By Bruce Allison and Thornton Kimes

San Francisco has a “Housing First” policy. The (very extended) Patel


family, which owns the vast majority of SRO hotel (Single Room


Occupancy: a.k.a. Poor People Housing) properties in the city, is


spitting in our faces by leaving SRO’s vacant for years. There is one


in the Mission (22nd and Mission, above the Ritmo music store, with 40


units), and one in SOMA—the already earthquake code-improved 100-200


unit four-story Chronicle Hotel (across the street from the


newspaper!) and the retail space under it.

Housing in the city translates into money spent in the city, including


jobs for people staffing SRO hotels; of course, getting the empty


Patel spaces clean and useable as living spaces would also generate


those oh-so-wonderful short-term (a.k.a. temporary) jobs the “job


creators” love to talk about (contractor stuff, construction…) too.

The SRO in the Mission only needs $500,000 (current costs) to be


returned to service. The electrical wiring is up to code. Sinks and


bathrooms would need to be installed. The SOMA space, abandoned for 20


years, used to have a blood plasma donation center on the ground


floor. Bruce and Thornton remember it well. A lot more money would


need to be sunk into it to make it liveable.

City services, funded by local, state, and federal taxes, would not be


strained by an effort made to maximize housing for poor people, the


tax base would be improved by it. This modest proposal would take


approximately 200 people off the streets. More would be better.