SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Tent encampments, called "Safe Sleeping Villages," first popped up in San Francisco in 2020 as part of the emergency pandemic response, but the first very visible site at Civic Center has now been packed up.
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As the pandemic moves into a different stage more than two years in, it's a bit up in the air how safe sleeping sites will continue as part of the city's overall response to homelessness.
When the site at Civic Center opened in 2020, KCBS Radio was given a tour.
"This is just the raw, uncut first version," Dr. Lena Miller, CEO of nonprofit Urban Alchemy, which ran the site, told the station at the time.
The first version of its kind in the city, the site was a bit of an experiment.
"I think it went pretty well," said Miller.
One indication of the project's success is that once the tents were packed up, 57 out of about 150 of the site’s residents moved into permanent housing.
"That's a pretty high number," she said. "It's over 30% going into housing."
City officials agree.
"Not only was it a safe place to be off of city streets, but also connected them, put them on the pathway into permanent housing," said Emily Cohen, spokesperson for the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. "And that likely wouldn’t have happened otherwise."
"It's much harder to move someone into permanent housing from the streets than from a program," she said.
Additionally, no one from the site returned to staying on the streets after the project wrapped up.
The sites themselves are expensive to run, costing about $200 a tent per night.
But they provide an important alternative to other forms of housing that those experiencing homelessness might be less willing to try.
"If cities are going to be successful – in moving people from living on the streets in these rough conditions – then you have to have places that fit people’s immediate needs," said Miller.
While the Civic Center site may be gone, some of the city's smaller operations will likely remain as part of the larger strategy on homelessness.
"Safe sleep has a small but important role within our system of care," said Cohen.
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