Through the Cracks and Out in the Cold

In late 2006, San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness became concerned about a marked discrepancy between claims by the Mayor's Office of a large nightly average of unoccupied shelter beds — at a time when homeless people were reporting high shelter turn-away rates.

A December 19th Mayoral press release cited a Human Services Agency report that there are "upwards of 100 vacancies in our shelter system which remain available for any homeless individual needing shelter assistance."

Under the direction of Jennifer Friedenbach, the Coalition's Organizing Director, a work group sent forms to the three Central City shelter reservation sites — Tenderloin Health at 187 Golden Gate Avenue, Hospitality House's Tenderloin Self-Help Center, and the South of Market location at 150 Otis. At the end of two weeks, the shelters returned the forms.

Friedenbach said shelter staff recorded first names of individuals who were refused a bed, their turn-away date, and the reason for the denial of service.

The data from "various dates" between January 29th and February 15th documented "very high turn-away rates."

Numbers collected between 11:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m.daily in this two-week period revealed that on a significant number of cold winter nights, an average of 49 homeless people were turned away from shelters that — by day's end — were apparently full.

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