A New Lease In Life For Former America's Cup Warehouses

[Carl Spackler]

Hard to pan handle way out at Pier 80, how are they supposed to get money?

[Photoboy]

Piers 80 in the Dogpatch which was home for Oracle Team USA and Piers 27/29 Which hosed the ACEA during the last America's Cup Cycle are both being used as temporary housing for the homeless during the 2 week Superbowl Cycle which begins this weekend as San Francisco's waterfront transforms into "Superbowl City". Not wanting to have the homeless, which make the waterfront their home as an eyesore, the Superbowl 50 host committee, along with the City of San Francisco along with the SF Port Authority have leveraged the old warehouses as temporary shelters for the less fortunate. One assumes that once the Superbowl is over, the shelters will close and the homeless can resume life back on the streets.






SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The question of how San Francisco would handle the homeless during Super Bowl 50 festivities has been a point of speculation, but on Thursday officials unveiled a new temporary shelter that is nearly set to open.

Ironically, the site is connected to another recent major, and at times controversial, sporting event that took place in the city.

Last summer, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee made his intentions clear when it came to what the city would do about the homeless population during Super Bowl 50.

“You’re gonna have to leave, said Mayor Lee. We’ll give you an alternative — we’re always gonna be supportive — but you’re gonna have to leave the streets.”

It doesn’t look like the most welcoming place, but city officials are hoping 150 homeless will be willing to call the hangar at Pier 27/29 that once housed America’s Cup Team USA home, at least temporarily.

The space is tentatively set to open next week.

The 10,000-square-foot tent is tucked away inside the hangar, hidden in an industrial part of the city that is out of sight from tourists visiting for the Super Bowl.

“By having this tent here we think we can get more people to take us up on our offer to come indoors get out of the wet weather,” said Director of Human Services Trent Rohrer.

Rohrer maintains the timing of the shelter’s opening is purely coincidental.

“Well, I think folks would say, ‘What’s the timing of El Nino?’ El Nino is in winter time. Super Bowl is in winter time,” said Rohrer.

The city is waiting on the San Francisco Fire Department and building inspectors permits before it can open. Officials are hoping that will happen by the end of next week.

But the shelter isn’t in a heavily populated part of the city. Even fewer homeless are in the area.

When asked if he thought anyone would go to the shelter, homeless San Francisco resident Rolf Stagg was unsure.

“It’s too far out. I don’t think so. Not from here. These people here will not go there,” said Stagg.

Human Services says the location is circumstantial and not an effort to cover up of the city’s unsavory homeless problem. The pier is one of the few places big enough to house it without conflicting occupancy.

It is stocked with hygiene kits, beds and other supplies.

But whether the homeless will come to fill it has yet to be seen.

“I’m not going to go,” said Stagg. “I will go up here or down there; clear out of this area.”

Officials say they will rely on outreach efforts, police and nonprofits to help spur people to come to the shelter. The Department of Human Services says they will have to keep the barbed wire up around the shelter because the port requires a higher level of security

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Amid the raindrops of recent El Niño rainstorms, San Francisco officials have been scrambling to add temporary shelters to house the city's homeless population.

The most dramatic offering is at Pier 80, which this week is transforming into a 150-bed shelter under a temporary tent. Officials say they've been gradually increasing the number of temporary beds around the city, and have added about 500 beds to the year-round stock of 1,233.

signs are appearing around the city, there's a debate over which major event is spurring the change. In August, Mayor Ed Lee said the homeless "are going to have to leave" for the Super Bowl.


"We'll give you an alternative," Lee said in August. "We are always going to be supportive. But you are going to have to leave the street. Not just because it is illegal, but because it is dangerous."

So, is Pier 80 that alternative? Homeless officials insist not.

"The urgency to get people inside is driven only by El Niño, period," said Trent Rhorer, head of the Human Services Agency. "If anyone’s moving anyone out for the Super Bowl, I don’t know about it."

See more about the Pier 80 shelter and what the city is doing to help the homeless in the San Francisco Chronicle story about this issue by clicking here.

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