San Francisco

Construction on Embarcadero Navigation Center to Continue After Judge Denies Injunction

Construction on the controversial San Francisco Embarcadero navigation center can continue after a San Francisco Superior Court judge denied a call to temporarily halt construction of the 200-bed facility.

Residents who oppose the navigation center filed a lawsuit requesting a stay and injunction to stop the city from building the temporary shelter for homeless. The group who filed the lawsuit, Safe Embarcadero for All, claims the city failed to seek necessary approval from the State Land Commission.

"In addition, the city, in its rush to approve the project, broke other rules by bypassing the California Environmental Quality Act, giving itself a sweetheart lease at a below market rate, and failing to follow its own land use laws," Safe Embarcadero for All said in a statement.

Residents who oppose the navigation center also said it will increase the number of homeless in the area, leading to more drug use, crime and filthy streets.

Safe Embarcadero for All points to a video of a woman being attacked as she tried to enter her Embarcadero area apartment building.

Mayor London Breed and the supervisor of the district both want the navigation center to open.

If it opens, the shelter would operate for a couple of years while the city prepares the way for a permanent use of the property, and the supervisor of District 6 says the navigation center is needed.

"The alternative that we leave these people on the street, we push them from block-to-block -- that's absolutely not a solution," San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney previously said.

Haney's district already has one navigation center at 5th and Bryant streets, a little over a mile from the Embarcadero site. Eight of the city's 11 districts have no homeless shelters.

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