To Bring the Homeless In, Toss the Rules Out

Set in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, the Navigation Center isn’t your typical homeless shelter. Other facilities segregate residents by gender and limit the time they can spend on the premises. The month-old Navigation Center admits couples and groups of friends, allowing them to come and go as they please. Residents can bring their belongings and stay until they have found permanent housing, are reunited with family, or are enrolled in substance-abuse or mental-health treatment programs. The center, which has a maximum occupancy of 75, even welcomes dogs. That’s a big reason why a 44-year-old man who goes by Jonny and had been squatting for months at a vacant car wash is staying there. Standing in the center’s courtyard, his mutt, Felony Jack, by his side, Jonny says, “I actually have problems with shelters normally, because I’ve done a lot of prison time and they always remind me of jail.”

San Francisco ranks No. 9 nationwide in the number of homeless—6,408 in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. More than 67 percent of them live outside shelters. The figure is 5 percent in New York, which has roughly 10 times the number of homeless.