Long-term Care Facilities Close At Alarming Rate In San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting announced plans to protect long-term care facilities that care for the elderly, sick and mentally ill.

Mandelman introduced two separate measures, one to slow down the city's loss of private residential care facilities with interim zoning controls and another to require the public health department to open and fill 55 long-term residential treatment beds at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

"There is a mental health crisis in San Francisco, and we need to do everything we can to make sure sick and mentally ill people have a place to get care," he said.

"The measure introduced today addresses both the challenge of stabilizing private residential board care beds, as well as the need to maintain our city-operated residential care beds for those most vulnerable residents," he said.

According to Mandelman, since 2012, San Francisco has lost 21 residential care facilities, translating to the loss of 112 critically needed beds. Additionally, three other facilities are set to close in the near future.

Mandelman said the first resolution would impose interim zoning controls for 18 months, requiring conditional use authorization for a proposed change of use for a residential care facility.

The second measure would require the public health department to fill all 55 city-operated long-term residential treatment beds at SFGH by June 2021 at the latest.

— Bay City News