The last few days of severe El Niño weather prompted San Francisco's Human Services Agency to open a pop-up shelter space for homeless adults at Golden Gate Park's County Fair Building/Hall of Flowers over the weekend.
Approximately 45 people stayed at the building (which had enough cots for 100 guests) over the weekend. It was one of seven temporary shelters operated by the HSA and community organizations around the city.
In response to El Niño, Mayor Ed Lee had previously authorized HSA to create up to 1,000 shelter beds "when rain, temperature and winds get bad enough," according to an agency site. The program will continue through March 31st.
"Normally, we have shelters that are closer to center city that we prefer to use, but they weren't available to us," said Ben Amyes, HSA's disaster response manager. To shuttle guests out to 9th & Lincoln, officials used Muni buses, which left from a drop-in center at 5th & Bryant; they also shuttled other homeless people to an HSA shelter at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
Approximately 16 to 18 clients used the shuttles, which brought them back to the 5th & Bryant drop-in center this morning.
"The Hall of Flowers was available to us because Park and Rec is one of our partner agencies," said Amyes. "That particular weekend, that's what they had available. If we had multiple options, it would not be our first choice."
Glide Church, Larkin Youth Street Services, Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, Providence Foundation and First Friendship also added temporary shelter spaces in response to the storm.
"It's a really low-threshold system," said Amyes. "We have mats on the floor, blankets, comfort kits, three meals a day and restrooms, but other than that, not a lot that we have to offer folks." The MSC-South shelter on 5th Street, on the other hand, shelters 410 people each day. "We have a small cache of supplies," Amyes said.
While the large room inside the County Fair Building/Hall of Flowers may not be an ideal location for a pop-up shelter, Amyes said it could be used again in the future. The Upper Haight's Homeless Youth Alliance and Haight Street Referrals provide homeless services, but the Inner Sunset lacks any city or community organizations devoted to homeless people.
At the intersection of 9th & Lincoln, we asked a shelter guest keeping his cigarette dry under a rain poncho what he thought of the accommodations. "It's indoors," he said, shrugging.
Thanks to David E. for the reader tip.
