Homeless respite center opens as shelters shut
Mayor Gavin Newsom stood in the flower garden of a gleaming new $4.4 million medical respite center in the South of Market district on Wednesday morning to herald the 45 beds where homeless people newly released from San Francisco General Hospital can recuperate instead of returning to the streets.
Hours before, 820 homeless people were turned out of three nearby shelters. The shelters had provided round-the-clock respite, but starting Wednesday, the first day of the new fiscal year, they were shut between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. under Newsom's budget for a total savings of about $450,000.
The irony illustrates both the budget battle's real-life stakes and the bizarre annual ritual in which Newsom's proposed budget includes cuts he says he hopes the Board of Supervisors restores - but which go into effect on July 1 before that can happen.
On Wednesday night, the shelter cuts were reversed by the board and mayor, but not before tremendous anxiety for those who rely on the services. It's unclear how quickly the shelters can reopen to their 24-hour capacity.
"I just can't believe this is happening - it's unreal. How can they put people out like that?" said Michelle Richardson, 46, who has lived for eight months at Sanctuary, a shelter on Eighth Street run by Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco.
She has lung disease and bad asthma and carried a plug-in portable breathing machine as she looked for a socket at City Hall.
More here-
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/02/BA8N18HJ9O.DTL&type=health
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