California and the West : Homeless Shelter Closing to Make Room for Cars : San Francisco: Options dwindle as temporary facility gives way to 5,000 parking spaces at new stadium.

Two of San Francisco’s most intractable problems, parking and homelessness, crossed paths last week as the city’s largest homeless shelter prepared to close its doors.

On Sept. 15, the property housing the Mission Rock shelter will be returned to the San Francisco Giants and converted to a 5,000-space parking lot for the team’s new stadium, Pacific Bell Park.

Community activists say that the closing could displace as many as 600 people, and put greater strain on a city that has the nation’s third-largest homeless population.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who is campaigning for reelection in November, has been struggling for a solution. Some of his critics question whether the mayor is putting parking over people.

“It’s not as simple as that,” said George Smith, the mayor’s coordinator on homelessness. “We’ve known all along that Mission Rock was a temporary shelter, built on land the city didn’t own. Now it’s time to give it back.”

The shelter, a tattered warehouse on the city’s northeast edge, was created in February 1998, when the wind and rain stirred up by El Nino sent hundreds of homeless people looking for refuge.

Since then, the homeless and some activists have complained that Mission Rock lacks such basics as heat and hot water. But that did not keep people away. With as many as 15,000 San Franciscans without housing on any given night, the shelter usually was packed well beyond its 400-person capacity, said Paul Boden, director of the Coalition on Homelessness.

Efforts by the mayor’s office to find a suitable replacement for Mission Rock have run aground. In August, a proposal for a 300- to 400-bed facility in a section of Potrero Hill called Dogpatch was all but shouted down by angry residents and community activists.

With less than a week left, the city has few options other than to rely on existing facilities.

City officials have arranged for 150 apartments and hotel rooms for those who are displaced from Mission Rock and rents are capped at $450 a month. Those who qualify will pay $300 a month, with the city paying the rest.

Even so, the rooms are expensive for those living on Social Security payments or other federal funds. As of last week, fewer than 40 rooms had been rented.

Caseworkers also are referring Mission Rock residents to other shelters, transitional homes and drug and alcohol treatment centers. As of last week about 100 people remained at the shelter.

But advocates for the homeless fear that most people are simply returning to the streets.

“They’re bringing down the numbers, to match the rooms they managed to hustle up,” Boden said. “That way on the 15th, the city can say, ‘Look, we took care of all the people who stayed there.’

“They know it’s nearly impossible to track people once they’re back on the street.”

According to Boden, whose coalition visits all of the city’s homeless shelters on a weekly basis, waiting lists at other facilities are already much too long. It sometimes takes more than a year to get a bed at a transitional housing facility. And, Boden said, the list at residential drug and alcohol treatment centers has more than 1,200 names.

“There is definitely a problem meeting the demand for treatment,” said Jim Stillwell, interim director of community substance abuse services at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health.

“We can’t guarantee that everybody will find a place,” said Janet Goy, deputy director of Community Awareness and Treatment Services, the organization that runs Mission Rock and several other San Francisco shelters. “But we are doing everything that can be done to at least make them aware of their options.”

Russell Parrent, 53, who stayed at Mission Rock until last week, said the shelter staff was pushing people out.

“They shipped us out like rats on a ship,” said Parrent, who has been homeless for nearly three years. “They’re kicking people out before they even get a referral. They told us to be out by 5 p.m. or they were going to call the cops.”

Mission Rock Director David Lee did not return repeated calls seeking comment last week. But Goy said the shelter staff has been adhering to directives given by the mayor’s office.

Parrent, a Vietnam veteran who receives federal veterans benefits, said he has secured a room at another facility for at least a week, and is hoping for a slot to open up at a three-month transitional home, which would cost $125 a month.

“A lot of people here are much worse off than me,” he said. “They have no idea where to go.”

That included David Velasco, 49, who has no income and as of last week was considering sleeping on the street downtown.

“The mayor makes a lot of promises,” said Velasco, who was on crutches after breaking his leg. “But in the end, he’s going to support the stadium because it brings in money. Homeless people only cost money.”