What life is like in the Mission’s long-awaited tiny cabins

When 60 long-awaited tiny homes officially opened their doors in the Mission district earlier this month, Ramon Contreras said he was the first occupant to move in.

“I’d been homeless for about 10 years,” he told The Examiner on Wednesday — in Spanish, through a translator — two days after the Mission Cabins first opened.

Originally from Mexico, Contreras said he lost his home when his wife died 10 years ago and found himself living on the streets in the Mission soon after. He said he was connected to Mission Cabins by a member of the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team and moved in as soon as the site opened April 15.

“I like it,” he told The Examiner while standing on the front stoop of his new 65-square-foot home, which was outfitted with a bed and some storage. “The people are very good.”

Contreras was one of 10 people who’d already arrived at the site within its first week of operation. Officials said another 10 more had moved in as of the beginning of its second.

Five Keys Schools and Programs Executive Director Steve Good, whose organization runs the site, said he hoped all 60 units would be filled by the end of May. Each has a lockable door, power outlets and heating. Residents have access to bathrooms and showers at the site, while Meals on Wheels provides them with two meals per day.

The $6.9 million project, which Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing officials said has an operating budget of almost $2.7 million this fiscal year, can house up to 68 people depending upon how many couples call the site home. The City’s Homeless Outreach Team has been identifying potential residents since January.

After residents are escorted to the site, Five Keys staffers guide them through the intake process, which includes searching for dangerous items and trash in their belongings. Their clothes and bedding are laundered, and after meeting with their case manager, residents are shown to their homes.

On-site staff, including workers from the Department of Public Health, provide additional social and health services for residents on a daily basis.

“Going from living on the street to this environment ... I stayed at places like this in Carmel, Santa Barbara, where I paid $400 a night, and it didn’t look as nice as this” Good said.

Officials said between eight and 10 staff members, who check in on residents as often as every half hour to ensure they’re responsive and unharmed, are on the site at all times. Residents are able to come and go as they please.

“If somebody’s actively using, which we absolutely discourage, we will take extra precautions to make sure that we know that that person is doing OK,” said Jacoby Morales, one of the Five Keys ambassadors at Mission Cabins.

Morales said staff will perform fewer wellness checks if residents ask, but he said that he keeps an eye for those who might need it more. With naloxone nasal spray, an opioid overdose-reversal drug, dangling from his lanyard, he said that he’d rather someone be safe and be under the influence at the site than out on the street.

“I’ll know by their well-being if I need to do that extra wellness check,” he said. “I would rather save them here.”

Good said some behaviors, including physical violence, will result in expulsion, but residents have an automatic appeal.

Launching the Mission Cabins site at 1979 Mission St. — modeled after the 70-unit development at 33 Gough St. — has been a difficult, yearslong process. Set on an empty parking lot behind a shuttered Walgreens, some community members criticized the project for its presence near the playground at Marshall Elementary School . Mission Cabins’ border with the school has been outfitted with storage lockers and two sets of fencing.

The cabins are intended to operate for about two years as temporary shelter for those looking to find permanent housing. After that time, construction will begin on a 350-unit affordable-housing development.

There were nearly 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco on any given night in 2022, according to The City’s most recently published Point-In-Time Count . Around 4,000 were unsheltered. San Francisco will publish results from its 2024 count later this year.

The Mission Cabins are part of The City’s larger effort to address homelessness. City officials have said that the 3,900 shelter beds currently available represent a 60% increase since 2019.

Contreras, unlike some of his unhoused peers, said he isn’t necessarily looking to stay in San Francisco permanently. He said he wants to return to Mexico, where he wants to find steady work on a cattle ranch. He said he has worked a number of odd jobs in The City, including at hotels and making rollerblades.

Once his feet are under him, Contreras said, he does envision himself returning to The City in a happier context.

“For vacation,” he said.