Dear Mayor Daniel Lurie, Kunal Modi, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
The lease for the 711 Post Street homeless shelter expires March 31st 2026. As the City considers next steps and seeks a new nonprofit operator for this approximately 280-bed facility, we urge you to take this critical opportunity to permanently close the shelter at this location.
A change in operator will not resolve the underlying problems. The core issue is not management style or nonprofit capacity; it is the scale and concentration of homeless shelters on Post Street, housing hundreds of individuals—many with acute substance use disorders—in a dense residential and tourist neighborhood. That reality has produced predictable and persistent consequences that no operator change can cure.
Since the shelter opened, the surrounding blocks have experienced a documented increase in open drug dealing, drug use, assaults, and shootings. Residents routinely encounter individuals in visible mental health crisis on sidewalks and near homes and businesses. Drug dealers are drawn to the area because of the high concentration of vulnerable individuals, and their presence has fundamentally altered daily life in the neighborhood. These conditions have persisted for years, underscoring that the problem is structural—not operational.
The City imposed this shelter on the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood over strong community objections. The neighborhood has already absorbed far more than its fair share of services. There are currently three homeless shelters within a three-block radius, with a fourth men-only shelter of more than 70 beds scheduled to open at 627 Post Street later this year. As a result, there will soon be homeless shelters on the 500, 600, 700, and 800 blocks of Post Street. No residential neighborhood can survive this level of concentration, and Lower Nob Hill is now in crisis. This density of services is neither equitable nor sustainable. It has strained public safety resources, depressed property values, and contributed to deteriorating street conditions, despite the best efforts of individual service providers.
City leaders rightly emphasize revitalizing downtown and restoring tourism and economic vitality. Those goals cannot be achieved while adjacent residential streets are overwhelmed by the impacts of an oversized shelter that concentrates addiction, untreated mental illness, and criminal activity in a single location. Closing the 711 Post Street shelter would be a meaningful step toward restoring balance, safety, and livability for Lower Nob Hill—while allowing this site to return to a use that supports jobs, tourism, and tax revenue.
This is a moment of choice. Revamping the shelter with a new operator will only perpetuate the same harms. We urge you not to renew the lease for the 711 Post Street shelter when it expires. Please listen to the weary residents who have borne these impacts for years and demonstrate a commitment to equity, public safety, neighborhood stability, and responsible planning by closing this facility permanently.
We respectfully request your immediate attention and decisive action.
Thank you.