Homeless Shelters That Prioritize ‘the Three Ps’ - Especially Privacy

New York Times
August 29, 2024

Even before the pandemic, some large homeless shelters in and around San Francisco were not cutting it.

The dormlike settings offered no privacy, no room for possessions and no place for pets — “the three Ps,” said Charles F. Bloszies, an architect and engineer whose namesake firm worked on the Embarcadero Navigation Center in San Francisco and other congregate facilities in Northern California.

Another drawback was that essential services were often located elsewhere, so that someone who did spend a night in a shelter often had to take a bus or subway to a clinic or government office and might decide not to complete the trip, instead falling back into life on the street.

The upshot was that many people in need stayed away or would not stick around long enough to get their lives back on track.

“We had more homeless on our streets than in our shelters,” said Mike Callagy, the executive of San Mateo County, an affluent area south of San Francisco.

…

By the time the San Mateo County Navigation Center got underway the same year, on a 2½-acre county-owned site in Redwood City, Mr. Bloszies’s team had figured out how to stack the modules and zip them together to form what resemble clean-lined, Modernist low-rise apartment buildings. The complex, which took a little over a year to complete, has 240 units — 72 for individuals and couples with shared baths and 168 with en suite bathrooms.

“If we’re going to attract people off the street we wanted to give a dignified way to live,” Mr. Callagy said.

The complex cost about $57 million, including $46 million in funding from the state’s Homekey program…

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