Tenderloin hotel to officially become a permanent shelter
SAN FRANCISCO - A hotel in San Francisco that acted as an emergency shelter during the pandemic was on the verge of shutting down and being placed on the private market. After months of community advocacy, it will now permanently serve as a safe place for San Francisco women and families experiencing homelessness.
On Tuesday, the Tenderloin-based service center St. Anthony Foundation announced its plans to step in and purchase Oasis Inn so families residing in its 59 hotel rooms would not have to move out.
St. Anthony's considers the acquisition of 900 Franklin St. to be a major expansion in its commitment to providing stability for San Franciscans in need. Under the operations of the Providence Foundation of San Francisco, the hotel will continue to provide private rooms for over 300 women and children a year, including survivors of domestic violence.
"This is a game-changer for our community's most vulnerable families and St. Anthony's," said Nils Behnke, CEO of the St. Anthony Foundation.
"We are blessed to be able to provide a healing place of refuge for many families as they develop the skills and strength within to build stable, thriving lives," Behnke added.
St. Anthony's leadership envisions the space to be a "sanctuary" for women to create a fresh start, and plans to couple Providence's case management services with supplemental services like medical care, mental health treatment, childcare and life management skills.
For two years, Oasis Inn served as a temporary shelter for families and women experiencing homelessness. It was considered a model for the city's shelter-in-place hotel program in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hotel was part of a pilot project launched by Supervisor Dean Preston in March 2020 to quickly move people from congregate shelters to vacant hotel rooms as city-wide COVID-19 lockdowns were in place. Within days, his office and community partners like Providence raised over $100,000 and placed domestic abuse survivors, seniors and those with underlying health issues in vacant rooms. The city eventually took over operations at the Oasis, along with dozens of other tourist hotels.
But in 2022, the hotel's owners said that they intended to privately sell the property, and all occupants would have to vacate the property by January 2023.
The decision prompted Preston, who represents the neighborhood containing the Oasis, to convene stakeholders and issue a formal request in October 2022 for the city to acquire the property.
Simultaneously, the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing began moving families out of the hotel, according to Preston's office. The move prompted the Coalition on Homelessness and other housing advocates to organize multiple rallies and demand that the property goes to the city or a nonprofit.
City supervisors expressed similar demands when they unanimously passed a resolution In December 2022, which urged the city's homeless department and Mayor London Breed to ensure the hotel would be acquired by an owner who would sustain its operations.
The Oasis remained closed for four months despite community outcry. This April, Oasis ownership agreed to a six-month lease with the city that permitted families to use the facilities as negotiations were underway -- which is when St. Anthony's stepped in.
Breed thanked city staff for working closely with St. Anthony's and Providence to secure the property for the long-term as the city works to expand shelter and housing access around San Francisco.
"This partnership between the city and our local nonprofits shows what we can accomplish when we work together to address homelessness by focusing on solutions," Breed said.
Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director at the Coalition on Homelessness, said the efforts to save Oasis was largely a "labor of love" initiated by homeless and formerly homeless mothers, parents and children who stayed at the shelter. Together, unhoused families and Preston formed an "unstoppable alliance," she said.
"They banded together, got creative, stood up and spoke out, having protests, organizing hearings, writing letters to the owners, taking out advertisements," she said.
Yaasmeen Williams, a former resident of Oasis, said that for many families, the hotel is "the last option" and a "safe haven."
"This shelter is one of many first steps toward our liberation from a life destined for many unhoused people and has provided the means to protect us from the people who shielded our abusers," Williams said. "Without this shelter, we'd have nowhere to go and I'm confident that there are thousands who can relate."
Preston considered the acquisition a victory that took three years in the making, and a lesson that the community can help people in need with enough determination and compassion.
"This is what it looks like when community comes together to solve a crisis," Preston said. "To the hundreds of people who contributed to our GoFundMe campaign, to the dedicated staff at Providence Foundation for operating the Oasis, to the countless people who stood up and spoke out with and for the women and families who call the Oasis their home, and to the brave unhoused families who shared their stories, I can't thank you enough."
