Supes approve navigation center lease, require victim data from police

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took up two substantial issues at their Tuesday meeting: lease approval for a new navigation center and victim data reporting.

Supervisors Tuesday approved a lease agreement for a property at 888 Post St. to house The City’s first navigation center for transitional aged youth homeless individuals.

The board approved a 20-year $49 million lease agreement with the landlord of 888 Post St. to transform the vacant building in District 3 into a 75-bed center for individuals between the ages of 18 and 24.

Since 2015, the low-barrier, high service homeless shelter model has been a successful path to sheltering homeless individuals and pairing them with supportive services with the goal of eventually finding permanent or supportive housing.

San Francisco already operates seven navigation centers — the latest one opened along the Embarcadero last December.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3, said The City will continue to be engaged with the community as the new navigation center comes online at the end of the year.

Peskin said:

“I’ve brought detractors to existing navigation centers. Mostly won their hearts and minds. We’ve held community meetings across the district with cumulatively with hundreds of residents and community stakeholders.”

The City has plans to open another navigation center at 33 Gough St. The board’s Budget and Finance Committee will vote on the lease agreement for the Gough Street site on Wednesday.

Supervisors also Tuesday unanimously passed legislation requiring the San Francisco Police Department to begin quarterly reporting of crime victim data.

Supporters say the data will help city officials determine crime trends, identify needed resources.

Police will report crime locations and victim data, such as race, gender and age. Specific crimes reported will include assault, aggravated assault, child and elder abuse, sexual assault, first and second degree burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, robbery, battery, vandalism, domestic violence, manslaughter and murder.

Supervisor Gordon Mar, who sponsored the legislation, said the proposal stemmed from an earlier board hearing focused on the growing fear that Asians, especially the elderly, are being targeted.

Mar said at a press conference before the board’s vote:

“This new information will help our public safety agencies, help policy makers and the general public to better understand crime trends and more specifically which communities or demographics groups are most impacted by certain type of crimes.”

The supervisor addressed the recent attack of an elderly man in the Bayview caught on a now viral video.

Mar said:

“The racially fueled attacked of a Chinese man collecting recyclables in Hunter Point this weekend is just the latest in a continual series of high-profile crime incidents targeting Chinese community members in Chinatown, southeast neighborhoods and in the Sunset District.”

District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who supports the legislation, said it is essential that policies and resources be guided by data.

Boudin said:

“We can’t do that without more transparency, more reporting and clearer understanding of who and where crimes are impacting.”

Marlene Tran, representing the Visitacion Valley Asian Alliance, said crimes again non-English speaking residents is nothing new.

Tran said it was common in the 1980s that non-English speaking victims did not report crimes to police due to language barriers.

A number of organizations support the legislation, including the Jewish Relations Council, Alice Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and Stop Crime.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.