A mass deployment is planned this morning to move perhaps 300 homeless residents off the streets of the Tenderloin and into unused hotel rooms, according to multiple city sources.
DPH workers on the scene told Mission Local that they did not know how many hotel rooms would be used and that they were surveying the situation on the streets. They will get started, they said, once they know how many hotel rooms are available. As of June 10, the city reported 308 hotel rooms set aside for homeless and vulnerable populations were unused.
In early May, the city came up with a new plan to deal with the sharp increase in the number of tents in the Tenderloin. That plan was criticized as too little too late —and today’s action comes on the very day Supervisor Matt Haney is holding a hearing on its progress.
Haney said nobody informed him of today’s activities.
The “Tenderloin Plan” was to first focus on 13 blocks with 159 tents, 32 encampments, and 153 individuals, according to an April 22 count that measured the increase since January. Six of those 13 blocks had no homeless services. The April count showed a 71 percent increase in tents citywide and a 285 percent jump in the Tenderloin to 268 tents “including 18 sites with 6 or more tents and structures.”
So far the city has opened three new safe sleeping sites including a new one on Monday at Everett Middle School.
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