Pilot Plan Seeks Dignity at a Low Cost : Women’s Shelter to Try Mobile Homes

Officials of a chronically crowded shelter for homeless women hope to use mobile homes to create space for dozens of new beds, and architects say their plan to link trailers “like so many Lego blocks” could serve as a national model.

“Our plan provides essential shelter, sanitation, supervision and security,” said Merrill Budlong of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “We intend to show that there can be dignity for the homeless at a relatively low cost.”

The executive board of St. Anthony’s Foundation, which operates the women’s shelter, has agreed to try the plan as a pilot program, using a neighboring parking lot to be leased by the foundation.

Many Turned Away

There, 40 to 48 women will be housed in trailers overseen by the shelter, where every night women line up for showers, hot meals and mats to sleep on--and where, usually, many are turned away.

In San Francisco, an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people are homeless each night, according to Seamus Kilty, St. Anthony’s executive director. Of that number, 700 to 1,500 are children, said Maureen Gammon of the Larkin Street Youth Center.

Community shelters can accommodate about 300 people, and 2,500 more can be housed through a city-run hotel program, Kilty said.

“It’s a fact that the numbers are increasing and the people who are providing shelter are turning people away,” he said. A study by Public Advocates Inc., a San Francisco-based, public interest law group, estimated that only 6% of area homeless people can find beds in the shelter system.

At Least a Start

Even if a mobile shelter program won’t solve the problem, it’s a start, supporters said.

“It would be an appropriate alternative to the use of the homeless motels, which is very costly and isn’t accomplishing very much,” said Jean Mariani, aide to Supervisor Nancy Walker, who has been involved in discussions about the plan with city officials.

According to Robert Herman of the architects group, a portable shelter would have an average life of 10 years.

Even if moved six times in that period, he said its cost has been estimated at $2.25 per night per person, compared to an average of $10 a night in a city-sponsored hotel.

A shelter for 48 people would cost about $125,000 and relocation would run $7,000, the group said.

Not Shelter but Housing

Rotea Gilford of the Mayor’s Office said a planning council that advises Mayor Dianne Feinstein on homeless issues believes the plan at St. Anthony’s, however worthy, is another in a string of temporary proposals to a longstanding problem.

“We’ve created an institution of people who think of themselves only as homeless,” Gilford said. “We have to get away from the notion that we’re providing shelter, and move to the notion that we’re providing housing instead.”

David Burness of the architects group said that while architects realize structures alone can’t solve the homeless problem, advantages include being able to erect the structures at temporarily vacant sites and then relocate them easily and cheaply.

Land Costs Avoided

This allows shelter operators to avoid expensive land costs and neighborhood opposition that could surface with a permanent site.

Herman said local architects brainstormed about the homeless problem and decided to use trailers and “try to assemble them like so many Lego blocks in a site plan that would accommodate the needs of the homeless.”

Plans call for shelters that can be expanded to house 40 to 80 people, with restrooms, staff offices and a small courtyard, but no cooking areas.

Shelters would include reception areas so that homeless people could come in from the streets at times when the rest of the shelter was being cleaned or closed.

Plans call for an attractive facade--murals or architectural trim--and a fence at the property line to provide privacy and appease neighbors.

Dignity for Homeless

“Some people worry about the scheme being too enclosed and out-of-sight, but we don’t see it that way at all,” Herman said. “To the contrary, I think it increases the dignity of the homeless to have some turf of their own.”

According to Herman, mobile homes are regulated by state codes.

Kilty said the plan is feasible as a halfway step between present day shelters and permanent housing.

A trailer complex near the St. Anthony women’s shelter and dining room would be an improvement, said Kevin Kennedy, director of the shelter and related services.

Women now sleep on the floors and are awakened at 5 a.m. to file out and make room for newcomers ready for the next program.

“Basically,” he said, “it would be an alternative to warehousing people. They would have their own beds.”

Start in Four Months

Herman said the architects group and St. Anthony’s are close to an agreement with the owner and lessee of the private parking lot and hope to start the pilot project within four months. The architects will solicit bids for the mobile homes to deed to St. Anthony’s, then acquire necessary city permits.

St. Anthony’s executive board has agreed to put $75,000 toward the project. The Architectural Foundation of Northern California seeks donations from designers and builders, among others, for construction costs for the demonstration project.

“In some ways it is a cosmetic approach, but it’s needed,” said Gammon of the Larkin Youth Center. “It’s better than nothing.”