'It's getting worse': Why Tenderloin businesses worry about a new S.F. homeless intervention in their midst
Originally Published: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/tenderloin-little-saigon-homeless-18601130.php
A half-dozen boarded up storefronts mar the two-block stretch of Little Saigon in the Tenderloin. Once a thriving commercial strip of immigrant-run businesses in the struggling neighborhood, Little Saigon has fallen on tough times.
Now, business owners there say the situation could get much worse.
In February, the San Francisco Community Health Clinic is expected to open a drop-in health and resource center at 645 Larkin St. — the former storefront of Turtle Tower, a longtime Vietnamese restaurant that shuttered last year. The city’s Department of Public Health has entered into a $1 million contract with the Community Health Clinic to provide health services to housed and unhoused Tenderloin residents.
But business owners are fighting back. The Tenderloin Business Coalition expects to meet Thursday with representatives from the nonprofit and city officials in hopes of addressing what they see as a threat to their viability.
“Business is already very bad right now because of the street conditions,” said Tommy Huynh, owner of Larkin Restaurant. “I hope they would put it somewhere else.”
The city’s Tenderloin neighborhood has been at the center of the city’s homelessness and drug epidemic for decades, but conditions worsened during the pandemic. Mayor London Breed in 2021 declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin, and since then, law enforcement has cracked down on the open-air drug market. Yet tents are still scattered across the sidewalks and fatal overdoses last year reached a historic level as Breed heads into a reelection campaign with several challengers.
The site on Larkin Street, referred to as the Community Living Room, is expected to serve approximately 100 people a day with showers, meals, a washer and dryer, as well as a space for clients to meet with case managers and community health workers.
The nonprofit and city’s homelessness department see the new site as an opportunity to stabilize more people living in the Tenderloin and connect them to care, especially unhoused individuals. But business owners in Little Saigon are questioning the choice for its location.
Little Saigon — the two-block corridor of Larkin Street between Eddy and O’Farrell streets — has long been home to some of the city’s most beloved Vietnamese American-owned restaurants and businesses. It’s one of the few commercial corridors in the Tenderloin, a neighborhood where nearly every block is impacted by homelessness, open drug use and mental illness.
The city in recent years has acknowledged the plight of Little Saigon and launched several targeted efforts to help protect the area.
The Larkin Street corridor was one of 25 commercial districts selected by former Mayor Ed Lee for his Invest in Neighborhoods Initiative, an effort to support neighborhood commercial corridors and small business.
The city’s planning department also created an initiative called the “Larkin Street Green Canopy Project.” The department plans to install two parklets later this year, as well as plant trees, install outdoor lights and strengthen an ambassador program to help “revitalize businesses on the Larkin Street commercial corridor.”
Huynh opened Larkin Restaurant in January 2020, excited for his Vietnamese eatery to be part of the city’s Little Saigon neighborhood. It hasn’t come close to living up to his expectations.
“I saw really good potential in this neighborhood,” he said, noting lunchtime crowds from workers at nearby city, state and federal buildings and weekend visits from families. “Not anymore. Parents don’t want to bring the kids around here.”
Huynh said he’s worried that opening a new drop-in clinic for homeless individuals on the block will bring more crime and garbage to the area, making people less comfortable with visiting Little Saigon and patronizing his restaurant.
Lance Toma, CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center, said the nonprofit is “committed to ensuring we are a good neighbor and resource to everyone in the community who needs health care or resources.”
The Community Health Center focuses on providing health care for LGBTQ people and communities of color, both housed and unhoused. The nonprofit recently opened Trans Thrive, San Francisco’s first stand-alone facility for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.
The organization launched its Community Living Room program during the pandemic, running it out of 750 Ellis St. in collaboration with the nonprofit City Hope, before temporarily relocating to the fourth floor of 730 Polk St. while the organization searched for a larger space.
Toma said the nonprofit purchased the storefront at 645 Larkin St. with the goal of creating an accessible resource hub.
“Our goal is to ensure that we’re addressing the health care, substance use and mental health needs of the community, so that folks can be thriving in the Tenderloin and so that all of us are lifting each other up — healthwise and economically,” he said.
Eileen Loughran, director of the public health department’s office of overdose prevention, said the city did not play a role in choosing the new location for the center. Yet, public health staff have worked with Community Health Center leaders to create a plan outlining expectations, such as conducting neighborhood cleanup and outreach initiatives.
“I know from working very closely with the Community Health Center that they are a good neighbor,” Loughran said. “… Not only will they bring resources into the community, they’ll also be spending money in the community and I think that’s important to note.”
Others are less optimistic.
“If I had my choice, I would say no,” said Pinyo Charoensuk, owner of Lapats Thai Noodles Bar. “This neighborhood is already really bad. It’s not good for business.”
Charoensuk’s restaurant has already suffered difficulties. An explosion in 2021 of unknown cause reportedly blew out the eatery’s front windows, leading him to board them up and extend a metal gate around the establishment every night. Charoensuk said his restaurant survives almost entirely off delivery orders.
“People love my food but they prefer not to come to the Tenderloin. They don’t feel safe walking around here,” he said. “The city needs to make it safer and cleaner.”
Reach Maggie Angst: maggie.angst@sfchronicle.com