A Tiny Dwelling Village on the Cow Palace? SF Supervisor’s Plan Has Hurdles

The Cow Palace—a longtime house for rodeos, livestock expos and even controversial gun exhibits—is now being thought of for a complete new function: an RV and tiny house village for unsheltered folks in San Francisco.

Supervisor Joel Engardio, who represents the Sundown District, pitched the thought in a June 4 weblog submit, saying he desires to transform untapped parking area on the Cow Palace into a spot to supply “shelter, sanitation, and behavioral well being companies.” The proposal comes as San Francisco is preventing a court docket order that bars town from clearing road encampments so long as the variety of unhoused folks exceeds the variety of obtainable shelter beds.

READ MORE: Courtroom Order Blocking Homeless Sweeps Leaves Residents, Metropolis Staff in Ambiguity

“We are able to’t afford to attend,” Engardio instructed The Normal in an electronic mail. “Let’s take daring motion and create the shelter we want for a number of thousand homeless folks and make the injunction moot.”

San Francisco’s intractable homelessness disaster has dialed up the strain on town to construct extra housing. Below a state mandate, town must construct 82,000 new properties by 2031. Engardio’s proposal can be the most recent installment of RV parking and tiny properties initiatives in San Francisco aimed toward stemming the housing disaster. Nonetheless, particulars across the housing proposal are murky and a supervisor representing Daly Metropolis has criticized Engardio for spitballing the thought in his weblog earlier than reaching out to neighboring officers in San Mateo County.

Engardio mentioned his concept for the Cow Palace continues to be preliminary, however he plans to work with fellow San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí to deliver state officers into the fold. Different key gamers would come with the Cow Palace’s board of administrators and officers in San Mateo County, as the vast majority of the venue’s 15-acre car parking zone sits on the opposite aspect of the county border.

San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa mentioned he has not been approached by Engardio about constructing housing at Cow Palace, however he criticized the San Francisco supervisor for publishing the thought in a weblog submit with out contacting him first. He additionally famous that such a venture would require state funding and collaboration throughout a number of companies. 

“It’s handy to be a District 4 supervisor after which ship [homeless people] to Daly Metropolis,” Canepa mentioned. “It’s not collaborative.”

Nonetheless, he added that he was “greater than prepared” to fulfill with Engardio to discover placing housing on the Cow Palace.

Allison Keaney, CEO of the Cow Palace, mentioned she had not been approached about any proposal of tiny properties or RV parking on the venue and declined to debate whether or not a brand new housing village was viable. However this isn’t the primary time the Cow Palace has been pitched for housing.

“There have been discussions across the growth and the shift of property,” Keaney mentioned.

San Francisco’s Metropolis Legal professional’s Workplace, which is interesting the court docket order barring the clearing of homeless encampments, declined to touch upon the feasibility of RV parking or tiny properties at Cow Palace.

Tiny properties initiatives have sprung up round San Francisco lately, and so they’re meant to function momentary residences the place previously unhoused folks can stay as they acquire employment—and, in some circumstances, take care of substance abuse points—earlier than shifting into everlasting housing.

Nonetheless, tiny properties may be expensive to construct in San Francisco and ceaselessly face opposition from neighboring residents.

READ MORE: Constructing Tiny Properties a Gigantic Job in Damaged San Francisco

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, whose district is subsequent to Cow Palace, mentioned he spoke with Engardio concerning the plan and helps it, together with increasing tiny properties throughout town.

“We needs to be spreading these throughout San Francisco,” Safaí mentioned in a telephone interview. “They’ve been an amazing success.”

Officers for town’s Division of Homelessness and Supportive Housing mentioned they broadly help RV parking and tiny properties initiatives, and Mayor London Breed’s proposed funds would fund an present Car Triage Middle at Candlestick Level to create roughly 600 new shelter beds.

Cow Palace opened in 1941, however its roots date again to 1915, when enterprise leaders noticed the recognition of the livestock exposition on the Pan-Pacific Worldwide Exposition that yr. They resolved to construct a everlasting construction for such occasions, in keeping with the Cow Palace’s web site.

In 2019, state Sen. Scott Wiener launched Senate Invoice 281, which might have transferred authority over Cow Palace from the California Division of Meals and Agriculture Division of Festivals and Expositions to a joint powers authority consisting of San Francisco, Daly Metropolis and San Mateo County. This regional group would have been charged with redeveloping the positioning into housing and industrial area, however the invoice finally died.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger additionally tried to promote Cow Palace in 2009 together with different state-owned properties, together with San Quentin State Penitentiary and Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, to lift cash for the cash-strapped state throughout the recession, however the proposal by no means went via.

Regardless of being within the early phases, Engardio stays hopeful about reinventing the area surrounding the Cow Palace.

“That is an concept that may require plenty of negotiation, and it is simply the beginning of an concept,” Engardio mentioned. “However it’s price making an attempt.”