

Now, this is not to say none of this can work. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who knows the story of SF streets, has been encouraging cities and counties to buy hotels, like the SROs in the Tenderloin and convert them into long-term housing for the homeless. He’s even talked about providing state money to help the process.

That could work, although there are still problems. Taking a multi-story hotel and filling it with formerly homeless residents sounds a lot like a sanctioned tenement building.

And, if you’re going to create a large, crowded living space you’re also going to have to be in charge of it. You’ll need security, counseling and a full staff.

Which is a lot of work. A lot of time, money and effort.

But this is a big problem. And getting bigger.

I know, I know, another column about homelessness. What if I promise not to write about it again until a decent interval has passed? Would you subscribe then? Just hit the button.

Good ol’ Harding Park hosts Tiger etc.

One of the disappointments from the pandemic is that the PGA Championship, one of golf’s four “majors” will be played at Harding Park in virtual isolation. Of the top 100 golfers in the world, over 90 of them will tee it up beginning Thursday.

But there will be no spectators. Protocols are so strict, even the golfers’ families will not be allowed on the grounds.

Too bad, as I wrote in my Sunday column for the Press Democrat, because Harding is an honest to goodness public golf course. On a regular, non-Coronavirus weekday, you could go into the grill and see a couple of tables with ladies playing MahJong.

And it is also the home course for a lot of golfers, like me, who might very well shoot a round in triple digits. (Mostly because of bad bounces and tough breaks in my case. It couldn’t be my golf game.)

So, for those senior citizens who come to Harding for a lunch with a view of the 18th hole, and for us duffers who want to be able to walk out on the fairway and say, “Hey, I was behind that same tree as Tiger,” it will be a disappointment.

But, still good golf. And not to give away my kicker at the end of the column, but keep an eye out for the tall Cypress at the corner of the 16th hole. They call that tree Willie Mays.

Because it never drops a ball.

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Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch doin’ the Zoom

The 49ers have been very good about making their players and coaches available in a time of social distancing. They make Zoom interviews available on a regular basis.

And now that the players have reported to training camp, they are ramping up the access again.

On Monday, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch were available and I wrote a 49ers blog post about the session. I’m certainly not the expert the 49ers regular beat writers are, and frankly struggled a little to decide what was newsy.

But it seemed to me that it was interesting that they both said they were optimistic about the upcoming season, but also expressed some real concerns about safety and health.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and compliments welcome. Criticism not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius