Call it the pretty stepsister of safe outdoor spaces.

In the homeless services world, so-called safe outdoor spaces have become popular with cities nationwide. These spaces usually are comprised of pallet shelters or tiny homes, but Denver has even used ice fishing tents. In Denver, Colorado Village Collaborative runs safe outdoor spaces in Denver. The Salvation Army runs some pallet shelter communities in Aurora.

Safe outdoor spaces have been criticized for resembling concentration camps. Denver Mayor Mike Johnson said Wednesday he intends to place seven to 10 micro-communities at sites around Denver. Each site would consist of tiny homes or pallet shelters, said the mayor’s homeless czar, Cole Chandler. Johnson hired Chandler away from the state. Before that, Chandler worked for Colorado Village Collaborative.

A non-profit called Dignity Moves recently reached out to the author of this story about their operation. They build modular housing for people experiencing homelessness that has a lifespan of 20 years, according to Dignity Moves CEO Elizabeth Funk. The sites have plumbing, which is something Johnston is requiring at sites proposed for Denver’s micro-communities, too.

DignityMoves creates housing at a cost of about $50,000 per unit, which they say is much lower than the cost of creating a permanent supportive housing unit in Los Angeles, which can cost $1 million per unit. It’s still considerably more than an ice fishing tent at a safe outdoor space, which can provide shelter and services for $10,000 annually, according to officials.

Mayor looking for micro-community managers

The author of this story asked Funk how she would pitch Dignity Moves’ services to the Denver mayor, who announced Wednesday the city has put out requests for proposals from agencies looking to provide services at the micro-communities. They also have put out RFPs for builders of the micro-communities, saying there are opportunities for small construction firms as well as large ones.

The architectural styles of various micro-communities built by DignityMoves are meant to blend in with other housing in the area.Photo byDignityMoves

Funk replied: “It’s important to note that the $50,000 allocated for a housing unit is just a fraction of the total project budget. The cost accounts for not only the unit itself but also the requisite supportive services, which can be as high as $30,000 per person per year. The durability and lifespan of our housing units, lasting up to 20 years, make them a valuable investment that spreads costs over an extended period. Our focus is not solely on the housing units but on creating comprehensive, sustainable solutions that truly address the complexities of homelessness. We are enthusiastic about expanding our presence to Denver and other cities, driven by our commitment to making a meaningful impact on homelessness nationwide.”

Some homeless people don’t need help forever

One of the arguments made by Dignity Moves is that not everyone who experiences homelessness needs permanent supportive housing, which can be expensive. “Early on in my exploration of homelessness, a series of realizations propelled me to take action,” Funk said. “One of the pivotal revelations was that the majority of individuals who initially find themselves homeless do not necessarily suffer from severe mental health issues or drug addictions. In fact, fewer than 10% fall into this category.”

In Denver, about a quarter of homeless people identify as having a substance abuse problem, according to the 2022 Point in Time count.

DignityMoves points out that many homeless people “held jobs and were self-sufficient until unforeseen circumstances led to their homelessness,” Funk said. “These individuals are not seeking permanent supportive housing; rather, they require a safe place to rest, recharge, and regain their footing.”

However, the author of this story has seen people placed in permanent supportive housing who were not toilet trained, could not care for themselves, or even eat, and did not take their mental health medications. For these people, even permanent supportive housing is not enough help.

Inside a DignityMoves home.Photo byDignity Moves

Moving people out of homelessness quickly

Funk said it’s important to move quickly when people become homeless. “Prolonged exposure to homelessness, often spanning years, significantly diminishes their chances of reclaiming self-sufficiency due to the traumas and hardships they endure,” Funk said in an email. “Our mission is precisely to intervene at this crucial juncture, offering a path back to self-sufficiency for those who would otherwise be trapped in a cycle of dependence. It’s important to recognize that a substantial proportion of individuals experiencing homelessness are employed; some of our partner programs facilitate transportation to job sites, where individuals work full-time before returning to shelters or encampments. This underscores the need for an approach that aligns with the reality of the situation, recognizing that not all homelessness stems from chronic mental health issues or addiction.”

Johnston’s plan also calls for swift action. He plans to house 1,000 people by the end of this year. However, some homeless activists say safe outdoor spaces aren’t real housing. DignityMoves provides a sort of hybrid model between safe outdoor spaces and permanent supportive housing.

Is the homeless-industrial complex real?

Dignity Moves was founded by a group of Silicon Valley executives. The author of this story asked Funk whether there truly is a homeless-industrial complex in this country.

“In California, particularly, the cost per unit for permit-supportive housing has escalated significantly, with recent constructions in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles surpassing the million-dollar mark per unit,” Funk replied. “This situation has given rise to concerns about an emerging industrial complex focused on these ventures. DignityMoves aims to challenge this complex, as we believe that it is unnecessary to allocate such exorbitant funds, approximately a million dollars per unit, for each homeless individual. As a taxpayer, I find this approach untenable. Our mission is to reorient the narrative and advocate for the prominence of interim housing solutions, which we believe should often supplant expensive permanent supportive housing.”

Funk described the economics of homeless housing. “There are varied perspectives to consider when discussing the economics and motivations behind the construction of permit-supportive housing,” Funk said in the email. “Firstly, it is worth acknowledging that many of the organizations and developers involved in building such housing are not driven solely by financial gain. A significant portion of them operate as non-profit entities, genuinely striving to make a positive impact. While it’s true that certain parties may profit from the construction of high-priced housing units aimed at addressing homelessness, such as construction firms and unions, there is also an element of financial interest from entities like Wall Street due to the profitability of tax credits and financing associated with these projects.”

The post Momentary or everlasting homeless housing? A hybrid strategy | David Heitz appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When Nicole Meldahl and her group Western Neighborhoods Project raised money to buy up and save historic artifacts from the recently-closed Cliff House restaurant in March 2021, she had no idea at the time what venue she’d be able to display them in.

It certainly never dawned on her that the group might one day get the chance to display them in the same venue they’d come from.

“Never imagining one day the National Park Service would give us the keys to the Cliff House,” Meldahl said.

As the NPS searches for a new restaurant operator to take over San Francisco’s venerable Cliff House, it has indeed allowed Western Neighborhoods Project to turn the empty restaurant into a temporary museum, with its sweeping views and historic artifacts as the centerpiece.

In the Cliff House in an exhibit called Naiad Cove — the name of the adjacent cove where the ruins of Sutro Baths rest — the group paid tribute to the neighborhood known as Lands End and its once-iconic roadside destinations like the old Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach.

Inside the restaurant, there’s a tribute to the old Sutro Baths, which includes vintage bathing suits and a locker believed to have been saved from the old building. There are original posters and photos of the famous baths, flanked by the actual Sutro Baths ruins just outside the window.

“I think this is what makes this exhibition so wonderful and so powerful, is that you’re really experiencing this history in the place that created it,” Meldahl said.

The former restaurant booths inside the Cliff House pay tribute to the restaurant that served generations before closing during the pandemic.

One room holds signs from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, with the sounds of an old amusement park lending an air of authenticity. A tall wooden cowboy that once stood in the nearby amusement park looms over the room.

The darkened, empty kitchens now display historic projections by artist Ben Wood, who has been projecting period photos and videos from Cliff House history out of the gift shop windows for months. The rooms are washed with a sound installation by Andrew Roth.

The restaurant even holds a tribute to the restaurant itself with a series of place settings from different eras of the Cliff House along with the menus displaying period prices.

“We’ve staged six vignettes at the bar to represent six different experiences patrons would’ve had coming here,” Meldahl explained.

When the Cliff House restaurant permanently closed under the weight of the pandemic, Western Neighborhoods Project rallied to save its collection of historic memorabilia from the auction block. The group raised $180,000 in an effort to prevent the collection from getting spread to the wind.

A crew hoists one of a pair of porcelain muses for an exhibit inside the Cliff House.

Among the objects it saved were a pair of porcelain “muses” figures that had lived in the old Cliff House for ages. On a recent day, Meldahl watched as an arts preservation team helped stage the two large figures.

Alexandra Mitchell, whose company ACT Art Conservation LLC is caring for the artifacts said it was important for the public to view the Cliff House objects back in their original home.

“People can visualize it themselves while they’re here looking at the pieces that were here,” Mitchell said. “You’re seeing the same view, you’re seeing the same ocean waves that have crashed on the shore the whole time.”

Aside from the artifacts, the exhibit is a rare opportunity for the public to visit one of San Francisco’s iconic destinations and view it outside its normal state as a bustling restaurant.

There are windows where generations of visitors have sipped cocktails while watching the day’s last rays glancing across seal rock. There is the long counter where visitors bellied up for the restaurant’s signature poppers, or Bloody Mary’s.

“There’s all these people,” said Great Highway Gallery owner John Lindsey, who is curating the exhibit. “Not only do they have a lot of memories of what’s around us, they have a lot of memories of what’s inside this building.”

As far as the Cliff House’s future goes, the National Park Service put out bids for a new restauranteur to take over the space and is now reviewing those bids. In the meantime, the special exhibit is scheduled to run until Aug. 21, although Meldahl hopes it might be extended. The exhibit is free, but visitors must register in advance.

“People who said they never came here because it was too expensive now find themselves able to take in this incredible view, doing the same thing San Franciscans and visitors have been doing since 1863,” Meldahl said.

The post San Francisco’s Cliff Home Now a Short-term Museum – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When Nicole Meldahl and her group Western Neighborhoods Project raised money to buy up and save historic artifacts from the recently-closed Cliff House restaurant in March 2021, she had no idea at the time what venue she’d be able to display them in.

It certainly never dawned on her that the group might one day get the chance to display them in the same venue they’d come from.

“Never imagining one day the National Park Service would give us the keys to the Cliff House,” Meldahl said.

As the NPS searches for a new restaurant operator to take over San Francisco’s venerable Cliff House, it has indeed allowed Western Neighborhoods Project to turn the empty restaurant into a temporary museum, with its sweeping views and historic artifacts as the centerpiece.

In the Cliff House in an exhibit called Naiad Cove — the name of the adjacent cove where the ruins of Sutro Baths rest — the group paid tribute to the neighborhood known as Lands End and its once-iconic roadside destinations like the old Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach.

Inside the restaurant, there’s a tribute to the old Sutro Baths, which includes vintage bathing suits and a locker believed to have been saved from the old building. There are original posters and photos of the famous baths, flanked by the actual Sutro Baths ruins just outside the window.

“I think this is what makes this exhibition so wonderful and so powerful, is that you’re really experiencing this history in the place that created it,” Meldahl said.

The former restaurant booths inside the Cliff House pay tribute to the restaurant that served generations before closing during the pandemic.

One room holds signs from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, with the sounds of an old amusement park lending an air of authenticity. A tall wooden cowboy that once stood in the nearby amusement park looms over the room.

The darkened, empty kitchens now display historic projections by artist Ben Wood, who has been projecting period photos and videos from Cliff House history out of the gift shop windows for months. The rooms are washed with a sound installation by Andrew Roth.

The restaurant even holds a tribute to the restaurant itself with a series of place settings from different eras of the Cliff House along with the menus displaying period prices.

“We’ve staged six vignettes at the bar to represent six different experiences patrons would’ve had coming here,” Meldahl explained.

When the Cliff House restaurant permanently closed under the weight of the pandemic, Western Neighborhoods Project rallied to save its collection of historic memorabilia from the auction block. The group raised $180,000 in an effort to prevent the collection from getting spread to the wind.

A crew hoists one of a pair of porcelain muses for an exhibit inside the Cliff House.

Among the objects it saved were a pair of porcelain “muses” figures that had lived in the old Cliff House for ages. On a recent day, Meldahl watched as an arts preservation team helped stage the two large figures.

Alexandra Mitchell, whose company ACT Art Conservation LLC is caring for the artifacts said it was important for the public to view the Cliff House objects back in their original home.

“People can visualize it themselves while they’re here looking at the pieces that were here,” Mitchell said. “You’re seeing the same view, you’re seeing the same ocean waves that have crashed on the shore the whole time.”

Aside from the artifacts, the exhibit is a rare opportunity for the public to visit one of San Francisco’s iconic destinations and view it outside its normal state as a bustling restaurant.

There are windows where generations of visitors have sipped cocktails while watching the day’s last rays glancing across seal rock. There is the long counter where visitors bellied up for the restaurant’s signature poppers, or Bloody Mary’s.

“There’s all these people,” said Great Highway Gallery owner John Lindsey, who is curating the exhibit. “Not only do they have a lot of memories of what’s around us, they have a lot of memories of what’s inside this building.”

As far as the Cliff House’s future goes, the National Park Service put out bids for a new restauranteur to take over the space and is now reviewing those bids. In the meantime, the special exhibit is scheduled to run until Aug. 21, although Meldahl hopes it might be extended. The exhibit is free, but visitors must register in advance.

“People who said they never came here because it was too expensive now find themselves able to take in this incredible view, doing the same thing San Franciscans and visitors have been doing since 1863,” Meldahl said.

The post San Francisco’s Cliff Home Now a Momentary Museum – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When Nicole Meldahl and her group Western Neighborhoods Project raised money to buy up and save historic artifacts from the recently-closed Cliff House restaurant in March 2021, she had no idea at the time what venue she’d be able to display them in.

It certainly never dawned on her that the group might one day get the chance to display them in the same venue they’d come from.

“Never imagining one day the National Park Service would give us the keys to the Cliff House,” Meldahl said.

As the NPS searches for a new restaurant operator to take over San Francisco’s venerable Cliff House, it has indeed allowed Western Neighborhoods Project to turn the empty restaurant into a temporary museum, with its sweeping views and historic artifacts as the centerpiece.

In the Cliff House in an exhibit called Naiad Cove — the name of the adjacent cove where the ruins of Sutro Baths rest — the group paid tribute to the neighborhood known as Lands End and its once-iconic roadside destinations like the old Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach.

Inside the restaurant, there’s a tribute to the old Sutro Baths, which includes vintage bathing suits and a locker believed to have been saved from the old building. There are original posters and photos of the famous baths, flanked by the actual Sutro Baths ruins just outside the window.

“I think this is what makes this exhibition so wonderful and so powerful, is that you’re really experiencing this history in the place that created it,” Meldahl said.

The former restaurant booths inside the Cliff House pay tribute to the restaurant that served generations before closing during the pandemic.

One room holds signs from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, with the sounds of an old amusement park lending an air of authenticity. A tall wooden cowboy that once stood in the nearby amusement park looms over the room.

The darkened, empty kitchens now display historic projections by artist Ben Wood, who has been projecting period photos and videos from Cliff House history out of the gift shop windows for months. The rooms are washed with a sound installation by Andrew Roth.

The restaurant even holds a tribute to the restaurant itself with a series of place settings from different eras of the Cliff House along with the menus displaying period prices.

“We’ve staged six vignettes at the bar to represent six different experiences patrons would’ve had coming here,” Meldahl explained.

When the Cliff House restaurant permanently closed under the weight of the pandemic, Western Neighborhoods Project rallied to save its collection of historic memorabilia from the auction block. The group raised $180,000 in an effort to prevent the collection from getting spread to the wind.

A crew hoists one of a pair of porcelain muses for an exhibit inside the Cliff House.

Among the objects it saved were a pair of porcelain “muses” figures that had lived in the old Cliff House for ages. On a recent day, Meldahl watched as an arts preservation team helped stage the two large figures.

Alexandra Mitchell, whose company ACT Art Conservation LLC is caring for the artifacts said it was important for the public to view the Cliff House objects back in their original home.

“People can visualize it themselves while they’re here looking at the pieces that were here,” Mitchell said. “You’re seeing the same view, you’re seeing the same ocean waves that have crashed on the shore the whole time.”

Aside from the artifacts, the exhibit is a rare opportunity for the public to visit one of San Francisco’s iconic destinations and view it outside its normal state as a bustling restaurant.

There are windows where generations of visitors have sipped cocktails while watching the day’s last rays glancing across seal rock. There is the long counter where visitors bellied up for the restaurant’s signature poppers, or Bloody Mary’s.

“There’s all these people,” said Great Highway Gallery owner John Lindsey, who is curating the exhibit. “Not only do they have a lot of memories of what’s around us, they have a lot of memories of what’s inside this building.”

As far as the Cliff House’s future goes, the National Park Service put out bids for a new restauranteur to take over the space and is now reviewing those bids. In the meantime, the special exhibit is scheduled to run until Aug. 21, although Meldahl hopes it might be extended. The exhibit is free, but visitors must register in advance.

“People who said they never came here because it was too expensive now find themselves able to take in this incredible view, doing the same thing San Franciscans and visitors have been doing since 1863,” Meldahl said.

The post San Francisco’s Cliff Home Now a Momentary Museum – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The streets should not serve as a homeless person’s waiting room for housing, according to San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

But to those questioning his focus on temporary shelter, there shouldn’t be a waiting room for housing at all.

Mandelman’s second crack at his “A Place for All” proposal in the last two years has again become a lightning rod for debate over the city’s response to homelessness and whether temporary shelters are the path to reducing encampments.

Backed by business and neighborhood organizations, Mandelman proposes that the city study how it could provide an emergency shelter bed for every homeless person on San Francisco’s streets.

Mandelman, who abandoned a previous iteration of the proposal in 2020, decried the “explosion” of encampments during the pandemic and lamented that city neighborhoods have become “campsites of last resort” for the homeless.

Once again, advocates for the homeless have questioned Mandelman’s proposal, arguing that building out a network of temporary shelters could pull resources away from the real solution to homelessness: more permanent supportive housing and affordable housing.

The Coalition on Homelessness, for example, contends there is no evidence that it would take longer for the city to build and develop permanent housing than to establish new shelters like small cabins, tent cities, shelter-in-place hotels and congregate shelters.

“This plan would not be supplementing or complementing a housing plan because there is no housing plan,” said Carlos Wadkins, a human rights organizer for the Coalition on Homelessness.

Mandelman believes allowing encampments to proliferate is inhumane, citing examples of dangerous fires that have harmed their inhabitants. He believes the city can implement his shelter plan without abandoning its commitment to connecting the homeless to permanent housing.

After a dizzying array of proposed amendments to the bill during a committee hearing on Thursday, it’s unclear whether supervisors — even Mandelman himself — will support the legislation.

Concessions won by Mandelman’s colleagues in the new bill include a 10% cap on the number of spaces at safe sleeping sites – ie tent cities – that the city could include in its network of shelters. The bill also has a 50% cap on the number of beds that can be in congregate shelters, which residents sleep together as opposed to separate spaces like tiny homes or cabins.

Other amendments made by Supervisor Myrna Melgar during a committee hearing on Thursday were targeted at making the bill more inclusive of permanent supportive housing in the city’s planning process. Another amendment was designed to ensure easy access to shelters for residents of every neighborhood in the city via a telephone registration system.

Mandelman’s bill envisages an array of various shelter options for different types of people. It would task the department of Homelessness and Housing Services with devising a plan to establish adequate shelter for all by the end of 2022, then would give the city three years to actually implement it.

It’s an uphill battle, to be certain. The most recent official count in 2019 showed that 5,180 of San Franciscans were sleeping in the streets and not in a shelter.

Mandelman noted San Francisco is “approaching unsheltered homelessness in a way that’s different than many other places do.”

New York City, for example, has a court-established “right to shelter,” which mandates the city provide enough shelter beds for every homeless person. The result is that, while New York City has the country’s largest homeless population, the vast majority are living in shelters and not on the street.

The cost is unclear, and Mandelman declined to provide an estimate on Thursday. The bill includes no funding mechanism, which will be part of what the city studies if the legislation is adopted.

“We don’t know if that is a $20 million cost or a $200 million cost,” Mandelman said.

That’s a sticking point for the Coalition on Homelessness, which alleged it “falsely promises relief for unhoused San Franciscans.”

Although Mandelman has touted his plan’s potential to clean the streets of encampments, the bill does little to explicitly address that issue.

But the consequence of having more homeless residents than shelter beds is a limited ability to conduct sweeps of homeless encampments.

Under precedent set by a federal court’s decision in Martin v. Boise, cities cannot criminalize acts related to a person’s homelessness – such as sleeping on a sidewalk – if the city does not offer them an alternative, such as a shelter bed.

However, Mandelman acknowledged at a press conference on Thursday that his legislation does not directly address enforcement.

The city already does work to clear encampments, advocates for the homeless note, although the city’s stated goal is to connect people living in them to resources like housing and behavioral health treatment.

But to homeless advocates, Mandelman’s bill would open the door to aggressive sweeps.

The bill is scheduled for a second committee hearing on May 26.

The post The short-term shelter debate for San Francisco’s homeless appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The streets should not serve as a homeless person’s waiting room for housing, according to San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

But to those questioning his focus on temporary shelter, there shouldn’t be a waiting room for housing at all.

Mandelman’s second crack at his “A Place for All” proposal in the last two years has again become a lightning rod for debate over the city’s response to homelessness and whether temporary shelters are the path to reducing encampments.

Backed by business and neighborhood organizations, Mandelman proposes that the city study how it could provide an emergency shelter bed for every homeless person on San Francisco’s streets.

Mandelman, who abandoned a previous iteration of the proposal in 2020, decried the “explosion” of encampments during the pandemic and lamented that city neighborhoods have become “campsites of last resort” for the homeless.

Once again, advocates for the homeless have questioned Mandelman’s proposal, arguing that building out a network of temporary shelters could pull resources away from the real solution to homelessness: more permanent supportive housing and affordable housing.

The Coalition on Homelessness, for example, contends there is no evidence that it would take longer for the city to build and develop permanent housing than to establish new shelters like small cabins, tent cities, shelter-in-place hotels and congregate shelters.

“This plan would not be supplementing or complementing a housing plan because there is no housing plan,” said Carlos Wadkins, a human rights organizer for the Coalition on Homelessness.

Mandelman believes allowing encampments to proliferate is inhumane, citing examples of dangerous fires that have harmed their inhabitants. He believes the city can implement his shelter plan without abandoning its commitment to connecting the homeless to permanent housing.

After a dizzying array of proposed amendments to the bill during a committee hearing on Thursday, it’s unclear whether supervisors — even Mandelman himself — will support the legislation.

Concessions won by Mandelman’s colleagues in the new bill include a 10% cap on the number of spaces at safe sleeping sites – ie tent cities – that the city could include in its network of shelters. The bill also has a 50% cap on the number of beds that can be in congregate shelters, which residents sleep together as opposed to separate spaces like tiny homes or cabins.

Other amendments made by Supervisor Myrna Melgar during a committee hearing on Thursday were targeted at making the bill more inclusive of permanent supportive housing in the city’s planning process. Another amendment was designed to ensure easy access to shelters for residents of every neighborhood in the city via a telephone registration system.

Mandelman’s bill envisages an array of various shelter options for different types of people. It would task the department of Homelessness and Housing Services with devising a plan to establish adequate shelter for all by the end of 2022, then would give the city three years to actually implement it.

It’s an uphill battle, to be certain. The most recent official count in 2019 showed that 5,180 of San Franciscans were sleeping in the streets and not in a shelter.

Mandelman noted San Francisco is “approaching unsheltered homelessness in a way that’s different than many other places do.”

New York City, for example, has a court-established “right to shelter,” which mandates the city provide enough shelter beds for every homeless person. The result is that, while New York City has the country’s largest homeless population, the vast majority are living in shelters and not on the street.

The cost is unclear, and Mandelman declined to provide an estimate on Thursday. The bill includes no funding mechanism, which will be part of what the city studies if the legislation is adopted.

“We don’t know if that is a $20 million cost or a $200 million cost,” Mandelman said.

That’s a sticking point for the Coalition on Homelessness, which alleged it “falsely promises relief for unhoused San Franciscans.”

Although Mandelman has touted his plan’s potential to clean the streets of encampments, the bill does little to explicitly address that issue.

But the consequence of having more homeless residents than shelter beds is a limited ability to conduct sweeps of homeless encampments.

Under precedent set by a federal court’s decision in Martin v. Boise, cities cannot criminalize acts related to a person’s homelessness – such as sleeping on a sidewalk – if the city does not offer them an alternative, such as a shelter bed.

However, Mandelman acknowledged at a press conference on Thursday that his legislation does not directly address enforcement.

The city already does work to clear encampments, advocates for the homeless note, although the city’s stated goal is to connect people living in them to resources like housing and behavioral health treatment.

But to homeless advocates, Mandelman’s bill would open the door to aggressive sweeps.

The bill is scheduled for a second committee hearing on May 26.

The post The momentary shelter debate for San Francisco’s homeless appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the United States on humanitarian grounds cannot apply for permanent residence.

Judge Elena Kagan wrote for the court that the federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have temporary protection status from applying for “green cards” to stay in the country permanently.

CONTINUE READING: When does your state’s unemployment benefit end?

The term applies to people who come from countries devastated by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status.

The outcome of a lawsuit involving a couple from El Salvador who had been in the United States since the 1990s revolved around the question of whether people who entered illegally and enjoyed humanitarian protection were ever “admitted to the United States under immigration law “Were.

Kagan wrote that it wasn’t them. “The TPS program gives foreigners nonimmigrant status, but does not allow them. So awarding TPS does not make an illegal participant … eligible for a green card, ”she wrote.

