{"id":144627,"date":"2026-01-22T12:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/144627\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T12:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:19:08","slug":"s-f-closes-downtown-oasis-shifting-staff-to-street-patrols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/144627\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. closes downtown \u2018oasis,\u2019 shifting staff to street patrols"},"content":{"rendered":"

The parking lot at 469 Stevenson St., near Sixth Street in SoMa, has had many lives: valet parking for the now-shuttered Nordstrom, the site of a proposed development that would have provided 494 units of housing if the city hadn\u2019t rejected it in 2021<\/a> and, in the early months of the Lurie administration, a \u201ctriage center<\/a>\u201d that police hoped would serve as a one-stop shop <\/a>for getting people into drug treatment, getting people bus tickets out of town or just getting them arrested more efficiently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most recently, it served as an urban \u201coasis<\/a>,\u201d staffed by workers from the nonprofit Urban Alchemy, where local residents could socialize around a cup of coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, as of early January, the parking lot is, once again, a parking lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are angry,\u201d said Mich\u00e8le Jones, a nearby resident. Jones, who was unhoused until recently, said she went to the \u201coasis\u201d park \u201cmore than 100 times\u201d before its closure.<\/p>\n

The coffee was good, she said, and the restrooms were clean. \u201cPeople were getting things, they could sit down and actually relax,\u201d she said. \u201c And now, not being able to, that\u2019s a hard thing for people to deal with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The oasis was part of a larger city effort to improve conditions on Sixth Street, which was one of the early promises<\/a> of Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s administration. It was modeled after a similar park<\/a> at Turk and Hyde streets in the Tenderloin, which opened in 2022. That \u201coasis\u201d continues to operate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last summer, Lurie visited Sixth Street, along with his Instagram followers, and pointed out the parking lot \u201coasis\u201d as one of the city\u2019s successes in the neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a long way to go, that\u2019s no question \u2026 But it\u2019s looking better, at least at this moment, so we\u2019ll take it,\u201d he said in an Aug. 21 video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some neighborhood residents and business owners told Mission Local they saw the facilities being used sporadically throughout the fall. Others said they didn\u2019t even know the area had shifted from a police \u201ctriage center\u201d to an \u201coasis\u201d park. But for some of the regular guests, the closure came as a shock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision to shut down the park reflects the Department of Emergency Management\u2019s pivot toward deploying community ambassadors \u2014 an unarmed, contractor-run fleet tasked with deterring drug-related activities and fights, as well as connecting residents to local resources \u2014 instead of setting up stationary posts, department spokesperson Micaela Leonarte told Mission Local in a written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstantly changing street conditions have demonstrated a need for more deployable and dynamic ambassador teams rather than fixed posts at stationary locations,\u201d she wrote. \u201cTherefore, DEM is transitioning to a more flexible deployment of ambassadors citywide that relies on roving teams covering a wider area and providing coverage during both daytime and evening hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

This change in approach coincides with the city\u2019s recent allocation<\/a> of $32 million in contracts to five service providers to expand its community ambassador program across the city over the next 18 months. The neighborhoods covered include the Mission, Civic Center, the Tenderloin, Mid-Market and SoMa, with additional teams deployed citywide as needed.<\/p>\n

That includes $24 million in contracts to Urban Alchemy. The nonprofit was allocated close to $11 million to cover the South Market, Mid Market, and Tenderloin areas, according to city records<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the \u201coasis\u201d closing, former park workers have been reassigned to Urban Alchemy\u2019s neighborhood patrols. Ambassadors, who were already patrolling Sixth Street between Market and Mission streets, will now be allocated elsewhere in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Some local business owners said they saw positive changes in the neighborhood in recent months, starting when the \u201ctriage\u201d center opened in February 2025. Azmi Murait, owner of Shawarma Azmi on Sixth Street, said he felt the block was safer since Urban Alchemy workers started walking down the street and moving along people gathering in front of his store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, he noted, most of the people who were asked to move only moved down a few blocks. \u201cThey can come back anytime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ivy Jeanne McClelland, co-director of Vanguard Lab<\/a>, a harm-reduction organization that holds workshops on Sixth Street, criticized the interventions Lurie has rolled out in the neighborhood, especially the SFPD \u201ctriage center\u201d. She said she thought the efforts were focused more on managing optics than on addressing the needs of people struggling with homelessness and addiction.<\/p>\n

As for the \u201coasis\u201d, McClelland said, \u201cit was a Band-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t