NEWS RELEASES
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through SF Examiner's website.
The city of San Francisco opened the city's first Vehicle Triage Center near the Balboa Park BART station. The site will provide 30 parking spaces with security, lighting, bathrooms, shower facilities, drinking water and blackwater pumping services, and serves as a navigation center for those living in vehicles. City workers will conduct assessments and help those living there gain access to services and work to help get them permanent housing. Examiner staff explain in their article, "The city-owned site at 2340 San Jose Ave. is eventually destined to be used for affordable housing. However Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Vallie Brown introduced legislation to create the parking site after a move by Safai to clear RVs off a street in his district met with opposition from advocates who noted The City had few places for the hundreds of people housed in vehicles to go." The Vehicle Triage Center provides a place for those living in RVs or living in their cars, regular access to the restroom and other basic services. The city will try to have the program grow and replicated in other parts of San Francisco. For more information on the Vehicle Triage Center, click here.