The House of Representatives has already passed laws that would allow TPS recipients to become permanent residents, Kagan noted. The bill is faced with uncertain prospects in the Senate.

President Joe Biden has said he will support the change in law. But his administration, like the Trump administration, argued that the current immigration law does not allow people who have entered the country illegally to apply for permanent residence.

On the flip side, there were immigrant groups who argued that many people who came to the United States for humanitarian reasons have lived in the country for many years, gave birth to American citizens, and put down roots in the United States

Federal courts across the country had come to conflicting decisions as to whether granting TPS status alone was sufficient to induce an immigrant to seek permanent residence.

CONTINUE READING: Body identified as a resident of San Leandro found at San Francisco International Airport

Former President Donald Trump tried to cancel the program for many immigrants because he was afraid they might be sent back to their home countries, where they have not lived for many years.

“All of these United States-based families who have lived in our communities for decades have been exposed to very real threats,” said Lisa Koop, attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center, who also teaches at Notre Dame Law School.

In 2001, after a series of earthquakes in their home country, the US granted Salvadoran migrants legal protection to allow them to stay in the US.

People from 11 other countries are similarly protected. These are: Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

Monday’s ruling does not affect immigrants with TPS who originally entered the U.S. legally and then, say, exceeded their visas, noted Kagan. Since these people were legally admitted into the country and later received humanitarian protection, they can apply for permanent residence permits.

Also on Monday the dish:

– Declined to contest the requirement that only men sign up for the convocation when they are 18 years old.

Agrees to hear a case where the Biden administration wants to close a lawsuit over the FBI’s surveillance of Muslims in California for risk of divulging “state secrets.”

MORE NEWS: Report: “Boogaloo” suspect in murders of law enforcement officers belonged to militia seeking war against police

– Denied an appeal challenging the US Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate electronic cigarettes.

The post Supreme Courtroom Guidelines Towards Immigrants with Momentary Protected Standing – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco’s empty storefronts could soon be filled with artistic activities and social services, as well as programs to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this year, Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced laws that create special permission from the Planning Department for temporary use to allow nonprofits and artistic activities to operate from empty storefronts across town.

The concept was inspired by the large number of empty shop windows in San Francisco and the displacement of many artists and nonprofits. It would give them more places to operate temporarily as they are looking for a long-term situation in the event of an eviction.

The proposal was unveiled in February before the COVID-19 pandemic hit San Francisco.

Amid the pandemic, Ronen changed the proposal during the Board’s Land Use and Transportation Committee on Monday to extend the permissions allowable measures to “COVID-19 recovery activities.”

Legislation defines these activities as housing, employment and financial support services, as well as food distribution, testing and bathroom services.

“This legislation aims to provide an efficient solution by introducing a new use-permit option that allows nonprofits that provide arts and social services to operate in unused vacant storefronts across the city,” said Ronen. She also said it would “bolster” the city’s COVID-19 response.

Legislation empowers the Planning Department to approve the temporary permit for an initial period of up to two years with a possible two-year extension for a total of four years.

A memo from the planning department said the legislation would “provide opportunities for nonprofits and relief agencies to temporarily settle in the neighborhood with the populations they serve while avoiding delays caused by bureaucratic hurdles.”

The planning commission unanimously approved the proposal on June 25, recommending the changes that Ronen had made on Monday.

Audrey Merlone, a senior legislative planner in the Planning Department, told the Commission that the process of reviewing and approving the requests could only take 15 minutes.

The planning note noted that artistic activities, as defined in the planning of the code for dance studios and ceramic workshops, “are critical to ensuring that residents have access to arts education, creative spaces and artistic performances, but often are not only restricted according to rental costs, but also according to zoning controls. “

Art activities are permitted on the ground floor of business districts in regulatory districts 1, 4, 5, 10, and 11, according to the memo.

Artists and their organizations would have “a temporary space across town that could prevent an evicted art activity from leaving town while it searches for another permanent location, and residents of regulatory districts who have not allowed art activities in their NCDs To give the opportunity to experience the benefits of an art activity in their neighborhood, if only temporarily, ”the memo states.

Due to changes, the legislation had to stay on the committee for another week. Full board is expected at its July 27 meeting.

jsabatini@sfexaminer.com

Bay Area NewsCoronavirusPoliticssan Francisco News

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