SF Chronicle | Embarcadero’s New Homeless Navigation Center a Compassionate Work of Design

Excerpt from San Francisco Chronicle, by John King.
See full article here.

“San Francisco has opened 10 Navigation Centers since 2015. Their purpose is to provide round-the-clock refuge for homeless men or women who have been evaluated by outreach workers beforehand. Along with beds and storage space, there are social services to, ideally, transition clients into stable living situations.

The newest center isn't only the biggest, with 200 beds, it's by far the most visible -- three rounded fabric tents rising along the Embarcadero at Beale Street just south of the Bay Bridge. Thirty residents have moved in so far. 

You enter beneath a smart-looking canopy that extends near to the Embarcadero sidewalk, a tilted screen of corrugated polycarbonate atop wooden beams. The door doesn't open without a punch code and the OK from someone inside who can see visitors via a remote camera…”

Photos: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle