In December, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously against a proposal to construct a $240 million jail in SoMa, with the help of a $80 million grant from the federal government. (The jail would have replaced the current one in the neighboring Hall of Justice, which has been declared seismically unsound.) But while many hoped that the $80 million grant could instead be used to construct a mental-health facility, that won't be happening, either.
According to the Chronicle, SF Public Works executive director Mohammed Nuru sent a letter to the BoS yesterday confirming that the city will be deemed ineligible for the grant, due to the project's shift in focus from a jail to a mental-health facility. As a result, his department plans to officially turn down the funds.
BoS President London Breed led the charge to amend the original legislation, allowing the city to continue ahead with purchasing the $14.5 million of jail land adjacent to the Hall of Justice, in the hopes of constructing the mental-health facility there. Yesterday, she told the Chron that she and the board did not know whether the $80 million could be used for an alternative at the time of the vote.
Supervisor Mark Farrell, on the other hand, isn't happy about leaving $80 million on the table. He called the decision a "mistake ... ultimately, we are going to need to build a new jail."
